Pride Week LGBT Short Film Festival

Posted on June 13, 2013 by barczablog

“Press releases and announcements” are presented verbatim without comment.

Canadian Media Guild’s Toronto chapter sponsors its second
‘TORONTO PRIDE WEEK LGBT SHORT FILM FESTIVAL’

TORONTO (June 12, 2013) – The Canadian Media Guild’s Toronto chapter (CMG-Toronto) is sponsoring its second Pride Week LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans) Short Film Festival, which runs during Toronto’s Pride Week from Monday, June 24, 2013 to Saturday, June 29, 2013. CMG-Toronto’s ‘2013 Pride Week LGBT Short Film Festival’ highlights 12 excellent LGBT-themed short films from recent years. The diverse, 110-minute program will play continuously on a DVD loop in the Graham Spry Theatre in Toronto starting that week at 9 a.m. until 9 p.m. from Monday to Friday, with an extra screening on Saturday, June 29th from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
Details:
Monday, June 24, 2013 to Friday, June 28, 2013 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday, June 29, 2013 from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Graham Spry Theatre, CBC Broadcasting Centre
250 Front St. W., Toronto, Ontario
Admission is FREE

The films in the program are:
1. Kiss, by Mark Pariselli – 4 minutes | Experimental | 2012

2. I’m Yours, by Chase Joynt – 5 minutes | Documentary | 2013

3. Her With Me, by Alyssa Pankiw – 13 minutes | Drama | 2013

4. Let’s Get Soaking Wet, by Steven Bereznai – 7 minutes | Comedy | 2011

5. Flyers, by Laura Terruso – 3 minutes | Drama-comedy | 2011

6. Where Are The Dolls, by Cassandra Nicolaou – 8 minutes | Drama-Experimental | 2012

7. The Closest Thing To Heaven, by Ryan Levey – 9 minutes | Documentary | 2013

8. APTN Presents: Two Spirited Parts 1 and 2, by Kathleen Maartens – 21 minutes | News documentary | 2012

9. Shawn, by Mark Zanin – 4 minutes | Comedy | 2013

10. I’m In The Mood For Love, by Jason Karman – 6 minutes | Drama | 2011

11. For Dorian, by Rodrigo Barriuso – 16 minutes | Drama | 2012

One more film is not yet finalized.

Check out the event’s Facebook page here: http://on.fb.me/1a25wXS

Posted in Press Releases and Announcements | Leave a comment

Herbivoracious

Posted on June 10, 2013 by barczablog

The clever turn of phrase “Urban Herbivore” echoes a favourite of yore.  In Belleville more than a decade ago I used to enjoy a place called “Urban Herb” whose vegan lore and hip décor made me always come back for more.

They’re much better at pithy prose than I.

I write this ostensibly as a review even though my relationship with the establishment is more intimate than that.  I go to the Kensington location (Oxford & Augusta) virtually every day.  There are days when I go elsewhere for lunch, mostly because I recognize most friends prefer meat.  I am way past objectivity on this one.

I’ve been going there for so long that the years blur into one another.  Has it been open a decade?  I am not saying I was there at the beginning, because I am a creature of habit.  I had other places I went to religiously.  I stopped going to places with lots of starch (anyplace featuring lots of rice or breads or pastas) once Dr Ebringer helped me identify this blight upon my internal gut-scape.  When my current dietary regimen fell into place –with the help of doctors, friends & the internet—Urban Herbivore became my regular place more or less by default.  Where else could I get something healthy, low in starch, and close to my office? There are alternatives, but for now (that is, the past few years and for the foreseeable future) U.H. are my lifeline.   Whenever I venture anywhere else I don’t feel nearly as well.  On weekends in Scarborough, my diet can be all over the place.  Heretical as it may be to some, U.H. have me saying “TGIM”.

As the business has grown (the restaurant Fressen + the other locations of Urban Herbivore) I  recall gradual changes inside and out.  In the past few months they’ve made the most exciting change, creating a large internal space, to go with the outer ring of seating along the windows + the seating outside the building (lovely in July, but not much use in January) that was there all along.  Part of that renovation was the addition of display space for additional delights that I tested for the first time this past week, namely healthy cupcakes.  Note to those who haven’t tried this place: “healthy” does not mean “boring”.  In fact the astonishing thing about these sweets –that I had after my salad –is how totally comfortable I feel inside afterwards.

They have menu items I’ve never tried, because the few that I rely upon are etched into my thinking.

Today I’m in muffin mode, perhaps because I knew I needed multiple coffees to get me going.  I was indoctrinated in their muffins by a family member who used to live across the street.  The sweet potato date muffin is not my favourite –I find it somewhat sweet—but it’s been there as long as I can remember.  I’ll order it when the others are all gone, something sweet & tasty but perhaps starchier than what I should be eating.  The muffin I ate today for lunch is called “apple walnut“, but with several other ingredients, including spelt.  When I begin it’s a dauntingly large muffin, yet before long I find myself sadly regretting how quickly it vanished.  If I’m not able to get to the muffin (I almost always get take-out) it has a ridiculous shelf life, particularly in company with coffee.  I have come in on a Monday to find a muffin I forgot to eat the previous Friday.  It may not be as fresh as it was, but dunked into coffee is still preferable to anything I would get nearby.

Other days I am usually getting a salad + a muffin, where one is like lunch and the other becomes part of dinner (and the one going first varies depending on my mood & workload).  When I say “salad”, forget what you know about salad, a word that may be holding you back from experiencing the possibilities inherent in food.  The concept is modular, where they assemble your salad according to your preferences as follows:

  • Pick greens, which means, possibly something like lettuces (“spring mix”?), or perhaps a spinach-arugula mix, or a romaine-kale mix, or some combination of the above.
  • Pick a protein. I am hampered here because I only ever get one of the choices.  I get the barbecued tofu, although I could get one of the others (hm… something gluten? I can’t recall)
  • The protein is your first of six items combined with the greens.  The remaining five are taken from a dazzling array, some simply clean fresh items like bean sprouts (boring… never get them) or cleverly prepared steamed broccoli (always), snow peas in something (often), cucumber with dill (usually), kamut, black beans, kimchee, and many others
  • Then you select a dressing from the six offered (again, wonderfully tasteful… for the longest time I went with lemon & tahini, then their carrot-sesame-ginger-, then I tried mixing the two but my current fave is something called sweet & spicy, a name that only hints at its excellence) plus an assortment of seeds & nuts on top

Sigh…!

There’s enough in the bowl to be eaten at two sittings, although when I am hungry it’s all gone in one.

The menu features other items that I try from time to time.  At one time I was hooked on their sandwiches, which are on their own homemade breads (focaccia or whole-wheat), particularly the avocado sandwich, which make a nice change of pace if you’ve had a salad every day for weeks.  And they also have a grain bowl that I have never explored for dietary reasons –starch—and not because I am not enticed.   I figure “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, but yes, one of these days I will have to try those other menu options.

The other thing I get from time to time is juice.  These are an amazing tonic if you feel a cold coming on or are recovering from a late night. Forgive me if this sounds like the ravings of a co-dependent but U.H. are in a sense enabling my worst behaviours, allowing me to get away with ridiculous late nights at the theatre: because they can make me feel so amazing the next day.  Fatigue and sore-eyes should slow one down, but don’t hit so hard when there’s a kind of out-patient hospital right in my neighbourhood, serving you herbal medicines to keep you going when you should have stayed in bed.    And they have fair-trade coffee that’s necessary when one surrenders to temptations  (aka cupcakes or various other delights) right under your nose.

Yes I eat meat.  It needs to be said that while nutritional concerns led me to U.H. it’s a matter of taste & quality that keeps me there.  I am not creeped out by meat, indeed I am the other extreme.  I  found my way to U.H. only after visiting a notorious (former) Augusta neighbour since moved down to Queen St W, famous for their brilliance preparing different types of wild game.   But why do people seem to freak out over the consumption of wild game, while seeming to be inured to the ongoing atrocities in our food supply?  For example, read this (admittedly controversial) page from the Institute for Natural Healing with a headline proclaiming “Processed Meats Too Dangerous for Human Consumption”.  Nobody wants to think about what’s in a hot dog, or whether that burger might make you sick, so if you’re going to protest, please concentrate on the places that are making literally thousands of people sick.

At some point I’ll write about La Palette, a place I mentioned in passing as part of my Queen W experience seeing Figaro’s Wedding.  That’s more my evening guise.

Daytime? U.H.

Posted in Food, Health and Nutrition, Reviews | 1 Comment

Launching Three Davids

Posted on June 9, 2013 by barczablog

Tonight a happy crowd packed Hugh’s Room for the launch of The Three Davids, a CD featuring music by three guys named David: the Davids Frishberg / Shire and Warrack. Onstage we listened to instrumentalists Charlie Gray, Alex Dean, David Young, led by David Warrack, sometimes accompanying vocalist Stevie Vallance.

The variety over the course of our evening took us across a broad range of styles, most of which could loosely be called jazz. Sometimes we were hearing something progressive and daringly spontaneous, other times, the players fell into the background for Vallance’s vocal stylings. Sometimes the songs were clearly articulated musical comedy, with the barest accompaniment, other times the vocal line was just one among many adventurous instrumentals.

We learned that Stevie Vallance is an Emmy award winner, a woman whose voice showed remarkable versality, as agile as a gymnast. The constellation of stars onstage varied throughout, seemingly a little different for every song. At the beginning we heard a duet from Vallance and Young, at times she sang with Warrack. She’s a charming presence who seemed to be having fun the whole time, without any sign that she was ever taxed or tired.

Everyone had their moments to shine. Gray’s warm flugelhorn, Dean brilliant every time he cut loose in a solo on his saxophone, wonderfully soulful on the flute. I am completely in awe of David Young’s musicianship, the most remarkable ear to find pitches as he probes unerringly up high, whether bowing or plucking. Anchoring everything, David Warrack gave as much as needed, sometimes teasing us with a minimalist sketch of the chord structure, at other times bursting forth with passionate lyricism. The closing number was an unforgettable take on “Autumn Leaves”, beginning with something resembling a bluesy Bach Toccata on solo piano, seguing into a swaggering trio.

And I can’t say enough about Hugh’s Room as a venue for live music. They’re like an old-time nightclub as you’d see in the movies. We sat on a slightly higher level, looking down on the floor level surrounding the performers. Yet it’s wonderfully intimate. If I were a jazz musician (ha… as if) this is where I’d want to play. Dinner was awesome (I had a wonderfully original Caesar salad, while across the table I saw a superb carrot ginger soup, and that was just the first of 3 courses). We chose the prix fixe meal.  For $35 we were stuffed and buzzing over the quality of the food.

Hey Hugh’s Room, you had me at “David Warrack”…. I suppose it was an act of mercy to let the artists leave after the encores. We wanted to hear more, but we’d had a superb evening already. They held nothing back.

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Stephen Bell: Concert Sunday June 9th

Posted on June 8, 2013 by barczablog

“Press releases and announcements” are presented verbatim without comment.

Please join Canadian/ Estonian tenor Stephen Bell fellow Canadian/Estonian pianist Charles Kipper for an afternoon of Estonian and English artsong on Sunday June 9th at 3pm at Estonia House 958 Broadview Avenue. Program to include selections from recently released live recording Kojuigatsus “Longing for home”, as well as Finzi song cycle selections and other Estonian artsong titles, to be released on a different recording later this year. Tickets are 15$ at the door, and partial proceeds from the event will go towards the SOS Children’s Village in Keila Estonia.

For more information please visit www.stephenbell.ca

Posted in Press Releases and Announcements | Tagged | Leave a comment

Waiting for Mr Goodyear : Beethoven Guru

Posted on June 7, 2013 by barczablog

It’s June 7th 2013, a year after a very busy weekend.   Last year I somehow managed to fit a Saturday divided between Glass’s hours of Einstein on the Beach and the first part of Stewart Goodyear’s Beethoven Marathon, into a schedule including a fulltime job, evenings teaching and the Sunday church gig.  Yes Sunday would have been the logical time for Einstein but I had a family do + church, so there was no other way, but to sample the Marathon without staying for the whole thing.  Hindsight is 20-20, right? I wish i had taken time off.  But I learned from that frenetic week, even if in the process –Arghhhh—I  missed the sonatas I really would have liked to have heard.  Even so it was memorable beyond any recital I’ve ever seen, both as an original approach to programming and for the actual performance.

What was so original? You can read my comments from last year.  But we were watching Goodyear’s hands on a screen at the top of the stage, testimony to the fact that this was in some respects a happening as much as it was a recital.  And we watched Melati Suryodarmo moving to the music.  The Marathon was part of Luminato, which I think with hindsight was a mixed blessing.  Maybe the festival helped promote the event, but I don’t believe the event was given the reception it deserved, that Luminato got more out of this relationship than Goodyear (although he’s too much of a gentleman to say such a thing).  Even Einstein –something I loved, and which I’d awaited fervently for over a quarter of a century—pales beside it.

And now Goodyear’s doing it again in a few places in the USA.  It’s now called the “Sonatathon” rather than the Marathon.  I think the name is better, as I got overly caught up in the notion of endurance.  But as of June 2012 Goodyear had never done it before, so even he may have wondered.  Was it possible?

Over the course of the weeks leading up to the event, I did my own mini-preparation, unquestionably influenced by the film Julie & Julia (a film of two parallel tales, wherein a blogger replicates the glories of Julia Child’s French cuisine in her own kitchen): as I would sit and play several sonatas in a sitting, and yes, wrote a great deal about Beethoven and about Goodyear’s Marathon.  I couldn’t help noticing that this music doesn’t exhaust me but actually refreshed me, giving me a natural high.  This discovery has informed the last year of my life.  I sometimes sit and play for hours.  I played all of Tristan und Isolde one day this winter, astonished how good music can rejuvenate you.  And I’ve played acts of Parsifal several times, especially Act III.  But in fact I had lived through this kind of experience before, when rehearsing shows in which I was music director.   I recall in particular one production where we were under the gun, rehearsing morning noon and night seven days a week, and most of the cast would get the occasional day off, but I didn’t need it. Nope.  I was mortified when the show ended so abruptly.  Che faro senza all my friends in this show?  It feels surreal the way the music heals you, the way your mind clears and quiets, everything else receding before the music.   Maybe it’s not a drug; but it is unquestionably so good for you that you want it again and again.

Playing a show all alone simply doesn’t work the same way, sigh…

But of course –let me get back to Goodyear & Beethoven—he vaulted over the obstacles as if he had seven –league boots.  To misquote a slogan for an energy drink, Beethoven gives you wings.  Ha, when I saw how well he played, how effortless his playing was, I was more than astonished.  This man is the most impressive pianist I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of impressive pianists.  If I get a shot of endorphins playing Beethoven the way I play him –not perfect by any stretch of the imagination—what kind of dose would one get playing Beethoven with unerring precision?

I find my understanding of other composers keeps being impacted by what I heard in June 2012.  The Bruckner CD I reviewed yesterday has me thinking again of pace.  Goodyear plays some pieces faster than anyone, not because he’s showing off (although haha wow it’s impressive), but because he’s trying to show us how to play this music right.  I think his understanding of the Hammerklavier sonata is not just cogent, but inarguable when you listen to his performance.  Everyone else sounds laboured after Goodyear.  I found myself thinking the same thing listening to Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s Bruckner 6th, that the ponderous approach of Furtwangler or Solti, while conventional and within the usual boundaries of how one interprets Bruckner does the composer no favours.  He’s not Mahler. He’s not Wagner, yet playing him slowly, seeking depths makes him seem lugubrious, vacuous even.  It’s the same problem that I encountered after hearing Norrington’s recordings in the late 80s and early 90s.  I grew up listening to Klemperer’s Mendelssohn, Berlioz, Beethoven, Mahler: and now find it quaint and idiosyncratic. It’s a music of nostalgia for my youth, but not precisely what it used to be, when i understood these to be interpretations of depth.

Click for more information about the set

I’ve had the pleasure of reading Stewart Goodyear’s commentaries in the liner notes to his magnificent set of the 32 Beethoven Sonatas.   Let me say in passing, what a wonderful achievement, just to write these commentaries, the eye-witness account of a great player sharing his relationship with this wonderful music.  I experience something like the glamour of a brush with a movie-star, as though Goodyear is Roger Ebert or Hedda Hopper, getting up close & personal with these stars: but the glamorous stars are the sonatas themselves, that Goodyear knows with an intimacy to make one blush.

When you  read these notes one can’t help noticing that the man is not simply playing, but advocating.  He is inside Beethoven as if he were the composer’s lawyer.  No the composer is not being sued, nor is he in any danger of losing his immortality.  Yet the interpretations from Goodyear make a different case for Beethoven, re-frame him and the entire century’s music by implication.  The implicit connection between bel canto and Wagner –just to offer one vector we could follow, a connection that the composer speaks of, even as interpreters flounder in any attempt to make the connection—is much more readily available when one plays Wagner or Beethoven with some sense of Rossini in mind, a composer who is like the link between the two.  I laugh as I picture how some people I know –pompous people who snort and make loud noises as a kind of non-verbal preamble to dismissive remarks, as though they were Zeus about to hurl a thunderbolt… except instead they’re just noisy i guess—would reject this.

I cling to the memory of Richard Bradshaw, a very under-rated musician whose Debussy & Wagner were among my most cherished memories at the COC.  At one of the Opera Exchange discussions, I recall Bradshaw saying that the trouble with the way many people conduct is that the players with their various solos, playing leit-motivs all seem to want their 15 minutes of fame.   It was such a charming and under-stated way of pointing to the way the music seems to be heavily laden with meaning, with motifs, with climaxes, that can also be achieved at a faster tempo, if not for the ham-actors of the orchestra, hogging the spotlight.   I am not about to offer scholarly backing for these assertions.  It’s late and I want to finish what I am saying about Goodyear, which means my parenthetical digression about tempi & Bradshaw needs to be concluded.  Just as this paragraph is interminable, seeking your attention, so too with those parenthetical passages in Wagner, done at slower tempi with rubati.

Goodyear is clean and forthright with Beethoven, in the same way.

I’ve been reading new comments from Goodyear via Facebook –and am honoured by his friendship –that are the natural outpouring of someone re-visiting last year’s epic journey, bemused afresh.  This time he knows he can do it and understands how the music revives him.  I regret that I can’t be there, but that won’t stop me from thinking about Beethoven again.  I’ll play some sonatas –as I did last year—for that endorphin rush, and also in search of some of Goodyear’s effects (I wish I could play as fast…!).

Goodyear is exploring consciousness & beauty, but instead of climbing mountains, he flies on the wings of 32 piano sonatas.  Enlightened by music,  he is The Beethoven Guru.

Posted in Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays | Leave a comment

Bruckner 6 Nézet-Séguin, Orchestre Métropolitain

Posted on June 7, 2013 by barczablog

I’ve been listening to Bruckner’s 6th Symphony, a recent ATMA Classique release by the Orchestre Métropolitain conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Not so long ago YN-M was a youngster seeking to make a name for himself, a relative unknown.  And Now?

Well of course he’s still young,  But the very sophisticated crowd at Parterre.com selected YN-S their Maestro of the Year.

Today’s post on Norman Lebrecht’s blog gives a good indication of how far he’s come, conducting three far-flung orchestras, namely Rotterdam Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra in addition to his Orchestre Métropolitain in Montréal.

What’s surely not lost on the management at these orchestras is that as their conductor’s star rises, so goes the orchestra.  At one time the orchestra of note in this country was L’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, known for a series of wonderful recordings with their then music-director Charles Dutoit. They weren’t important because they were Canadian, they were simply important, period.  I can’t help wondering whether someone behind the scenes –if not YN-S himself—is aware of the competition.

Click image for more information

That’s the context in which I’ve been listening to their Bruckner 6.  This is not a work designed to exploit the conductor’s fame; quite the contrary.  It’s nerdy programming that makes the case for the conductor as a hard-nose interpreter, an obscure work you never hear in the concert hall.  It’s somewhat thankless, considering how difficult it is to pull off.  Who picks this kind of rep unless they have something to say?  It’s not a choice that’s likely to leap off the shelves, because Bruckner simply doesn’t have that kind of fan-base (although maybe YN-S does…?).  First and foremost, it’s another wonderful showcase for OM, as are the other Bruckner symphonies they’ve undertaken previously.  But it’s probably a better move than recording yet another version of a well-known piece by one of the romantic composers.  I admire the choice.

But admirable as i see the choice, I may be the wrong person to review this.  I believe it was CS Lewis who once said that you should only let those who love & understand such genres as mystery novels or science fiction to review such works.  He had a point.  I recall the dreadful review in a Toronto newspaper, bored with Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner mostly because he had no sympathy for dystopian sci-fi.

You see, I don’t really like Bruckner.  I’ve tried to like him, have listened to most of his symphonies (portions of all of them), and have left him on a kind of back burner, waiting for the magic to come, and it’s been a long time coming.  Eventually, so my thinking goes, I will find my way inside the music, but in the meantime I have been very busy with other composers.

So maybe you shouldn’t take seriously my review of this recording of the Bruckner 6.  Every other version I’ve heard seems to plod as though it were a Clydesdale trying to canter. Bruckner has a kind of earnest innocence, like a Billy Graham crusade in a massive stadium with a bad sound system. It’s very hard to make this piece cohere into something that doesn’t seem overblown.  Like good rock-n-roll, the simplicity requires a kind of conviction and purity to bring it to life, and it also needs phenomenal energy.  YN-S does something rather bold to my ear, as the music really moves.  Its supple muscularity is almost unrecognizable as Bruckner, and makes the composer sound like a young man for a change, charged with an energy that’s almost sexual.

The first movement is phenomenally clean, playing that makes this recording a good candidate to be one you’d take into a stereo shop when you want to audition a good sound system. There are lovely little instrumental solos of plaintive beauty, followed by explosive tuttis with astonishing precision.  This movement has another function –as well as the closing movemenet—on days when the temperature soars, as a virtual air-conditioner.  How?  In several places I experienced profound shivers of excitement.

And while we’re talking about the last movement, i noticed something I didn’t notice before, that sounds like a send-up of the “liebestod”, a kind of pyramid built from Wagner’s melody. Because it’s Bruckner i have to take this seriously, in a composer who wouldn’t quote his hero idly nor accidentally.  I am still trying to decode it, but in the meantime, the final minute is a tremendous affirmation.  Of what i have no idea, but i’ll take it, mysterious as it is.

The movements in between are fabulous.  The second movement is my favourite, a wonderfully intense composition that works no matter who conducts.  Whether it unfolds slowly or more quickly, Bruckner takes us deep into the heart of the matter.  Again YN-S has things moving at a good pace, and employs a subtly understated beginning.  Movement three is a charming scherzo, going yet again from mysterious opening to broad eruptions from brass choirs blasting through the clouds like shafts of sunlight seen painted onto antique stained glass.

It’s not just YN-S though. The orchestra plays with wonderful clarity and precision.  I don’t want to be cynical, but if there is an actual strategic purpose to these Bruckner recordings–objectives such as demonstrating the orchestra’s chops, showing us that YN-S has come of age and that we can expect great things in future– then that purpose is being fulfilled. I spoke of rock music earlier, in thinking of honest simplicity, vividness that’s sharply painted.  Bruckner is a composer who to me always seemed to take his time, not so much saying big words, as small words in a big voice spoken slowly, whose rhetoric is glacial compared to the quicksilver of Mahler in works of equivalent scale.  But maybe I have to revise some of my thinking as that’s not how he comes across in this portrayal.  Instead he’s more of a populist politician or a country preacher, a cagey fighter quiet as rope-a-dope, suddenly erupting in powerful punches to your solar plexus.  This is powerful testimony, as direct as a photograph of a mountain range or a sunset.  And when OM paint Bruckner, it’s a flattering portrait indeed.

And need i add, this is a Bruckner cycle that i must explore further.  Previously YN-S and the OM recorded Bruckner Symphonies 4, 7, 8 and 9.  I am glad that I’m being encouraged to hear Bruckner in a new way.  I don’t think I will underestimate him again.

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

Pendulum

Posted on June 6, 2013 by barczablog

Styles change so regularly it’s as though there were a regular pattern being enacted.  It’s been said that shifts in fashion, artistic movements are as regular as tides, possibly even like the swing of a pendulum.  If it’s human nature to observe these tidal behavioural shifts why shouldn’t political movements be subject to similar patterns as well?  I’m not saying that politics is a matter of taste, so much as that we’re talking about human nature, as manifested in several realms.  There are some people who are wedded to a position, left or right; the remainder change allegiance from time to time, depending on circumstances, or maybe upon the way their position is being portrayed, represented, marketed if you will.

The last quarter of the 20th Century seemed like a revolution.  Disco surged, heavy metal pounded, and the fashion industry grew.  But the revolution I’m thinking of isn’t a metaphor.  Ronald Reagan & Maggie Thatcher made it safe to be a blatant capitalist again.  You have to be old enough to remember the world of the 1960s and 70s to recognize the profound changes that followed.  I was going to say “understand”: but that’s the wrong word.  I am not sure anyone understands what really happened, although each side has their version.  Wherever you want to draw the line, however you might want to ascribe blame or responsibility, there are a few things upon which everyone agrees.  In the aftermath of the Great Depression, financiers acquired some humility, after the heady days of the 20s, when everyone wanted to be rich.  Oh I’m not saying that suddenly people didn’t want money after that, but wealth was in some respects tainted.  Was it a question of values (that is, what people understood as right and wrong) or a matter of aesthetics (that people were watching Henry Fonda in Grapes of Wrath let alone the idealistic films of Frank Capra)? I don’t think we can easily separate one from the other.

In the 60s and 70s there was an actual middle class, comprised of people working at jobs throughout North America.  Individuals at every level of society felt entitled to certain privileges, such as schooling, jobs, homes; and by and large people could find their way to their dream if they worked hard.  The underlying assumptions –that determine both our sense of right and wrong, but also identify the heroes and villains in our films & plays—have seemed to be changing several times since then.  The years with the Bush Presidencies seemed to be times when happiness was possible for the wealthy, but slipping away for the dwindling middle class.

Currently? For the first time in a long time, wealth is again problematic, as it was in the Great Depression.

Ralph Nader has been here the whole time –since the beginning of this cycle—and is using language that I haven’t seen before.  The gloves are off, when for example, Nader speaks of fascism. 

Or Bill Maher speaks of class war.

The Munk debates being broadcast on CBC tonight bear the provocative title “Taxing the Rich” (tune in HERE)

Just for the sake of argument, what is the argument for not taxing the rich? I’ve heard the argument that they will simply leave.  Is that so bad?  I pay taxes.  If anyone wants to live here it’s a privilege for which they should have to pay, especially if they’re doing well.

You know that saying “give it to a busy person”?  Or to put it in a slightly different way, imagine you’re holding in your hands a job that needs doing, looking at a pair of workers in front of you.

  • One has his/her feet up, while s/he’s on the phone
  • The other has a pile of work, and is busting his/her butt.

Who do you give it to if you want it done?  It’s counter-intuitive, but the one with his/her feet up will not get it done as fast as the one who is busy.

Suppose we then extend this to think of wealth & wealth creation.  Some people –the Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerbergs of this world—are good at making wealth.  If we follow that busy –lazy person analogy, let’s ask:

  • Do I reduce the taxes on that creative engine of the economy
    or
  • Do I increase the taxes on that creative engine of the economy

If they really are such brilliant creators of innovation, engines of wealth, the tax load means nothing.  They will work hard anyway.  Tax them. Their brilliance will not be stopped.

Now of course if we overdo it, maybe they’ll leave.  So perhaps there’s a limit.

But we should never forget Bill Maher’s pinăta.

Posted in Personal ruminations & essays, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Figaro’s Honeymoon

Posted on June 3, 2013 by barczablog

It’s summertime, a season when young men’s minds turn to mush, in the presence of humidity and hotness of various kinds.  Of course men have no monopoly on this, but I was just mis-quoting Tennyson.  I’m thinking of this as the opera season winds down, as even the most hard-working begin to dream of vacations, even if they’ll never get away for long.

Tonight I gave Against the Grain Theatre’s adaptation Figaro’s Wedding another look/listen on their closing night.

I’m inclined to think about it in romantic terms.

Shortly before we got to the theatre, we stopped at “La Palette”, a French Restaurant I know from its previous incarnation in Kensington Market.  It seemed entirely apt that we did something totally unorthodox, a push me pull you meal, where she ate soup and I had dessert/coffee, and they welcomed us without batting an eye.  “La Palette” had some notoriety briefly when protesters descended upon them for serving horse-meat, a response that reminds me of the conservative critics we sometimes see singling out certain aspects in productions, without applying their rigorous standards with any uniformity.

Am I over-reaching in seeing a resemblance between gentrified neighbourhoods and operatic texts?  I remember AtG’s Boheme at the Tranzac, everyone involved deporting themselves in a suitably bohemian manner.  Just as “La Palette” has migrated to a nicer neighbourhood, so too with AtG.  Figaro is not just a tale of starving young lovers but a story of the search for happily ever after, the same story we’re all living.  Mr & Mrs Figaro may not be wealthy –and struggle to get their wedding paid for—but they’re at least conversant with the language of material comfort, and are on the lowest rungs of the ladder of wealth & prosperity, looking to climb.

In the theatre we wondered if there was something romantic in the air.  The audience was more than friendly.  Couples seemed very much at ease, holding hands, and making public displays of affection. It was kind of cute, actually.

A few days ago I had a chat with a former teacher of mine, namely Professor Caryl Clark at U of Toronto.  In observing something about a recent history book that seems to stick to the most old-fashioned approach to musicology –locating opera in the text rather than the stagings & interpretations—she said she was disappointed.  I mentioned that I’d heard York University’s Theater department was getting a new name that paralleled a change at U of Toronto.  York’s new department is the Graduate Program in Theatre and Performance Studies, while the U of T has the Centre for Drama, Theatre & Performance Studies.  In both cases, in other words, they’re recognizing the importance, if not the centrality of performance rather than just the book. That’s exciting and relatively new.

Michael & Linda Hutcheon

When I mentioned AtG’s Figaro, inevitably Linda Hutcheon came up. Caryl said “Linda’s ahead of us all”, because of course Linda had looked strangely at me when I’d raised the question of fidelity in a paper I did a good decade ago.

She was right of course.  I see now how irrelevant the book can be.  While we’re at it, why not get mad at Shakespeare for not being faithful to the Flaminio Scala scenario from which he took the story for Romeo and Juliet.  Of course nobody cares about what Shakespeare altered (confusing him with the originator of the stories he sets in his plays), just as nobody gets too steamed at Wagner for altering the myths he references, all the while telling his own stories.  Why then should it matter whether the originals from Mozart & Da Ponte get changed or not, in the version seen and heard on Toronto stages in 2013?

Nor do I care whether the menu at La Palette is the same as what they had when they were in Kensington.  When my friend renews his wedding vows on his silver anniversary, I don’t care whether the vows are the same ones as what he said 25 years before, so long as they’re meaningful to the happy couple.

That being said, it’s also worth noting, that Figaro’s Wedding is a fun night at the theatre, a feel-good night out.  It’s no coincidence that so many couples seemed to be beaming, in a touch-feely mood.  The energy resembles a date-movie, without the popcorn.

And so, as summer gradually discombobulates us, sending us out to pools or patios, I will also blog less in the coming weeks.

But I’ll be back eventually.

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

10 Questions for David Warrack

Posted on May 31, 2013 by barczablog

The most impressive display of sight-reading i ever saw? when David Warrack sat down with my piano vocal score of Candide and played the overture, up to speed, more or less perfectly.

Wow.

David first performed on radio when he was five, and it’s been pretty much non-stop since then.   David has a varied career as a Composer, Conductor, Pianist, Vocalist, Lyricist, Librettist, Arranger, Orchestrator, Music Director, Director, Satirist, Comedian, Actor, Poet, Producer, Impresario, Bon Vivant, and Hockey Coach – he has truly done it all! And judging by his project board, “he’s only just begun”.

As a writer he has had fifty-two shows produced professionally and he has been Musical Director for over two hundred productions across North America, including Shenandoah starring John Cullum on Broadway.

He won a Dora Mavor Moore Award in Toronto for his production of Toronto, Toronto, and for outstanding Music Direction on the production of Closer Than Ever.

David is also the music director/conductor for the Canada Pops Orchestra.

Any given week there’s always something new and exciting.   This week,  it’s a CD release.  On the occasion of next week’s launch of the CD at Hugh’s Room, I ask David ten questions: five about him, and five more about the CD The Three Davids.

David Warrack

1) Are you more like your father or your mother?

Interesting – I’ve never thought about this previously. I suspect it’s a two-stage answer. When I was younger, I would have answered (easily) my Mother. Much as I loved my Father, all the things that he did with such ease seemed totally beyond me. His business was Warrack Electric, so obviously he was an Electrician, but beyond that, he was a carpenter, a plumber, a painter, an auto mechanic, a builder, a businessman, and nothing seemed beyond him. My Mother was the one pushing for the piano and voice lessons (and, oh poor misguided her) the dance lessons! So we had an obvious point of reference. Dad would want to know how I was doing financially. Mom would want to know about the artistic “stuff” and personal aspects. But hey, it was a great balance. But she died at 62 and over the last 30 years of my Father’s life, I came to understand him much better and realize that much of my philosophy towards life came directly from this amazing guy. By the time he died, at 98, in 2010, I was determined to never stop trying to be as good a person as him.

2) What is the best thing or worst thing about being a jazz pianist?

I don’t think of myself as a jazz pianist. I think of myself as a pianist who is fortunate enough to work in every imaginable style. This past week alone, I had a Musical Theatre performance with Michael Burgess, a jazz performance with Jackie Richardson, a performance of the classics with Pat Rose, and an evening singing my comedy songs for a group of people so easily impressed that they found them funny. I enjoyed every experience equally. I do suppose the difference when one is playing jazz is the total freedom. Michael expects and deserves to expect a certain consistency in his accompaniment. Jackie loves the freedom within the context of the form, and that is what jazz allows. I bow my head in awe to the great jazz instrumentalists, and just consider myself fortunate that I get to work in this arena on an ongoing basis, since at the end of the day, it’s so damn much fun!! I guess the worst thing is that, because of the freedom inherent in the style, you are always questioning what you just did, what you are currently doing, and what you are about to do, and wondering what you can do to make it better.

3) Who do you like to listen to or watch?

David Warrack and Jeff Hyslop

Wow. Who do I like to listen or watch? My tastes are so eclectic, that it is a very difficult question to answer. First and foremost, I love to watch people doing things I could never hope to do. Dancers. OMG. To have that control of your body. What a marvel. I saw the movie of Billy Elliot with my dear friend Jeff Hyslop. It’s like he was living his life through the film. Dancers are an awesome breed – so disciplined, so supportive of each other, so dedicated, so smart, and so deliciously transparent. It’s all there in the dance. One of my favourite songs I’ve ever written is “I Just Dance”, and, of course, I don’t. But I can only imagine what it must be like.

I love to listen to Tschaikovsky to try to learn how he can make the orchestra sound so magnificent. I love to listen to Bernstein, in awe of his equal mastery of melody, rhythm, chord structure, and instrumentation. I listen to Sondheim to learn how one must never take the easy path, to Mozart to wonder why I even bother to compose, to Bach to wonder what he would do if he were alive today, to Welsh Choirs to find the essence of a choir, to Pavarotti (still), to the two brilliant ends of the jazz spectrum (Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson) cuz of who there are and cuz 2 of my dear friends played with them (not to mention Oscar’s predecessor Art Tatum!), to Ute Lemper, to my pal (lucky me) Ben Heppner, to Weill, to Porter, to G&S, to Led Zeppelin, to Maureen Forrester (did we really work together all those years?), to INTO THE WOODS, to SWEENEY TODD, to anything of Verdi’s, to Copland, to Ella. And that list is only talking about Friday nights! I don’t even know where to draw the line.

I’m a huge sports fan (my younger son and I had season’s tix to the Raptors this past season). Live and die with the Leafs, the Jays, and the Argos. One of the few on the planet who still loves Tiger. Tennis blows me away, as does figure skating. Try to see everything new in town, in New York, in Stratford or Shaw that we can.

4) What ability or skill do you wish you had, that you don’t have?

I wish I could dance, not like the ballet or jazz or theatre geniuses, but my parents were magic on the dance floor. Not me! And I wish I knew how to make the world better.

5) When you’re just relaxing and not working what is your favourite thing to do?

I love to read, although I don’t get enough opportunity. On planes, I prefer best-sellers just cuz, but at home, I love history, biographies, autobiographies (!), and political treatises. Dinner with family or friends is high on the list. Enjoy golf, but I’m an awful player – don’t get out enough (or at least, that’s my excuse). We’re big fans of BLUE BLOODS cuz Len [Cariou] is on the show, but also because it’s well written and well acted. Not much else on tv.

~~~~~~~

Five more about The Three Davids,to be launched next week at Hugh’s Room

1) Talk about the challenges you face in reconciling so many different creative personas (a classical musician, a conductor, a jazz pianist, composer & writer of music theatre).

David Warrack and contralto Maureen Forrester

I have the joy and honour of working with the best of the best on an ongoing basis. I have different roles in different situations, and I honestly don’t think I have a favourite. What I love is the variety. I am certainly at home at the piano, performing or accompanying (two quite separate skills), but I also love being on the podium, as I know I can make it a good experience for the musicians and for the audience. I don’t really care whether it’s a classical concert or a Pops concert, it’s simply a marvelous place to be. I can remember one night with Maureen in a major U.S. concert where I was holding the orchestra, and turned to her to watch for when we should come in. I remember (Rubenstein called them “moments of eternity” where you not only remember what happened, but you remember precisely how you felt at that moment) thinking to myself, OMG – there’s M/F and here’s this awesome collection of musicians and here’s this sold-out concert hall, and I am on the stick. Wow-double-wow-double-wow! The consistent aspect for me is that if I am performing in a tiny space or a 3000 seat venue, I simply love the fact that I am allowed to be the one on that stage at that moment, and can think of nowhere else I would rather be.

There is a fact of life that certain musicians or singers have a prejudice for one particular style and assume since you bounce back and forth between disciplines you are not truly an artist but a jack-of-all-trades who really is not committed to any particular specific style or place. Guilty as charged. Because I am committed to them all. Whether I’m on the organ at church, the piano in a studio, conducting a choir or orchestra, writing a song or a script, doing an orchestration, or leading a singalong (!), I am in my element. I am not a legendary figure or a ground-breaking genius or a virtuosic master, but I am a consummate professional, and I’m good at what I do. I’m offered more work than I can handle, and when I accept a job, I defy anyone to say they don’t get the best of me, since I honestly don’t know how else to approach it. The song I wrote to tell my life story in 3 minutes concentrates on the fact that when I go back home to Calgary, they don’t much care what I do “out there”. They want me to pick up the guitar and sing country songs. And I do. And I love it. If I were to have to give up the writing, the arranging, the conducting, the piano, I would miss every single one, because they all contribute to what I would deem is my mission – to offer as much joy and passion and fulfillment through my music as I can to as many people as I can possibly reach. And I can’t imagine ever feeling any less committed to it than I do today. I just hope I’m allowed to continue what I do for a very long time.

Working on THE THREE DAVIDS project is an excellent example of what I experience. Stevie Vallance, who I knew from way back at the Charlottetown Festival, brought the idea to me of doing a show on the music of Frishberg, Shire and myself. I’m a huge fan of both of the other composers. And one of my Dora awards was for Music Directing Shire’s CLOSER THAN EVER, which is when I first met him. I jumped at the opportunity. We went over oodles of material, connecting up with Frishberg and Shire (both legends) for input. The idea was a jazz cabaret. But where to perform it. We did an evening up north, but still couldn’t find a locale that was right. We finally decided the best thing to do was record a few songs from the show and use that as a selling tool. We brought in Dave Young (!) on bass and connected up with Charlie Gray to do it at his studio. Recorded the first few songs fairly quickly, but Stevie had to head back to L.A. Charlie added himself playing trumpet on a couple of tunes, but that was as far as we got initially, and we all got busy doing other things. Nevertheless, we would pull the demo CD out every now and then and promise each other we had to finish it off. When the opportunity finally presented itself, with Stevie coming to town, we finished off what we had started. Charlie weighed in on a couple more tunes and we brought Perry White in to play on a couple of others. These are all magical people, which therefore didn’t surprise me when we got a magical result. We figured the CD was the best road to finally getting a production up onstage. We are releasing the CD here and then in New York in the fall, where we hope to do an expanded version of “the show”. Whatever happens, we are thrilled with what we have at hand.

Michael Burgess and Rebecca Caine

Of course, we are all working on various other projects simultaneously – I had two converging writing deadlines the week before last: Eva (a musical I have just finished on Eva Tanguay, the huge Vaudeville star, for producer John McKellar with Jim Warren directing and starring Nora McLellan) and A Snow White Christmas (which is written with the brilliant Norm Foster and opens at Theatre Orangeville in November). I was behind because I had just come off a 19-concert tour with Rebecca Caine and Michael Burgess across Canada (doesn’t get any better than that). And this summer I’m writing an Oratorio Abram which has its first presentation in Toronto in September. And on and on and on. It is all so incredibly exciting that I have to pinch myself and make sure it isn’t all a dream. As Gershwin said (did I mention him in who I like to listen to?), “Who could ask for anything more?”.

2) What do you love about this kind of music?

I would describe our recording as a jazz “take” on a selection of music which is not necessarily considered jazz. Frishberg has always been immersed in the Jazz world, but Shire and myself are undoubtedly more recognized for our theatrical writing, and one does not always speak of the two in the same breath. However, we have found that by choosing the right material from each composer, there is a definite sense that all these songs do indeed belong together, and make sense as an evening’s entertainment. Of course Frishberg and I normally write our own lyrics, while Shire generally has collaborated with the superb Richard Maltby Jr. We even considered calling the show THE THREE DAVIDS AND A DICK, but it was not a big vote-getter! Frishberg did collaborate on a couple of the tunes we chose (with legends) and we have even included a song that Frishberg and Shire wrote together! I’d refer to it as “soft jazz”. Definitely not cutting edge, but solid, mainstream, and entertaining. I’m delighted with the result, and look forward to this being the first step of getting the stage show on its feet.

3) Do you have a favourite song or composition on the CD? 

Favourite song? Tough one. We had a heck of a time reducing the total number of tunes down to a baker’s dozen. I did love the opportunity of doing Maltby and Shire’s AUTUMN as a piano solo. I don’t know if it’s jazz, but I sure had fun doing it, and got a lovely tip of the cap from Mr. Shire. All the takes make me smile, but one that stands out is our opening cut, “Back On Base”, from CLOSER THAN EVER. We started into it and I stopped, suggesting Dave (Young) and Stevie should do it without me on piano, just the two of them. It’s a tough number. They did an astounding job in one take. I love what Charlie (Mr. Taste) brought to bear on the songs he played for. “Another Night In Another Room” was written for Maureen [Forrester], and has been recorded by a number of people. But what Stevie does with it takes it to another level, and Charlie’s overlay is a study in “less is more”. Magic. And Charlie suggested Perry, and I can’t imagine the CD now without his contribution. What a master! By the way, at the launch, we will play the 13 tunes from the CD, as well as 7 others that were under consideration, and will certainly be seriously considered for the stage show if and when that develops.

4) How do you relate to this kind of music as a modern musician?

I am most comfortable in a theatre or a concert hall. I’ve never really been as much a part of the “club scene” or the “jazz world”. But when an Alex Dean (we have him in place of Perry at the release as Mr. White was otherwise engaged), a Charlie Gray, a Dave Young, a Russ Little, or a Bruce Harvey do what they do, there’s no place else I would rather be. The creativity, the atmosphere, the musicianship, the sharing, the giving, the excitement, the magical moments are astounding. Joe Sealy was performing recently and got so far into one number, I didn’t think it would end, and very much hoped it never would. I spoke to him afterwards and said, “You’ve always been special, but that was transcendent.” Those are the moments we live for. The jazz scene is not as strong as it used to be anywhere, and that is a terrible shame. However, things evolve. The new Jazz Bistro is a wonderful addition. But as long as any of us have the chance in a huge or a tiny venue (or anything in between) to “do what we do”, we’ll be there, and audience members will always find that particular world to be an ever-evolving magical place to be.

5) Is there an influence or a colleague that you especially admire?

I love and admire so very many people in this city, in this country and beyond that I have had the opportunity to work with (or not!) over the years. It’s even more difficult to single people out than choosing what I listen to, as the list is virtually endless. I have had a few awesome mentors who helped me get where I am, and I mentor young people at any opportunity as a way of thanking those who were there for me. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my wife Lona (pianist/conductor) and my dear friend Bill Bridges (guitar). They are heroes.

This is an answer to the 11th question., even though it wasn’t asked! Why am I so happy?

Because my childhood was bathed in sunlight, because my brother is a gem, because my wife takes my breath away, because I have three children beyond description and two them (plus their incredible partners) are about to turn us into grandparents, because my friends are such a blessing, because I continue to work in an industry that has been so good to me, because I have my health, and all my dreams came true, even a few I forgot to think of ahead of time!

~~~~~~~

The Three Davids release is celebrated in Hugh’s Room June 8th, featuring compositions by

  • David Frishberg
  • David Shire
    and
  • David Warrack

And with lyrics and further music contributions by

  • Johnny Hodges
  • Jerry Mulligan
  • Jack Sims
    and
  • Richard Maltby Jr.

L.A. based vocalist Stevie Vallance will be joined onstage June 8 by David Warrack  on piano, David Young on bass,  Charlie Gray, trumpet/flugelhorn and Alex Dean, sax/flute.

Hugh’s Room guests will be able to purchase the CD for a reduced price of $15.

If your name is David?  You pay no cover charge for entrance to Hugh’s Room, at 2261 Dundas Street West for the release of The Three Davids. For everyone else, it’s $25 at the door, $20 for advance purchase at (416) 531-6604 or www.hughsroom.com. Dinner served from 6 p.m. Music begins at 8 pm.

Posted in Interviews | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

The Three Davids CD release: Hugh’s Room June 8th

Posted on May 30, 2013 by barczablog

“Press releases and announcements” are presented verbatim without comment.

NEWS IN 3-D(If your Name is DAVID you get in for FREE)

An impressive array of top talent awaits jazz lovers when THE THREE DAVIDS c.d. is released in Hugh’s Room on June 8th . It features compositions by

David Frishberg
David  Shire  and
David Warrack

with lyrics and further music contributions by Johnny Hodges, Jerry Mulligan, Jack Sims and Richard Maltby Jr — songmakers whose names are revered by jazz lovers around the world. .L.A. based vocalist Stevie Vallance is an Emmy award winner whose name has an equally magical reverberance for a wide variety of accomplishments.

Stevie will be here onstage on June 8  along with accomplished musicians David Warrack (piano), David Young (bass). Charlie Gray (trumpet/flugelhorn) and Alex Dean (sax/flute).  On this night, Hugh’s Room guests will be able to purchase the CD for a reduced price of $15.

Icing on the cake for any one named David — no cover charge for entrance to Toronto’s Hugh’s Room, 2261 Dundas Street West for the June 8th  release of THE THREE DAVIDS. For everyone else, admittance is $25 at the door, $20 for advance purchase at (416) 531-6604 or www.hughsroom.com. Dinner served from 6 p.m. Music begins at 8 pm.

Posted in Press Releases and Announcements | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment