Opera by Request’s William Shookhoff

Posted on May 6, 2023 by barczablog


Aside from family William Shookhoff aka Bill aka “Shookie” is the person I’ve known longest of anyone I’ve mentioned on this blog. In fact I interviewed him back in 1976, for the University of Toronto’s student newspaper.

Bill Shookhoff

And so forty-six and a half years after the first one this is our second interview.

Let me begin by quoting Bill’s own text that he used on the occasion of a recent performance in Germany.

As the director of Opera by Request in Toronto, Canada, it is a thrill to be collaborating with Musik fur Musik in Berlin for Wagner’s Der Fliegende Hollander. Opera by Request was launched in March, 2007, with a mandate to present operas in a concert format, to enable singers to perform a complete role, and to bring a complete range of operas to audiences at affordable prices. To date, OBR has produced over 100 different operas, and has engaged hundreds of singers. The concept has grown, and we have collaborated with a number of off-shoot companies throughout Canada, but tonight marks the first time we are collaborating with a company located on another continent. On a personal note, I have collaborated with Musik fur Musik’s founder, Vanessa Lanch on numerous productions, plus recitals and competitions, including Canada’s prestigious New Music Competition, the Eckhardt-Grammattee, for which Vanessa was a finalist in 2011. It is a thrill to be collaborating with a cast representing four different countries. I hope you enjoy tonight’s performance as much as I’ve enjoyed preparing for it.

William Shookhoff
Opera by Request

Normally my introduction segues into an interview by mentioning a particular project that’s upcoming. But in Bill’s case there is always something coming up, if not next week, then next month next fall next year…. You saw how above Bill said “To date, OBR has produced over 100 different operas, and has engaged hundreds of singers”..? That’s another way of saying that he is a very busy guy. It was so when I interviewed him in 1976, and it’s still true.

Are you more like your father or your mother?

Definitely my father.

What is the best or worst thing about what you do?

The best things are discovering new work and delving into all the aspects of the work, including orchestration, libretto, history. Also, perhaps most important, is working with other people, developing multi-generational relationships, learning from people of all ages and range of experience.

Worst thing is the countless hours of admin work: PR, emails, schedules, etc.

Who do you like to listen to or watch?

I listen to BBC 3 a lot, because of the variety. Wonderful concerts, but also great jazz programs, plays, conversations. Mostly watch tennis, and Met Opera on HD.

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

The ability to play the non-classical string instruments, especially banjo, but also lute, yukelele, classical guitar. Also Renaissance instruments.

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

Really, just doing that. Relaxing. Enjoying a martini, sitting on the porch, going for a walk, In bad weather, just watching the weather. Also reading, but I don’t read non-stop.

What was your first experience of music ?

My first piano teacher (a student at Cincinnati Conservatory) playing Rachmaninov 2 with University Orchestra. Also going with my brother to opera rehearsals (Cincinnati summer opera was held in an amphitheatre on the zoo grounds).

Who is your favorite composer?

Hard to say. I definitely lean towards Brahms and Mozart for instrumental work. Also Prokofieff and Beethoven. For opera, it’s really whatever I’m working on at the moment, though I specially love the major works of Britten, Strauss and late Verdi. Also Boito’s Mefistofele.

How did you begin to play operas?

I conducted The Boyfriend in high school and fell in love with the female lead. When I got to Eastman, I found that what I could do better than most of my colleagues was accompany singers, so when the opportunity came to audition as an opera coach/accompanist, I jumped at the chance and fortunately was accepted, the first undergrad to work in that capacity at Eastman.

Bill Shookhoff at Trinity Presbyterian Church York Mills 2018

What are the hardest operas to do in concert?

Definitely operas with lots of chorus. The bel canto operas are not terribly suited to piano renditions. Also operas with a lot of action that’s difficult to ignore (fight scenes, deaths).

Singers come out of training programs, including the ensemble studio of the COC. And then what? Some people can make a living, some can’t. You probably have a better handle on the available talent in this country than anyone. Stratford Festival and National Ballet function as places to employ almost 100% Canadian talent. Yet the fiction is out there that we need to bring in singers from abroad. Can you imagine Canadian opera with Canadian personnel?

Absolutely! Of course that talent needs to be nurtured and used judiciously, but there is no reason why young singers, given the training they receive in Canada, cannot be presented as the principal singers in a Canadian opera production. We’ve seen a few singers in recent years who have broken through these artificial barriers, enough to know that there are others equally capable, given the right opportunity.

Talk about Opera by Request and what you believe your mission is with OBR.

The main advantage of OBR is that it is the one place where singers can present roles of their own choosing. Of course, they quickly learn that taking charge of a production is not easy, but that experience (of being performer/producer) is also a valuable one. In this way, singers discover far more about a work than they would if they were simply hired to do a role by another producer. Sometimes the experience has been a wake-up call, where a singer realizes challenges they didn’t know were there. More often, though, it has raised the level of their performance and their understanding of the genre.

How does it work to select repertoire for OBR:

Usually, a few singers get together and present a concept to me, then we fill in the blanks, ie, decide on a timeline, find the rest of the cast, plan a rehearsal schedule and performance date. Occasionally, it’s been a single singer with a dream role in mind, then we work together to flesh it out. I never do all the work of casting for a single singer.

Turandot in 2020: (L-R) Narmina Efendiyeva, Naomi Eberhard, Bill Shookhoff, Amelia Daigle, Corey Arnold, Kyle McDonald

Are there operas you are hoping to do, that you can’t do (for instance LesTroyens,
an opera full of chorus & ballet divertissements is one of my favorite operas)

Peter Grimes, Billy Budd, yes Les Troyens.

Would you ever say no: to requests that you think are unwise for the singers, or something you would rather not undertake?

This has happened on occasion, but then we try to find an alternative that’s more realistic.

Explain the concept of Opera by Request: and explain why it’s important

It’s important for singers to know that there’s an organization that will consider any operatic work, no matter how far-fetched or unrealistic it may initially seem; or that they may be able to learn a role which other mentors or producers have discouraged them from pursuing, perhaps rightly, perhaps not.

How did you get the idea for Opera by Request. Did someone approach you?

It was an outgrowth of a duo recital program where some opera excerpts were included, and afterwards, the singers said “We could have done the whole opera with a little more work.” So I launched a website, thinking I may get two or three requests per year. Instead it’s been more like 2 or 3 requests per month.

Tell us about the upcoming OBR programs
(please note I asked Bill these questions awhile ago, so if anything here is out of date blame me, not Bill)

April 29th: “Caught in the Act”
Weisgall’s The Stronger, with Sharon Tikiryan
Martin’s Six Monologues from Jedermann with Michael Robert-Broder
Lee Hoiby’s Bon Appetit with Meghan Symon

June 9th: L’Elisir d’Amore (postponed from May)

June 24th: Rossini’s Otello (Canadian premiere?)

I hear that you’re also undertaking collaborations with other companies. What roles do you play?

I really enjoy collaborating with other companies and spreading the OBR concept to other venues. Calgary Concert Opera, CLM Productions in Edmonton, Abridged Opera in Windsor, are all in one way or another offshoots of OBR.

Bill Shookhoff at the Calgary Concert Opera Company in 2019

Norman Brown in Ottawa has done a tremendous job in creating OperOttawa, but I’d like to think the work he’s done with OBR was in some ways motivation for his initiative.

I wonder! It’s a funny coincidence that I realized I was overdue for an interview of Bill, when I recently interviewed Norman Brown.

Bill Shookhoff and Barbara King at Polaris Centre for the Performing Arts, October 2021

Do you have any influences / teachers you’d care to name.

Eugene List, piano; Edwin McArthur, opera production; Herman Geiger-Torel, who supported me from the moment I arrived in Canada back in the ‘70s.

Herman Geiger-Torel, General Director of the Canadian Opera Company 1960-1976.

Similarly James Craig. Mario Bernardi was a stern taskmaster, but instilled a sense of discipline and resilience which has helped me to this day.

I was very fortunate to have had the mentors I had, and the opportunities to grow and develop. I hope that in some way I’m able to give back in the same way, to a multi-generational pool of singers.

Rossini’s Otello may well be a Canadian premiere, as was undoubtedly Sullivan’s Ivanhoe. Many productions in the works for ’23-24. News of those will be coming out shortly.

You can follow them on their webpage or via social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram).

Posted in Interviews, Opera | 1 Comment

Gimeno Conducts Messiaen’s Epic Turangalila

Posted on May 5, 2023 by barczablog

Roy Thomson Hall was quite full tonight for the first of two Toronto Symphony concerts undertaking Olivier Messiaen’s Turangalila-Symphonie. But for such an event one wants a full house. The response from the audience was as rapturous as the music we had heard.

pianist Marc-André Hamelin (photo: Sim Cannety-Clarke)

My headline is no exaggeration, as I replicate the title the TSO put on our evening, including the stunning pianism of Marc-André Hamelin and the subtler contribution of Nathalie Forget via the ondes Martenot in front of a very large orchestra. It’s like a piano concerto. Hamelin is such a cool customer that he seems to be totally at ease while playing such an amazing range of sounds from soft to percussive clusters, touching seemingly every note of that piano, while offering a measure of reassurance to the rest of the performers as though he were a lifeguard. I suppose part of that is technique, that there’s no sign of effort even as he’s making amazing sounds.

Gustavo Gimeno, TSO Music Director

Gustavo Gimeno is still relatively new in his position as the TSO music director, but he’s beginning to show us who he really is. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that the TSO themselves are showing us who they are, in their response to his leadership, fearless in their willingness to play anything.

In 1948 when this work appeared, it certainly appeared to be the most important creation of the century if not the most impressive use of serial composition techniques yet heard, a fabulous meeting of cultures and methods.

Nathalie Forget (photo: Mathilde Assier)

Sometimes it’s tonal with layers of dissonance fluttering about over top, like birds gathering on top of a solid statue. There are places where the clusters in the strings underpinning the quick piano music remind me of George Gershwin, had he lived longer.

There is so much joy and ecstasy in this piece, yet also painful drama. There’s a soft nocturne-like section that reminds me a bit of Wagner’s Tristan even if it’s much calmer, more like Berlioz’s nuit d’amour in his Roméo et Juliette. It’s a hypnotic array of stunning sounds.

And yet Messiaen’s sound is not one that has been emulated: at least not yet. I’m reminded of the conversations I’m hearing about the Ontario Science Centre, a modernist building that will be taken down if the Premier of Ontario has his way even though it’s one of the most beautiful examples of modernist architecture I’ve ever seen. I can’t think of any current composers using anything as complex –or as beautiful—as what we heard tonight. Like the Science Centre (dating from over 50 years ago), the futuristic sound of the ondes Martenot is in its way, an antique, an image of a future that never was. Oh well. Post-modern scores are more pragmatic, while minimalism is also a practical choice, easier for the composer and perhaps easier on the audience as well. The density of the score Messiaen created, layer upon layer, the challenges to the soloists (not just Hamelin & Forget, but also throughout the orchestra, particularly Eric Abramovitz, principal clarinet, and the percussionists), is unique. In a sense Messiaen is himself a virtuoso composer, daunting in the density of the challenges printed on the pages of the score. Did he leave every other composer behind in the process? No it’s not a competition, but even so one might wish that more would attempt something so ambitious.

Roy Thomson Hall is really ideal for this sort of work. There’s so much to hear, layer upon layer: and it could be perceived, the sound transparent.

The two concerts are a joyous celebration that’s one of the highlights of the TSO’s 100th season, but they’re also making a live recording from these two performances, which I’ll be eager to obtain once it comes out. We were asked to refrain from applauding, although there was a lot of coughing unfortunately. I suppose that’s inevitable when it’s live.

If there’s any way you can get to hear it Friday May 5th you should do so. They sounded amazing.

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Barkley: Snoopy or Benjy?

Posted on May 1, 2023 by barczablog

Barkley Barcza is our newest family member. We didn’t choose the name, glad to use the name that he already seems to know. And yes it sounds cute with his surname.

Snoopy is the beagle everyone knows, the creation of Charles Schulz as part of the Peanuts comic world. I grew up with the animated specials at Christmas time, Snoopy becoming a star with his own pop-song about his battle with the Red Baron. It’s fiction of course, but he’s the beagle of popular mythology, so much so that when I have walked Barkley Snoopy was mentioned by someone I met.

Speaking of which, I’m re-reading Fifteen Dogs André Alexis’s 2015 novel, while being mindful of the Crow’s Theatre adaptation from early this year.

While everyone experiences art differently, I wonder if anyone was feeling as I did, having just welcomed Barkley a few days before. I’m remembering what I wrote about Benjy the beagle.

When Benjy the beagle tells Majnoun about his ability to get a response from people by rolling over in the book, it’s a dark admission, that the dog can manipulate a human. But when Benjy (played by Peter Fernandes) demonstrates this to Majnoun (played by Tom Rooney) and all of us in the theatre, it’s hysterically funny. There’s a tonal shift as the prevailing tone of the show is lightened by the enormous amount of laughter. When you’re watching people impersonate dogs the laughs are guaranteed, and perhaps the first casualty is some of the seriousness that I might have craved.

Benjy is a survivor. He tricks several dogs into eating poison to escape from them. I am in awe of his intelligence.

And I don’t blame him of course. He’s just trying to survive.

Perhaps I was taking it all too seriously? But I was deep in the heart of my own drama with Barkley, a drama that’s still ongoing as he approaches his first birthday. I think of Snoopy (Charlie Brown’s cuddly pet) and Benjy as two extremes, as I learn more about Barkley.

While we do know the date of his birth, much of his life is a mystery. We know he has had previous owners, and they were not always kind to him. That’s more of the Benjy experience.

He’s a handsome beast, taller than we expected at times making me think he’s almost a foxhound rather than a beagle, especially when he’s running in the yard.

As with Benjy (or any dog) one doesn’t know what he’s thinking. Barkley is smart. We may think we’re in charge, but sometimes life turns into a game he’s playing with us. We have a television remote control that he ran with until we managed to give him a treat instead. I have a pair of glasses with teeth marks.

When I think of training sometimes I wonder who’s training whom (and try to laugh about it). Keeping it light makes it all much more enjoyable even if the progress is slow. Right now we’re doing our best to make him feel welcome, to make sure he gets enough hours of sleep per day, exercise and the right food. He knows the sit command and often comes for his name in the yard, knowing he’ll be rewarded. That sometimes feels like a Benjy thing, that he’s playing us for all the treats he can get.

No wonder he’s a bit overweight.

While we won’t give him a cake for his birthday on Tuesday, we will sing Happy Birthday to Barkley on Tuesday May 2nd.

Posted in Animals, domestic & wild, Books & Literature, Dance, theatre & musicals, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Creepy COC Macbeth

Posted on May 1, 2023 by barczablog

On a dark rainy day in the midst of Toronto’s traffic chaos I was rendered speechless by the new Canadian Opera Company production of Verdi’s Macbeth directed by Sir David McVicar. I never knew this opera could move me so much. In the last act each scene was better than the last, building inexorably to the conclusion. I don’t want to give too much away.

Verdi would have been impressed.

Some of that is the work of a director making only a few changes from the original. While I try to go with the flow of directors updating and even revising operas, I’m always thrilled when they manage to bring it off without losing the essential thread of the story.

This was a team effort. Perhaps the single most important aspect is the magic running through Shakespeare’s Scottish play. If the chorus of witches Verdi created doesn’t persuade you in the first scene, there’s no point. The creepiness underlying this story of a husband and wife tempted to perform evil acts begins with witches making prophecies. The COC Chorus as a musical entity are led by Sandra Horst and sounded great, but they are usually the dramatic backbone of any good COC show too. The last time I saw this opera the witches were picturesque & well-sung, but never for a moment had me believing they were magical, let alone scary. This was different, better, scarier.

The designs from Set Designer John Macfarlane and Costume Designer Moritz Junge work with McVicar to take us deeper into a pit of gothic horror, employing additional non-singing performers. Here’s a photo plus a close-up showing something disturbing. But it’s disturbing in a good way.

Canadian Opera Company’s new production of Macbeth, 2023. Directed by Sir David McVicar, set design John Macfarlane, costume design Moritz Junge, lighting design David Finn (Photo: Michael Cooper)
Notice the children! (detail from photo by Michael Cooper)

And Shakespeare would have liked it as much as Verdi.

While Macbeth is a virtuoso vehicle for two singers, without the visceral groundwork laid in the first scene, it wouldn’t matter. So yes we were watching and listening to a thrilling pair of singing actors, namely Quinn Kelsey as Macbeth and Alexandrina Pendatchanska as Lady Macbeth.

Pendatchanska was announced as indisposed (aka unwell), but went on anyway. There were a few moments when I thought I detected a bit of extra care as she went for high notes, especially in her first scene. As she went on wow she got better. The sleep-walking scene in the last act was marked by an astonishing pathos, as the relentless monster who pushed her husband into acts of murder had become someone you could pity: which is the ideal. Amazing. Brilliant.

Kelsey brings the secure baritone with him that we’ve seen in previous Toronto appearances, a sound that reminds me a bit of Louis Quilico; in other words, he sounds like one of the greatest baritones of all time. Kelsey gave us lots of jagged edges, a portrayal that’s not very subtle: but then again that’s not how it’s written. His bel canto is superb, his tone beautiful almost every moment except when becoming so tormented as to cry out in pain.

Quinn Kelsey as Macbeth and Alexandrina Pendatchanska as Lady Macbeth (Photo: Michael Cooper)

There are many other wonderful performances I could mention, a big and mostly Canadian cast of strong performers. Adam Luther –aided by his beautiful costume—brought genuine star quality to his appearance as Malcolm. He and Matthew Cairns’ sweetly sung Macduff take over the opera towards the end. Clarence Frazer was a nasty murderer. Tracy Cantin made a solid impression in her scenes as lady in waiting to Lady Macbeth, including the sleep-walking scene alongside Vartan Gabrielian as a sympathetic doctor.

We were in capable hands with our conductor Speranza Scappucci, drawing electrifying sounds from the COC orchestra and chorus, while solidly keeping us rooted in a stylish bel canto reading.

I’m looking forward to seeing the show again. The run continues until May 20th, with soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska singing three of the remaining five performances as Lady Macbeth.

Posted in Books & Literature, Dance, theatre & musicals, Opera, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Surprising Chevalier

Posted on April 25, 2023 by barczablog

How could I resist seeing Chevalier, the new film about Joseph Bologne?

He’s been called the “black Mozart”. He was given the title Chevalier de St Georges by Marie Antoinette, composer of operas, symphonies, a virtuoso violinist and master swordsman.

Let me be clear. His actual life story is so spectacular as to defy filming, more unlikely than something Hollywood would create. His father was a plantation owner who had sex with a young slave in the West Indies, a servant to his wife. The father would provide for his son’s education in France, where the boy grew up to become a great violinist and swordsman.

If you don’t believe me, go to his Wikipedia entry.

There are some departures from the truth, as the new film takes liberties. Sticklers may object to how Mozart or Gluck are portrayed. The French Revolution looms over them all like a threat.

I recall some of the things I heard when Amadeus came out in the 1980s, the objections to Mozart’s hair or his conducting or his laugh. That was of course a film of a play, not reality, yet it came to be the way many people have understood Mozart let alone the misrepresentation of poor Salieri, caught in the crossfire of Shaffer’s play. I bring that up because in this case it’s a relatively unknown figure whose story has not been told before.

I’m grateful that I saw his opera L’Amant anonyme just over a month ago that brought this composer to my attention. I recall saying something in the review that may have sounded prophetic. I said “His life story would make a great opera: but that’s a tale for another time,” not realizing that they were busily preparing a film. But the story of his life is actually even more remarkable than what they presented. His father, we’re told (tiny spoiler coming), left neither him nor his mother any money. But that’s not true, his father actually provided for both of them. A distant father is perhaps better for Hollywood yet the truth is subtler. There are other discrepancies. But his story is a new one. Director Stephen Williams and writer Stefani Robinson likely won’t be taken to task by anyone in the film world for infelicities, while those of us from the operatic realm aren’t their biggest concern.

Kelvin Harrison Jr. makes the most of the starring vehicle. We saw him in Elvis and Cyrano, two of the few recent films I’ve actually seen. The film looks and sound splendid. It’s entertaining even if it bends the truth a bit. But I don’t think any harm is done in the process. See it, and I’m sure you will enjoy it whether or not it’s accurate.

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Spring Renewal: Scarborough Philharmonic with Ventanas

Posted on April 25, 2023 by barczablog

If it seems as though spring has suddenly come back, thank Scarborough Philharmonic and Ventanas for their concert “Spring Renewal” on April 22nd.

The first half featured popular classical pieces.

We began with Rossini’s Silken Ladder overture, followed by Vivaldi’s “Spring” concerto from the Four Seasons including Concertmaster Corey Gemmell’s brilliant violin solos.

The first half concluded with music from de Falla’s El Amor Brujo featuring mezzo-soprano Veronika Anissimova. Although we recently heard a version of the same composition from the Toronto Symphony at Roy Thomson Hall (that seats over 2600), the SPO playing in the intimate confines of the Scarborough Citadel (whose seating capacity might be 500 or so) raised the roof in comparison, and no wonder. I’ve said before and I’ll say it again. While an ensemble like SPO or Kindred Spirits Orchestra may not have the virtuosity of the TSO, the trade-off is in the rich sound you hear in a tiny hall, immersing you in the music for a truly sensuous experience. The solos from Anissimova, from Gemmell, from Gillian Howard (oboe), Samuel Bisson (cello), and Anthony Reyes (trumpet) were overwhelming, stunningly passionate. Full marks to conductor Ronald Royer for his bold leadership.

The de Falla led easily to the multi-cultural textures we would hear in the second half from special guests Ventanas, the six-piece Toronto-based world music ensemble fronted by powerhouse vocalist and dancer Tamar Ilana, who took the stage for a series of world premieres.

Tamar Ilana

In addition to Tamar, vocalist and dancer, we listened to Demetrios Petsalakis (oud), Jessica Deutsch (violin and vocals), Derek Gray (drums/percussion), Tyler Emond (upright bass) and Benjamin Barrile (flamenco guitar).

The five pieces they played took us through a broad range of styles and dramatic possibilities. We began with a traditional Greek melody from Demetrios Petsalakis, then Benjamin Barrile’s new Columbianas, flamenco-flavored guitar music to which Tamar added dance. The orchestra sat out the first two, but returned for the fuller textures required in the next three pieces.

Ronald Royer (left) and Tamar Ilana

I understood from the spoken introduction that “The boat was empty” by Tyler Emond was a romantic tale of love and heart-break, although I’m just happy to have enjoyed the melodies and the complex textures he asked of the orchestra. Azadi from Demetrios with orchestrations by Ron Royer was an understated composition concerning the plight of women in Iran, that I found very effective. Aurea composed and played by violinist Jessica Deutsch, vocals by Tamar, was an intriguing piece full of energy with dense layers of sound.

Ventanas and the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra

We would happily have heard much more from this fascinating group and their committed music-making, whose music worked beautifully with the SPO.

I understand that the premieres we heard this weekend are only the beginning of an ongoing collaboration between Ventanas and the SPO. I’m hoping we will hear more either on record or in future concerts.

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

Bud Roach’s provocative new recording Affetti Amorosi

Posted on April 22, 2023 by barczablog

Although I listened twice through to Affetti Amorosi, Bud Roach’s new CD of 17th century songs in his light tenor voice accompanying himself on the theorbo, I took a break for holy week as I turned to his other recent recording, Worship in a Time of Plague a joint project of Capella Intima (of which Bud is Artistic Director) and the Gallery Players of Niagara, something I found easier to process and understand.

I couldn’t put my finger on why I was so overwhelmed by “Affetti amorosi” (Italian for “loving affections”), songs about love, sometimes exuberant, sometimes plaintive, often playful: and why I needed to step back for a moment.

What I did do is read the liner notes, trying to get a bit of a sense of where Bud was coming from.

Let me explain my context. During my MA at the Centre for Study of Drama, I took a course with Professor Domenico Pietropaolo concerning the Commedia dell’Arte (or CdA). We read the scenarios of Flaminio Scala, with the understanding that CdA was more of an improvisational practice among travelling artists, not something really scripted. By the time we get to Goldoni (1707-1793) or Gozzi (1720-1806), we’re looking at plays that recorded lazzi (improvised routines) of performers representing long-established traditions. Arguably –as Professor Pietropaolo insisted—this is no longer true CdA but a remnant, a series of plays employing the older tradition of improvised theatre.

I mention this to suggest the way CdA likely worked in the period from 1400 – 1700. You had the masked performers, who for most people are the emblem of CdA, for instance servants such as Arlecchino, or the Dottore (nota bene, a doctor not of medicine but a learned doctor from a university) or the bullying Capitano (Don Giovanni being an example of this type). These players would be masked and would be expected to improvise of course.

And then there are the lovers, who often were in some sort of conflict with a parental figure. My remembrance of what we knew of these figures was that they would sometimes sing amorous songs: which immediately came to mind with Bud’s CD. Affetti amorosi or loving affections, would be expressed by the lovers in these scenarios. While I recall being told by Professor Pietropaolo that the lovers had songs they sang, I never heard any mention of the precise texts. I can’t recall whether that was something to be speculated / debated between scholars, or simply another of the mysteries that come with performance studies. While we know that Shakespeare wanted music at certain points in his plays, as to what’s played? That’s not recorded, just a word such as “tucket” in the text, to indicate a fanfare. Similarly I remember knowing that there were songs, but having a blank in my head for the actual music.

And that’s where Bud’s CD and its liner notes had me wondering, as a door opened for me, now excited rather than perplexed. The recording offers songs by Giovanni Berti, Alessandro Grandi, Carlo Milanuzzi, Claudio Monteverdi and Giovanni Stefani. Bud explains that these songs would have been introduced to the public through the various companies of CdA players. Yet there is scholarly controversy, as usual. I read these notes as a defence of a bold series of choices, as for instance this (and I quote):

The decision was made to realize a bass line on theorbo or follow alfabetto symbols with the baroque guitar were made according to my sensibility of each aria—a completely subjective preference. Where I saw a walking bass line or structure that offered rhetorical amplification of the text, I have opted for theorbo, such as in Berti’s “Ohime”, and yet for Stefani’s verion of the jaunty patter song “Ecco Lidia” any accompaniment beyond simple strumming would seem superfluous.

Let me pause for a moment to insert Berti’s Ohime. While the word “ohime” might be translated as “alas”, we’re in a realm where the pain is the suffering of a lover, and observed in the performance as a matter that’s fun rather than truly painful.

Ecco Ecco Lidia (here is Ecco Lidia). Exuberance. Fun. The only thing i might lament is that I will never meet this Lidia (that is if she was ever an actual person).

Ohime…

Bud continues:
Neither conclusion would diminish the suitability of other choices, just as adding instruments to a continuo grouping sets no singular standard for performance. There remains, however the inescapable fact that despite its “popular” roots, this music is the product of a rhetorical, highly oral culture, and I would argue that a self-accompanied presentation offers the most flexibility for the expression of rhetorical invention in both poetry and music. One historical bias that played no role in decisions regarding accompaniment was Nigel Fortune’s dismissal of the guitar as being “wildly inappropriate” for songs of a serious nature. I can only hope that my work in this genre serves as an adequate rebuttal.

As you can probably tell, I’m entirely sympathetic to Bud Roach’s approach in this conversation. I’m set off by words such as “popular” and “highly oral culture”, recalling that groundlings heard & understood Shakespeare far better than we do, not just due to the changes in language but especially as we’ve lived through a shift away from an oral culture. Here I am on an electronic device, relying often upon google, when people used to employ something called “memory”. When we imagine the performances of the CdA, meaning the range of possibilities with players traveling all over Europe, we can’t expect them to have orchestras or boom boxes. No, they were portable companies doing things on the cheap on the fly, and changing it up when a player got sick (ha can we imagine a theatre in time of plague?) or had quit the troupe. We have studied the improvisation in the text – coming at this from the drama side of the equation—while the improvisation in the music isn’t necessarily given the same latitude. The study of CdA is as multi-disciplinary as Bud Roach’s work, requiring language, drama, music, and so much more. Need I mention: Bud’s accompanying himself, arrangements that are often very clever, brilliantly supporting the text. Many of these songs can be imagined in multiple guises (as Bud has implied when unpacking the choices he made in his arrangements/ realizations), possibly more serious, possibly more parodic or satiric.

I’ve been listening to this CD a lot, especially now that holy week is over. It’s brilliantly original.

You can find the tracks here from Presto Music.

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Philadelphia pairs from Jonathan Demme

Posted on April 14, 2023 by barczablog

We watched Philadelphia (1993) last night for the first time in awhile. I’m just writing this to call attention to a pattern I think I’ve observed in the work of director Jonathan Demme.

I haven’t seen all of his films, but did devour several upon their appearance, notably Something Wild (1986), Married to the Mob (1988), Silence of the Lambs (1991), Philadelphia (1993) and more recently Rachel Getting Married (2008).

The concept I keep grabbing onto with Demme is pairs.

In Philadelphia I’d point to the juxtaposition of two lawyers you see on the film’s poster and the cover of the video, who are at the heart of the story, namely Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) and Joe Miller (Denzel Washington).

Near the beginning of the film there’s a great scene shot with the two in an elevator with a third person between them, a shot with such symmetrical composition as to be worthy of that compulsive symmetrist (is there such a word?) Wes Anderson.

Beckett has AIDS, has been fired from his firm and will die before the end of the film. Miller is a black man who also faces discrimination even as he utters some of the same homophobic bigotry as the partners in Beckett’s firm. After initially rejecting the case Miller agrees to represent Beckett.

We are seeing displays of loving kindness from two different families, both Beckett’s extended family, (all of whom are supportive of Andrew’s ordeals) and Miller’s family, that has just recently enjoyed the arrival of a new baby. One of the most magical oppositions is set up when we first see Hanks’ response to the Maria Callas aria as he speaks of love, then the same music underscoring Miller’s return home to his sleeping baby, whom he seems to embrace with a new appreciation of mortality, a new level to his love. While much was made of Hanks’ performance (winning an Oscar) I am as impressed with Denzel’s nuanced portrayal of a man whose character arc begins with bigotry and a rejection of homosexuality, growing towards something like acceptance.

The other pair I’d like to point to in this film is musical. Demme frames the movie with a pair of songs.
We open the film with Bruce Springsteen’s Oscar winning song “Streets of Philadelphia”, a song I’ve struggled to hear in the multiple times I’ve seen the film.

Okay! This little blog is as much about me deciding, hey let’s look at those lyrics! This song opens the film with a series of shots of people in various settings.

I was bruised and battered
I couldn’t tell what I felt
I was unrecognizable to myself
Saw my reflection in a window
And didn’t know my own face
Oh brother are you gonna leave me wastin’ away
On the streets of Philadelphia?
I walked the avenue, ’til my legs felt like stone
I heard the voices of friends vanished and gone
At night I could hear the blood in my veins
Just as black and whispering as the rain
On the streets of Philadelphia
Ain’t no angel gonna greet me
It’s just you and I my friend
And my clothes don’t fit me no more
A thousand miles just to slip this skin
The night has fallen, I’m lyin’ awake
I can feel myself fading away
So receive me brother with your faithless kiss
Or will we leave each other alone like this
On the streets of Philadelphia?

I find this first song perhaps a better composition than the other one, a perfect creation that stands alone. Yet it’s the other song, Neil Young’s Philadelphia, that always stays in my head, that usually reduces me to a wet lump of tears and sobs, and for days afterwards has me running the song and scenes of the film through my head.

Sometimes I think that I know
What love’s all about
And when I see the light
I know I’ll be all right.

I’ve got my friends in the world,
I had my friends
When we were boys and girls
And the secrets came unfurled.

City of brotherly love
Place I call home
Don’t turn your back on me
I don’t want to be alone
Love lasts forever.

Someone is talking to me,
Calling my name
Tell me I’m not to blame
I won’t be ashamed of love.

Philadelphia,
City of brotherly love.
Brotherly love.

Sometimes I think that I know
What love’s all about
And when I see the light
I know I’ll be all right.
Philadelphia.


I have to ask, is that academy award for “best song” to be understood as best song in some absolute musical sense? or the best song in the dramaturgical sense of how it functions in the film? Because for me the first song, good as it is, has little connection for me to the film, the second one however completes the movie for me, one of the most perfect endings I’ve ever seen to a film. Howard Shore, who composed the film’s score might deserve some credit for this as well, as he segues smoothly from the song to the music in the credits. Indeed I think Shore’s score was written with this song in his head, a very accomplished and under-rated piece of work.

Young’s song hits me in combination with the home movies of children playing at the film’s conclusion, the words sounding as though we were hearing from the protagonist. Oh it’s absurd really, Neil Young doesn’t sound like Tom Hanks, but he does sound like a child full of questions. What does Andrew feel after death, as all these loved ones celebrate his life? I feel the song speaks as though Andrew is between lives, contemplating the meaning of the life that’s to come (meaning in that future from the old films, of growing up to become the adult Andrew) and perhaps looking back after this life asking what it all meant.

Neil Young’s child-like delivery plays into this, seemingly struggling to understand the meaning of love and life.

It gets me every time I see it, which might be why I don’t see this film too often. I don’t want this song to lose its power to move me.

That pattern of pairs that I think I see may strike you as overly reductive. But I see it in other Demme films. In Something Wild there’s a kind of walk on the wild side by both of the protagonists, although the significance is different for each, as each one confronts their identity. In Married to the Mob too, we can’t help noticing the crooks who wear guises and the police too who pretend to be something they are not. In Silence of the Lambs we watch a criminal held in jail assist the police to catch another criminal, even as the incarcerated criminal gets away and causes more mayhem himself.

Maybe Demme was interested in pairs because he was born February 22, 1944, or in other words 22-2-44.

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Resurrection Again

Posted on April 10, 2023 by barczablog

Handel’s oratorio The Resurrection received its belated Canadian premiere in Opera Atelier’s production brought to Koerner Hall, an early work long neglected.

Although the production had been prepared in 2021 it had to be filmed because in-person performance wasn’t possible due to the pandemic. This is, excuse the expression, the second coming of this production, and starring the same principals as in the film.

The timing adds a layer as I chose to see Resurrection on Easter Sunday, thinking that would be the best timing, as opposed to earlier in Holy Week. After seeing it I’m not sure about my choice. While I quite love the work and this production, it’s a piece of theatre, and not to be confused with something religious like a mass.

While there is much to admire in this presentation I’ll begin with the set, as it conditions our experience before the show even starts, calling attention to resident set designer Gerard Gauci’s creation. You will notice that there are matching pulpits downstage left and right.

The one to our left serves for the Angel, soprano Carla Huhtanen while the one to our right is home base for Lucifer, bass Douglas Williams. For some of us this is a profound echo of our lives in church even if there’s nothing churchy about the set.

The set is a perfect conceptualization of the antagonism in Handel’s score between the Angel and Lucifer, whether the insight originates with Gauci or Stage Director Marshall Pynkoski.

The Angel (Soprano Carla Huhtanen) at the pulpit (photo: Bruce Zinger)
Lucifer (Bass Douglas Williams) at the other pulpit (photo: Bruce Zinger)

The other key locus for action is concealed by that mysterious golden curtain under the stairs. It’s the sepulchre of course, where Jesus’s body lay: and then at the key moment, stood up and departed. While we don’t see it, that’s the drama, the absence that has been witnessed by the two women in this oratorio (Mary Magdelene–soprano Meghan Lindsay and Cleophas–mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy). Gauci has captured an extraordinary amount in his set design.

Opera Atelier resident Set Designer Gerard Gauci

While I was smitten with the production in its film version, the impact of the voices and Tafelmusik Orchestra is that much greater. All five vocal soloists are superb with brilliant moments.

Carla Huhtanen was a properly stern presence as the Angel, yet capable of ironic mockery for her debate opponent, Lucifer. Douglas Williams sounded splendid, boastful but beaten. Meghan Lindsay continues to develop her big dramatic soprano sound, with Allyson McHardy’s smoky mezzo-soprano as a delicious contrast. Colin Ainsworth’s tenor sounded effortless, fluid and clear.

As I said back in 2021 when viewing the film, there can be no objections to an unorthodox production philosophy when applied to an unknown work such as this. Pynkoski and Choreographer Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg employ a great deal of dance throughout to release tension in crucial moments. Jeannette herself dances one of the key moments, a very bold vulnerable choice on her part.

Soprano Meghan Lindsay as Mary Magdalene, and Mezzo-Soprano Allyson McHardy as Cleophas, with Artists of Atelier Ballet and Alexis Basque, Trumpet (photo: Bruce Zinger)

The dramaturgy is a hybrid that works especially well in the intimacy of Koerner Hall. Tafelmusik led by David Fallis sounded especially good in the warmly welcoming acoustic.

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Worship in a Time of Plague: Capella Intima and the Gallery Players of Niagara

Posted on April 5, 2023 by barczablog

Worship in a Time of Plague is a recording project by Capella Intima and the Gallery Players of Niagara.

The title seems especially fitting for Holy Week in 2023, three years into our own pandemic.

The scholarly side of the undertaking can be understood as an exploration of the possible influence of Venetian composers upon Heinrich Schütz, due to his nine month residency in the Republic. As they put it “We have assembled a selection of music to which Schütz would have been introduced in 1629.”

Schütz’s travels clearly made an impression on him. How much?

In this recording juxtaposing the influential Venetians with Schütz, they’ve created a remarkably cohesive whole, as if to suggest that the Venetians’ style was imprinted upon Schütz.

1–Laudate pueri: Giovanni Rovetta
2–Paratum cor meum: Heinrich Schütz
3- In te Domini speravi: Alessandro Grandi
4- Bone Jesu verbum Patris: Alessandro Grandi
5- Dixit Dominus: Stefano Bernardi
6- O quam tu pulchra es: Heinrich Schütz
7- Veni de Libano, amnica mea: Heinrich Schütz
8- Credidi, propter quod locutus sum: Giovanni Rigatti
9- Benedicam Dominum in omne tempore: Heinrich Schütz
10-Exquisivi Dominum: Heinrich Schütz
11- O beate Benedicte: Alessandro Grandi
12- Exultavit cor meum: Heinrich Schütz
13- Angelus ad pastores ait: Antonio Cifra

The liner notes remind us of the challenges church musicians faced in such times, as larger scale performance became difficult or impossible. Smaller scale motets represent a clever solution.

The line notes say
“Schütz returned to Dresden just before the outbreak of plague to which one third of the Republic’s population succumbed.”

The team includes Sheila Dietrich & Lindsay McIntyre, sopranos, Jennifer Enns Modolo, alto, Bud Roach, tenor and Artistic Director (Capella Intima), David Roth and Paul Winkelmans baritones, Julie Baumgartel & Andrew Dicker, violins, Margaret Gay cello and Artistic Director (Gallery Players of Niagara), Jonathan Stuchbery, theorbo, Borys Medicky, organ.

It’s stunning music done with wonderful attention to every detail, every note, every syllable. The music may be new to me but it’s now played every chance I get, in the car or at home.

To obtain click here.

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