Toronto Symphony – Pan American Rhythms

Posted on June 15, 2015 by barczablog

This weekend the Toronto Symphony began a summer of the arts celebrating the Pan Am Games coming to Toronto. There’s much more to come, for example…

  • Toronto Summer Music celebrate their tenth year with a festival titled “The New World” July 16- August 9.
  • The Art Gallery of Ontario open their Pan American arts show June 20th, namely Picturing the Americas.

The Toronto Symphony’s ambitious concert program was titled “Pan American Rhythms”.

Toronto prides itself for its multi-cultural variety, yet come to think of it, we seem to have more awareness of European & even Asiatic cultures (for example) than of countries in our own hemisphere: other than our neighbour to the south that is. Chances are it’s mutual, that while everyone knows USA, Canada’s ignorance of the arts & culture of the many other countries in the Americas is mirrored by their knowledge (or lack thereof) of our own culture. A concert like this feels like a step in the right direction.

There were six wonderful items on the program:

  • Torque by Gary Kulesha started us off in Canada
  • Oblivion by Astor Piazzolla took us to Argentina
  • “Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo” by Aaron Copland represented USA
  • John Williams’ “Overture to The Cowboys” was again USA
  • Concierto en Tango by Miguel del Águila represented Uruguay
  • Huapango by José Pablo Moncayo finished our tour in Mexico.

I wish Roy Thomson Hall had been full for what might have been the best concert I heard all year: both for its programming and the excitement of the performances, led by Earl Lee. Lee, RBC Resident Conductor with the TSO, cut a suave figure at the podium with very fluid baton movements. It may be heresy to ask, but would you rather hear something you love played only moderately well, or something you don’t really know played brilliantly? I think you can see the answer in the attendance (and the empty seats), as few would pick Kulesha, Piazzolla or even Williams over Mahler. While I heard Mahler twice from the TSO this spring, I enjoyed this experience much more. While it may be that the music is easier to play, the TSO played with a relaxed grace today, Lee finding the music in every piece. Each one felt like a possible highlight.

We began with Gary Kulesha’s Torque, a piece anecdotally linked to a car purchase, and no wonder considering the perpetual motion in this energetic curtain raiser, a wonderful warm up for the ensemble. Piazzolla’s Oblivion followed, yet another occasion to luxuriate in the sounds of Jonathan Crow’s violin solos, in an arrangement of sensuous tango music that was as languid and gentle, as the opening was hyper and powerful.

The opening half of the concert concluded with a confident reading of the familiar ballet music from Copland. Does it sound different when framed as a Pan American concert? I think so. Juxtaposed with Latin pieces, I felt a bit like an anthropologist among specimens of Americana, Kulesha’s piece included.

Composer John Williams  (is he Star Wars’ real genius?)

The opening of the second half had my jaw dropping. If the TSO were seeking to teach us something, the John Williams composition after intermission was like an echo of the Copland we had just heard. Where Copland’s score has a purity of rhythm & harmony to suggest artistic integrity, Williams more commercial idiom is transparent in its unabashed desire to please the ear. I may be a bit fixated on Williams, given that I will be teaching a course at the Royal Conservatory on his film music. But I wish the TSO would consider programming this way more often, where one can hear influences so clearly. I recall a concert a lifetime ago when we heard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben alongside R Murray Schafer’s Son of Heldenleben. Williams’ “Overture to The Cowboys” is one of several filmscores that owe a clear debt to Copland, not just as a favourite of Williams but perhaps also as a touchstone of what it is to be American. For comparison you might also look at Williams music for JFK, another movie that is first and foremost a movie examining what it is to be American.

Joseph Johnson (photo: Bo Huang)

Then came the item I had anticipated as the highlight, namely Concierto en Tango by Águila, played by TSO Principal Cellist Joseph Johnson. Where Crow has been eloquent chiefly through his exquisite fiddle-playing, today marked the second time I’ve heard Johnson addressing the Roy Thomson Hall audience, a role he seems to relish.

Johnson got a big laugh when he explained the rationale for finding this piece, namely “Facebook!” The composer presented himself, and after a behind-the-scenes conversation, the recently premiered work (commissioned by the Buffalo Philharmonic in 2012) was made part of the TSO’s Pan Am lineup, with Johnson as soloist.
Johnson & Lee took a different approach to the one heard in the BPO’s recording that I have been listening to this week. Where the BPO reminded me of Gershwin or Bernstein in their rigidly mechanical approach to Águila’s syncopated rhythms, this was a much more rhapsodic performance, organic in its flow. Johnson took a composition that sounded somewhat interesting on the recording and elevated it substantially, making a good case for the composer and his work, finding much more depth & subtlety in his reading.  In the BPO’s defense any new work takes several iterations to be truly understood, but unquestionably this was a quantum leap for Águila and his music. Well done!

Johnson’s encore was a fascinating choice to me as a student of popularity, virtuosity and how they work with an audience. Pardon me, I didn’t catch the name of the piece, which I believe was written for Johnson, and required the support of the other TSO celli in accompaniment. Johnson made a bit of an apology for the music perhaps because it is tonal & in a bluesy idiom, perhaps because we were not hearing a daunting encore by Bach or Paganini. I only wish music would get over this requirement to be difficult, and simply relax. Of course they sounded great, but I wish we could get the classism out of classical music.

Huapango, the concluding piece by Moncayo, was a bouyant conclusion to a concert with no weak spots.

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Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony with the TSO

Posted on June 11, 2015 by barczablog

Toronto Symphony Music Director Peter Oundjian

It’s been a long time between Mahler 2nds with the Toronto Symphony. I heard Andrew Davis lead them with Maureen Forrester in Massey Hall, one of several cherished memories from the old days on Shuter Street, aka the 1970s. Given the recent anniversary concerts celebrating Davis’ 40 year relationship with the TSO, I saw tonight’s concert led by Music Director Peter Oundjian as an opportunity for comparisons.

I am sure I am not the only one with a long relationship with the work. Notwithstanding the few people who did the Toronto standing O –where they stand and then exit within half a minute, the sustained reception for last night’s performance was sincere. I believe this is what the TSO should be doing, the kind of work only they can offer in this city. While Tafelmusik play Beethoven, Mozart & especially baroque masters –pieces written for a small-to-medium sized orchestra–with exquisite attention to detail in a smaller space allowing for more intimacy, the late romantics such as Mahler, that require a big ensemble and a big sound? They are a perfect fit for the TSO at Roy Thomson Hall.

I had a mid-life conversion. I first encountered Mahler in the thoughtful interpretations of Otto Klemperer & Bruno Walter, whose spacious readings might be considered to be on the slow side. Later I encountered other conductors taking Mahler faster, particularly Leonard Bernstein, whose brisk readings came to be my new ideal.

I believe Oundjian leads an orchestra with a greater overall level of virtuosity, a very capable ensemble who follow his clear commands and play very fast and very accurately. For some of this performance of Mahler’s 2nd symphony I was very powerfully moved, transported by the experience.

Totenfeier, the first movement celebration of the dead, began very carefully in a tempo i would consider slow and deliberate, but gradually gathered momentum and intensity. While Oundjian permitted a certain amount of schmaltz in the use of portmanteau by the strings especially for expressive moments, (how Mahler likely would have wanted it in his own time, and an approach that orchestras didn’t use very much in the latter part of the 20th century, ie when i heard the TSO in the 1970s), the playing was so tight & disciplined as to seem to cancel out any emotional relaxation that this might have signalled. The second movement was a lovely serenade, a well-executed diversion of sublime gentleness.

We come to the third movement, one that presents certain challenges. It’s phenomenally busy, packed with voices & counter-voices, sudden changes of mood, scale (from a few concertante players to the entire orchestra belting fff). Three times (at least) the orchestra suddenly explodes into a loud tutti statement of one of the themes. For some reason each time this happened, Oundjian kicked the tempo up a notch, rather than letting all that energy emerge organically at the same tempo (which is still rather amazing in my experience). It was played with great precision and virtuosity, but I couldn’t connect to the arbitrary change of pace, that seemed manic rather than a spontaneous eruption of passion.  Even so this was a remarkable display of precision playing.

Where the opening movement –”Totenfeier”—is a celebration of the dead, the next two (which never seem to be done as Mahler requested, with a ten minute pause before the symphony continues) are like a serenade or reminiscence of earthly life, before we get down to the serious matter of the final two movements.

Violinist Jonathan Crow

Violinist Jonathan Crow

“Urlicht”, the fourth movement, began with mezzo-soprano Susan Platts singing the first note softly into the silence following the third movement. The brass choir that follows was one of the highlights of the evening, a wonderfully original phrasing that Oundjian got from his players that made the moment seem truly ceremonial. And in the back and forth between soloist and orchestra, concertmaster Jonathan Crow’s sighing portmanteaus were a stunning complement to Platts’ rich voice.

My one concern with this song was that Platts as well as soprano Erin Wall were situated partway back in the orchestra rather than in the front where I would expect to find them. In the latter portion of Urlicht, where the soloist seems to be pleading that they do not want to be pushed aside or rejected (a passage I find very moving), the urgency Platts gave almost seemed to suggest she did not believe she was being heard way back in the orchestra. But I would like to reassure her that in fact she blended really well, a sound floating wonderfully well in the space.

The last movement is like a tone poem all by itself, as one might expect of the conclusion to a symphony called “Resurrection”. If we were simply looking at impressive playing, there was nothing missing, a performance for the ages. Yet I wonder if sometimes the TSO could stand to pause, and think about dramaturgy or theatre, about what effect they’re seeking. There is a great deal of bustling in and out by players who have to participate in off-stage musical moments. These can be magical moments, if we are not confronted by musicians looking for all the world like rush hour traffic. The off-stage band that we heard can sound a bit like a lost army of souls in a ghostly dimension, a strange mix of pathetic and powerful, as the symphony comes to a kind of crisis, teetering on the edge of despair, awaiting some signals to encourage hope. This was the crispest execution of that offstage playing I’ve ever heard; and I think as such might be misguided. I alluded a few days ago to Harvey Olnick’s comments about Wagner in my review of Stewart Goodyear playing Rachmaninoff; I think the same applies here, where Mahler’s own off-staff bands likely weren’t so precise (they didn’t have video cameras, just human effort). I wonder if our ears are distorted by listening to perfect digital recordings, when a century ago things simply couldn’t be executed so well.  A messy reading of these passages carries great pathos, whereas a crisp and perfect rendition strikes me as inappropriate, and confused me somewhat.

I found that the last portion of the concert, especially when Erin Wall and the Mendelssohn Choir joined in, to be some of the most coherent music of the night. When he was working from simple song material Oundjian was at his best, both in “Urlicht” and in the stunning rendition of “Aufersteh’n”, the resurrection chorale.

The concert is to be repeated Friday night.

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Melissa McCarthy and the F word: Spy vs Spies

Posted on June 7, 2015 by barczablog

For more than half a century we’ve been watching various bodacious hunks enacting our fantasies of control at a time of great anxiety. Cold War jitters made the heroics of James Bond and his ilk extra attractive no matter how unrealistic the hopes we placed on his broad shoulders.

The world continues its ongoing slide into total shit, the remaining vestiges of order and dignity only illusory at best. Perhaps at a time when so much has been deconstructed, we might take comfort in the false bastion of hope also getting kicked to the curb, after being thoroughly manhandled by the newest candidate for an ongoing film franchise.

Don’t mistake me. I would love to see many more films like Spy, a vehicle that fully capitalizes on Melissa McCarthy’s assets. We get the best of both worlds, as she shows us she is more than a supersized potty-mouth even though she occasionally lets loose to slag anyone within earshot. We still get the physical comedy, but with more than a modicum of redemptive context to make you feel good about what you’re laughing about.

The conventions of spy movies are an easy target and nothing new, as Don Addams would be happy to attest, if he hadn’t already died of old age after a career of lampooning spies, first in Get Smart and then as the voice of Inspector Gadget.  But this is a bit different, as you’ll discover should you see the film.

McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, bringing along Rose Byrne from Bridesmaids. Byrne is Rayna Boyanov, Susan’s absolute antithesis.  She is thin (Susan is not thin), she is condescending and pretentious (McCarthy always plays real and sincere characters; Susan is the latest in a series.  As type-casting goes it’s not bad). Rayna employs a funny accent that mixes Eastern European and something impersonating English, whereas Susan sounds like something from the mid-west of the USA, aka friendly.  Rayna is heartless whereas Susan only seems soft, not the cat-lady her boss thinks she must be. It’s inevitable that the most interesting relationship of the film is between Rayna and Susan, a pretense for us to see some genuine acting. Where Byrne was the antagonist to Kristen Wiig in Bridesmaids, muscling her out of the story to become the new –phony- best friend of Maya Rudolph, here she is the evil Bulgarian at the heart of the story, a worthy antagonist and yes, possibly someone who will turn up in a sequel, if the final glimpse of her is any indication. Susan Cooper wears so many masks she confuses the world-weary uber-bitch Rayna, while seeming to emerge from out of a chrysalis. Susan lives her dream while still getting to be a vocal cynic at least part of the time: a remarkable double when you think about it.

It’s never been a better time to be fat. I hope nobody minds me using the ultimate F word (sorry, it’s not feminism after all). Or maybe it’s just that being thin is so tiresome, so predictable. Is it me? But between the complaints at Cannes about high-heels, the comments directed at Jennifer Lawrence (who called herself “obese” in response), the emergence of plus-sized performers and even fat models… The world has been waiting for someone to do what MM does in this film. This is but the first salvo in what is likely to be an ongoing slugfest, aka a successful series of satirical films.

There are so many Hungarians in this film that I’d be wondering if Against the Grain did the casting, at least if it were an opera. This is not really a review, other than to say “see Spies you’ll love it”.

And did I mention that Melissa McCarthy is wonderful?

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Goodyear plays Rachmaninov

Posted on June 7, 2015 by barczablog

Now I have a better idea what we missed.

Stewart Goodyear was in the news recently when the Toronto Symphony hired him to replace the scheduled pianist at the last minute: until he withdrew due to online harassment. On social media we heard about a wonderful rehearsal that never came to fruition with an actual performance for an audience, of Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto.

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The timing was almost perfect when his new recording was released earlier this year: Goodyear playing the 2nd & 3rd Rachmaninov piano concerti with the Czech National Symphony. I can imagine his frustration, that what seemed like a godsend—and a wonderful opportunity to promote his brand-new CD –should fall through.

Yet they do say that there is no such thing as bad publicity. My CD order from Amazon took a long time, possibly because people have been ordering large numbers of the record. It did eventually turn up, and since then I have been listening to those two concerti a great deal in my car. This is not the first time Stewart Goodyear has left me perplexed. I should explain a bit.

I have given a great deal of thought to questions of virtuosi, especially those who are also composers. Franz Liszt was so much more than a great pianist, likely discovering new approaches to sound & composition while playing, thereby becoming a big but unacknowledged influence upon the music of the 20th century, especially via his son-in-law Richard Wagner.  I find myself listening to all composer-virtuosi differently, wondering where there explorations came from. My list of composers subsumed under that title will likely diverge from that used by more conservative students. I don’t limit myself to Liszt, Mendelssohn and Chopin for example. I’d include Debussy, Prokofieff, Shostakovich and Messiaen. Where would compositional vocabulary be without the discoveries Debussy made as an opera improviser, screwing around with the forbidden parallel harmonies that would work so well for him as to become virtually a trademark? As an improviser and inveterate jammer I find myself intrigued by sounds that seem to originate in a mysterious process that’s not easily amenable to logic. Messiaen is still rattling inside my head from Death & Desire this week via Topher Mokrzewski and Against the Grain.  Rachmaninov has therefore been a natural companion over the past few weeks (as i referenced him for his transcription of Wohin after seeing the preview concert at the RBA), as I examine the forbidden fruit of popular influence, melodic rather than dissonant, and embraced in several popular realms:

  • This is the same Rachmaninov piano concerto that is Tom Ewell’s irresistible tool to seduce Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch. Or as he puts it: “Good old Rachmaninov. The Second Piano Concerto. Never misses.” That’s the first movement
  • Movement 2? That’s the one that became a big seller in the 1970s. Listen to “All By Myself” by Eric Carmen and see if you recognize the debt to Rachmaninov
    …and then…
  • And the third movement of the concerto was for a time the most famous of all, more than half a century ago: “Full Moon and Empty Arms”.

There are great tunes in the Third Concerto too, but for whatever reason the piece has been left more or less un-plundered.

After the preamble I should get back to Goodyear and his new CD. Classical music is full of performers who, when challenged by a score from Beethoven or Rachmaninov, play the music exactly the way everyone else does. Now of course a musician doing the usual thing? That is not going to confuse anyone, although he or she may put a few people to sleep. But Stewart Goodyear has a habit of being different if not completely unexpected. The only thing that is predictable is that his playing will be unique.

I first encountered Goodyear via his Beethoven Marathon, a fascinating exercise that I understood originally as a kind of athletic feat (playing all 32 of the sonatas in a single day) not realizing how good the performances would be, how good they could be. Imagine performing a one-man version of four or five Shakespeare plays entirely from memory, and you begin to get some idea, except that playing Beethoven on the piano is that much more difficult.  I did not expect that in the process of discovering this talented young virtuoso, that he would replace all the other Beethoven interpreters I admired, to become absolutely #1. There were youtube performances of the first and last movements of the Hammerklavier Sonata, Op 106, the fugue finale played so quickly and adroitly that I had to completely change my understanding of the piece.  By now i have youtubed my readership with Goodyear’s reading of that fugue that i should almost have the url in my head.  There is also a live youtube video that I have shared a couple of times showing Goodyear playing the Appasionata finale faster than anyone I have ever encountered, note perfect on an upright piano.  A full set of all 32 sonatas was released with a remarkable set of accompanying liner notes from the pianist suggesting that his penetrating understanding of the music goes far beyond just playing: which is itself a significant achievement. Goodyear has also recorded the Diabelli variations.

And I read somewhere online that as a kind of sequel to his Beethoven marathon, he has a gig to play all five Beethoven piano concerti in a single mammoth concert in the autumn..! if i can get there i want to hear this.

Listening to Goodyear’s Rachmaninov has me –again—revising my expectations. I am reminded of a comment from U of T music professor Olnick long ago, reflecting on the musicianship of players long ago vs now.  He observed somewhat romantically that when we heard the quick violin runs in the Ride of the Valkyries, Wagner would have expected the ragged scraggly hair of a wild horse, not the pristine perfection we now sometimes encounter from a modern orchestra in a digital recording.  A century of improving musicianship has come between us and how those pieces likely sounded in the 19th century.  These concerti, too, are usually played as a flurry of notes, mostly correct with the occasional fluff, the occasional misplaced note, as though the pianist in collaboration with the orchestra were creating a chiaroscuro in a painting, shading light and dark, cleanness and some dirt too. Usually that is.

But Goodyear is of the 21st Century, playing with such athletic clarity as to bring Rachmaninov into focus in a way I have not heard before. While I wonder if Rachmaninov himself would have played this clearly, it does not really matter. This is an account of the concerti that in some respects gives a new look and feel to the works, the piano clean and effortless, with a kind of Olympian purity, muscular without sounding forced, powerful without being percussive. Accompanied by the Czech National Symphony cconducted by Heiko Mathias Förster, this is a confident account of Rachmaninov, lyrical and passionate.

I understand Goodyear has recorded the Grieg & 1st Tchaikovsky concerti as well, which I will have to check out next.

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#AtGdeathdesire: more desire than death

Posted on June 3, 2015 by barczablog

If yesterday’s Dora announcement is anything to go by the youthful Against the Grain crew are a force to be reckoned with, as they’re up for several awards. Tonight AtG opened their latest, Death & Desire.

Reading the lists of nominees I can’t help thinking about the whole question of genre & novelty. AtG have a unique approach. Their works tend to be daring adaptations showing works in a different light. Death & Desire for example gives us two works in a startlingly new way. But let’s set that all aside, and talk about what D & D really does. I am less interested in musicological considerations than theatrical ones, the drama we encountered.

When a man and a woman meet & begin courtship, I have to wonder. Do they ever speak the same language? Do they seem to come from the same century, the same planet? Oh sure, when you watch conventional plays everyone speaks the same language. But at a deeper level, what is really happening might be better captured in the bizarre display we saw tonight. While we may sometimes believe we are understood, that our loved ones hear us and fully comprehend what we want, what we feel, what we need, what we desire, this may be an illusion. Watching the back and forth, each one had their WTF moments staring at the other, each had their raptures and their horrors.

AtG presented two song cycles. They may have initially planned them as separate performances on either side of an intermission, but someone got the idea to intermingle songs. I saw the expression “mash-up” used in the press, and also saw the process compared to shuffling cards together. What I saw has a frightening integrity, as each singer sticks almost completely to their expressive world. Stephen Hegedus sings Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, while Krisztina Szabó sings Messiaen’s Harawi. He sings German. She sings French plus Quechua (another language) that’s occasionally scattered through Messiaen’s cycle. And (spoiler alert) she also sings a tiny bit of German too.  They go back and forth with the integrity of dramatic portrayals, which is to say that they both have a broad range of emotions, but each within their respective universe, never fully understanding the other.  He seems to be in a conservative romance, while She is in a much wilder place. Where he is articulating the nuances of love almost from first principles, as though the emotion were brand new and had just been invented (we’re in the 1820s after all), she is singing the rational and irrational, her music and emotions showing the sophistication of a different century.

Mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabo (photo: Bo Huang)

Mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabo (photo: Bo Huang)

The combined discourse of the two cycles intermingled in performance has precedents to the dramaturgy of other operatic approaches. The back and forth suggests aria- recitative at times, as one is static and lyrical while the other is urgent & active. At other times I was mindful of the interludes in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande or Berg’s Wozzeck, offering non-verbal reflections upon the sung action. But I use those two examples (aria-recit, and Debussy  & Berg) as analogies only. Unlike either of the illustrations, in this conversation, each takes the stage as though they were the star, and yet in the contrast, each functions as a break or reflective pause, removing us from the discourse of the other, although it’s never clear which one is the main course and which one is the side dish.

As in the recent sampler concert at the RBA, I want to call this new even if it is merely a new way of approaching music we have heard before. But we may underestimate the importance of performance convention in how we hear and see musical texts. Context changes the way we understand a piece. The inventive way that these songs are framed defamiliarizes them, and refreshes them. We are alienated in a sense by the curious juxtaposition, yet the songs are sung with great intensity as though there were a real connection, a real interaction between the two singers.

But then again in a romance people behave as though there were a possibility of a connection, that their hearts won’t be broken.  This fractured conversation might be the most realistic snapshot of love i have ever seen.

Topher Mokrzewski played far upstage on the piano, the two singers framed inside one side of the space inside the Neubacher Schor Gallery as though inside a kind of proscenium arch: although some of the audience were inside that arch, and the performers did step outside the “arch”.

I’m still trying to understand what I saw and heard but I do know that the piano was brilliantly played, the songs exquisitely sung. Joel Ivany & Mokrzewski –following their usual format—made something quite innovative out of pre-existing texts.  There is a great deal to unpack in Death & Desire, so much so that I would wish that they would make a DVD or a television program so that I could watch it again. There’s a lot to decode, and yes, a great deal to enjoy and see again. When the next awards are announced (a year from now) I would assume that this one too will be recognized, but for now you have a chance to see the remaining three performances, June 3, 4 and 5.

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Operatic Doras

Posted on June 2, 2015 by barczablog

Awards are a wonderful way to celebrate excellence.  They serve to promote individuals and their performances, while also raising the profile of an entire industry.  I hope that nothing I say here in any way diminishes the work done by so many artists in so many disciplines.  Today the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA) announced their nominations for the Dora awards for the current season.

A question posed on Twitter a few days ago has me thinking about the whole conversation around awards. Someone was asking about the boundaries, why some companies and shows would be included or excluded from particular categories. It’s a valid question considering how problematic these related questions are:

  • What’s the difference between a musical and an opera, or between various sorts of theatre, sometimes in distinct categories, sometimes sharing one hybrid classification?
  • Are the awards ultimately limited by who saw what show? This means that the mainstream shows with the big companies have an automatic advantage.
  • What happens when someone is nominated twice? I worry because I wonder: will two performances by Kristina Szabo divide votes –like the Liberal and NDP candidates running in a Canadian election—but lose out to the single performance of Christine Goerke? But in fairness Goerke’s role was so huge, it was equivalent to any two performances from the others.

As a permanent inhabitant of the peanut gallery I confess that I need those big guys–the daily papers– to continue their pontifical existence, so that I can seem to be ‘alternative’.  I am an agnostic though about the categories.   I will offer a few comments and opinions now that the nominations are out.

The whole question of categories is somewhat problematic, a case of six of one, half dozen of the other. For example, when I look at the category “Outstanding New Musical/Opera”, I can imagine the difficulties faced by the nominating team. There are four nominees:

  • Airline Icarus
  • Spoon River
  • #UncleJohn
  • Tapestry Briefs: Booster Shots

But wait a minute.

#UncleJohn is a new English adaptation of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. And Tapestry Briefs isn’t one opera, it’s an anthology of miniatures, actually a bit like Spoon River except there’s a single authorial team, not the gaggle you had with Tapestry. I suppose my conservatism is showing when I think that they could split the award between “new opera” –giving that half to Brian Current & Anton Piatigorsky for Airline Icarus— and “new musical”, with that half going to Albert Schultz and Mike Ross for Spoon River.

I am a bit confused with the thought that Ivany is good enough to be in the category I just named—where I think he has a legitimate shot at winning, depending on how all those classical votes trade off against the legit theatre crowd pulling for Soulpepper—yet he’s nowhere to be found in the “Outstanding Direction” category, where the nominees are:

  • Albert Schultz for Spoon River
  • Atom Egoyan for Die Walküre
  • John Tiffany for Once
  • Robert Carsen for Falstaff
  • Robert Lepage for Bluebeard/Erwartung

Why not Ivany, yet why Lepage for a show as ancient as this one, that first saw the light of day decades ago?   Much as I enjoyed that show, it was not really Lepage directing so much as members of l’Équipe Lepage, and an assistant director with the COC. If he is to be rewarded why not the bold Needles & Opium at CanStage rather than this old show? All three COC candidates are worthy nominees, but how does one compare their work to what Tiffany or Schultz did? And it’s the same with “Outstanding Musical Direction” where one must admit how different they are from one another.  Again i would be happy with any winner, but would have no idea how one decides across such broad categories.

Further down the page, where it’s now called the Opera Division, at least we are supposedly looking at a level playing field. For Outstanding Production instead of four different Canadian Opera productions — Bluebeard/Erwartung, Falstaff, Die Walküre and The Barber of Seville— as challengers to Airline Icarus, was there no room here for Tapestry or Against the Grain? In fairness to TAPA (and the COC), all four COC offerings are splendid, worthy members of this category. And there is another category where perhaps they will acknowledge the young artists, namely “Outstanding Performance – Ensemble”, where Tapestry, Soundstreams and AtG face off against Johannes Debus at his best: Falstaff and Walküre.

There are two more intriguing categories to mention.

Bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen (photo: Dario Acosta)

Bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen (photo: Dario Acosta)

“Outstanding Performance Male”? Five outstanding candidates slug it out even though I would have included Kyle Ketelsen from the COC Don Giovanni, the most outstanding performance by a male this year. Of the five actual nominees I think Gerald Finley deserves the nod for his Olympian workload, not just for the size of his artificial gut and makeup every night, but his Italianate approach to Sir John Falstaff. Yet every nominee would be a worthy winner including young Neil Craighead.

And “Outstanding Performance Female”? This one is more problematic for me. There are two obvious winners, either of whom will leave me very contented. I will now say what I refrained from saying while I might hurt ticket sales, namely that Ekaterina Gubanova ran roughshod over the Hungarian text of the role of Judith; if the role is nothing more than a loud high “C” perhaps she has the right to be nominated. Perhaps. Serena Malfi was pleasant as Rosina, although she didn’t sing the role as well as the woman with whom she was double –cast, namely Cecilia Hall.  I’d be comfortable with Christine or Krisztina winning: that is Goerke’s Brünnhilde or either of Szabó’s pair of nominations, one for Erwartung, one for Tapestry Briefs: Booster Shots.  Her Erwartung was one for the ages.

(l-r) Elizabeth DeShong as Suzuki and Kelly Kaduce as Cio-Cio San in the Canadian Opera Company production of Madama Butterfly, 2014. Photo: Michael Cooper

(l-r) Elizabeth DeShong as Suzuki and Kelly Kaduce as Cio-Cio San in the Canadian Opera Company production of Madama Butterfly, 2014. Photo: Michael Cooper

Perhaps i seem to be contradicting myself when I say Kelly Kaduce in Madama Butterfly was the best performance I saw all year.  But if she were nominated she wouldn’t win.

It’s intriguing that the two singers i cite both have the initials “KK”.

The Doras will be awarded three weeks from today on June 22nd at the Harbourfront Centre hosted by Gavin Crawford.

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | 1 Comment

Ann Cooper Gay says goodbye to Canadian Children’s Opera Company

Posted on May 25, 2015 by barczablog

ANN_retirement

Today the Canadian Children’s Opera Company said their goodbyes to Ann Cooper Gay, their departing Artistic & Executive Director.

In last year’s interview I alluded to her importance, as one of the most influential figures in opera and music in Canada. The crowd jammed into the courtyard at the Canadian Opera Company’s Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Centre testify to that. The children, parents and alumni were more or less what you’d expect.

But in addition one could see lots of personalities, donors, agents & supporters of opera in this country, including:

  • Stuart Hamilton of Opera in Concert and Saturday Afternoon at the Opera
  • Carol Ann Curry of Dean Artists
  • Joel Ivany, who in addition to being Artistic Director of Against the Grain Theatre happened to direct last year’s show for the CCOC; he and his team (for instance Topher Mokrzewski who also put in an appearance) were rehearsing Death & Desire elsewhere in the Tanenbaum Centre
  • Kate Applin of Metro Youth Opera, one of many CCOC Alumnae present

There were a number of speakers.

Mentorship was something extra Bradshaw was known for. He's gone, Ann Cooper Gay is still at it...

Mentorship was something extra Bradshaw was known for. He’s gone, Ann Cooper Gay (centre) is still with us.

Composer Norbert Palej suggested that the idea of Ann Cooper Gay retiring is an oxymoron, a contradiction, and unimaginable. I think it’s fair to say that such an energetic artist & administrator as ACG will remain busy in some capacity, and whatever she decides to do will be as intense as ever, likely doing it well. The reason he surmised that Ann was so good at CCOC was because she hasn’t lost her child like quality, especially when speaking to children. Ann doesn’t talk down to them, but speaks to them always as an equal.

Peter Barcza—introduced as the person present who remembers her before she met husband Errol—offered anecdotes from long ago productions with the Canadian Opera Company tour (Cosi fan tutte, la boheme and la traviata) and at the U of T’s Opera Department (Iphigenie en Tauride). Hm, I suppose the fact that I saw those shows means I also qualify as someone who has known her a long time. I was very young, but then again so were they. Or as PB said: they were both 5 years old at the time.

Lots of photos were displayed, including a few from before the CCOC. The two B & W shots to the right of centre show her playing Despina & Violetta.

Lots of photos were displayed, including a few from before the CCOC. The two B & W shots to the right of centre show her playing Despina & Violetta, both of which i saw.

Emily Brown Gibson (a CCOC alumna) offered the viewpoint of her many cast members. As she said, Ann touched so many lives, leaving a huge impact on everyone who worked with her. When she said her thank you to Ann, it drew one of the loudest rounds of applause from the many former members of the CCOC present.

When Ann finally spoke she acknowledged those who came before. She paid tribute to Ruby Mercer, whose vision was responsible for the creation of a year-round CCOC above and beyond the occasional chorus bits in Canadian Opera Company productions of Carmen or Tosca. Ann also tipped her hat to Lloyd Bradshaw as a builder of the company. And she invoked the “it takes a village” notion, thanking all the parents & volunteers, without whom the CCOC couldn’t function as it does.

Towards the conclusion a large mass of singers – former & current members of CCOC—gathered together in benediction singing “May the road rise up to meet you.”

Composers likely would be the first to say their thanks to ACG. As we took in the perfect Sunday afternoon weather in the courtyard of this Canadian Opera Company building—a company who have not successfully brought a commissioned work by a Canadian Composer to their stage in awhile—composers could be grateful to the CCOC, who are responsible for eleven original works. Whoever takes the baton from ACG’s hands, I sincerely hope that they show the same commitment to original compositions.

But for now it’s the time for goodbyes and thank yous. Ave atque vale.

She will be missed.

She will be missed.

Posted in Personal ruminations & essays | 1 Comment

Toronto Consort—a new Play of Daniel

Posted on May 23, 2015 by barczablog

I saw something brand-new, from the 12th century. It’s one of the ironies of theatre or music that sometimes recent works give you comparatively little room for invention, every page stipulating how it must be interpreted. If you want real freedom you have to go back. Generally, the earlier you go, the less specific the text will be about how it must be done.

click for ticket info

Tonight, the Toronto Consort premiered a new version of Danielis ludus, aka The Play of Daniel, a very old play that requires music. David Fallis, the artistic director of Toronto Consort wrote a new English verse translation in couplets, except for the occasional passage in Latin, and arranged the music for the Consort players: Alison Melville, Terry McKenna, Ben Grossman and Kirk Elliott. I’d heard rumblings for months that this was the big project capturing everyone’s imagination, and no wonder. The Play of Daniel resembles an opera with a medieval sound. Bringing it to the stage was a huge undertaking, including the participation of over a dozen adult stage performers and the 22 members of Viva! Youth singers of Toronto.

As a frequent viewer of medieval drama with PLS at the University of Toronto—including a couple of acting roles I undertook—I knew that this would be enjoyable. But I didn’t realize just how remarkable this text is, especially the way it was presented.

We were sitting in Trinity St Paul’s on Bloor Street. Yes it’s a concert venue but first and foremost it’s a church. As the program notes explain, it’s a liturgical drama, which means it would normally be presented in a church, employing a text that’s profoundly different from what we usually expect in theatre. As Director Alex Fallis put it in his notes:

“From a dramatic point of view The Play of Daniel is one of the great texts from the Medieval theatre. It is also a sprawling piece that includes a wide variety of episodes, dramatic techniques, moods, and musical colours. It defies our contemporary ideas of genre, and dramatic progression—choruses tell of events before they happen onstage, and very different styles of music are used moment by moment. We have chosen not to try to “smooth” out the sudden shifts, but in fact to celebrate these rapid changes, and I believe that this creates a real sense of surprise and wonder when watching the piece that I hope is very appropriate. “

Because it doesn’t employ predictable devices the effects can surprise you. Perhaps more importantly is how it feels from a spiritual or religious point of view. I felt as though I was encountering a purer form of religion, without any of the modern moralistic overlay.
At roughly an hour in length with continuous music it resembles an opera. The last five or ten minutes (I couldn’t gauge because I was so mesmerized) consists of a Te Deum sung a capella, performers processing around the church, as we seem to segue into a genuine service, albeit one from a different world. This is a piece of great simplicity & directness, beautifully costumed by Michelle Bailey, with a set from Glenn Davidson that complements the sanctuary.

Belshazzar - Olivier Laquerre (l) Noble – Bud Roach (r) (photo: Glenn Davidson) . Olivier Laquerre and Bud Roach appear courtesy of Canadian Actors' Equity Association.

Belshazzar – Olivier Laquerre (l) Noble – Bud Roach (r) (photo: Glenn Davidson) . Olivier Laquerre and Bud Roach appear courtesy of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.

There were no weak spots anywhere in the cast. Kevin Skelton was a youthful Daniel, bringing a light agile voice to the portrayal. Olivier Laquerre, familiar to Toronto audiences for his work with Opera Atelier, was a strong-voiced King Belshazzar. David Fallis and Bud Roach were the jealous rascals from Darius’s Court who end up exiting (spoiler alert), running up the aisle, pursued by lions. It’s a solemn place which might have held some back from laughing at what is a very funny text, especially Fallis & Roach.

I was going to say “there’s nothing like it in town” but in fact the PLS are celebrating half a century, which is one pretense for the upcoming Festival of Early Drama, where you might see something similar. But as good or better? I don’t think you’d be able to surpass what the Toronto Consort achieved on this occasion, between their brilliant musicianship, the wit of the text and the beauty of the presentation. You must see it if you can, the two remaining performances coming May 23rd & 24th at the Trinity St Paul’s Centre.

Lions - Heidi Strauss (l), Brodie Stevenson (r), Daniel – Kevin Skelton (centre) (photo: Glenn Davidson) Kevin Skelton appears courtesy of Canadian Actors' Equity Association.

Lions – Heidi Strauss (l), Brodie Stevenson (r), Daniel – Kevin Skelton (centre) (photo: Glenn Davidson) Kevin Skelton appears courtesy of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.

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

Festival of Early Drama June 5-7

Posted on May 22, 2015 by barczablog

An anniversary nearly 400 (and 50!) years in the making!Toronto’s Medieval and Renaissance players celebrate their 50th anniversary with the Festival of Early Drama June 5 – 7, 2015Poculi Ludique Societas (PLS) continues its year-long celebration of 50 years of performance research practice at the University of Toronto with the FESTIVAL OF EARLY DRAMA #FoED2015 #pls50th. The festival kicks off at 6 pm on Friday June 5 with a performance of Ben Jonson’s Masque of Queens presented by Loyola University, New Orleans. This opening gala performance will be followed by a celebratory reception at 8 pm at Alumni Hall, Victoria University.FoED2015 includes productions presented by fifteen medieval and renaissance theatre troupes from across North America. Joining us are university theatre companies from New Orleans to Indiana, as well as the University of Western Ontario, Brock, and McMaster Universities and others across Ontario. PLS will also present their own production of Mankind, which is travelling to The Cloisters in New York City May 23 – 24, 2015, before returning to Toronto to headline the PLS roster of productions.With multiple PWYC family-friendly events happening over two days on the U of T campus, FoED2015 is sure to appeal to families, scholars, students, and medieval and early modern history enthusiasts.

When asked what she hoped audiences would take away with them, Artistic Director Linda Phillips said, “Most people know about Shakespeare, but they don’t know about the theatrical traditions that influenced him and his contemporaries. This festival showcases the huge variety of early drama: moralities, farces, comedies, tragedies and more.”

The history of PLS is traced to 1964, beginning as part of the work for a University of Toronto graduate seminar in Medieval Drama when the director, Prof. John Leyerle, invited the class to stage a medieval play. Excited by the success of their production of Everyman, the members of the class came together again the following year to stage another play, and PLS was born. Fifty years and more than 150 productions later, PLS is known around the world for its pioneering performances of the drama of the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

FESTIVAL OF EARLY DRAMA
Celebrating 50 years of Poculi Ludique Societas
June 5 – 7, 2015
University of Toronto Downtown Campus
Festival Box Office: 150 Charles St (At Museum Station)

Free outdoor family-friendly events daily starting at 11 am
Ticket prices: $15 Adult/$12:50 Student
50th Anniversary Reception June 5 8pm: $17
Ben Jonson Masque of Queens + Reception June 5: $27.50
Tickets available online at UofTTix.ca
www.plsfest.ca
 “Press releases and announcements” are presented verbatim without comment
Posted in Press Releases and Announcements, University life | 1 Comment

Andrew Davis – Verdi Requiem

Posted on May 22, 2015 by barczablog

Sir Andrew Davis

The Toronto Symphony are celebrating a 40 year relationship with Sir Andrew Davis, their one-time music director (from 1975-1988) and currently their Conductor Laureate, with a series of concerts over the next couple of weeks.

Tonight’s concert featured Verdi’s Requiem, an ideal work for this sort of occasion. The orchestra gets some powerful moments that knock your socks off, the soloists each have an opportunity to shine.  To be honest I’ve never experienced a performance of this work that managed to be anything more than a series of beautiful moments, possibly because I don’t sense that Verdi understood the mass as anything more than an opportunity for theatre, rather than something genuinely spiritual: although Davis gave it a good try.

The best of the big effects came in the first part, especially the “tuba mirum”, with brass situated in the audience for a three-dimensional effect of the trumpets of judgment, the apocalypse in music.  Davis was his usual energetic self, propelling the ensemble along at a good pace, achieving a true romantic sublime.

The entrance of the soloists in the Kyrie showed us what a splendid quartet had been engaged for the occasion.  They were a curious foursome, comprised of two young women and two experienced men, perhaps an echo of the occasion honouring the Conductor Laureate, who has been a mentor to at least one of the young women.  Both soprano Amber Wagner and mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton seem (at least as far as I can surmise from their biographies in the program) to be in the first five years of their professional careers, while tenor Frank Lopardo and bass Eric Owens are at least mid-career professionals.  While Barton & Lopardo are new to Toronto, we’ve seen Wagner & Owens in a pair of title roles with the Canadian Opera Company (she as Ariadne in 2011, he as Hercules last season).

Owens brought a genuine humanity to his reading.  His ”mors stupebit” was the most genuine depiction of the bewilderment of death I have ever seen at this moment in the Requiem, an approach perhaps more like something from verismo than Verdi, in the delivery of lines in something like a soft parlando.  But he was in the moment as though delivering lines in a film, and thus was very effective, very powerful.

Lopardo could also offer a very vulnerable soft sound, or something more spectacular and befitting a public ritual.  He sang the opening in C minor of his “ingemisco” in the most delicate pianissimo, but then opened up once the major passage begins, with genuine squillo and a completely reliable top throughout.

I had been told to watch out for Barton, whom I have never heard before.  Apparently she was in the Houston Walküre opposite Christine Goerke (and maybe I saw something via social media).  Every note was powerful, clear, perfectly pitched, and now i know why she is considered one to watch.

I wonder if Davis asked to work with Wagner, who made her COC debut as Ariadne under Davis’s baton almost exactly four years ago, when Adrianne Pieczonka was indisposed.  The voice has a spectacular colour, at times reminding me of a Leontyne Price for her full and powerful top.  She may be young but the voice is already a big deal, worth hearing.

Amber Wagner and Jamie Barton, with the Toronto Symphony (Photo: Malcolm Cook)

Amber Wagner and Jamie Barton, with the Toronto Symphony (Photo: Malcolm Cook)

This is one of the pieces that shows off the Mendelssohn Choir to advantage.  At times they were as subtle as a whisper, as for example the first delicate notes of the piece.  But when power and passion were called for they had it.

The Requiem will be repeated Friday & Saturday nights.

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