10 Questions for Franz-Josef Selig

Posted on February 9, 2013 by barczablog

German bass Franz-Josef Selig is making his Canadian Opera Company debut as King Marke in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Selig has performed at the world’s great opera houses including the Met, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, La Scala, Wiener Staatsoper, Staatsoper Hamburg, Opéra de la Bastille, Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris), Lyric Opera of Chicago, Théâtre de la Monnaie (Brussels), Deutsche Oper Berlin and Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich).

Recent appearances include Fasolt in the Met’s new Ring Cycle; Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro (Salzburg Festival); Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Liceu Barcelona); and, Parsifal, Die Zauberflöte and Tristan and Isolde (Wiener Staatsoper). Other credits include Rocco in Fidelio and Die Zauberflöte (Munich), Die Zauberflöte (London) andCommendatore in Don Giovanni (Salzburg). Later this season Mr. Selig reprises his role in the Met’s Ring Cycle.

Franz-Josef Selig will continue in the role of King Marke in the COC Tristan und Isolde until February 23rd in a production that’s sold out except for standing room.  In addition, this Tuesday February 12th, Selig makes a special appearance at the Richard Bradshaw auditorium at a noon-hour recital of songs, singing songs by Franz Schubert & Richard Strauss.

I ask Selig ten questions: five about himself, and five about his portrayal of King Marke.

1) Which one of your parents do you most look like (what is your nationality / ethnic background)? 

Bass Franz-Josef Selig (Anne Hoffmann)

Bass Franz-Josef Selig (Anne Hoffmann)

I guess I’m a nice mixture of both of them. I’m German. I’m married and we have three children, two daughters (26 and 23) and a son (18).

2) What is the best thing or worst thing about being an opera singer? 

I’d like to describe the best thing with a short story from the end of our dress rehearsal here at the FSC. There were many young students in the audience and after Act 1 and 2 they were reacting immediately very excited. Then after 5 hours of heavy Wagner-opera with this incredible music of Isolde’s “Liebestod” at the end the audience was so touched that they had to be silent for a moment. Such breathtaking silence is for me one of the strongest experiences you can have.

The worst thing about being an opera singer is the sad fact to be most of your life on tour and far away from your family.

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

First I have to say that even though or maybe because I am a musician I do not listen to music all the time. I don’t have earphones on my head all time and most of the time in my house there is no radio etc. playing. I love the silence! When I listen to music I love, for example, recordings of Glenn Gould playing Bach, recordings of Bach Violin sonatas, Lieder-Repertoire sung for example by Fritz Wunderlich…. 95% I listen to classical music.

Tatort

On television I am a big fan of a German crime-series that is called “Tatort” and thanks internet video stream it’s possible to watch it from everywhere!

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

When I studied church music and worked as an organist I used to improvise a lot but I think it was more a brave and technical style. The gift of inspired improvisation would be one of my wishes if “Lady Luck” would cross my way one day!

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

Having time together with my family; playing organ; reading a book.

Five Questions about King Marke in Tristan und Isolde:

1) How does singing and acting the role of Marke challenge you?

I don’t know if this role really challenges me. Does an actor have to be challenged by a role?  I would say much more important for King Marke is how I can come closer to this King by getting older and bring in more life experience. That is for sure very important. As a young singer you can probably ‘sing it’ but the inner side of the character you will discover every time a bit more.

2) What do you love about King Marke: both the role Wagner created & in Sellars’ production of the opera?

Franz-Josef Selig with Ryan McKinny (Photo: Chris Hutcheson)

Franz-Josef Selig with Ryan McKinny (Photo: Chris Hutcheson)

King Marke, I think, is one of the most emotional characters that Wagner and probably any composer created. The way of telling his emotions and the injuries of his soul and heart directly to Tristan and the other people in the scene is unique. Filippo II in Verdi’s Don Carlo also has a very emotional aria but he is alone speaking to himself. That’s a big difference! Peter Sellars is very much interested in the inner life of the characters and their relationships. We had a very close understanding already in Paris 2005 working on the first run of this production. I know that some people have little problems with the fact that in this production Marke kisses Tristan. For me this is a moment of deepest friendship and love for Tristan to whom Marke says “I loved you so much that I never wanted to get married again”. That means to me Marke didn’t want to marry again so that Tristan can become King after Marke dies. I would appreciate when people can think about this without any “homophobic thoughts and fears”….

3) Do you have a favourite moment in Tristan und Isolde?

Hard to say… I really adore the Overture of Act 1 and 3 as well as all these moments when Wagner is able to create music from a full orchestra level sometimes down to one instrument playing in just a few seconds.  And then the end “ertrinken, versinken, unbewusst höchste Lust”…. Wow!!! Most of the time that doesn’t stop for hours in my head!

4) How do you relate to King Marke (the king who is betrayed in the medieval legend or as the figure in the Wagner music-drama) as a modern man?

How King Marke opens his fears and wounded heart to other people I think is showing a very modern man. If he were an old kind of hero he could have killed Tristan and Isolde at the end of act 1. But he is asking Tristan “why” instead of taking revenge!

5) Is there a teacher, singer, actor or an influence that you especially admire?

One of my first operas I ever saw was at the age of 24 (that’s true!!) “Tristan und Isolde” at the Bayreuth festival with Matti Salminen singing King Marke. A moment I will never forget.

Singers that I especially admire are Fritz Wunderlich and Cesare Siepi. Actors that I really like are for example Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Bruno Ganz…

~~~~~~

Tuesday Feb 12th Franz-Josef Selig makes a special appearance at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre in a program of Schubert & Strauss songs (accompanied by Rachel Andrist piano), between performances as King Marke in the COC production of Tristan und Isolde. 

Daveda Karanas as Brangäne, Melanie Diener as Isolde, Ben Heppner as Tristan and Franz-Josef Selig as King Marke in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Tristan und Isolde, 2013. director Peter Sellars, visual artist Bill Viola, (Photo: Michael Cooper)

Daveda Karanas as Brangäne, Melanie Diener as Isolde, Ben Heppner as Tristan and Franz-Josef Selig as King Marke in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Tristan und Isolde, 2013. director Peter Sellars, visual artist Bill Viola, (Photo: Michael Cooper)

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Ending on a High Note: Queen of Puddings

Posted on February 8, 2013 by barczablog

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

ENDING ON A HIGH NOTE

For Immediate Release – Toronto, February 8, 2013: After twenty years of developing and producing new Canadian chamber opera, Toronto’s Queen of Puddings Music Theatre will conclude operations this year on August 31, 2013.

Founders and co-artistic directors Dáirine Ní Mheadhra & John Hess explain: “With Queen of Puddings, we’ve achieved what we set out to do, which was to commission and produce original Canadian opera to a high artistic standard, and to develop an international profile for this work. In this current season the company is thriving, with the great success and critical acclaim for our production of Ana Sokolovic’s opera Svadba-Wedding, touring nationally and internationally, and coming up on April 30th the premiere of a new vocal chamber work at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre by composer Chris Paul Harman. The end of our season in August 2013 feels like a very natural artistic ebbing point, and thus feels like the right moment to close the company. We want to conclude in a year like this, which is full of artistic pleasure, highlights, and fulfilment of our goals, with continued financial stability due to a deficit-free track record.”

After August 31, Dáirine will remain active in the contemporary opera world, while John will continue to teach at Western University and perform recitals.

The Toronto based Queen of Puddings Music Theatre was founded in 1994 by Dáirine Ní Mheadhra & John Hess. Acclaimed as a leader in the creation of original Canadian chamber opera/music theatre, Queen of Puddings’ aesthetic is a physical, singing theatre where the performer is the central force and the instrumentalists are integrated into the dramatic action. In addition to the award-winning production of Svadba-Wedding (2011), notable production landmarks include the world premieres of Beatrice Chancy (1999, Rolfe/Clarke), the first opera about black slavery in Canada which launched the career of soprano Measha Brueggergosman; The Midnight Court (2005, Sokolovic/Bentley), the first Canadian opera (and the first Canadian company) invited to the Linbury Theatre at England’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Inês (2009, Rolfe/Bentley), a chamber opera inspired by Portuguese Fado; Love Songs (2009, Sokolovic), declared the best production at the Zagreb Biennale and subsequently presented at the prestigious Holland Festival; Beauty Dissolves in a Brief Hour (2010, Klanac/Rea/Shi), hailed as “an exquisite piece of music theatre”; and Beckett: Feck It! (2012, Hamilton), acclaimed as “an entirely engrossing evening of theatre and song”.

In 2012 Dáirine was awarded the Canada Council Molson Prize in the Arts in recognition of her lifetime achievements and ongoing contributions to the cultural and intellectual life of Canada.

“We are very deeply indebted to our dear friends and close colleagues, for their marvellous support, warmth, and collegiality during the life of our company”, add Ní Mheadhra and Hess.  “They have been integral to our work and we couldn’t have given the best of ourselves without their belief that we would do no less.”

 www.queenofpuddingsmusictheatre.com

Posted in Press Releases and Announcements | 2 Comments

Psychological portraits: Tito’s Rome

Posted on February 7, 2013 by barczablog

La Clemenza di Tito is not known the way the major operas of Mozart’s maturity are known and loved.  When I say Don Giovanni or Marriage of Figaro or Magic Flute there are tunes that instantly pop into my head by association, as there likely are for everyone else.

Increasingly I am having the same sort of response to Clemenza di Tito as well:

  • because I’m seeing another Toronto production, hot on the heels of a more conservative one by Opera Atelier,
  • because I am playing my recordings of the opera over and over
  • because I am thinking about what Mozart was doing in this opera (and sitting backstage at the show i am doing, thinking…).

While it’s true that he handed off some of the compositional duties on recitatives to someone else, that doesn’t mean the musical numbers he wrote aren’t good.  In fact they’re so spectacularly good that there’s a great deal to discover.  It’s a great joy, as if we suddenly found a new Beethoven symphony or a lost novel from Charles Dickens: because we are still figuring this opera out, as it gets produced more and more.  It’s not simply an opera seria, anymore than any of Mozart’s operas conform to generic expectations.  That Mozart’s ideas weren’t emulated later –one of our tests of musicological importance–doesn’t mean his composition isn’t spectacularly good.

I want to briefly address what Mozart appears to be doing psychologically in this opera, because when you look at it closely, it’s breath-taking.

I begin, though by going to our understanding of human nature, from simple observations about people that are true whether you’re living in the 18th century or the 21st.  Think about adjectives describing personality or behaviour.

Some people are understood to have integrity, consistency.  Those are metaphors really, when applied to the choices people make.  But they are also in a very literal sense true.  Consistency means a lack of inconsistency.  In a human soul that would imply something harmonious and ongoing.

The alternative to consistency? Inconsistency, capriciousness—where we think of sudden and unanticipated actions or impressions—or convolution, when we think of twists and turns in logic and behaviour.

And so we can identify what these look like if we were to draw pictures, the same way that we ‘d recognize what this might sound like in music.  Clarity of musical organization, balance of composition, suggest clarity and balance of mind as well.  Complexity, jaggedness, dissonance?  That would suggest the opposite.

And lo, Mozart wrote musical numbers in La Clemenza di Tito that exemplify such contrasts.  Some of his characters are so balanced and so harmonious in their behaviour that they seem not just sane, but genuinely good.  Annio and Servilia are paragons in this opera.  Each of them sings a brief aria giving advice that falls like healing balm upon the ear.  When they sing a duet together the result might be the prettiest duet ever written.   “Torna di Tito a lato”, sung by Annio, is a musical representation of what it demands, as the harmony calls the listener to literally turn, to return and come home; and that’s precisely what the tune does as well.  I listen to it over and over, never tiring. It’s healing, simple and uncomplicated.  Sigh who needs a shrink when you have friends to sing such gorgeous music? It’s breath-taking in the COC production sung by Wallis Giunta.

Vitellia? If we can put her music on the couch I think it’s fair to say that she is a mess.  She’s upset that she’s been rejected, and so when she’s singing with Sesto, her music is a colossal tease (because haha SHE is a colossal tease). Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, she makes you –and the conductor—wait for her.  At one point, hearing of Tito’s plan to marry her when she has just sent Sesto off to kill him(!) her indecisive agony (even the title sounds nuts! “Vengo … aspettate … Sesto!…”) manifests in tritones, the forbidden interval that hurts the ear, especially when sung repeatedly.   It’s so extreme that it sounds almost comical (and that’s how Opera Atelier played it).

And Sesto? Complex, toyed with by Vitellia, troubled, capable of noble emotions and ignoble passions.  “Parto, parto” is a complex aria of many passions.  He tells Vitellia he is leaving, watching for a reaction (and saying “guardami” loudly in the middle: “LOOK AT ME”) I think Mozart loved Sesto, and maybe that’s why the audience can’t resist this troubled man, usually sung by a woman in modern productions.

There is, of course, another reading one could supply that’s truer to the purposes Mozart was pursuing, namely moral instruction rather than psychology.  This doesn’t really contradict what I am saying, given that singers cannot portray abstractions, but emotions & situations.  It would mean, however, that Mozart wasn’t so much portraying Vitellia as “conflicted” so much as “evil”, which works well with that tri-tone.  But i find this sort of reading risks a two dimensional portrayal and is far less interesting than allowing her character to have depths and conflicts, to be herself a dissenter in the conversation (especially as we see in the last scene of Alden’s production where she faces Tito) rather than a wooden part of a mechanical allegory.  I think Mozart wanted to make this an opera of instruction in some of the same ways that we see in The Magic Flute (the other opera he wrote at the  end of his life).  At times characters begin singing homilies and lessons to the listener.

However you read it, I am hooked.  I can’t get enough of this opera and its complexities.

Isabel Leonard as Sesto in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of La clemenza di Tito, 2013, director Christopher Alden . Photo: Michael Cooper

Isabel Leonard as Sesto in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of La clemenza di Tito, 2013, director Christopher Alden . Photo: Michael Cooper

Posted in Essays, Opera, Politics, Psychology and perception | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Inclemenza

Posted on February 7, 2013 by barczablog

We’re expecting snow here in Toronto, but it’s already somewhat inclement, if we think chilly or unmerciful.

I am expanding on the experience of La Clemenza di Tito Sunday in Toronto.  I was enraptured, as were the audience: until the director & his design team appeared onstage.

Some of us bravo’d enthusiastically, yet the sound was as sour as raspberry noises.  I suspect it was one loud person, perhaps with their companion.  The rest of us redoubled our effort.  Either we easily drowned then out or they were making a hasty exit.

Tonight I am thinking of this in context with the show I am working on, the lovely students & staff at this university caring so much about every little detail.  Of course our production is faithful to the text so I believe we’re safe from the textual vigilantes out there.  Still, these students would probably be stunned at the idea of supposed defenders of art booing.

Dancers backstage, Ballets Russe, “Le Sacre du printemps” Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris, 1913 (click for more thoughts on Le Sacre)

In today’s discussion on the CUNY listserv  I looked back at two startling events in the history of audience protest.  One hundred years ago this year, Ballet Russe premiered Nijinsky’s ballet Le Sacre du Printemps, with a startlingly original score from Igor Stravinsky.  I reviewed a performance by Esprit Orchestra just a few days ago, so the historical significance of the performance is still on my mind.  In 1913 the audience went a little nuts, booing very early on, upset with the look & the sound of the performance.  Fifty years earlier – another great moment in audience stupidity—Richard Wagner crashed into the stubborn opposition of the Paris Jockey Club, who wanted ballet in the second act of their operas. Wagner had thought he’d made enough of a gesture in inserting a ballet into the first act of his opera.  Nope.

I believe some people believe that such events –and perhaps the booing in Toronto—are good for attendance.  There’s an old adage that says “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”.  Indeed, by writing this piece I am hoping to redeem the booing in publicity, possibly helping generate extra interest in the production.

What does it take to connect?  I notice in my church that when the children sing, everyone listens with a kind of reverent awe, and clap without judgment for the performance.  Similarly, when an old person steps forward we see something like that.  And the people who are neither very young or very old: can we not empathize with them too?

When I think of those boo-birds, I sense they have no idea that what they’re doing is a kind of heckling, that ridicules and disrupts the enjoyment of those who liked that production.  I have talked to some who boo, and they seem very civil, thinking of booing as part of the broad spectrum of audience response that includes wild applause.  In other words I suppose I can also cut them some slack, allowing for a dissenting view at the end of the show, however much I may disagree.

No matter where you go in the world some productions work, some don’t.  Opera is exciting in many of the same ways as food or sex: where good intentions and ambitions can’t always overcome weaknesses, accidents or indifference.  Steak is safe, good cuisine is riskier, surely. Here’s a paraphrase of Robertson Davies’ idea that i think i’ve cited before, namely, that

“Nine times out of ten that I go to the theatre, the experience is unpleasant; but the pleasures of that tenth time fully justify those nine other visits.”

This applies as fully to composition as it does to direction, but it applies to invention, discovery, anything risky.  Research and development entails failures, wastes of money & effort.  Not everyone could be Christopher Columbus, Bill Gates or Richard Wagner.  Some people fail.  Directors and composers may set out in search of something, but that doesn’t mean they can make it there.  A person begins such an enterprise in a spirit of hope and excitement, not one of exploitation or cheating.  It’s a sacred process. Now of course if you sit back with a sense of entitlement, insensitive to the risks these people are taking, merely demanding brilliance every time out, then of course you won’t appreciate the moderate success in some productions.  Indeed failure can be heart-breaking, and often still deserving of great respect.  I was very sad watching and hearing Deborah Voigt’s Cassandre, particularly in view of how she used to sound in this role (the Dutoit CD for instance). But she’s earned the right to get out there and sing her best, even if it’s not as opulent as it used to be, perhaps worn by the Brunnhildes; there is still much to be celebrated in her work.  Do i boo an athlete whose batting average has fallen, or a tennis player who isn’t as quick afoot as they once were? They’re still doing their best.  I understand we may want to treat them as commodities given that we buy and sell their CDs and DVDs.  Even so i believe we should honour them, rather than throwing them on the scrap heap of history.  It may require a huge act of imagination (another suspension of disbelief?) but i think we need to remember, need to presuppose that they are people not objects, that they are doing their best.  Nobody steps in front of an audience wanting boos.  They have no reason for shame, whereas the judgmental philistines?  hm…Ah now that’s another question.

“Deconstruction” gets a bad name in this.  I spoke at length about Christopher Alden‘s analytical approach to historical icons & the official story, probing beneath the surface of the perfect Tito we see in the opera’s text. Peter Sellars’ Tristan und Isolde, which we’re also seeing here in Toronto, is largely faithful to the work, even though some parts are distorted; and so in this reading all of the acts of violence become virtual (Melot barely touches Tristan: as if he were Melisande; Melot & Kurwenal die of invisible blows). Why no violence? i suppose one could quibble with it, but there is so much else in this story, so much brilliance, i am able to make it work.  Isn’t that the idea: to suspend your disbelief (as Dr Johnson described it)?

Hm, did Dr Johnson ever say anything about suspension of judgmental attitudes & prejudices? You may not be Robertson Davies, but aren’t we all going to the theatre for a good time?  If we can use our imagination to see the beautiful young woman or man (as the role specifies) rather than the aging singer, why not use that imaginative faculty (hopefully well-developed from frequent trips to the opera) to attempt to understand the relationship between the original text and the experimental reading…?  Clemens Risi, in his talk about Regietheater at the Opera Exchange Saturday in Toronto, spoke of the pleasure found in the tension between the original & the experiment, in the awareness of divergence. Sometimes experiments, like voices & banks, fail. Life is a risky proposition. It’s a very conservative idea to attempt to barricade yourself into a safe corner, to arm teachers, to demand certainty in a chaotic world.  I believe some of the original opera patrons were just like that, demanding only flattering operas from their servant composers, censoring or censuring what they didn’t like.

Have we come full circle?

Michael Schade as Tito (standing), and the chorus in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of La clemenza di Tito, 2013. director Christopher Alden (Photo: Michael Cooper)

Michael Schade as Tito (standing), and the chorus in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of La clemenza di Tito, 2013. director Christopher Alden (Photo: Michael Cooper)

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

Opera Atelier: 2013-2014 Season Announcement

Posted on February 6, 2013 by barczablog

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

OPERA ATELIER

2013-2014 season features the return of two jewels in Opera Atelier’s crown
– Plus an engagement at the Palace of Versailles,France –

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 5, 2013 (Toronto, ON) – Opera Atelier’s founding co-artistic directors Marshall Pynkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg today announced the company’s 2013-2014 season, which will include a return engagement at the Royal Opera House in the Palace of Versailles. Thespring 2014 production of Lully’s Persée will travel to Versailles for three performances, following its run at the Elgin Theatre in Toronto (Apr. 26 – May 3, 2014). The 13-14 season will kick off in October with the return of Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio (Oct. 26 – Nov. 2, 2013), the runaway hit from Opera Atelier’s 2008 season.

Persée is a landmark production for Opera Atelier. The company’s 2000 production was the first fully staged incarnation of the opera since it inaugurated the Royal Opera House at Versailles in 1770 during thewedding celebrations of the future King Louis XVI to Marie Antoinette. Opera Atelier’s 2004 remount of Persée was the subject of a documentary which has subsequently become an internationalcalling card for Opera Atelier, both for the public and for presenters around the world. Following the astounding success of Armide in 2012, The Royal Opera House has invited Opera Atelier back to Versailles with Persée, which will mark the first time the opera has appeared on that stage since 1770. Persée will be performed three times at The Royal Opera House, Versailles on May 23, 24, and 25, 2014. This prestigious engagement has allowed Opera Atelier to enhance Persée’s visual elements, making it the company’s most lavish production to date. The moving story of a man’s ascension from his questionable beginnings to his rightful place as a god, Persée is a retelling of the classical Greek Perseus myth.

“Persée was recognized in its day as the crowning achievement ofFrench lyric theatre,” say Pynkoski and Zingg. “We are honoured that Opera Atelier has been chosen as the company to bring Persée back to the Royal Opera House, which it officially opened almost 250 years ago.”

The role of Persée will be performed by Chris Enns making his Opera Atelier debut with his first haute-contre role. Mireille Asselin will take on the role of Andromède, whose rival Mérope will be played by Peggy Kriha Dye, who returns to Versailles after her star turn as Armide. They are joined by Olivier Laquerre (Céphée/Méduse) Carla Huhtanen (Cassiope), João Fernandes (Phinée), Lawrence Wiliford, Curtis Sullivan, Aaron Ferguson, Meghan Lindsay and Vasil Garvanliev. Persée runs April 26, 27, 29, 30 and May 2 and 3, 2014 and is sung in French with English surtitles.

Opera Atelier’s 2013-2014 season begins with Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio, a colourful comedy that tells of the charming antics of Belmonte and Pedrillo, a master and servant who must rescue their beloveds from the harem of the Pasha Selim. A revival of Opera Atelier’s highly successful production, this opera features some of Mozart’s most demanding arias and is grounded in the commedia dell’arte tradition, making it the perfect showcase for our artists’ vocal prowess and comedic acting chops. Appealing to children, youth and families, Abduction from the Seraglio is part of Opera Atelier’s ongoing commitment to cultivate the opera-lovers of tomorrow.

Abduction from the Seraglio will feature Lawrence Wiliford as Belmonte, Ambur Braid as Konstanze, Carla Huhtanen as Blondie, and Adam Fischer as Pedrillo. They will be joined by Gustav Andreassen (Osmin) and Curtis Sullivan (Pasha Selim), reprising their roles. Abduction from the Seraglio runs October 26, 27, 29, 30, November 1 and 2 and is sung in German with English dialogue and English surtitles.

Abduction from the Seraglio and Persée will be directed by Marshall Pynkoski and choreographed by Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg, with set design by GerardGauci and lighting design by Bonnie Beecher. Both productions will feature the Artists of Atelier Ballet and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir under the baton of David Fallis.

Performances for Opera Atelier’s 2013-2014 Season will take place at the Elgin Theatre (189 Yonge Street) in Toronto with evening performances at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday matinee performances at 3:00 p.m.  Subscriptions start at $95 and are on sale now by calling 416-703-3767 x222. Single tickets go on sale on August 6, 2013. For more information visit Opera Atelier’s newly re-launched website: www.operaatelier.com.

Opera Atelier gratefully acknowledges the ongoing support of The Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council.

2013-2014Major Sponsors

Season Sponsor: BMO Financial Group
Abduction from the Seraglio Production Sponsor: Scotiabank

Opera Atelier is Canada’s premier period opera/ballet company, specializing in producing opera, ballet and drama from the 17th and 18th centuries. While drawing upon the aesthetics and ideals of the period, Opera Atelier goes beyond “reconstruction” and infuses each production with an inventive theatricality that resonates with modern audiences. Since 1985, led by founding artistic directors Marshall Pynkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg, Opera Atelier has garnered acclaim for its performances at home as well as in theUnited States, Europe and Asia. 

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Clemenza: Apollo’s Turn

Posted on February 4, 2013 by barczablog

After a week of thinking about Tristan und Isolde –at the COC, in the Opera Exchange, at the piano and rattling around inside my head—I was ready for something different.  Tristan is many things.  It’s humongous, it’s conceptual & symbolic, it’s almost unsingably difficult. Its dissonant harmonies point to our century, while its dramaturgy anticipates modern film & media.

Director of the COC’s Clemenza di Tito Christopher Alden

A change of pace? The COC’s other current production is Christopher Alden’s La Clemenza di Tito, originally presented at Chicago Opera Theater in 2009.  While it’s not a familiar opera, I’d swooned over the Opera Atelier production in 2011 (and saw it three times), gorgeous music by Mozart that deserves to be better known.  Where Tristan is an intoxicating experience that one could call Dionysian, Clemenza di Tito is an answer from the other side of the equation, namely the clear & disciplined voice of Apollo, ironic & incisive.

Again we’re watching a Canadian tenor sing and act brilliantly in a difficult role, namely Michael Schade.  While Tito is not Tristan – one of the hardest roles of all—I think it’s the most difficult Mozart tenor role.  Christopher Alden’s production requires a great deal of Schade, who changes over the course of the opera.

Again we’re hearing a superb performance from the COC orchestra, who seem to have hit their stride lately.  I don’t know conductor Daniel Cohen’s credentials, but the reading was often as brisk as what we’d demand from a specialist in historically informed performance.  I believe Cohen is a late replacement for Johannes Debus, himself a late sub for Jiří Bělohlávek (who had to cancel a few weeks ago due to illness).

Alden’s Clemenza di Tito interrogates history, problematizing the usual version by refusing to simply swallow tales that may be a bit hard to believe.  Biggest example is Tito himself, a figure who may be too good to be true.  I don’t want to give it all away, but for example in his first scene.

  • How it’s written:  Publio (who speaks for “the public”, and the Senate) speaks to Tito about tribute money from subject provinces being used to build a temple to Tito.  Tito redirects those funds to relief for the victims of the recent disaster of Vesuvius.
  • Alden’s take: the chorus—a sad group in quasi-modern clothing but masked—put money into Publio’s helmet, as Tito sanctimoniously speaks the same lines in front of a cynical audience of tax-payers.  Does it matter that these aren’t citizens of subject provinces? No.

In other words, while Alden gives us the opera as written he’s interrogating assumptions throughout, so that we simultaneously get history AND commentary.

Isabel Leonard as Sesto in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of La clemenza di Tito, 2013, director Christopher Alden . Photo: Michael Cooper

Isabel Leonard as Sesto in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of La clemenza di Tito, 2013, director Christopher Alden . Photo: Michael Cooper

The cast is very strong.  While I segued from Tristan via another brilliant Canadian tenor, the most interesting portrayal is Isabel Leonard as Sesto.  Before we even speak of singing or acting, you can’t ignore the persuasiveness of a trouser role (woman portraying a man) where the woman’s muscles are more prominent in their definition than any of the other “men” onstage.  While there’s no mistaking Leonard’s gender, her macho body language is remarkable.  When you add a rich mezzo-soprano voice, you have the makings of a portrayal of astonishing depth.  I couldn’t take my eyes off her.

If that weren’t enough, Wallis Giunta as Annio gives us another trouser role, contrasting Leonard with a movement vocabulary comprised of jocular poses, hiding behind nerdy glasses.  Giunta’s voice, like her body language, makes a contrast to Leonard, a subtle alternative every bit as compelling in its delicacy.  Giunta is such an amazing actor that she is almost unrecognizable as Annio.

The fourth excellent performance is arguably the single most important one in the whole opera.  Keri Alkema’s Vitellia needs to be able to make us believe that she can make a man murder his best friend out of love for her, even as she outrageously pursues someone else.  Vitellia is not an attractive human being, even though she is eventually tormented by remorse in the last part of the opera.  Alkema manages all of it: the demanding high-maintenance diva, the capriciousness, sense of entitlement, and even the birth of compassion & a human heart in the latter part of her portrayal, all sung powerfully.

Rounding out the cast are solid portrayals from Mireille Asselin as Servilia and Robert Gleadow –generating lots of laughs—as Publio.

There  are many moments of ironic laughter, with glimpses of something much deeper.  The chief publicity photo shows Leonard painting the iconic phrase “sic semper tyrannis” (or “thus always for tyrants”) onto a wall.  When we see her begin to do this during the brief insurrection in the middle of the opera, I saw that where she was beginning to paint, you could already see where the words had been written and erased before.  Mistake?  But no, come to think of it.  The residue on the wall suggests that we have had tyrants before and will see them again.

La Clemenza di Tito runs at the Four Seasons Centre until Feb 22nd.

Michael Schade as Tito (standing), and the chorus in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of La clemenza di Tito, 2013. director Christopher Alden (Photo: Michael Cooper)

Michael Schade as Tito (standing), and the chorus in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of La clemenza di Tito, 2013. director Christopher Alden (Photo: Michael Cooper)

Posted in Opera, Politics, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Wagner and Adaptation: Linda’s Legacy

Posted on February 2, 2013 by barczablog

I use surnames in this blog.  Everyone calls him “Topher”, but when I wrote about him it was “Mokrzewski”.  Some aspects of the naming convention are absurdly obvious.  We call RW and RS “Wagner” and “Strauss not “Richard” and “Richard”, although RS can easily be mixed up with other Strausses, so one has to be careful.

Michael and Linda Hutcheon

This once I’ll make an exception because I’m speaking of someone who will always be “Linda” to me rather than “Hutcheon”, although of course –as with RS–we must distinguish one Hutcheon from another given that it’s Linda & Michael Hutcheon.

They’re an example of what citizenship entails, fabulous role models in everything they do.  They both taught at the University of Toronto.  They married and appear together in public in what seems to be the happiest and healthiest marriage I know of.  While their disciplines diverge –he’s in Family & Community Medicine, while she’s a literary theorist in English & Comparative Literature—they found common ground at night seeing opera.  No wonder they’ve written books together, the most tangible labours of love one could imagine.  Opera: Desire, Disease, Death for example, is a fascinating book right at the intersection of their disciplines.  And citizenship entails service.  They are right in the thick of it with Queen of Puddings, a company who have produced several interesting modern works, most recently Ana Sokolovic’s Svadba.

I met Linda in a course she co-taught with Caryl Clark, a graduate seminar with a title something like (as I struggle to recall it) “Opera: multi-disciplinary studies of a multi-disciplinary art-form.”  That intersection of disciplines, so germane to her collaborations with Michael, is central to her work as a literary theorist.  Two big words I associate with Linda (other than “opera” or “nice”) are “irony” and “adaptation”, as her books on those two words (Irony’s Edge and later A Theory of Adaptation: among many other books I am not mentioning) underpin everything I think as if she were Martin Luther and I’d just become a Protestant.

Saturday morning, the Canadian Opera Company & the University of Toronto co-presented the latest instalment of “The Opera Exchange”, a colloquium Linda co-founded roughly a decade ago, very much like the experience of Linda’s courses and books.  Again we’re speaking of a kind of service, a brilliant outreach to the community to help educate & prepare audiences for the operas programmed by the COC.  Today’s presentation, occasioned by the COC production of Tristan und Isolde and Wagner’s bicentennial this year, approached its target from several directions:

  • A paper by Clemens Risi concerning Regietheatre as exemplified in three recent productions, included a lovely nod near the end from Risi concerning Linda’s ideas of adaptation.  Risi offered a wonderfully simply theoretical construct, looking at the tension between theatre as museum, or as laboratory for experimentation, a tension that can be pleasureable even when there’s controversy
  • After a brief but eloquent talk about transcriptions, Topher Mokrzewski gave a masterful performance of Liszt’s transcription of the Liebestod, transcription being just another kind of adaptation.  His intro included two wonderful observations: that Liszt’s motivation may have partially been motivated by a kind of envy, in effect appropriating the compositional brilliance of others into his fingers, and that transcription is a kind of wish-fulfillment, allowing one to hear and play what’s otherwise unavailable.  Those two observations resonate beyond the pianistic world, in the larger sphere of adaptation.
  • Linda then moderated a conversation among two singers (Margaret Jane Wray & Michael Baba) & an academic (Bettina Brindl-Risi), asking a wonderfully pointed question –attributed to someone else—in a most disarmingly warm fashion. How does it feel, I wonder, as a singer in this Tristan to be the soundtrack of a video?  It was asked whimsically and with no disrespect, eliciting marvellous answers from the singers; they’re too busy trying to survive the ordeal of their roles to even notice.

Now in retirement Linda is on to her next subject with Michael, namely older artists and late style.  Notice that the subject is again multi-disciplinary, straddling the boundaries of the Hutcheons’s respective disciplines.

And as usual it’s a fascinating topic. (further reading…)

Posted in Personal ruminations & essays, University life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Actors! at Winchester Kitchen

Posted on February 2, 2013 by barczablog

The show is Actors! Canadian Actors Up Close and Personal, and before I go any further I need to say that it’s not a show in the usual sense.  I hate telling you too much because I’d be stealing some of the surprise inherent in this work.  It says right on the program that it’s “part panel discussion, part scripted performance“.

True.

Melissa Major

Melissa Major of Cheshire Unicorn Theatre Company has created this mix of happening and drama.

Knowing that, I sat right at the front because I guess I am a bit of a whore for audience participation.  I grew up as my brother’s claque, bravoing loudly, and love helping a show by laughing at a good joke where the laughter can get an audience going.  I enjoy being complicit even when haha maybe nobody asked me to be complicit?

Hm…

We live in a funny world where the boundaries are already compromised.  I am Facebook friends with famous opera singers and actors I have never met and likely never will meet.  Wtf? Celebrity culture makes for a slippery slope.

Ha I almost miss-typed that as ‘slippery slop’. HA!  That too!

Once upon a time, long ago, I saw a show where the fourth wall was violated by a transgressive performer coming into the audience, asking, no demanding a response from all the scared patrons.  Once upon a time it used to make me nervous.

Now? We’re all eager for this, fascinated with train-wrecks wherever they may be. In other words, reality TV –as one of the participants remarked tonight—is something we know is bad, but really hard to resist.  Like potato chips or cigarettes, you may know it’s poison but that doesn’t stop you.

In a world of hybrid art-forms, where conventional boundaries & structures are under attack by the ongoing hunger for re-invention & re-definition that’s everywhere, it should surprise no one that theatre, too, would be subject to the same dynamic.  I don’t know what to call Actors! …except that whatever ‘it’ is, it’s fascinating and grotesque and irresistible all at the same time.  Lordy, we all seem to love train wrecks.

How cool that this one is partly real and partly scripted.

Let me just say that for those of you who fear actors pulling you into the piece, you can sit at the back and watch from safety.  Those who want to be involved?  Haha oh my God, you can sit near the front and get tangled in it to your heart’s content.  I felt a bit like a mad scientist playing with a laboratory, only the laboratory subjects are the actors. You can’t step into this (same) river twice, so my innocence is gone now that I have played in this sandbox tonight with Stephanie Seaton & Tim Walker, plus Melissa Major (maven  of mayhem).  In a way i wish i could do it again (fun!), but i can’t pretend i haven’t seen it.

Wow I had fun tonight!

By the way, Actors! plays at the Winchester Kitchen, a restaurant/bar at Winchester & Parliament.  If I hadn’t liked the show I still would have been pleased by my prix fixe dinner:

  • a turkey soup that was refreshingly low on salt but flavourful;
  • a Caesar brightened by a lemon (that is, it made the salad perfect) sculpted to look like the sun
  • a big steak I inhaled
  • a yummy dessert (sorry, i don’t know what it was called but it was pastry with ice cream on top)
  • and strong coffee

…all for a very reasonable $30.

I mustn’t give Actors! away for you except to say it’s fun, it’s deep, and it’s an invitation to play along if you’re up to it, running until February 9th.

I will be back to investigate more of the Winchester Kitchen menu.

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Esprit : Stars, Suns, Sacre

Posted on February 1, 2013 by barczablog

There were three items on the Esprit Orchestra program tonight in Koerner Hall, interconnected by the laws of physics.

The center-piece was a performance of a reduced version of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps on the occasion of its centennial.  Beginning the program was Claude Vivier’s Orion.  In between was an original commission from Esprit, namely Paul Frehner’s Phantom Suns in its world premiere.

Paul Frehner and Alex Pauk (photo: Jasmine Pauk)

Paul Frehner and Alex Pauk (photo: Jasmine Pauk)

In the pre-concert talk, Alexina Louie interviewed Frehner, who discussed his creative process.  Commissioned to share the bill with two relative heavy-weights (Vivier being a big name among Canadian composers, Stravinsky’s piece being one of the masterworks of the past century), Frehner described his thinking.  Whereas Orion is of the stars and Le Sacre is of the Earth, Frehner thought he’d aim for the sky in between.

The Phantom Suns of his composition are the phenomenon known as ‘parhelia’ (or ‘parhelion’ in the singular), also known as ‘sun dogs’, a kind of mirage in the sky seen near the sun whereby we seem to see multiple suns.  In some respects his composition showed us something just like that, as the soundscape resembled a sky awash with colours and light, as if the score had been coloured with a bright paint.  Frehner’s composition seemed to be conceived as a kind of intermezzo between two very different pieces.

To begin the evening , we heard Vivier’s Orion, a piece that I found to be the most successful piece on the program, in a reading of great transparency, wonderfully balanced and with a terrific sense of nuance.  From Louie’s words I believe Conductor & Artistic Director Alex Pauk has great sympathy for Vivier, whose life story is itself a fascinating piece of subtext for any performance of his music.  Adopted at three, gay, a successful composer recognized in his youth, but murdered at 34, Vivier’s star continues to rise worldwide.  Pauk found the wit, humour & verve in this composition, and it was clear the orchestra was enjoying itself throughout.

To close the program we heard a version of Le Sacre du Printemps for reduced orchestra arranged by Jonathan McPhee.  This is the loudest music I’ve yet heard in Koerner Hall, reduced forces notwithstanding.

Esprit Orchestra’s Artistic Director & Conductor Alex Pauk

At this moment Esprit was at their source, the beginning of “New Music”.  The Toronto Symphony plays Le Sacre, and everyone has heard this piece and knows its edgy moments.  This time we weren’t hearing an orchestra that makes its money with Beethoven and Mozart taking a walk on the wild side; no, we were hearing an ensemble accustomed to contemporary sounds & procedures, in effect letting their hair down, returning to their roots.

It was well-received by the Esprit audience, a powerful performance that belied the numbers.  At times Pauk had Esprit sounding like impressionists, the strings subtle, the woodwinds delicate, at other times the room rocked to the fulsome brass, the rhythmic pulses, the pounding percussion.  At this moment in Esprit’s 30th anniversary season, it’s worthwhile for them to check in with this piece that lets us hear them play repertoire you’d hear from the TSO.  Even with the smaller ensemble, the pristine acoustic of Koerner Hall captured their brazen & blatant sounds.  In so doing Esprit convincingly laid claim to this repertoire.

Esprit continue their 30th Anniversary Season March 28th. 

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Seven Liebestod questions for Christopher Mokrzewski

Posted on January 29, 2013 by barczablog

On Saturday February 2nd as part of the Opera Exchange colloquium on Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, with a nod to the composer’s bicentennial, pianist Christopher Mokrzewski will be playing Franz Liszt’s transcription of the liebestod for piano solo.

Christopher Mokrzewski

Pianist Christopher Mokrzewski

Mokrzewski has had a huge role to play in the preparation of the COC production, acting as repetiteur for this, an opera he loves very much.  Later this winter, Mokrzewski will be back with Against the Grain Opera.  But in anticipation of his performance Saturday, I asked a series of questions about the pianist and the transcription.

1) what do you like to play on the piano; what do you like to listen to?

Such a tough question, right at the outset! The fact of the matter is that my interests, passions and tastes are ever-changing. I can state this outrightly: I’m not particularly interested in playing standard piano rep — except when I am!

Fundamentally, I spend most of my time and energy upon operatic and art song literature. I do, however, frequently occupy myself with other pastimes. These days, I’ve been practicing a lot of Schubert (a recent obsession… I’ll be performing one of the sonatas in April) and learning a good deal of chamber music. It is both a blessing and a curse that my work/performance schedule has become quite a serious beast to contend with and it is increasingly difficult to spend time on repertoire that is “non essential” at any given moment.

For brevity’s sake, here’s what I’ve been listening to: a ton of chamber music (with and without piano) by Mozart, Schumann, Brahms, Schubert and Beethoven; some Schubert and Schubert, Schubert and some more Schubert; a bit of Mozart (everyday), a fair amount of 20th-century French piano music as well as lots of Bill Evans (to prepare for an upcoming recital); and an insane amount of contemporary music, with a particular emphasis on Morton Feldman (a Peter Sellars recommendation). But yesterday, I fancied listening to a bit of Schicchi, so I’m really all over the map every day!

2) can you comment on how difficult this is…? IS it something you struggled to learn? are the technical challenges of this composition comparable to anything else you’d mention?

There’s so, so much to say about the Liebestod transcription and about Tristan in general. I learned Liszt’s transcription of the Liebestod nearly a decade ago, when I was 18. I was preparing my graduation recital at Eastman, the main event of which was the Liszt B minor sonata. At that point I was seriously challenging the assumption that had ruled my entire musical existence up to that point — that I was meant to be a solo pianist. Through Tristan, a piece I had fallen in love with as a youngster, I had gradually become a proper opera fanatic and, by the time of this recital, was considering making a fairly dramatic move to the much greener pastures of the collaborative field and into conducting. I reckoned that the Liebestod would serve as a lovely companion piece to the Liszt sonata and considered it a symbolic segue into my musical future.

That was all well and good in intent, but the learning of the thing was another matter entirely. I don’t remember exactly how this came to pass (chalk it up to being an irresponsible and cocky teenager) but at one week away from the recital I had not even cracked open the score. I don’t know how I learned it and I choose not to remember the number of hours I spent in a basement practice room in those last few days, but I can happily report that it went over quite well at the recital and it has been a personal favourite ever since.

3)What’s especially difficult about playing this piece? Playing a transcription are you simply playing the piece or are you aware of the orchestral original, and the resemblances: do you care how it sounds vis a vis the original?

First a story! When I was working at Calgary Opera earlier this season, I attended various rounds of the Honens piano competition. One evening there was a fellow who came out and played Stravinsky’s Trois mouvements de Petrouchka — an incredible virtuoso showpiece. I confess: yes, it was repurposed and re-crafted as a solo piece for Rubinstein by Stravinsky himself; yes, it is a transcription of sorts, but one designed with virtuosic effects for concert hall performance. It’s a piano piece in this form, but more importantly, it is a piano piece that is derived from a great orchestral masterwork! The fellow made it sound as though it was some newly unearthed version of Islamey, not by Balakirev, but Debussy. It wasn’t badly played by any means, but it was clear that he had never taken the time to listen to the actual piece. How could you not want to recreate the orchestral magic of that piece on a piano? What’s so great about the sound of a little solo piano in comparison to the woodwind section, a battery of percussion or a blasting and bopping trumpet??

All pianists love the piano — we spend too much time with it to feel otherwise — but our situation with the instrument is much akin to the second year of many romantic relationships: we’re always trying to change its fundamental character into something it is not, which we think might be better for the relationship.

Horowitz (his often brutal sound notwithstanding) always spoke of his aim to emulate the human voice when he played. Ditto Rubinstein. Numerous famous pianists have spoken this way, or have spoken of emulating the orchestra (Liszt was always going on about that!). The business of piano playing is smoke and mirrors: make a mechanized action — hammer-hits-string-sound-dissipates-immediately — sound natural, human, bowed. It’s not easy!

All this is to say, in the instance of playing transcriptions or reductions, we ought really to start with the orchestra. When I play the Liebestod transcription, or any of Tristan for that matter, I HEAR the orchestra in my mind and ears and then replicate that sound on the piano as best I can. In a way, it’s not piano playing at all!

4) do we miss the singing voice from the equation?  should we hear it in our heads as we hear you playing Liszt?
5) how would you compare playing this now… When wagner is famous vs when wagner was unknown and liszt”s versions were like youtube, helping to popularize this unknown composer. Which would you prefer?

  • Then(when your pianism is like an evangelist spreading the message of unknown music)
    or
  • Now (when you are playing a version of a well-known piece)?

 (I’ve provided one long answer for two questions at once!)

Piano transcriptions, as you mention, no longer serve the purpose that they once did. We can hear performances of Tristan on record, on film, on the internet on demand. The evangelical thrust of a transcription is gone. On the surface, playing the lesser incarnation of a musical entity is pretty pointless nowadays. But I think there’s more to be discussed on the matter of transcriptions, especially concerning Liszt.

The fellow transcribed everything for piano: Schubert songs, all the Beethoven symphonies, Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and, of course, all kinds of Wagner (we’ll not speak of the music atrocities known as the paraphrases!). Yes, Liszt sought to popularize these works in an era when there were few others ways to do so. But he was also known as an egregious egotist and it seems he sought to conquer these pieces in the arena where he was the undisputed champion gladiator: at the piano. That’s all a bit of fun speculation. But we pianists (some other instrumentalists too) spend too much of our early years in solitary confinement learning our craft and cannot be blamed for our psychological quirks!

I do think, in all seriousness, that playing transcriptions these days is much more of a personal act. It’s no longer a meaningful convention, and it likely serves no higher purpose. It’s simply an act of wish fulfillment. I learned the Liebestod transcription (and others) all those years ago because I desperately loved that music and, as I cannot play any role in a performance of the piece as an orchestral instrumentalist, as I cannot ever get up on stage and sing one of the roles (what a nightmare that would be for everyone!), I must satisfy my urge to act as a vibrant participant in this astounding music in a smaller way, at the keyboard.

When you hear this transcription, any transcription (or if you happen to be sitting in a piano rehearsal of this opera), of course you miss the orchestra. Tristan cannot be the all encompassing, life altering experience that it was intended to be without all of the elements working together to form the crushing totality.

Listening to this transcription, in comparison, is a more intimate affair. It’s an unrequited love affair, it’s love letters sent from great distances, but it isn’t The Real Thing. Perhaps there’s something beautiful about that.

6) do you practice?

As a youngster soloist, I practiced all the time. Ten hours? No problem! These days I probably spend as many hours (or more) at the piano each day, but the projects I devote my time to are many and diverse in nature. I do not think I’ll ever have time again to practice in the concentrated, monastic manner I once did. Now I always feel pressed for time, oppressed by time even, and I want to learn every little bit of music that I love so much. It’s a ridiculous and privileged complaint, to be sure. I am very lucky to be able to spend every single day devoted to the works I am most passionate about (what an indescribable joy and privilege it has been to be a part of the preparation of the Canadian Opera Company’s upcoming production of Tristan!!!). For the entire month of December I happily rose before dawn to tackle the score. I live in a very open-concept loft, so it was a relief that my fiancée also loves Wagner and didn’t mind waking up to it every day!

7) Who sings your favourite Liebestod (soprano) performance?

You never forget your first love! I’ve already mentioned how important Tristan was in my musical development. The first time I experienced this opera, and the Liebestod in particular, was through the live from Bayreuth (1966) recording conducted by Böhm and sung by Birgit Nilsson. I’ve heard many a lovely recording since then, but this one will always be my favourite.

I’d like to add, however, that Tristan is a piece that is meant to be lived, and no musical experience I’ve had in my life as yet has compared in impact to the performance (and it was only the dress rehearsal!) at the COC the other night. The cast is outstanding, Johannes and the orchestra are superb and Peter Sellars and Bill Viola’s production is a marvel. To anyone who hasn’t already gotten a hold of tickets, you would not be wrong to resort to any means necessary to acquire them.

Posted in Interviews | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments