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Category Archives: Reviews
The Princess Bride at the TSO
The Princess Bride is showing at Roy Thomson Hall, accompanied by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra who play the accompaniment live. It’s the perfect film for 2022. How? It features a tyrannical villain who lies shamelessly, just like certain people we … Continue reading
Gimeno, Schumann’s Spring, Pal’s Scylla at the TSO
What an unusual night for the Toronto Symphony. It’s 11:20 pm as I begin to write this, recalling the headline on CP24 (a picture I snapped at 4:33 pm) about Toronto’s downtown, that says “BREAKING: Traffic is gridlocked in much … Continue reading
A gift from Mel Brooks
It’s been a brutal week of artistic companies facing eviction, shows postponed or cancelled on both side of the Atlantic, an upward spiral of statistics inspiring the panicky pursuit of boosters, masks and safety. It’s not what you expect in … Continue reading
Posted in Books & Literature, Cinema, video & DVDs, Popular music & culture, Reviews
Tagged Mel Brooks
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2021 TSO Messiah
As Kevin Bazzana observes in his Toronto Symphony Orchestra program note, “there is no one definitive Messiah.” It’s an ironic turn of phrase considering the religious implications one might give that phrase. Indeed when I look at the bizarre mockeries … Continue reading
Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun
This is more appreciation than review. If you’ve never seen a Wes Anderson film this will read differently than to those familiar with his style. The title, subject and structure of Wes Anderson’s film The French Dispatch of the Liberty, … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Cinema, video & DVDs, Popular music & culture, Reviews
Tagged Asteroid City, Bottle Rocket, Fantastic Mr Fox, Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, Moonrise Kingdom, Rushmore, The Darjeeling Limited, The French Dispatch, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Royal Tenenbaums, Wes Anderson
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Confronting mortality: AtG /COC Mozart Requiem
The pandemic is simultaneously new in its requirements and yet old in once again reminding us of our ultimate destiny. Modern science may blind us to history’s lessons. The images on the tray in this picture come from Täby kyrka, … Continue reading
Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews, Spirituality & Religion
Tagged Against the Grain Theatre, Andrew Haji, Canadian Opera Company, Ensemble Studio, Joel Ivany, Johannes Debus, Marion Newman, Midori Marsh, Scarborough Bluffs, Vartan Gabrielian, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
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A Tafelmusik Christmas
Do you remember how, at the end of It’s a Wonderful Life (that great film encouraging us to be grateful, to appreciate what we have): George Bailey celebrates and appreciates a return to normalcy after the end of his nightmare? … Continue reading
TSO Winds, Brass & Percussion Spotlight
We’re still in the earliest days of Gustavo Gimeno’s tenure as music director of the Toronto Symphony, enjoying the pandemic protocol of smaller groups onstage playing for smaller groups in Roy Thomson Hall, in 60 minute concerts. That’s why we … Continue reading
MixTape
I was among the ecstatic audience for the opening of Zorana Sadiq’s MixTape tonight at Crow’s Guloien Theatre. Yes we’re thrilled to be back in a theatre, delighted to be looking at one another, guessing identities behind the masks. Was … Continue reading
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