The lessons of James Morris’s Wotan for this Canadian

Posted on July 1, 2024 by barczablog

It’s Canada Day. I live in Toronto and am a subscriber to the Canadian Opera Company.

I was remembering examples I’ve seen south of the border at the Metropolitan Opera. Yes they import talent, bringing in Italians to sing Verdi or Russians to sing Tchaikovsky. As I look back at the different people who have been entrusted with the leadership roles at the COC, I think they absorbed this philosophy perfectly, because the COC have been very good at imitating this part of the Met’s approach to bringing in talented foreigners instead of using the talent developed at home.

I wanted to celebrate the times when the Met set a good example for the new management of the COC who recently announced the departure of their General Director Perryn Leech and the interim appointment of David Ferguson. I want to call it a lesson because this has not been the way the COC has been directed.

Perryn Leech
David Ferguson

Decades of casting choices can’t be reduced to the few glib sentences I’m writing here, so please excuse me for oversimplifying.

The current conversation about the COC has given me a new appreciation for the choices made by Met management. I’m a big fan of Wagner’s Ring Cycle operas since my teens when I was fortunate to get to NY to see singers I idolized such as Jon Vickers or Thomas Stewart. The Met was understood to be the best opera house, if not in the world certainly anywhere in North America, regularly importing the best singers in the world. The song is right when it says “if you could make it there you could make it anywhere”, at least as far as the Met and opera were concerned.

Yet I remember being frustrated by the Met, who chose to cast James Morris as their Wotan from 1987 until 2009. I had heard and admired the Wotan of the English singer John Tomlinson, who was Wotan at Bayreuth from 1988-1992 for the Kupfer Ring, and again in 1994-1998 in the Kirschner Ring. The on-line journal  MusicalCriticism.com called Tomlinson ‘the leading Wotan of his generation’ (September 2006).

Here’s a tiny peek at Tomlinson, a great singing actor, performing Wotan.

Yet Tomlinson only showed his face at the Met in 1999 for a difficult role in Moses und Aron, and would share the stage in the 21st century a few times with Morris: but playing smaller parts such as Fafner alongside Morris’s Wotan. The Met chose never to cast Tomlinson as Wotan.

What am I getting at? In 2024 I now see it differently.

The Met actually did something I have long wanted to see the COC do. James Morris is an American, a competent Wotan. John Tomlinson is British, “the leading Wotan of his generation” but never sang the role at the Met.

Why?

Perhaps that was because the Met were loyal to their American talent, casting Morris for over 20 years as their Wotan. The vote of confidence from management helped the singer perform with even greater self-assurance while also building the relationship with the audience in NY.

While I did not like Morris as much as Tomlinson he’s still quite good in the role as you can see.

Yes, I once thought of James Morris as a letdown compared to Tomlinson, wishing to see him in NY.

But now I’m thinking differently. I realize now that in fact the Met did something admirable in casting Morris. I have no idea whether there was a conscious effort to ignore Tomlinson, but by showing such loyalty to an American singer they also showed a commitment to their American audience, building their community of opera fans in the process. When you look at their history you see lots of American singers. I mentioned Thomas Stewart, another American. We assume that because they sang at the Met they must be the best in the world, and that opportunity helped their careers.

Let that be context for the job of the management of the COC, their approach to finding singers when they cast productions. The Met’s example can illustrate another approach than the one practiced since the time of Lotfi Mansouri. No we don’t need to always hire from abroad. We can promote Canadian talent, even if there might be someone with a better reputation in Europe.

I know of older singers whose careers are ending, winding down. It doesn’t help that they were not getting cast here in Toronto, singing for a supportive audience. And I know of younger ones who could use the work, who are forced to take day-jobs or to abandon their career.

Whoever is selected to be General Director can understand their position and its goals in many different ways:

Emulate Lotfi by hiring from abroad?

Or his predecessor Herman Geiger-Torel, whose COC was cast mostly by Canadians and only rarely sought talent outside the country.

I’ve heard rumblings that the COC is in debt. I wonder if the finances of the company would improve if their casts featured more Canadian singers: who surely are less expensive than imported singers.

I think in the 1970s it was exciting to see big stars come to Toronto, and this has often been understood as the best way to run the company in the decades since, even if the imports weren’t necessarily great singers or well-known to the Toronto audience. There may be a mistaken assumption that we must cast from outside Canada, as the management seem to be oblivious to the talented Canadians who can fill roles without the requirement to go outside the country. I could list dozens. Imports should only be cast when we can’t find a Canadian.

A Canadian General Director might have a greater sensitivity to Canadian talent. Perhaps it’s time to hire a Canadian in the role, and not just as their interim General Director. But whoever gets the job, Canadian or not, should be instructed by the Board of directors to make it their priority to search for Canadian singers, to build a complement of mature Canadians and not merely to hire the young singers of the Ensemble Studio to sing small parts, who are shown the door when their term is up. The COC could signal their commitment in a public mission statement. I would be happier as a subscriber if I knew my dollars were not automatically going to imported talent.

We shall find out eventually.

In the meantime let me wish you a Happy Canada Day.

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Mourning Donald Sutherland

Posted on June 22, 2024 by barczablog

I am another Canadian mourning the passing of Donald Sutherland.

When celebrities pass we may sometimes feel the loss more keenly than would seem reasonable for a stranger. I never met him even though I saw many of his films. I think the passing of a star sometimes hurts so much because their work is so much a part of our lives.

I am again muttering darkly to myself, because of course Donald Sutherland was never even nominated for an Academy Award. Yes yes he got an honorary statuette but for me that doesn’t count, not for recognition by peers. Sutherland was a gifted performer but perhaps because he didn’t look like he was “acting” (in quotes because I want you to hear me speaking the word with an implicit sneer on my face), he wasn’t recognized.

If you don’t look like you’re “acting” (sneered again) surely you’re doing it right.

I’ve eagerly read what others have said, noticing the roles that people name as favourites.

One reads through his IMDB listing, recalling roles, visualizing scenes.

Here’s the scene that came to mind as I recalled Donald Sutherland, likely the one I will always have in mind.

I mention this one because of how extraordinary this short scene is in one of my favourite movies, Oliver Stone’s JFK (1991), a film featuring several scenes that I think of as career best performances: Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald, John Candy as Dean Andrews, Joe Pesci as David Ferrie, Tommy Lee Jones as Clay Shaw, and especially Donald Sutherland as X.

The thing about this scene is that we’re hearing an eyewitness observer who must have integrity, must be believable. More than anyone else in this film, Stone leans on Donald Sutherland to create X in this scene. X is like Deep Throat except of course this is fictionalized.

I find I trust this speech as though it were true, an amazing delivery of a remarkable speech. In a real sense Stone has decided to make X the conscience of America, a witness to what went wrong and a reliable commentator on a conspiracy. Maybe upon closer observation one doesn’t believe it? But I listen to Donald Sutherland and I am completely persuaded.

And Stone also gets a big assist from John Williams underscoring this speech.

I will circle back to review Klute, Ordinary People, 1900, Start the Revolution Without Me, Kelly’s Heroes. We watched M*A*S*H just last week, Casanova is on the DVR already. Animal House? Six Degrees of Separation..?

As I glance through the listing on IMDB it’s a bit awe-inspiring how many roles in different genres, things I’d forgotten.

Oh yes he’s the father in Pride & Prejudice (2005), I think I recall at least one scene shot with him sitting down so that his imposing height wouldn’t disrupt the family dynamic, as sweetly smiling a Mr Bennet as one could want. And I see he had a small part in The Bedford Incident (1965), making me want to see that one again.

He’s gone of course, indecent that we are able to stare at his friendly face in so many roles, when his family has lost their patriarch.

It’s heart-rending to read Kiefer Sutherland’s tweet
“With a heavy heart, I tell you that my father, Donald Sutherland, has passed away. I personally think one of the most important actors in the history of film. Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that. A life well lived.“

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Gimeno’s Mahler: reconciling Nietzsche, angels and pantheism

Posted on June 13, 2024 by barczablog

If that headline sounds like a mouthful you should hear Mahler’s 3rd Symphony. I just did tonight at Roy Thomson Hall.

The Toronto Symphony led by music director Gustavo Gimeno aided by members of the Mendelssohn Choir, the Toronto Children’s Chorus and alto Gerhild Romberger gave us this most ambitious composition, Mahler’s longest work at over 90 minutes in length. Whether celebrating the arrival of the god Pan, listening to nature in a forest or the angels singing of salvation, Mahler takes us on a cathartic journey from darkness to light.

It’s a very theatrical piece, sometimes requiring musicians to play from offstage, an effect that I always find magical even if I didn’t already know about Mahler’s spirituality.

I’ve heard several performances of Mahler’s 2nd symphony (titled “the Resurrection”) recently, already a massive undertaking. The 3rd Symphony is bigger, which might explain why it’s not undertaken as often. In his previous symphony we hear musicians offstage as though marching somewhere in the afterlife. Similarly this time we hear a posthorn playing from the back, and drums from outside somewhere. And that’s just the invisible voices.

No wonder when you consider the elaborate program Mahler gave the work in his correspondence, giving the six movements titles:

1: Introduction: Pan Awakes, Summer Marches in
2: What the flowers in the meadow Tell Me
3: What the Animals in the Woods Tell Me
4: What Mankind Tells Me
5: What the Angels Tell Me
6: What Love Tells Me

At first glance you might wonder: is he for real? Now imagine that a composer could actually write music to live up to such titles. The themes and sentiments being expressed are larger than life so no wonder the orchestra and its sounds must also be massive for such powerful ideas, although they are often contrasted with the most delicate melodies inserted between the climaxes, played as solos or by small groups of instruments. I’m very impressed with the way Gimeno restrains the TSO forces, often playing for long stretches in the softest most delicate sound, gradually building to climaxes to knock your socks off.

The first movement is roughly a half hour of drama, going from darkness to light, back and forth several times. The brass are especially challenged by a piece that is beyond all but the very finest orchestral players. The members of your 2024 Toronto Symphony have been carefully recruited to build a virtuoso ensemble capable of playing just about anything. That opening movement reminds me of the good old days of stereo buying, when one would take records into the shop with the intention of testing the sound coming from the devices, only this time we were testing Roy Thomson Hall with the phenomenal output of this elite band playing such powerful music.

The second movement is a superb contrast, beginning with a sweet minuet, at least on the surface. Soon Mahler subverts his own delicacy with quick quirky phrases from the woodwinds and strings, like 20th century modernism imminently breaking through the safer surface of the past. Gimeno always keeps it under control, wonderfully transparent in texture.

I find myself hypnotized by the sounds of that third movement, even if I don’t connect it in any way to that title I quoted above. Is it really “What the Animals in the Woods Tell Me”? I don’t believe titles matter that much except as a poetic departure point. I read this one much more in spiritual terms, especially the poignant sound of the posthorn drifting through the walls from the back. It’s one of several delightful melodies sprinkled among quicker passages, shifting moods.

Alto Gerhild Romberger

We begin the fourth movement with a deep alto intoning lines from Nietzsche’s Zarathustra questioning us. Romberger’s voice is as rich and dark a sound as any you will ever hear, to confront you with the simplest but most profound enquiry about the meaning of your life. We hear questions rather than answers.

Toronto Children’s Chorus, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (photo: Allan Cabral)

Moments later the combined forces of the Toronto Children’s Chorus and some members from the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir take us in a very different direction, the voices of angels bursting with light in contrast to the darkness of the alto’s voice, and as a kind of reply to the alto questioning. This is but one of several moments to make me smile. And I was moved to tears, not for the first time.

The last movement is again an opportunity to discover the subtleties of Mahler, courtesy of Gimeno and his soft touch with the TSO. I have heard some interpretations that get louder sooner, a challenge both to the players and the listeners. Gimeno clearly knows his team, holding them back thoughtfully so that when we come to the climactic phrases they have plenty left. And it means our experience builds slowly to a magnificent climax.

TSO Music Director Gustavo Gimeno (photo: Allan Cabral)

The concert will be repeated Thursday and Saturday June 13 and 15.

Jonathan Crow, Gustavo Gimeno, Jean-Sebastien Vallee Dr. Zimfira Poloz, Gerhild Romberger Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir (photo: Allan Cabral)
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Opera By Request premiere The Seagull

Posted on June 8, 2024 by barczablog

Friday night June 7th I witnessed the Canadian premiere of Thomas Pasatieri’s 1974 opera setting Kenward Elmslie’s libretto adapting Anton Chekhov’s 1896 play The Seagull, presented in concert by Opera by Request at the College St United Church.

Shamrayeff (Henry Irwin) Arkadina (Monica Zerbe) Constantine (Michael Robert-Broder) and Trigorin (Andrew Tees)

It can be very poignant, that all the work that went into learning this modern work is for but the one performance June 7th, just as June 6th was for a single showing of Echoes of Bi-Sotoon. Consider by comparison that we learn how to sing or play through touchstones from Carmen or Marriage of Figaro or La boheme, so that the staging is a return to familiar conflicts or lyrical moments presented and sung over and over. I have enormous sympathy and gratitude for the work of Bill Shookhoff, the Music Director and pianist for OBR, learning an intricate piano part that was often subtle as quicksilver and then teaching a series of challenging parts to a large cast: who likely will never sing this again. Repetition– including the learning we do watching and hearing other performers– helps us figure out how to solve the puzzle of an operatic score, how to express the words and music, and to discover how best to portray the drama. With a new work in a single performance, I have to ask: did one really figure out the best ways to do the role? Chances are they would all be that much better in their second or third performance, relaxing into the part, enjoying the feedback from an audience and notes from the director.

Opera By Request artistic director William Shookhoff

I’m tempted to go back to the Chekhov to re-read the play. His greatest works have layers, multiple ways to be understood and interpreted. Pasatieri faced a special challenge in turning the play into an opera, given that whereas the 1896 play affords multiple readings and interpretation, as soon as you set a line or a speech to music with dynamic markings dictating tempo and how loud or soft it’s to be sung, you’re restricting the ambiguities, and more or less dictating the ways it can be interpreted. But when I think back to the two Otello adaptations I’ve seen (Rossini via OBR and Verdi), each in their way distorting the original, I suppose I must cut Pasatieri slack especially given the challenges with a play such as this. Where Shakespeare gives us long speeches inviting arias, Chekhov is more conversational, closer to being realistic, which makes the opera composer’s task even tougher. Pasatieri sometimes makes a very fluid arioso that races along almost as quickly as genuine speech, which is miraculous when one observes the usual problem of opera, that it takes much longer to sing a sentence or a paragraph than it takes to speak it. While I was not always onside, not fully aligned with what the composer was doing (or seemed to be going), Pasatieri has composed a great evening filled with some wonderful music, long lyrical stretches to suck you into the story and the character development. I don’t think I’m being fair in wishing that the music and the singing were quieter and subtler. But there it is. I sometimes find myself trapped in the contradictions manifested in opera, that extroverted medium for show-offs and performers. When you’re Carmen or Escamillo that works especially well, and so Arkadina and Trigorin match that better than a more inwardly directed communicator such as Constantine, whose poetic sensibility is closer to a figure such as Pelleas, so reticent and withdrawn as to defy the usual operatic approaches. He’s in such conflict throughout that his ending (shooting himself offstage) is perhaps inevitable. He will sing beautifully at times, but show misery and despair at other moments.

Opera composer Thomas Pasatieri, 1976. (Photo by Jack Mitchell/Getty Images).

I am not sure about the way the voices are used, whereby Arkadina is larger than life in every moment, while Trigorin seems much subtler. But then again most composers seem to be better with some characters than with others. Some of this may also be due to the tonal challenge of Chekhov, sitting on a fence between comedy and tragedy, a fence that’s harder to straddle once you set the words to music. I think for example that Pasatieri’s Arkadina (played by Monica Zerbe) pushes a comic sensibility that may frustrate a singer looking for something subtler. I found Andrew Tees as Trigorin much closer to that dividing line, often seeming very light in his delivery and effortless in finding a glamorous persona that’s at times humorous and likeable. Similarly Jenny Ribeiro as Nina is delightful while sometimes riding Pasatieri’s vocal line unavoidably into the more serious, even tragic dimension. She and Constantine (Michael Robert-Broder) get some of Pasatieri’s most poetic moments, lyrical singing going in a more impenetrably symbolist direction, the passages that I found most memorable, even hypnotic as they made time stand still. The symbolist element lurks in the very title of the play / opera, so long as one doesn’t seek to decode, not needing to find meanings.

There is a kind of conflict in Chekhov’s play that I saw presented in the opera, contending approaches to life and to art.

Anton Chekhov

One sees it when Chekhov gives us Medvedenko (Avery Krisman) nattering at Masha (Meagan Reimer) about the challenges of teaching and the expenses of family life, insensible to her dreams although aware that she’s bored with him. There is a pragmatic reality that has comic possibilities almost every moment from Sorin (Steve Henrikson) or the steady observations coming from Pauline (Katie Mills), in opposition to the artists (successful or not) that surround them. We get one version of art from Constantine set in opposition to the pragmatic success of Trigorin the novelist and the impatient language Arkadina the diva-like actress uses to dismiss Constantine’s play, sending a frustrated Nina running from the stage. Pasatieri does an admirable job in setting this up in his arioso, long flowing lines back and forth sometimes interrupted by quirky little passages of impenetrable mystery at the piano (i wonder what they sound like from an orchestra?). I was less happy in the last act when we get more conventionally operatic with a series of longer sequences that one might call arias. Ot maybe that’s how Chekhov wrote it, and I’m not being fair to the composer. But the work is never dull and sometimes very beautiful, which is especially troubling given that this is the first time Toronto got to hear a superb opera that’s deserving of more frequent productions. Indeed this was a concert version with piano, leading me to wonder: what would it look like with costumes, sets, what would they sound like employing an orchestra? Perhaps someday we’ll find out.

Bill Shookhoff (pianist/ music director) and Katie Mills (Pauline)

Shookhoff did an amazing job at the piano, giving us a detailed account of a difficult score with terrific clarity and wonderful cohesion from a cast who were tuneful, larger than life, never dull. Ah I wish I could see it again.

Opera By Request will be back June 22nd for Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, and September 13th with Dvorak’s Jacobin co-produced with the Canadian Institute for Czech Music.

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Tafelmusik and Ivars Taurins celebrate Handel

Posted on June 1, 2024 by barczablog

Tafelmusik turned their choral specialist loose for their season-concluding Handel celebration concert. If you have any way of getting to this concert do so, a love-fest centred on Handel and his alter-ego Ivars Taurins.

You may know Ivars Taurins for his Messiah, including his annual portrayals of George Frideric Handel for the singalong.

The ghost of Christmases past? Or Ivars Taurins a few years ago as Herr Handel (photo by Gary Beechey)

No wonder one might think that Ivars knows how Handel thinks.

On this occasion Ivars was in modern formal attire, but fully immersed in the sensibility of the baroque composer to assemble a pasticcio from an assortment of arias and choruses from Tafelmusik Chamber Choir.

The result? an absorbing evening of truly brilliant performances that suggest maybe Tafelmusik should give Ivars more opportunities to conduct. There were no dull moments in a program perfectly balancing solo and choral numbers.

Ivars made everyone look and sound good.

Amanda Forsythe and Thomas Hobbs accepting our applause

We heard amazing coloratura from soprano Amanda Forsythe, sometimes in games of imitation with wind players before and after intermission. “Sweet bird” from L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato might be mistaken for something more recent with its brilliant virtuoso flute part played to perfection by Grégoire Jeay.

Amanda Forsythe, soprano, and Grégoire Jeay, flute (photo: Dahlia Katz)

But this is a baroque sensibility as the “bird” (aka the flute) shows off his skill while seemingly competing with the soprano in a joyful singing competition to make Wagner and his Meistersingers blush. It’s not impressionism but more of a pictorial game, and it’s pure fun as they match voices. Forsythe’s takes unexpected turns always bang on pitch but sometimes delicate up top, flying as high as the birds with her extraordinary range and precision. When it was time to show us Semele’s coloratura she flew every bit as high, adding a layer of humour in her amusing presentation of “Myself I shall adore”, exchanging smiles with her Jupiter, tenor Thomas Hobbs.

Hobbs/Jupiter then took us gently into the realm of erotic love with his presentation of the familiar “where’er you walk”, including a breath-taking da capo verse that literally stopped the show for a moment when I heard the entire Koerner Hall audience silent in anticipation.

Keiran Campbell, cello; Ivars Taurins, conductor; Thomas Hobbs, tenor (photo: Dahlia Katz)

Clever Ivars assembled these solo marvels among a series of choral showpieces. Don’t mistake the chorus for a backdrop or secondary element, not when their works are the highlights of the evening.

Tafelmusik Chamber Choir (photo: Dahlia Katz)

Set between the visits to the score of Semele we heard a stunning reading of the Hercules chorus about jealousy, the “infernal pest”. Ivars made great theatre out of this piece, as the chorus crackled as they hissed the word “jealousy” to make you shiver at what was to come. And of course that’s subtext for what Juno does to Semele.

The choruses we hear are often short back and forth in happy and mournful moods, martial colours for war or philosophical musings about death. The Tafelmusik Orchestra responded to Ivars leadership, his gestural language for orchestra similar to his technique for chorus, fluid and sensitive, always clear.

Chorus and solo numbers seem to arrive on a somewhat even footing given that Ivars the choral conductor is never one to undervalue choral expression but curating a collection to make soloist and chorus shine equally.

Tafelmusik have always been a generous organization dodging the usual egomania of classical music, in a committee approach to leadership shared over the years. Ivars helmed the choral journeys, David Fallis the operatic & balletic voyages via Opera Atelier and the enlightened leadership of Jeanne Lamon for so many years.

I hope Ivars gets more opportunities to curate and conduct given the excellence of this program. Imagine a Tafelmusik Missa Solemnis for example.

For 2024-25 Tafelmusik won’t offer anything more modern than Mozart in next season’s programming but in fairness they know their strengths. Much as I desire to hear them undertake romantics, symphonies of Mendelssohn, Schubert or Schumann, the concerti of Beethoven, Berlioz or Chopin, Tafelmusik are after all a baroque ensemble. They know who they are and on occasions such as the concerts this weekend they are as good as anyone in the world, certainly a treasure for Torontonians to celebrate and cherish.

Tafelmusik’s Handel Celebration continues Saturday and Sunday June 1 & 2 at Koerner Hall.

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Canadian Premiere of Tom Pasatieri’s The Seagull, Friday June 7th: An Interview with Bill Shookhoff

Posted on May 23, 2024 by barczablog

Tom Pasatieri’s opera The Seagull will get it’s Canadian Premiere on June 7th with Opera By Request. I interviewed Bill Shookhoff to find out about it.

~~~~~~~

Barczablog: Describe the works of Pasatieri: what is his style like? 

Bill Shookhoff: Pasatieri is possibly the most prolific opera composer of the 20th and early 21st century, having composed over 20 operas, along with several works for solo voice, chorus, chamber music and orchestra.  His work defies categorization.  He exudes a definite contemporary sound, but retains lyricism and a sense of tonality, though the tonality is constantly shifting.  Besides The Seagull, his best-known operas include La Divina, Black Widow, Frau Margot and Signor Deluso.  The latter is probably his most-performed work, as it’s a short comedy, well-suited to university and young artist productions. 

His monodrama Lady Macbeth and settings of Oscar Wilde poems are also frequently performed. 

He also scored several films including Shawshank Redemption, Fried Green Tomatoes, and American Beauty.

BB: Describe the music of The Seagull.

Bill Shookhoff: With his mixture of contemporary atonality and lyricism, Pasatieri captures both the intense conflict and the inner passion of the work.  His subtle use of leitmotifs define the principal characters and the principal themes: love proffered, love unrequited, anxiety, loneliness.

BB: Does the libretto from Kenward Elmslie and Frank Corsaro follow the original Chekhov?

Bill Shookhoff: The work is quite faithful to the original play, though with necessary condensing for operatic purposes. 

The story can best be summarized as Russian families and colleagues thrown together in a country estate, where virtually everyone is in love with the wrong person.  The most central character, Nina, travels the most complex journey:  half-orphan neighbour, happy childhood, then abusive step-parent, aspiring actor, struggling career in Moscow, seduced and abandoned, ultimately resigned to a life as an itinerant player in regional theatre.  Constantin, a writer whose work is not accepted, meets the most tragic end, while Trigorin, a mediocre writer, is always successful and always somehow lands on top. 

The most striking difference is the addition of Arkadina reciting Jocasta’s monologue (which is totally original, not found in any version of the Oedipus plays), as an apparent allusion to her relationship with Constantin.

BB: What are the roles like, what kind of singers are needed?

Bill Shookhoff: The principal roles:  Nina, Arkadina (the aging actress), Constantin, Trigorin, and Masha, the estate manager’s daughter, have extremely demanding roles with extensive range and dramatic demands.  These roles require stamina, as they each have extensive scenes to play, and dramatic capabilities, as their music defines them in all their conflicting characteristics.

BB: Who is in the cast, and where have we seen them (if ever) before?

Bill Shookhoff: Monica Zerbe (Arkadina) was in OBR’s Jenufa and Anna Bolena, and was an Eckhardt-Gramatte winner.  Andrew Tees (Trigorin) sang Wotan in OBR’s Ring Cycle and has a long legacy of performances throughout Canada. 

Michael Robert-Broder (Constantin) is one of Toronto’s busiest baritones, was recently in Janacek’s Makropulos Case (OBR/CICM) and will soon be singing the title role in Nabucco with Calgary Concert Opera. 

Meagan Reimer (Masha) joins us from Manitoba, as she did a year ago to sing Desdemona in Rossini’s Otello.  She was singing extensively throughout Germany when the pandemic hit. 

Meagan Reimer (Desdemona) and Paul Williamson (Otello) rehearsing Rossini’s Otello last year

Jenny Ribeiro, from Michigan, has performed with orchestras and opera companies throughout the US, and is involved with numerous audience-development projects in Michigan and New York. 

She is a devotee of Pasatieri’s work, and was key to making this production a reality.

Bill Shookhoff and Katie Mills who makes her OBR debut as Pauline

BB: What is the piano part like? 

Bill Shookhoff: Having just presented Makropulos Case, this piano part seems quite manageable, but is in fact very challenging.  Pasaieri’s orchestration includes a lot of quasi-contrapuntal inner voicing, which is difficult to achieve on the piano.  Parts of the orchestration are quite thick, so one needs to fulfill the orchestral sound without having it sound bombastic.  In many ways, it is comparable to the piano reductions of Carlisle Floyd, but because Floyd was a pianist, his reductions were more pianistic.

BB: How did this opera performance come about? 

Bill Shookhoff: Decades ago I was in New York City shortly before conducting Signor Deluso with Canada Opera Piccola and Pierrette Alarie in Victoria.  I had some questions about the score and arranged a visit with the composer.  He gave me a copy of the score of The Seagull, and shortly thereafter I was working with Patricia Wells, the original Nina, who absolutely loved the work and I’ve been wanting to do it ever since.  However, the work was long, very difficult and very hard to realize on the piano. 

Then, in 2003, a revised version, shorter and more compactly orchestrated, was presented by the San Francisco Opera Centre, with, coincidentally, Canadians Mark Morash (conductor) and Jane Archibald (Masha).  This version seemed eminently doable.  Two years ago I met Jenny Ribeiro at Peter Furlong’s (Siegmund, OBR Ring Cycle) Ring Cycle in One Evening in New Hampshire.  We maintained contact, she is a champion of Pasatieri’s work, we discussed logistics, and now it’s about to become a reality.

Bill Shookhoff and Ernesto Ramirez rehearsing Otello last year.

On Facebook I saw the following posted by Bill Shookhoff :

Back home and back to work. Really looking forward to the Canadian premiere of Tom Pasatieri’s The Seagull on June 7th and Cilea’s Adrianna Lecouvreur on June 22nd. Guest artists Jenny Ribeiro (Seagull), Whitney Sloan and Alicia Woynarski (Adrianna) will be joined by OBR stalwarts Michael Robert-Broder, Andrew Tees, Monica Zerbe, Meagan Reimer, Ernesto Ramirez among others. Cesar Bello will be making his long overdue OBR debut in Adrianna.

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After last performance of Don Pasquale, looking back and ahead plus two anonymous voices

Posted on May 19, 2024 by barczablog

This afternoon we watched the Canadian Opera Company’s closing performance of the Renaud Doucet–André Barbe Don Pasquale at the Four Seasons Centre, bringing their spring season to a boisterous close.

Joshua Hopkins (Dr Malatesta), Misha Kiria (Don Pasquale) and Simone Osborne (Norina) photo: Michael Cooper

The unexpected adjective I’d apply to the colourful production is “authentic”. Notwithstanding the modern 1960s look of the show, we were firmly grounded in a bel canto sensibility beginning with Conductor Jacques Lacombe’s effortless control of the COC Orchestra, chorus and soloists bringing us a brilliant reading of Donizetti. I was especially grateful for the friendly acoustic of the COC Theatre, enjoying the lyric voices of tenor Santiago Ballerini and baritone Joshua Hopkins, the genuinely buffo stylings of basso Misha Kiria in the title role, alongside the star turn from Simone Osborne as Norina, funny while displaying flawless vocalism.

As I recall the six shows this season and the plans for next year I’m starting to get a sense of General Director Perryn Leech.

COC General Director Perryn Leech

I’m a satisfied COC customer as far as performance values, Don Pasquale being the latest in a series of successful productions, with a combination of visual appeal to the design, excellent direction of a strong cast that sang and acted as well as anything we’ve seen in this city. Five of the six shows this season (Don Pasquale & Medea having just finished, after winter productions of Cunning Little Vixen & Don Giovanni, plus Fidelio & La Boheme back in the fall) were new to this city. That follows a 2022-2023 season that might seem conservative, having only the single new production (McVicar’s Macbeth) among five revivals (Egoyan’s Salome, Guth’s Marriage of Figaro, Alden’s Flying Dutchman, Curran’s Tosca and Ivany’s Carmen).

Next season we get five new productions plus one revival. While I’m thrilled to see the Wozzeck co-production that the COC share with The Metropolitan Opera, the Salzburg Festival, and Opera Australia, glad to see the return of Kyle Ketelson as Mephistopheles in Faust, Tamara Wilson’s Abigaille in Nabucco, yet I’m disappointed by the casting of so many imports when there are Canadians who could sing the parts.

Yes I renewed my subscription.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is img_0753.jpg
A photo of my COC renewal brochure

I want to share two recent quotes.

First: a friend drew my attention to something on social media from an anonymous member of their employee group.

“AITA for feeling that COC’s upcoming season is shameful and disgustingly out-of-touch with reality casting-wise?
Sure a couple superstars are good to fill seats but of the approximately 41 roles available, only 18 go to Canadians. Of those roles only 4 lead categorized roles given to Canadians.
3 Russian nationals in lead parts that could easily be cast by Canadians (or Ukrainians).
What are they thinking?”

AITA? If it’s new to you, “AITA” is short for “Am I the asshole”?, as you try to be fair but are exasperated that your point of view isn’t obvious.

ANONYMOUS?
Anonymous because calling out management can have consequences if you’re hoping to be hired.

Of course you don’t expect a truly objective appraisal of a boss from their employees.

Second, here are some words from an anonymous observer.

“Under Hermann Geiger-Torel:
Promotion of Canadian singers.
Under Lotfi Mansouri:
American singers on their way up or on the way down.
Under Brian Dickie:
Brits
Under Richard Bradshaw:
Two for one specials of Russians due to their low fees.
Alexander Neef: Had quite a strong commitment to established Canadian singers, and repatriated some, but I felt he could have and should have done more. 
Perryn Leech: Who knows?”

They continued:

“With Mansouri they brought in mediocre Americans
Dickie brought in Brits
Richard brought in cheap Bulgarians and Russians …
Neef was the best at genuinely trying to hire Canadians since Torel 
Richard got Russians at two for one specials.”

They were laughing at the end, even as they expressed their frustration.

I post this because, as I peruse the next COC Season I wonder whether Mr Leech has any interest in casting Canadians. Is it simply easier to import? Surely Canadians are cheaper. Surely using Canadians helps connect the personnel onstage with the audience.

I saw a piece by Aisling Murphy with the title “For the leadership at Crow’s Theatre, investing in local talent is crucial” just this week that struck a chord for me. I’m citing Murphy’s piece in Intermission Magazine, quoting Paolo Santalucia speaking of Crow’s Theatre, that seems relevant to the COC:

“It’s been really invigorating to see how the public has absorbed and embraced Canadian talent across the last few years,” he said. “I think that’s indicative of the fact that audiences are excited by the talent pool we have here. One thing we can do as a Canadian theatre centre is make strong advocacy for encountering prestige, Canadian talent, and allowing that to meet the public in a vital, exciting way.”

I wish someone would show Santalucia’s words to Perryn Leech.

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2024 Met Gala – JG Ballard’s Garden of Time tone deaf to the rabble

Posted on May 16, 2024 by barczablog

The 2024 Met Gala fund-raiser used a JG Ballard story for its theme, The Garden of Time.

Ballard is one of my favourite writers, especially his short stories and science fiction. Several have made wonderful films.

Art and commerce lurk in the conversation about the latest Met Gala.

Ballard’s story reads as a symbolist piece about the nature of beauty itself with undertones of something darker in the way it portrays the different classes we encounter in the story. I wonder whether they really looked closely at the implications of employing Ballard’s text this way.

Does beauty belong to the upper classes, and something only the wealthy can understand or appreciate? Ballard’s story shows an isolated sanctuary of fading beauty beset by an enormous crowd preparing to overrun and destroy the space. As Ballard’s Count Axel walks in his garden, looking out from a place of wealth and beauty, a huge disorderly army approaches from the distance. He plucks time flowers to reverse time, temporarily slowing the advance of the vast throng. But the time flowers are becoming scarce, the horde getting ever closer.

Ballard calls them a rabble.

You can see for yourself by clicking here to read The Garden of Time.

I understand the annual Met Galas to be a fund-raising exercise, a fascinating intersection of art, fashion and popular culture, but having re-read the story I am disturbed by the implications of juxtaposing this story and the Gala.

When I first read the Ballard story back in the 1970s, I hadn’t yet encountered the long symbolist play Axël by the Auguste de Villiers de l’Isle-Adam, composed roughly between 1870 & the author’s death in 1890), a work I read as part of my research into Claude Debussy, Maurice Maeterlinck and the symbolist movement.

You can read Axël here.

Frontispiece image of Auguste de Villiers de l’Isle-Adam

No they’re not the same story but I am certain that Ballard uses the name as a deliberate reference to Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s hero, a symbolist evocation of time and the decay of culture. Axël is a long sad story of a Byronic hero looking for spiritual enlightenment, ultimately taking a pathway similar to Tristan, as he drinks poison with his beloved. The most famous quote I found online (having read the play more than 20 years ago):  
“Vivre? les serviteurs feront cela pour nous” (“Living? Our servants will do that for us“).

The symbolist ideal is very much an elusive search that makes no claim to be democratic or socialist, but rather leans more in the direction of elitism if not a genuine contempt for the masses. And no I don’t share such views. They creep me out whether they’re in the mouth of the poet or a devout follower such as Claude Debussy, Stéphane Mallarmé or Richard Wagner.

JG Ballard

Debussy attempted to set Axël to music in his youth, although I don’t believe more than a fragment of a piano-vocal score has been found, composed in 1888 according to catalogues of Debussy’s works.

Speaking of time, the 19th century Axël takes a very long time to reach a conclusion that Ballard accomplishes with breath-taking swiftness.

In the story a tiny stronghold of beauty is under attack by a destructive rabble, as though beauty itself belongs only to the wealthy few, while the hordes are insensible to beauty.

At a time of runaway real estate prices, inflation, and huge wealth discrepancies, it seems astonishingly tone deaf of the organizers to choose Ballard’s imagery for their theme. Why am I surprised? Silly me.

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Philip Chiu’s Fables

Posted on May 12, 2024 by barczablog
Pianist Philip Chiu

I have been listening to FABLES, the excellent ATMA CD of piano music by Philip Chiu pairing two piano transcriptions of music by Ravel with Mnidoonskaa (A Multitude of Insects), a 2021 work by Anishinaabekwe composer Barbara Assiginaak.

“Fables” makes an interesting departure point for me, suggesting different ways to listen and understand music, underlined in the pianist’s personal message inside the disc, a note he signs:
“Sincerely, Phil”.

In 1999, as teenage-me sat in his bedroom listening to Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream over-and-over-again, enthralled by the fantasy, heroism, and romance of a story I had never even read it dawned on me that music is undoubtedly storytelling. It tells tales without words and also adds new dimension and colour to stories we already know. Through sound and silence, music illuminates the depth of emotions and makes visceral what is otherwise intangible.

Phil reminds me of my own encounters with music meant to accompany and illuminate plays and films. There may seem to be a dilemma in this encounter. On the one hand we are invited to see images & to discover the underlying narratives that inspired the music. Yet however vivid the imagery, at the same time the pianist is still playing a piano. There is no dilemma however, given that we can hear the stories and images we see in our mind’s eye as we listen to the literal truth of the piano.

It’s a kind of magic, that sometimes a piano stops seeming like a piano. When we hear a transcription of a symphony or a tone poem the piano becomes a fantasy portal to other worlds, as though the piano were doing the equivalent to pencil sketches of colourful scenes. As Maurice Denis reminded us “Remember that a picture, before being a battle horse, a female nude or some sort of anecdote, is essentially a flat surface covered with colors.” Similarly the music at the piano may conjure other instruments and colours even though the magic was entirely through pianism.

There may be no real dilemma but pianists do face interpretive choices, ways to honour the piano score while being mindful of the poetic possibilities.

Ravel has a curious relationship with the piano. He is both the vivid impressionist orchestrator of Mussorgski’s Pictures at an Exhibition, the version most people know and love, and one of the great romantic tone-painters of virtuoso piano music in such works as Gaspard de la Nuit.

Yet the nine movements of the two Ravel works are presented in transcriptions, revised by Philip Chiu. We begin (if you choose to listen to the CD as a whole: a practice that some might call old-school, given that one may never bother with all the tracks if they prefer to download portions) with Ravel’s 1903 String quartet in F. I’m not sure what it says that Phil’s version of the work makes it sound as though it were composed at the piano, as though this is where Ravel conceived the piece: which is entirely possible. Two of the movements are among my favourites, and yet I swear to me they sound better on the piano than played by a string quartet. Is that heresy? Certainly. And my own background as a pianist who loves transcriptions is showing. I also remember hearing that some Europeans believed Shakespeare was better in translation. Perhaps transcribing distils the essence of the music. Or maybe it takes us back to what Ravel was doing in the first place.

The Ravel makes a good prelude to what follows, Book One of An Abundance of Insects by Barbara Assiginaak. I want to be careful in writing about the assumptions behind these colourful little pieces, suggesting broad swaths of colour and varieties of light & shade. Ravel the impressionist might program me to expect Assiginaak to be engaged in something similar, when the music may be enacting something else, such as celebratory ritual or dance rather than painting. I find that the pieces fly by very quickly, in the manner of lyrical meditations rather than the dramatic discourse of sonatas. Hm I said that they fly by, which come to think of it is very apt for the quick little creatures we’re meeting in these works.

The CD concludes with Mother Goose, five pieces from 1910 in transcriptions of Ravel that have been revised by Phil. These feel closer to what Assiginaak was doing in her pieces, as the pieces don’t so much tell the Mother Goose stories as sketch portraits of characters. I suppose I’m inclined to think of Denis because I think of these works as pictures, that can be brilliant whether done in the full colour of orchestra or the subtleties of a piano sketch. Phil’s piano is radiant, gleaming, a transparent reading to honour the simplicity of Ravel’s original.

These recordings feel like the personal testimony of an artist. No wonder the album won a Juno.

More information about Philip Chiu’s recording Fables can be found here.

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COC Medea explores truth

Posted on May 6, 2024 by barczablog

Yesterday I attended the Canadian Opera Company’s Sunday matinee of Luigi Cherubini’s Medea. The main character may tell a lot of lies but that didn’t stop the audience from cheering her on in one of the darkest operas imaginable, a sharp contrast to Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, the other work in the COC spring season.

Speaking of truth, as we drove to the Four Seasons Centre we discussed whether we should expect to see Sondra Radvanovsky not even 48 hours after her Friday night triumph (as reported by friends) in one of the most demanding roles. When Perryn Leech appeared I knew exactly what we would be told.

Chiara Isotton, who was expecting to sing the final two performances of the run sang this difficult role bravely and boldly in an unexpected COC debut.

Chiara Isotton accepting the rapturous applause after singing Medea Sunday afternoon

The diva shares the spotlight with an extraordinary set design by director Sir David McVicar in this co-production of The Metropolitan Opera, Greek National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago plus the COC, a delightfully anachronistic assembly of colours and textures.

There are two remarkable features to the set, the first in a series of sliding panels that act as doors, opening and closing to change our view. Sometimes they’re completely closed, providing a place at the front of the stage for intimate exchanges, sometimes they offer partial framing or open fully. I was reminded of the way films sometimes employed an iris or a door to set up the transition from one shot to the next. For much of the opera, the action is framed and kept far away from us, which makes a lot of sense if the material might be disturbing.

When the doors were fully open we had a chance to see the the more spectacular second feature. McVicar’s stage places a large mirror surface at an angle upstage, that reflects a view of everyone but seen from above. It’s sometimes disturbing, sometimes stunningly beautiful, but throughout the opera we’re able to see people plus a view of them from above. I am sure this works entirely differently for those sitting further back.

Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role of Medea (The Metropolitan Opera, 2022)

When we open the final act the doors are fully open. Medea is far upstage, seen in the reflection as though floating in the sky. It’s unsettling yet very beautiful. Our final view of her as the temple burns is surprisingly moving.

    I found myself feeling grateful for the melodrama of Cherubini’s two dimensional dramaturgy, wanting distance from the ugly story. We don’t expect method acting or depth from Godzilla or Dracula, and Medea is just another monster. The artificiality of music allows us to revel in passion without getting too close to the nasty realities of the story. There is a certain delight in watching pure passion, especially when a composer has captured raw emotion in his music as Cherubini has done. The nerdy part of me that listens to this opera (I have a hair-raising recording with Maria Callas, Jon Vickers, Nicolai Ghiaurov & Giulietta Simionato) revels in Cherubini’s directness, and perhaps that would ideally have me sitting further away, not looking too closely at what they were saying or doing.

    Even sitting very close to the action we could see the ways that the director chose to alienate us, to remind us of the artifice. I wish I could have seen how Sondra played the craziest moments, given that I was unable to find sympathy for what Chiara did with the part when she sees the resemblance between child and father, surely a daunting moment for any singer:

    MEDEA ——————————MEDEA
    Guarda ei pur così! Così Giasone–He too has the same look! Jason
    falso ha lo sguardo! —————–has the same false glance!
    A morte, orsù! ———————–Come you must die!
    (Afferra i bambini ——– (She seizes the children
    levando il pugnale.) —— raising her dagger.)
    No, cari figli, no!—————–No, dear children, no!
    Son vinta già!——————-I am defeated already!
    Cessò del cor la guerra;——-The war in my heart has ceased

    While Chiara sang very well I wonder how much time she has had to develop the nuances in her interpretation of the role, one that Sondra has done previously elsewhere. If I had been sitting further back perhaps I would have been swallowed up by the music rather than disturbed by what I was seeing. The audience exploded in response to her COC debut, well sung even before we remember that this was an impromptu debut due to Sondra’s indisposition.

    To his credit, Leech has been making great use of covers, recalling the Lady Macbeth replacement drama, that began with Sondra Radvanovsky’s withdrawal from the production. Her Friday night performance may represent a triumphant comeback by an intelligent artist, but a big part of being an intelligent artist is knowing when to cancel a performance.

    More power to her, and maybe someday I will hear her again.

    I would be remiss if I didn’t notice the many other significant contributions to a dramatic afternoon of opera. Matthew Polenzani sounded properly heroic as Giasone, in a thankless role reminding me of Pinkerton, another self-centred sailor with a lover in every port whose vows cannot be trusted. Janai Brugger was a congenial Glauce, displaying a beautiful timbre and a winning presence. Alfred Walker’s Creonte improved from a rough start, perhaps unhappy to be singing on less than two days rest. Zoie Reams as Neris was vocally splendid while carrying out some of the more difficult actions of the story; she’s important to the advancement of the plot, reporting on various parts of Medea’s evil work, bringing the children to Medea, taking poisoned gifts to Glauce, while somehow making that believable and even sympathetic.

    The COC Chorus played their usual part in painting the dramatic illusion while singing appropriate responses to situations where they often echoed the sentiments of soloists expressing delight, sadness, or horror. There’s no middle ground. Conductor Lorenzo Passerini gave a taut and apparently flawless reading to a score full of soft lyrical moments between outbursts of fury and horror.

    The COC’s production of Medea continues with performances May 9, 11, 15 and 17.

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