Category Archives: Reviews

TSO exhibit Elfman – Burton brilliance

Posted on October 31, 2016 by barczablog

While there are still two months left in 2016 I am pretty sure that I just saw the best concert of the year, and I didn’t see it coming.  At the intermission I was musing to myself that I had … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Reviews | Leave a comment

All But Gone

Posted on October 29, 2016 by barczablog

When you’re ushered into the chapel for a wedding, sometimes they ask you “bride or groom?” That’s to identify where you should sit. I was thinking of that quaint custom as I came into the Berkeley Street theatre tonight for … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Opera, Reviews | Leave a comment

That other Aeneas and Dido story

Posted on October 25, 2016 by barczablog

It was a funny coincidence. When I ran into David Fallis the other day –an encounter I mentioned in my recent review of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas—I showed him a DVD I was returning to the library, the Fura del … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Opera, Reviews | 1 Comment

Ariodante questions

Posted on October 24, 2016 by barczablog

My second time through the Canadian Opera Company’s Ariodante yesterday raised more questions in my mind. There are the vocal questions, ones that aren’t new.  I have long wondered about the way we perceive operatic performance, that a perfect performance … Continue reading →

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Opera Atelier creates a new Dido and Aeneas

Posted on October 21, 2016 by barczablog

Opera Atelier and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas go back a long way. This was the opera with which they began, thirty years ago. But this is not the same opera. Tonight we saw a new creation unveiled, an expanded version … Continue reading →

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What to expect from Ariodante

Posted on October 17, 2016 by barczablog

Part of me is dying to spill the beans about the Canadian Opera Company’s co-production of Ariodante that opened this afternoon in a matinee at Four Seasons Centre, but I have to tread carefully, as I studiously avoid spoilers, especially … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Reviews | 3 Comments

Radvanovsky’s Norma

Posted on October 16, 2016 by barczablog

This isn’t your usual Norma. It’s an opera that requires talent and skill far above and beyond what’s usual or normal.  Believe the hype about Sondra Radvanovsky, who is singing the lead in Bellini’s bel canto masterpiece, in a cast as … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Reviews | 5 Comments

Christophe Coin’s Eloquent Cello

Posted on October 8, 2016 by barczablog

An intermission conversation at a concert–Christophe Coin playing “The Eloquent Cello”– made a natural lead-in to Thanksgiving weekend, a reminder of the things I love about Tafelmusik baroque orchestra, for which I should be grateful.   We were discussing things of … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews | 3 Comments

YUGE!

Posted on October 1, 2016 by barczablog

There’s nothing like an election to make you feel helpless, unless it’s an election in a foreign country where you don’t even get to vote. Looking back I’m feeling relief, having  survived Harper & Ford, endured Dubya, and the insults … Continue reading →

Posted in Books & Literature, Politics, Reviews | Leave a comment

Toronto Symphony flex their muscles

Posted on September 24, 2016 by barczablog

There are weeks when the ensembles in town confuse and confound us with their crossover efforts, doing things we might not expect.  This is supposedly a good thing, when historically informed players with their lovely old instruments venture into a … Continue reading →

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