Egoyan- Lite

Posted on February 24, 2019 by barczablog

I had another look at the Canadian Opera Company’s Cosi fan tutte tonight, a production that I enjoyed even more this time in its closing performance.

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Tracy Dahl as Despina & Russell Braun as Don Alfonso (photo: Michael Cooper)

Last time I was content to have so much fun & so many laughs, but this time I guess I’m trying to be a bit more analytical, hoping to understand what’s different from five years ago. There are a few possible explanations

  • In this year’s version did Atom Egoyan see the light? Did he decide to be less pretentious? The overbearing images –Frida Kahlo, butterflies & pins to pierce them, and this heavy-handed “school for lovers”—are all still in the design concept, but feel different this time. Or was assistant director Marilyn Gronsdal the real genius behind this incarnation of the opera? (and the reason I like it so much better) If the director was more of a brand-name to sell the production than a real controlling force (as sometimes happens in revivals), perhaps the singers were able to shake off the original directorial concept (as seen in 2014) and bring the opera back closer to its usual tonal colour as a comedy.
  • In this year’s version was the change from Sir Thomas Allen to Russell Braun the necessary catalyst for a lighter reading? When I watched Braun high-five the entire chorus in the curtain call, there was no mistaking the joy in the company. They were having fun, whereas last time there seemed to be something more reverential at work, a pompous self-important tone, either with Sir Thomas or the director. Last time my first laugh was an hour into the opera, at the arrival of Despina. This time I was laughing throughout.  While this is a different sort of role for Braun –it lies lower than his usual baritone parts– I daresay he was phenomenal, and the driving force all night.  It was a pleasure watching him.
  • In this year’s version the women are funnier. Is this the personnel or their direction, I wonder? Wallis Giunta is a talented mezzo-soprano who was terrific last time. But Emily D’Angelo was turned loose in this version, showing a real gift for physical comedy. Last time I recall that Tracy Dahl was more or less on her own as the comic element of a rather serious reading of the opera; this time all three women were funny.

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    (l-r) Kirsten MacKinnon as Fiordiligi & Emily D’Angelo as Dorabella (photo: Michael Cooper)

  • The chorus seem to be smiling more this time. Again, I know they smiled last time, but there was an energy this time, a lightness of foot and a sense of delight. They have a huge amount of work to do, as witnesses & students observing the lessons they’re being taught by Don Alfonso. Braun’s school for lovers? It is a fun place, where Allen’s school seemed more solemn, so thoughtful as to be well, boring! Yes I almost fell asleep a couple of times in 2014.  Not this time.

There are still question-marks, but they’re not for Egoyan or the COC. I love this production but I am reminded as usual: of problems I have with this opera, with the libretto that Lorenzo da Ponte handed Mozart. Oh well, two out of three ain’t bad, considering that Don Giovanni and Nozze di Figaro (the other two operas Da Ponte created with Mozart in that miraculous 5 year period) are arguably the two finest operas of the 18th century. I am still waiting to see a production of Cosi that really balances the genders at the end, holding the men to the same account as the women. Egoyan / Grosdal are busy with other issues, and so at the end we listen to the women apologize, while nowhere do the men really apologize for anything. We come as usual to the “funny” line that always rankles, when Alfonso says “Cosi fan tutte”, a line that surely must apply to the men as well as the women. I have seen productions that aim for more balance than this one.  In this one? the quartet of lovers seem  estranged at the end. So while the music is fabulous and the performances mostly wonderful –especially the quartet of Canadians—it’s not much of a happy ending. But I guess that’s normal for 21st century productions of this opera.

There are a couple of oddities in this reading. We have a scene where we watch the young women drinking to excess, a moment that felt especially odd today with the news about R Kelly. Drunks (the women have consumed seven bottles of wine) and under-age persons (their clothing suggests school-age… maybe it’s just a metaphor?) cannot give consent. Happily I must admit that those two women –Kirsten MacKinnon & D’Angelo especially –are very good at appearing inebriated onstage. In the next scene they are suddenly sober, perhaps because the scene would be very troubling if they were still drunk. But that’s a tiny quibble.

And there’s something in the 2019 director’s note that I don’t understand at all, where Egoyan claims that the women have a parallel wager. Maybe he’s as troubled by the text as I am? My big problem is how this 18th century story parallels a 21st century double standard I’ve seen in some men, who think it’s okay for them to have affairs and adventures while holding their GF or wife to a different standard, to point fingers at any straying they do, while feeling completely empowered to have all sorts of affairs on the side. What I think I see in Da Ponte’s libretto is a critique of women without any comparable critique of the men, perhaps symptomatic of a culture (in the 18th century) holding women to a different standard than the men, and being bold & revolutionary in suggesting that women might be as capable of infidelity as men. The big gesture on the male side is to admit that they were playing a game, that they were messing with the women. Oh how kind of them to admit that they were screwing around. But where’s the admission that everyone is really the same? I think that would be a much more important objective than all the images of bleeding hearts and butterflies.

As a man it bugs me that we got off easy yet again.

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

Look at The Angel Speaks

Posted on February 22, 2019 by barczablog

I’m sharing some lovely photos by Bruce Zinger of last night’s North American premiere of  The Angel Speaks at the ROM, featuring Opera Atelier and select artists of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.

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Baritone Jesse Blumberg sings alongside dancer Tyler Gledhill. To the left you can see violinist & composer Edwin Huizinga towards the back with the orchestra. Felix Deak, viola da gamba, is visible just behind Gledhill. (photo: Bruce Zinger)

Is Opera Atelier perhaps pushing the envelope of what artists do? while they’re thought of as historically informed purveyors of music from centuries gone by, The Angel Speaks required a lot of Jesse Blumberg & Mireille Asselin, the two singers employed in the midst of and as part of a great deal of choreography.  I was thinking about the way music-theatre now looks for the “triple threat” of actor-singer-dancer.  Whether or not other opera companies look for a new mix of talents, Opera Atelier have different expectations.

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Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg, (dancer, choreographer and co-artistic director of Opera Atelier) Juri Hiraoka, Mireille Asselin and Tyler Gledhill (photo: Bruce Zinger)

I don’t think it matters what we call it –between such names as “opera” or “ballet”– so long as it works.

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Violinist & composer Edwin Huizinga beside dancer and choreographer Tyler Gledhill (photo: Bruce Zinger)

The space’s post-modern design that’s a mix of new & old felt ideal for a performance that itself was just such a synthesis of old & new.

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Artists of Atelier Ballet, Mireille Asselin, Jesse Blumberg (Photo: Bruce Zinger)

The space worked rather well for the musical performance. I was surprised at the excellent acoustics, without undue reverb but still quite live, likely due to the beautiful wood floor.

Perhaps we’ll be seeing more concerts, operas, ballets and theatre in this space: the Currelly Galllery at the Royal Ontario Museum.

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Edward Tracz, Juri Hiraoka and Dominic Who (photo: Bruce Zinger)

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

Questions for Kathy Domoney –DAM concerts

Posted on February 22, 2019 by barczablog

Kathy Domoney is the Director of DAM aka Domoney Artists Management who represent artists you may know & love. DAM now begets DAM Concert Opera, putting some of those artists onstage beginning with Rossini’s Le Comte Ory March 2nd at Trinity St Paul’s Centre.

A new producer of opera is always welcome. I wanted to know more, so I asked Kathy some questions.

BB: Are you more like your father or your mother?

Well, I would say I’m a combination of both.

My father was a self-made man, with a grade nine education, who was a mechanic in the Air Force during WW2. He was happy with a drink in his hand, and was an excellent golfer. He enjoyed the outdoor life of fishing and camping and was a terrific card player, too. My father was a born salesman and was manager of the shoe department in Woodwards Department Store in rugged Port Alberni, BC, where we lived til I was 9 years old.

My mother came from a cultured, educated, musical Oak Bay family (the Beckwiths) and was keen to return to Victoria. She spotted an ad for a shoe store for sale in downtown Victoria, so we moved there, opening Domoney Shoes. My mother was a patient, wonderful grade 1 teacher for over 30 years, and gave me my first piano lesson. She was an avid gardener, and loved dance and music, encouraging my studies in voice. My mother was not interested in fashion or the latest styles.

My father was keenly aware of style and trends, and was a dapper dresser. When I was about 20, he offered me the option of taking over Domoney Shoes , but the call of music was stronger, so we sold the business. I applied and was accepted to University of Toronto as a Voice Performance Major. On days when I am less patient, more critical and inclined to say “ you’re doing that wrong”, I can hear the voice of my father, Ben. On days when I think of my mother, I can hear Sheila’s voice saying “ oh, may I show you another way of doing that? ” My father was a savvy businessman, and I spent summers and weekends working with him at our shoe store. I learned a great deal about how to strike up a conversation with complete strangers, how to really listen, and close a sale, how to build trust so that today’s satisfied customer leads to future business. My mother’s ability to coach, encourage and give constructive criticism is something I try to incorporate as an artist manager, when working with my singers on their career development.

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Kathy Domoney

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

The best is sharing the excitement and joys of my artists’ success. The worst is sharing the disappointment of my artists, waiting for “yes, you got the job!”, and dealing with “ no, they don’t want you this time”.

BB: Who do you like to listen to or watch?

I prefer having music in the background, so in my office I generally listen to BBC radio 3. I love their programming, which is generally a terrific range of classical/choral/orchestral music.

As a change of pace, I love to listen to classic jazz (Chet Baker, Jobim, Blossom Dearie) and I love Fado, with Amalia Rodriguez and also Madeleine Peyroux, Melody Gardot, Kat Edmondson…. I am never far from Sinatra and Eileen Farrell, just to revel in their voices and diction, such style! I saw Joan Sutherland and Pavarotti as a teenager, so I have a special fondness for both of these icons…and will gladly spend some quality time with their recordings, too. When I’m driving, I bounce along to Broadway or Met Opera on SiriusXM.

TV and Netflix – I’m currently revelling in Victoria on Masterpiece, and I enjoy many gloomy murder mysteries like Shetland, Endeavour, Maigret, Luther and Vera. I also enjoy current TV shows like This is Us, The Blacklist, How to Get Away with Murder, and never miss Coronation Street.

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

I do wish I had learned to ice skate with more confidence. I was a very timid little child, and afraid of horses, swimming, how to ride a bike, I never tried skiing….and skating ended when my music lessons took over my busy weekends. Both my parents were skilled at athletic pursuits, and were very patient in helping me overcome my fears.

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

When I need a break from a typical work day (writing and replying to dozens of emails, requests for auditions, editing artists’ bios, contacting organizations about auditions, discussing repertoire with singers, negotiating engagement details, planning auditions, completing contracts for artists, updating social media for artists’ performances) I can happily relax with watching Love it or List it Vancouver, or Say Yes to the Dress. Watching other people shop – whether for houses or dresses – is very entertaining!
When I’m not on the road, I love my little city garden, so from spring to fall I am happy to plan and putter in my flower garden. When I travel to see my artists perform, I always look for a local museum/art gallery, stately home or botanical garden to visit in between performances and meetings. This spring, I will be in London UK, and can’t wait to visit the Dior exhibit at Victoria and Albert Museum as well as the Chelsea Flower show.

*******

More questions for Kathy Domoney and the upcoming presentation of Le Comte Ory by DAM Concert Opera on March 2nd.

BB: Who are you, KD? Tell us about your background that leads to DAM Concert Opera.

My singing career was a very enjoyable blend of staged opera, concert opera, song recitals and oratorio with orchestras and choirs. I was privileged to sing with some wonderful colleagues at the Canadian Opera Company, the Aldeburgh Connection, Tafelmusik, Opera Atelier, at the National Arts Centre, with Metropolitan Opera Guild in New York, and as a guest soloist with many of Canada’s orchestras, from Victoria to Ottawa in a wide range of range of music from baroque era to world premieres.

BB: Talk about the artists that we’ll be hearing in Le Comte Ory

I am lucky to have artists on my roster who excel in the specific vocal demands of Rossini – namely, dazzling fast notes , easy high notes, a beautiful legato line, as well as a keen sense of comedic acting in opera.

Asitha Tennekoon stars in the title role as Count Ory, who is has all of these qualities. Ian Ritchie commented on Asitha’s “ boundless strings of high notes, a dazzling virtuoso display of impossibly quick runs” (Bound, Against the Grain Theatre). Asitha recently debuted in Champion with Opera de Montreal, and is well-known to Toronto audiences for his impressive performances with Tapestry Opera, Opera 5 and Voicebox: Opera in Concert. He debuts with Toronto Mendelssohn Choir in Haydn’s Mass in Time of War and sings his first Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion with Ottawa Choral Society and joins the cast of Tapestry Opera and Opera on the Avalon’s premiere of Shanawdithit.

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Tenor Asitha Tennekoon (photo: Dahlia Katz)

Caitlin Wood stars as Countess Adele, having recently sung Adele the lowly chambermaid in Die Fledermaus with Toronto Operetta Theatre, where she “exploded with personality – and thrilling ring – each time she sang” (Greg Finney, Schmopera). Caitlin earned rave reviews as Susanna in Marriage of Figaro with Vancouver Opera Festival and this season sings Carmina Burana with Ottawa Choral Society and rocks out to Abba Mia! at Westben Festival this summer. In 2020, Caitlin sings her first Cunegonde with Edmonton Opera’s Candide.

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Caitlin Wood as Clorinda, La Cenerentola Edmonton Opera (photo: Nanc Price)

Marjorie Maltais first came to the attention of Toronto audiences in 2015 at COC Centre Stage Competition, where she “ wowed us with a stunning Cenerentola….fiery eyes…remarkable coloratura” (Greg Finney, Schmopera). Noted for her performance as Cherubino with Voicebox:Opera in Concert in Mercadente’s I Due Figaro and as Mrs. Goby in The Medium with Victory Hall Opera in Charlottesville, Virginia, Marjorie premieres Ian Cusson’s song cycle Le Récital des Anges at Canadian Opera Company’s Noon Hour Recital Series on March 5, and is a guest artist with Les Boreades/St. Lawrence Choir in Bach Cantatas at Salle Bourgie, Montreal. In June, Marjorie will perform in “Versailles: Portrait of a Royal Domain”, featuring operas by Charpentier/Lalande in her debut with Boston Early Music Festival .

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Mezzo-soprano Marjorie Maltais

Joining this formidable cast are two established singers, baritone Dion Mazerolle as the Gouverneur, and Maria Soulis, as Dame Ragonde. Dion recently sang the role of Giorgio Germont in La Traviata with Societe d’art Lyrique de Royaume in Chicoutimi, Quebec, Bach’s B Minor Mass with Montreal’s Ensemble Caprice, and will be making his debut with Against the Grain Theatre in their production of Vivier’s Kopernikus . Mezzo soprano Maria Soulis recently portrayed the Mayor’s Wife in Jenufa with Pacific Opera Victoria, as well as Clara in Tapestry Opera’s Oksana G, and this season sings Respighi’s Il Tramonto with Toronto Sinfonietta and in concert with Harbourfront Music Garden.

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Baritone Clarence Frazer

Baritone Clarence Frazer rounds out the cast as Raimbaud, having recently sung Marcello in La boheme with Saskatoon Opera. Highlights this season for Clarence include Handel’s Israel in Egypt with Ottawa’s Caelis Academy Ensemble, Mozart Requiem with Windsor Symphony, and Shanawdithit with Tapestry Opera/Opera on the Avalon, as well as Antonio/Figaro(Understudy) in National Arts Centre’s concert performances of Le Nozze di Figaro.
I am always keen to showcase my wonderful roster of singers – depending on schedules and availability, we may indeed present another concert opera next season.

Stay tuned!

BB: how did you get the idea for DAM (Domoney Artists Management) Concert Opera, to present Le Comte Ory (why this opera)? And tell us how you’ll be presenting Le Comte Ory

When Caitlin Wood was invited to sing Adele in Le Comte Ory with Edmonton Opera, and Asitha was asked to come understudy John Tessier in the title role, it just made sense to me to give both of these singers a chance to “ try out” these roles, and for Toronto audiences to have a chance to see them. I do like to create events and putting on my “ Impresario” hat on occasion – a few years ago, I wrote and produced The Star of Robbie Burns, and thought it would be fun to share this beautiful music with a curious audience. I have fond memories of singing in the chorus of the COC production at the Elgin Theatre in 1994, and it has been a real joy to re-acquaint myself with this opera.

One summer, I saw François Racine direct Le Tragedie de Carmen at Highlands Opera Studio and I was absolutely enthralled. I have a vivid memory of all the cast standing still on stage at the beginning, as he talked and walked around each singer – explaining their personality, their wants and desires, as well as their relationship to each character in the opera, and sometimes speaking to them directly. I tucked that image away, and when the idea began to develop about producing a concert version of Le Comte Ory, I knew immediately that François and his style of “Interactive narration” was exactly what I wanted to present.

This will be a night of storytelling , with François leading the audience through the silly plot and scenes. We have eliminated the womens’ chorus and a few small roles, kept a small male chorus and are focusing on the main arias/duets/ensembles for the singers. We will enhance it all with a few props and costume elements to give a stronger sense of what is happening, with whom, and where in the castle.

The singers will be using their scores, sometimes carried in their hands, or on a music stand, and singing in French, with Nicole Bellamy (music director), leading from the piano.

The audience can just sit back and listen and watch – no need to look at surtitles, or read program notes/synopsis….it is all about watching the fun and enjoying the magnificent singing.

It is entirely possible that we may present another DAM Concert Opera in the future…it depends on timing, availability of artists, and finding appealing repertoire to best showcase my artists. I do believe that audiences will really enjoy this style of presenting, with a host/narrator.

We chose Le Comte Ory for a combination of reasons – primarily to give Caitlin and Asitha a chance to perform it before singing it in Edmonton; it has some of the most gorgeous music; my other singers had a window of availability to sing the other roles; it is a silly, fun story, and after our long winter, I think comedy is especially enjoyable to see. I am excited to give Toronto audiences a taste of this fresh, entertaining way to present opera.

I remember it being absolutely fun, with lots of silly stage business …and exquisite floating moments of the most sublime singing, to counter the comedic scenes.
I will share an anecdote – at a staging rehearsal at the Elgin Theatre, all of the women were kneeling with heads bowed in the scene and from above, a crescent moon was supposed to gently float down. Well, due to some mishap, the floating became a crash, and it landed on the head of the lead soprano, knocking her over…she who was not seriously injured, but promptly left the production and was replaced.

Live theatre is always an adventure!

BB: are there any influences you would care to mention?

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Bruce Ubukata

Oh, so many people…I would say I was very lucky to have studied voice with sensible teachers as a teen in Victoria (Kathleen Paulin, Frances James)and Edward Parker, piano. It was such a privilege to have Bruce Ubukata as my studio pianist and recital partner when I studied with Helen Simmie at UofT; I was extremely fortunate to spend a summer at Banff Centre as Nanetta in Falstaff, directed by Colin Graham, and to be coached by Evelyn Lear and Donald Palumbo. Don Tarnawski was a demanding but wonderful coach, and I was always VERY prepared as a soloist, thanks to his insight. When I left my singing career and was considering this new direction as an Artist Manager, I consulted several colleagues about this crazy business…and know that I can ask for input from these same people anytime.

I would like to say that I owe a great deal to both my parents, who were so encouraging and helpful, in urging me try new things, and to overcome my fears and gain confidence, which we all need to thrive in today’s demanding world.

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DAM Concert Opera presents Rossini’s Le Comte Ory March 2nd at Trinity St Paul’s Centre at 7:30 p.m. Click here for ticket info.

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The Angel Speaks

Posted on February 22, 2019 by barczablog

Tonight I was present at the North American Premiere of The Angel Speaks, a program of several works in several styles from Opera Atelier in a single performance for a small audience at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Would we call it opera?  The word takes many forms and shapes.  I think tonight I wanted to call them “Ballet Atelier”, this company who foreground dance, and whose identity is more rooted in movement vocabularies & physical appearance than in anything you’d find in a score or a libretto.

As Opera Atelier co-artistic director Marshall Pynkoski explained it in his introduction The Angel Speaks, the work we saw tonight, is part of a longer development process. It was a pleasant unveiling, entirely in the right place.

We were watching the performance in the Samuel Hall Currelly Gallery of the Royal Ontario Museum, in a space with the same foot print as the chapel space in Versailles (where I think the work was premiered, if I understood what Pynkoski was telling us).

Speaking of footprint…!

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Dinos in the dark…. exchanging glances

…we were in the presence of old and new, the building a post-modern juxtaposition of styles, the dinosaurs as the most ancient witnesses.  The dance was both the baroque we’ve seen before from Opera Atelier and something new, as Tyler Gledhill spent a great deal of time on the floor. The scores were from Henry Purcell but also new ones from baroque violinist Edwin Huizinga, tuneful pieces that are not out of place in such a program or in the midst of a baroque program. It’s the ultimate challenge to a composer to put their new work alongside brilliant compositions that have endured for centuries: a test Huizinga passed. His music is mostly melodic, at times reminding me of Vivaldi in the frenetic solo passages for his violin –that he played himself—while in others, channeling a minimalist mix of Erik Satie & Philip Glass, gentle pattern music that easily held the stage and the audience.

While there was singing, I felt we were more in the realm of dance than opera, as the singing was often self-conscious rather than dramatized, a very theatrical presentation that did not call forth much in the way of a dramatic illusion. Baritone Jesse Blumberg started us off with Purcell’s beautiful “Music for Awhile”. I looked across the space at the audience, not sure if they were getting the text, especially when we come to the magical phrase “Till the snakes drop…..drop…. drop…. from her head, And the whip from out her hands.” Purcell’s composition really sounds like something is dropping when we hear those words.  Blumberg delicately began the opening phrase on the threshold of our hearing.

Huizinga’s setting of Rilke’s “Annunciation” seems to be the heart of the piece. Here’s a bit from the program note:

In the process of turning this poem into a dramatic cantata, we have developed a loose, expressionistic plot line that focuses on the angel Gabriel, rather than the Virgin. Gabriel’s confusion, disorientation and gradual recognition of his mission provides exceptional fodder for accompanied recitative. It also allows for the opportunity of writing for two voices—soprano and baritone—from distinct worlds. The angel Gabriel is able to see the Virgin; he circles her,, touches her and explores the sensation of awe she inspires. She, in turn is unable to see the angel-but mesmerically repeats selections of his words and key phrases, as though speaking in a dream. At the conclusion, Gabriel is drawn back into his true element and the Virgin is left standing alone. She is like an icon or jewel—exquisite but unaware of its own brilliance.

While the objective may be operatic, so far the dance & the music are the most advanced in this project, and clearly in the foreground of what we saw, as so far the dramatization is in the movement + music less than in some treatment of the text via the singing.   Most of what we heard and saw was very beautiful all the same.

I will sound like a bit of a school-marm when I say that I had one objection. But the closing piece, sung exquisitely by Mireille Assselin (who was perfection throughout) was mis-used if not abused. I’m speaking of Purcell’s “An Evening Hymn”, a favourite of mine and one of the most genuine & sincere addresses to the creator that I’ve ever encountered, since I stumbled upon it on Michael Slattery’s The People’s Purcell CD last summer, a phenomenal piece of writing. It’s such a simple thing, as though the singer were talking to God. And so it began wonderfully in a solo, that turned into background music while the entire company danced to it. Sorry, but the choreography cheapens and arguably perverts the spirituality in this music. Okay it’s an experiment, and hopefully they will notice this glaring shift of tone, hopefully noting that what does or does not work. No one is asking me, but I’d suggest that they either permit Asselin to sing the hymn to its conclusion, perhaps at the beginning rather than the end (when the prayerful quality of the piece takes us deep into the heart of everything Rilke would want to invoke), and if the full ballet must take the stage to end, then finish with a secular piece such as the excerpt from Come Ye Sons of Art.

But the baroque music—a bit of Boyce and a whole lot more Purcell—was stunning throughout from a few members of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Asselin & Blumberg.

I’ll be intrigued to see what comes of this experiment. So far so good.

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

Paolozzapedia

Posted on February 21, 2019 by barczablog

Commedia dell’Arte is a living theatre language. In Paolozzapedia, Adam Paolozza’s new meditation upon his heritage & influences, a Bad New Days Production with the support of Theatre Passe Muraille, that opened tonight at TPM, we get one of the freshest & most vivid uses of the CdA vocabulary I can ever recall.  If you study CdA one reads textbooks full of pictures & characters & comic routines. In the theatre it can lead one into something so respectful as to suggest a museum or a mausoleum: which is ironic for a medium that existed for centuries without benefit of books or texts but rather in a realm of improvisation.  Tonight it felt brand new.

What I love about CdA at its best is the escape from text into something spontaneously physical and instantaneous in the moment. But it doesn’t have to be funny, it doesn’t have to be comical at all. There’s wonderful poignancy in the masked figures, astonishing moments of universality: as we experienced tonight.

The title is very ironic, I think. There is no book, no “Paolozzapedia” full of the aspects of what it is to be a Paolozza, and certainly not in a show that was so spare and clean. Yes we did explore Adam’s family background, his Italian culture via Oshawa. In a month where I’ve seen the profoundly dysfunctional family dynamics of Elektra and Hamlet it’s refreshing to be in a place of love. Adam creates several moments of great beauty without straining a muscle, and without making us strain ourselves either.

We could smell pasta sauce cooking, a simple visceral effect to suggest Italian culture.

Adam shares the stage with Maddie Bautista, Eduardo Dimartino, Christina Serra & Matt Smith, who are at times masked, at times wielding puppets of various sizes. Co-directed by Kari Pederson, we are in a very theatrical realm, stories being told or hinted at.  Sometimes nothing more than a gesture was needed, filling the space & holding our attention.

Adam’s world straddles two places as he told us. One is the old world, Naples Italy where his family originated, a place of influence and a natural connection to the CdA, the Pulcinella masques we see on the performers.

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Adam Paolozza holding two of the beautiful hand-made masks we saw in Paolozzapedia

And the other is Oshawa, where he grew up, where his family lives now. We’re poised in the space between the two, between long ago and now, between Europe and suburban Ontario, a cultural blend that’s quintessentially Canadian, a hyphenated hybrid.

We’re taken on an exploration of Adam’s cultural background. We discover that part of his inspiration came from a stroke his father suffered, the intimations of mortality.
I am impressed by the way some performers can effortlessly capture our attention. Adam has the most relaxed and self-assured way onstage, without requiring a big complex story. I am reminded of some of the best comedy I’ve seen, which is made from the most mundane & concrete aspects of life, not profundities or abstractions. And in the moments confronting the little nothings, transcendence blindsides you with something deep. The hardest thing is to make something of nothing, and often that’s exactly what we’re doing, the Paolozzapedia being a book of little moments & minutiae, not big issues. It’s a huge relief to be in such a simple place.

Paolozzapedia continues at Theatre Passe Muraille until March 3rd. I recommend that you see it while you can.

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

Elektra again

Posted on February 17, 2019 by barczablog

Today I had a second chance to see & hear the Canadian Opera Company’s Elektra at the Four Seasons Centre. It was so much better for me the second time, possibly because I was sitting closer. That first time (from a distance) I was quibbling with the stage picture & the directorial concept (which seemed to be at odds with the work), the way voices carried over the orchestra (sometimes not so well) and especially the one performer I singled out last time. In hindsight maybe what I thought I heard before was someone being careful? or fighting a cold? This time I saw and heard complete abandon & commitment putting any worries I had to rest.

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Elektra (Christine Goerke) welcomes Aegisth (Michael Schade) home. (photo: Michael Cooper)

Up close, the intensity of the performances swallowed us whole, as we were carried away both by the sounds of the orchestra—and the pleasures of watching Maestro Debus at work—as well as the high calibre of the singing. I still dislike the concept, but up close it doesn’t matter so much, not when the stars are in your face. Objections vanish when the music overpowers dramatic logic.

Last time I felt that Erin Wall’s Chrysothemis more or less made me forget everyone else sharing the stage. I was very moved by her personal drama (if you’ve not heard click here), thrilled to see her back with so much voice & presence. There was an authenticity to what she was doing that dwarfed everyone else. Today Christine Goerke was not just her peer, but the star of the show: as we would expect. I heard the kind of mastery from her today that we had experienced previously in the three seasons of Wagner. I recall the difference across the run of Götterdämmerung, from a fascinating but careful performance early in the run to something so confident as to have a kind of swagger to it. Similarly, her opening show seemed somewhat tentative, whereas today the portrayal was so much more fun, so much more complete. She was Elektra in other words.

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Erin Wall as Chrysothemis (foreground) and Christine Goerke as Elektra in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Elektra, 2019 (photo: Michael Cooper)

The stage was packed full of great singers, many of them Canadian. While Susan Bullock can sometimes sound wonderful I think she was miscast as Klytemnestra, upending the show for me. The role that needs to be the monster of ceremonies, the designated target of our hatred, was sometimes inaudible, sometimes seeming like a mom displeased with her child rather than an unrepentant killer. I am again speaking of the scale and intensity of the performance, which was fairly good by most standards. But as I said in my previous review I need to hate this character to go with the story’s flow: the ecstasy that can be felt in the score upon her murder. I don’t want to be pondering whether Orest & Elektra are bad people for killing her. It needs to be clear beyond question (or do you think this is a legitimate interpretive arc the director could take for the opera? in which case we’re not likely to agree).  She reminded me of Placido Domingo, the tenor without high-notes singing baritone roles, taking work away from capable baritones; please follow the analogy. Jill Grove was a tower of strength as the First Maid: but really could have been our Klytemnestra. No she’s not Canadian, she’s a Texan (in case you think I’m beating that drum again) and she was a fabulous Amneris a few years ago. But please excuse me, you may think I should just shut up and enjoy what’s in front of me. Michael Schade as Klytemnestra’s consort Aegisth was even funnier up close (drunkenly picking his nose and wiping his finger on his waistcoat!). And while Wilhelm Schwinghammer was a moving Orest, mostly because of the way Goerke made me care about him this time and not because of anything he did: yes I do wonder if a Canadian could have sung the part as well or better. Owen McCausland was wonderful in his brief role as a servant. The aforementioned Grove, Simona Genga, Lauren Segal, Tracy Cantin, Lauren Eberwein and Alexandra Loutsion gave the opera a strong start in the opening scene.

There’s one more performance on the 22nd that I expect to be even better. Misgivings or not, I’d suggest you see it if you can.  The orchestra and most of the singing are truly fabulous.

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Glimpses of The Eternal Feminine with Barbara Hannigan

Posted on February 15, 2019 by barczablog

When I posted that photo at lunch earlier today from last night’s Toronto Symphony concert, I joked that Barbara Hannigan is a precedent setter. Even so I understated what we saw & heard tonight.

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Soprano Barbara Hannigan, singing & conducting the Toronto Symphony. (photo: Jag Gundu)

With one exception, the five works we heard hang together as a carefully curated study touching in various ways upon the Ewig-weibliche, (or the “eternal feminine”), via Debussy, Sibelius, Berg, and Gershwin. In the middle the TSO presented a Haydn symphony that might have been that proverbial piece of bread to cleanse the palate, although my gosh it might have been the clearest cleanest Haydn I’d ever heard.

I hope the question of Barbara Hannigan’s ability as a conductor has by now been laid to rest. We ran the gamut of styles tonight, including several places where she didn’t just conduct ferociously difficult scores, but at times sang while conducting. Does anyone else do this? I can’t recall unless we’re talking about someone from a popular realm such as Cab Calloway (the first one who comes to mind). Alas classical criticism often is nothing more than a measurement of competence, how fast or how high they went as though singers & instrumentalists were in the Olympics. She must surely pass in that kind of mechanical critique, but please don’t expect me to make that kind of assessment.

I was too busy having fun, and that’s likely true of the orchestra as well.

And so there we were out on our Valentine’s Day date, watching and hearing works that in various ways seem relevant to the day. Debussy’s brief Syrinx began our evening, played by TSO principal flautist Kelly Zimba from a darkened auditorium seated among us in the mezzanine. The program note is longer than the piece, which is perhaps an indication that there was something more ambitious in mind than just a curtain raiser, pointing to the deeper meanings for the work. While Zimba played Debussy’s sinuous line Hannigan quietly entered in the dark through the orchestra. As the piece finished there was a brief pause before the downbeat to begin Sibelius’ Luonnotar, a work for soprano & orchestra.

As with the Debussy, we’re in the realm of a romantic music. This one tells a creation myth in a song that’s a kind of ur-folk music. This was the second of five pieces tonight that were 100% in Hannigan’s head, memorized not only for her role as conductor but also singing.  At times her voice soared, sometimes sighing softly through the gentle accompaniments. She seemed to emerge organically out of the middle of the orchestra, a wonderful symbiosis. You’d never persuade me that the orchestra didn’t love playing with her, from the way they responded to her at the podium throughout the evening.

After the interval came two pieces from roughly the same historical period, that took our study of the female in new directions. Again, I’m mindful of Hannigan the curator, bringing two unexpected voices together. Berg & Gershwin? It’s nowhere near as odd as that might sound when you think about it.   Hannigan’s is the prettiest sounding Berg (Suite from Lulu) I think I’ve ever heard. No really. The internal voices came through with great delicacy, the powerful brass statements dramatic for their contrast, emerging out of soft textures.  While the ensemble is enormous, she resisted the temptation to be loud by default. And this Gershwin is of course an arrangement that plays up similarities, while pushing the most modern of his impulses. After hearing Hannigan singing Lulu & a little bit of Geschwitz, she sang three songs from Girl Crazy in a recent arrangement by Bill Elliott, designed to be heard alongside the Lulu Suite. For the Gershwin the voice was amplified, but the conducting was still very challenging, as Elliott sometimes threw in some odd time-signatures and dissonances. That’s the edgiest Gershwin I’ve ever heard: and it was thrilling.  Hannigan’s conclusion brought the audience to a stirring ovation at the end.

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Barbara Hannigan leading the TSO (photo: Jag Gundu)

And now I hope she makes a recording of this repertoire. I need to hear it again.

Tomorrow the TSO switch gears, as Casablanca moves into Roy Thomson Hall. The ongoing film with live orchestra series appears to be a huge success.

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Barbara Hannigan on Valentine’s Day

Posted on February 14, 2019 by barczablog

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Tonight I’ll be listening to the Toronto Symphony celebrate the day under the leadership of Barbara Hannigan, who will also be singing.

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Soprano Barbara Hannigan, singing & conducting the Toronto Symphony. (photo: Jag Gundu)

Here’s the program:

Debussy: Syrinx for solo flute [3′]
Sibelius: Luonnotar for Soprano and Orchestra [10′]
Haydn: Symphony No. 86 [26′]

Intermission

Berg: Suite from Lulu [32′]
Gershwin/arr. Bill Elliot: Suite from Girl Crazy [13′]

Has anyone ever conducted the Berg suite from Lulu, who has also SUNG the title role in the opera?? That’s quite a unique feat, when you recall how few women conductors there are.
I wonder, has anyone before Hannigan ever sung Luonnotar and conducted it as well? It’s all in the service of art, not to just be the first. But in passing one can’t help noticing that she is indeed a setter of precedents.
We’re on two sides of Valentine’s Day with the Berg & the Gershwin.  Berg in some ways is very true to the real St Valentine, if we think of the martyrdom and violence in his life story.
And if that’s too crazy for you, Gershwin lets us off easy to end the evening.
Posted in Music and musicology, Personal ruminations & essays, Popular music & culture | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

COC fan tutte

Posted on February 10, 2019 by barczablog

Is it really five years ago? Time flies. In January 2014 Atom Egoyan’s production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte had its premiere with the Canadian Opera Company.  I looked back at what I wrote and –after having seen the revival of the production tonight – I wonder. Did I get it wrong? I wrote a lot of very serious language, about the Frida Kahlo painting that at times dominates the stage picture, and about the politics of the production. If the 2019 version of myself could talk to the guy from five years ago I’d tell my younger self to lighten up.

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Frida Kahlo’s painting Two Fridas.

Watching it tonight I laughed a lot. Now let me be clear, Mozart’s comedy is among his darkest works even without Egoyan’s reading, which simply lays the subtext bare. There’s no distortion of what’s in the score.

What I can’t decide is whether tonight’s cast has made this more fun, or if I was simply a pretentious bore in 2014, who missed all the fun that was there 5 years ago.

But never mind.

There’s a great deal of beautiful music in this opera. The COC orchestra sound splendid under conductor Bernard Labadie, tight & clean throughout. A couple of times he left singers in his wake, something I recall when he conducted a COC Magic Flute.  Things did move along swiftly.

There are six soloists in this jewel of an opera, and there’s nowhere to hide. Everyone has their moment, although there’s also a great deal of ensemble singing, while a story must be told in Egoyan’s modern take on da Ponte’s cautionary tale of love & romance. Subtitled “The school for lovers” by the librettist, the romance is a lesson on love. It’s not precisely Hook Up.

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(l-r) Kirsten MacKinnon as Fiordiligi & Emily D’Angelo as Dorabella (photo: Michael Cooper)

In spite of the serious images of bleeding hearts via Frida Kahlo’s The Two Fridas (1939) Egoyan and Associate Director Marilyn Gronsdal have turned the performers loose to be really funny, especially the women: Emily D’Angelo (Dorabella), Kirsten MacKinnon (Fiordiligi) and Tracy Dahl (Despina). Or maybe it’s just that last time they seemed to be the focus of meaning, and appear to be free this time to be much more playful.

The chorus too seemed to be involved in a much more enjoyable exercise (they’re much busier than you would expect from looking at the score!), alongside Russell Braun, their teacher in the “School.” Ah yes I wonder if he’s the key this time? Last time Sir Thomas Allen may have lent the whole thing a gravitas that took it to another place entirely from what Egoyan or da Ponte may have wanted. Braun seemed a whole lot more fun. Does that sound crazy, to be knocking Sir Thomas Allen? But I only know that it felt way more pompous last time, more light-hearted this time.

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Tracy Dahl as Despina & Russell Braun as Don Alfonso (photo: Michael Cooper)

Which isn’t to say that the ending is happy. No, I think we’re very much in tune with the text, but this time it felt genuine and connected to what went before. In 2014 I saw it twice and it just felt long and ponderous. This time –perhaps with credit to Labadie’s pace—it moves more like a comedy, dark though the ending might be.

Where last time Tracy Dahl (the sole hold-over from 2014) was the occasion for the first smile to cross my face when she appeared, and the star of that show, this time it was different, as Braun and the two sisters gave us some laughs too. MacKinnon sang beautifully. D’Angelo is an exciting performer with genuine star quality, that she’ll bring to Rosina next season. Ben Bliss (Ferrando) and Johannes Kammler (Guglielmo) were also quite lovely to listen to, although their roles in the comedy are less pointed in Egoyan’s interpretation.

Cosi fan tutte continues until Feb 23rd at the Four Seasons Centre.

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The Adaptation of Prince Hamlet

Posted on February 9, 2019 by barczablog

Do you ever need a tragedy? Sometimes I think we can be so burdened by the troubles of our own lives and the stories we hear from others, that we hunger for catharsis. I can’t be objective about the show I saw tonight, because I was starving for something, overwhelmed by the firestorm I started this week, by so many emotional people coming to me and sharing their stories. All I know is that tonight I cried in several places, laughed in several others, and came out feeling as refreshed as if I’d had a workout and a long hot shower, cleansed and refreshed and energized.

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Player Queen-Hannah Miller, Player King- Miriam Fernandes, Christine Horne as Hamlet upstage, Rick Roberts & Karen Robinson watch the show (photo: Bronwen Sharp)

Prince Hamlet is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy from Why Not Theatre, at the Berkeley St space of Canadian Stage. It’s been seen before, but I missed it last time, and now I see why it was so celebrated.  My admiration is combined with a need to understand, perhaps a bit like the drinker trying to replicate the deliciousness that permeates the taste buds and haunts the memory.

Opera lovers know this feeling, when you’ve come to a familiar work and see something that’s close enough to the original to allow you to see through it, seeing what’s overlaid decorating and embellishing the framework we need to recognize the story. I can’t decide what’s more enticing, between the moments when we get the parts we know, such as “to be or not to be” or the places where we’re denied the expected line and get something just a bit different, as in the final speech.

It’s a team effort, and so I want to be certain I give credit, as there’s much credit to be shared. Ravi Jain is the adapter & director. Dawn Jani Birley is credited as ASL & Visual translation, as well as playing the role of Horatio. Now you must imagine if you will, that you’re getting Hamlet in two languages: English but also American Sign Language. When I first heard of this my head cocked at a funny angle, like one of those dogs who doesn’t understand his master’s directions. I wondered what this could be like.

The reason I put the preamble on there about how much I needed this and how perfectly it filled me up and made me laugh and cry is necessary, because I want to calibrate my response. Is this really the best thing I’ve seen this year? Maybe.  Or am I just raw and emotional from this week? I think, though that yes, it really is that good, that I was just lucky, like a hungry guy stumbling upon a really great restaurant in his moment of hunger.

And so at times we are in a realm that seems genuinely operatic. There’s a tiny bit of music from Thomas Ryder Payne, that is often subliminal or barely noticeable –except of course to musicians or nerds like myself—adding a wonderful depth to the proceedings. But when I speak of this as operatic I mean in the sense of the broadening of emotions that we get with opera. We’re in the presence of big ideas and big emotions, on a stage where nothing is really held back, where several performers grab the stage and make the most of their moment. I’ve seen quite a few Hamlets in the past few years, and this one is by far the most successful precisely because it’s an adaptation, a departure from the original into something else: allowing every character to have their perfect moment.

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Christine Horne (photo: Bronwen Sharp)

I can’t decide who I like better between Christine Horne’s Hamlet and Birley’s ASL Horatio. I think I am blown away with admiration for Horne’s work, while I love what Birley did –and I say that with a quaver in my voice like someone who is heart-broken that I can’t stay in that place where she took me tonight, beautiful beyond words.

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Dawn Jani Birley (photo: Bronwen Sharp)

This is a very energetic passionate Hamlet. Because of the ASL we’re in a very meta-theatrical place, automatically in a show within a show, due to the omnipresent mediation efforts of Birley: although I think everyone in the show does some ASL as part of their performance. It really is bilingual. Yet we’re not in a rhetorically Shakespearean place, no sense of set-pieces, of structure and fights and artifice. For one reason or another –that I’ll attempt to figure out as I ponder the show—everything moves with fluidity. I guess that’s Jain’s adaptation, brilliantly seguing from scene to scene without much ado, with little effort.

Several moments in the show represent original treatments of parts of Hamlet, that I need to approach gingerly so as to avoid being a spoiler (although many of you must have seen it when it was done last time). I don’t like it when a critic ruins something by doing the lazy thing and describing what they saw, and in the process sucking the energy out of it by helping the audience know what to expect.

“To be or not to be” is unlike any I’ve encountered. When it erupts out of its scene it is the most natural and organic version, not least because Horne propels it right into our faces. I started to cry as I wondered about a young woman pondering suicide.  I perceived her as a woman playing Prince Hamlet, so at this point relatively early in the show, I still perceived her as female… later? The gender seems to vanish.  It’s not like any reading of the speech I’ve ever found. Compelling, urgent, and not at all like a soliloquy but rather like a seamless part of the play. Wow. And yes Horne is so good, delivering zillions of lines (it’s a huge part) without any sign of effort and then on top of that she’s also signing much of her part as well.

But just when you thought I was going to tell you how huge her part is, well I must talk about Birley, who is signing throughout, sometimes in response, sometimes? Venturing into something else like interpretative dance. Or so it seemed. There are places where the English lines are missing but because we know so much of the play, it doesn’t matter.
It’s so beautiful, pardon me I’m stunned, a Hamlet like no other. Forgive me, I’m trying desperately to find words for something so sublime and so beautiful.

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From left: Dawn Jani Birley, Rick Roberts and Christine Horne (photo: Bronwen Sharp)

But there were laughs too. At times the ASL allows members of the cast to suddenly retreat into something that’s not English, a game that Hamlet plays a couple of times as part of his madness. We are in a realm where comprehension might be a struggle. Is that really a ghost? What does that mean for the life one is leading? Language fails in the presence of such questions. We watch Hamlet investigate the meaning of life and later, watch Claudius soliloquizing about prayer before a mirror (whereby we see his struggle): the most poignant and powerful version of that speech I’ve ever seen; thank you Rick Roberts for making me cry. We see the most playful & enjoyable gravedigger of Miriam Fernandes , setting up some wonderful & poignant moments. We don’t need a skull to be confronted with the mortality of Yorick, nor by implication, that of Hamlet, Laertes or Ophelia. I am a sucker for Laertes’s passion, especially vulnerable in the portrayal of Khadijah Roberts—Abdullah, another moment when I was blind-sided by tears.

And Birley totally destroyed me at the end.

Prince Hamlet continues until February 24th at Berkeley St Theatre.

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