Category Archives: Reviews

Mozart’s last year

Posted on February 22, 2013 by barczablog

As usual, concerts by Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra & Baroque Chorus are exercises in creative programming.   Their latest (premiered last night, running until the weekend, and announced as completely sold out) isn’t simply a presentation of the Mozart Requiem, but a … Continue reading →

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For the Lisztomaniac

Posted on February 21, 2013 by barczablog

McLuhan’s dictum “the medium is the message” has some curious ramifications in the fourth dimension (the dimension of time). An archive gathered across any significant period will function not just as a record for the subject(s) portrayed in the images, … Continue reading →

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Ophelia revived

Posted on February 17, 2013 by barczablog

I’m a father with grown children.  I encountered Mary Pipher’s book Reviving Ophelia in the 1990s.  The title might give you an idea of what sort of book it is, and why I would have read it. Ophelia?  Collateral damage … Continue reading →

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Love’s Dark Shore

Posted on February 12, 2013 by barczablog

How apt that in the week of Valentine’s Day, between performances of Tristan und Isolde, a paean to love, that the Canadian Opera  Company should present a concert program titled “Love’s Dark Shore” in the Richard Bradshaw Auditorium.  We heard … Continue reading →

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Clemenza: Apollo’s Turn

Posted on February 4, 2013 by barczablog

After a week of thinking about Tristan und Isolde –at the COC, in the Opera Exchange, at the piano and rattling around inside my head—I was ready for something different.  Tristan is many things.  It’s humongous, it’s conceptual & symbolic, … Continue reading →

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Actors! at Winchester Kitchen

Posted on February 2, 2013 by barczablog

The show is Actors! Canadian Actors Up Close and Personal, and before I go any further I need to say that it’s not a show in the usual sense.  I hate telling you too much because I’d be stealing some … Continue reading →

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Esprit : Stars, Suns, Sacre

Posted on February 1, 2013 by barczablog

There were three items on the Esprit Orchestra program tonight in Koerner Hall, interconnected by the laws of physics. The center-piece was a performance of a reduced version of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps on the occasion of its centennial.  … Continue reading →

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Sellars market

Posted on January 27, 2013 by barczablog

At the intermissions of Tristan und Isolde Friday (dress rehearsal) there was madness in the air, a place rife with miscommunication.  Wagner himself said that good performances would make people mad (or crazy), so perhaps that was the problem.  A … Continue reading →

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Heppner, Sellars & Viola: Tristan in Toronto

Posted on January 26, 2013 by barczablog

It’s really good. That’s all you need to know.  The Canadian Opera Company’s imported production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (originally presented in Paris in 2005), directed by Peter Sellars with video by Bill Viola is quite simply unforgettable.   And … Continue reading →

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Silver Linings Playbook

Posted on January 21, 2013 by barczablog

The National Hockey League resumed play this weekend after a lengthy lockout.  I’m situated in Toronto, a city where fans cheer loudly while having lost all hope.  The Maple Leafs are widely understood to be the most successful and lucrative … Continue reading →

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