Category Archives: Reviews

TOT Gypsy Baron

Posted on December 29, 2019 by barczablog

The Toronto Operetta Theatre opened their new production of Johann Strauss Jr’s The Gypsy Baron tonight at the Jane Mallett Theatre with a full house in attendance for the first of five performances. It’s a very uneven production of a … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Politics, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tribal Messiah

Posted on December 22, 2019 by barczablog

I’m trying to find the right word, so please bear with me. For someone who goes to see concerts & theatre more often than most people, you might never guess that I’m sometimes frustrated. My mantra is “I’m a lucky … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays, Reviews, Spirituality & Religion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

TSO Messiah via Mozart

Posted on December 21, 2019 by barczablog

Tonight I heard something different from the Toronto Symphony. The TSO’s annual Messiah in Roy Thomson Hall with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir may seem like a ritual, but it actually varies from year to year. Every time we get different … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Toronto Consort: Schütz’s Christmas Story

Posted on December 14, 2019 by barczablog

Looking for an alternative to the Messiah & Handel? Look no further than Toronto Consort’s current program, Schütz’s Christmas Story, curated by David Fallis. You will hear stunningly beautiful music that you’ve probably never encountered before. Schütz is new to … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews | 4 Comments

Melancholiac at Music Gallery

Posted on December 8, 2019 by barczablog

The best works of theatre or music function as advocacy for the creator. A good production of a play, a great performance of a song, should persuade you of the importance of the work & its author. Melancholiac: The Music … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 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 , , , | 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 , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Met HD Akhnaten

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 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 , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment