Category Archives: Reviews

Figaro’s Wedding 2019

Posted on December 4, 2019 by barczablog

In 2013 Against the Grain offered the first of their “transladaptations” of one of the trilogy of da Ponte-Mozart operas, Figaro’s Wedding. Tonight AtG premiered something we might call a revival of the work, with a number of intriguing differences, … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Against the Grain Theatre, Alexandra Smither, Bruno Roy, Da Ponte, Enoch Turner Schoolhouse, Gregory Finney, Jacques Arsenault, Joel Ivany, Lauren Eberwein, Maria Soulis, Miriam Khalil, Mozart, Phillip Addis, Topher Mokrzewski, transladaptation | Leave a comment

TSO All Tchaikovsky

Posted on November 29, 2019 by barczablog

I came to hear Tchaikovsky at the Toronto Symphony and was rewarded with one of the most brilliant performances of his violin concerto that I’ve ever heard. The program at Roy Thomson Hall featured three works by the popular Russian … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Daniel Lozakovich, Simon Rivard, Tchaikovsky, Toronto Symphony Orchestra | Leave a comment

Met HD Akhnaten

Posted on November 24, 2019 by barczablog

Yesterday I watched Philip Glass’s opera Akhnaten as presented in the Metropolitan Opera’s High Definition broadcast on a big screen in Scarborough, at the same time people were watching it in many places around the world. I wish the Canadian … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays, Politics, Reviews, Spirituality & Religion | Tagged Akhnaten, Canadian Opera Company, Dennis Russell Davies, Donald Palumbo, Gandhi, Karen Kamensek, Phelim McDermott, Philip Glass, Satyagraha, Tom Pye | Comments Off

Oxymoronic Augmented Opera

Posted on November 23, 2019 by barczablog

I don’t use that word lightly, and it’s not an insult. Some operas are oxymoronic, rife with contradiction, asymptotic in their fascination with impossibilities. Maeterlinck’s play Pelléas et Mélisande is the creation of a playwright who cringed in the presence … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays, Politics, Reviews | Tagged Benton Roark, Cryogenic preservation, Debi Wong, Debussy, Gardiner Expressway, Lauren Segal, Lyndsay Promane, Maeterlinck, Michael Hidetoshi Mori, Pelleas et Melisande, Philip Glass, Sidewalk Labs, Tap Ex, Tapestry Opera, Vanessa Oude-Reimerink, virtual reality, Walt Disney | 1 Comment

Eight Singers Drinking: and Singing

Posted on November 9, 2019 by barczablog

While eight singers may have been drinking eight drinks at 8:00 pm on November 8th no one ate much of anything. (see what I did there?) At first I just thought it was a fun exercise, an excuse for a … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Aaron Durand, Catherine Daniel, Cole Porter, Gallery 345, Michael Nyby, Opera 5, Rachel Krehm, Richard Strauss, River Guard, Ryan Downey, Sonya Harper Nyby, Tongue In Cheek Productions | 1 Comment

New & Improved Don Giovanni

Posted on November 3, 2019 by barczablog

I saw Opera Atelier’s revival of Don Giovanni that’s running at the Ed Mirvish Theatre. I loved it last time & it continues to thrill me as though it weren’t an opera I’ve known since childhood. But it feels new. … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged Carla Huhtanen, Colin Ainsworth, David Fallis, Douglas Williams, Ed Mirvish Theatre, Gerrard Gauci, Gustav Andreassen, Marshall Pynkoski, Martha Mann, Meghan Lindsay, Mireille Asselin, Olivier LaQuerre, Opera Atelier, Stephen Hegedus, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Leave a comment

The Bald Soprano

Posted on October 31, 2019 by barczablog

I’ve just seen the Théâtre Français de Toronto production of La Cantatrice Chauve aka The Bald Soprano by Eugène Ionesco, at the upstairs space at the Berkeley Street Theatre. I must apologize that the run is almost over, as I … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Reviews | Tagged absurdist, Chanda Gibson, Christina Tannous, Geneviève Langlois, La Cantatrice Chauve, Manuel Verreydt, Pierre Simpson, Rossini, Sébastien Bertrand, Sophie Goulet, Théâtre Français de Toronto, The Bald Soprano, Ubu | Leave a comment

Skye Consort and Emma Björling: right after trick-or-treating

Posted on October 22, 2019 by barczablog

Within the first ten seconds of this new CD I knew I was going to like it. It’s Skye Consort & Emma Björling, and the first cut on the album is “Herr Hillebrand”, a traditional Medieval Swedish ballad, in Swedish. … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Popular music & culture, Press Releases and Announcements, Reviews | Tagged Alex Kehler, Amanda Keesmaat, Celtic, Emma Björling, folk, medieval music, Nordic, Québecois, Sean Dagher, Skye Consort | Leave a comment

Singing through Centuries: TMC’s 125th

Posted on October 21, 2019 by barczablog

Today the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir celebrated their 125th anniversary with a gala concert at Koerner Hall, joined for the occasion by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (who haven’t yet had their centennial, and who only came into existence in 1922). Led … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews, Spirituality & Religion | Tagged Andrew Balfour, David Fallis, Gabriel Faure, Koerner Hall, Messiah, Stravinsky, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Toronto Symphony Orchestra | Leave a comment

Resonant Minorities

Posted on October 18, 2019 by barczablog

Tonight I was present at the Canadian premiere of Yang Zhen’s third installment of his “Revolution Game Trilogy”, Minorities, a Red Virgo production presented by Canadian Stage. You will recognize many things in this show. We watch five female dancers later … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Opera, Politics, Reviews | Tagged Aodonggaowa, Canadian Stage, Chinese Korean, Gan Luyangz, Guzhanuer Yusufu, Huang Ping, Lou Hio Mei, Ma Xiao Ling, Macao, Mongolia, Tibet, Uyghur, Yang Zhen | 2 Comments