Tag Archives: Richard Wagner

Tafelmusik and Jakob Lehmann introduce us to Sophie Gail, Louise Farrenc and also Beethoven

Posted on September 26, 2026 by barczablog

The Tafelmusik concert I heard Friday night at Koerner Hall makes an interesting chaser to the Toronto Symphony Concert I saw Thursday, my previous lengthy rapturous review. Yes there’s a lot going on in Toronto, and these two concerts on … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Bruno Weil, David Fallis, Felix Mendelssohn, gender, Hector Berlioz, Jakob Lehmann, Jan Lisiecki, Koerner Hall, Linda Catlin Smith, Louise Farrenc, Ludwig van Beethoven, Patrick Jordan, Richard Wagner, Sophie Gail, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, women composers, Yuja Wang | 2 Comments

Guest blog: a Postcard from Bayreuth

Posted on August 28, 2026 by barczablog

This guest blog is written by Canadian Margarete Von Vaight: her Postcard from the 150th anniversary Bayreuth Festival. What happens when you travel to Bayreuth to see The Ring and discover there is no ring? No gold. No sword. No … Continue reading →

Posted in guest blog, Opera | Tagged A.I., AI, Angela Merkel, Artificial Intelligence, Bayreuth, Camilla Nylund, Canada, Christian Thielemann, Das Rheingold, Denmark, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Die Walküre, experiment, Götterdämmerung, innovation, Klaus Florian Vogt, Magnus Vigilius, Margarete von Vaight, Michael Volle, music, Richard Wagner, Rienzi, Ring 10010110 - From Myth to Code, Siegfried, technology, University of Toronto | 14 Comments

Digging into cinematic culture with Maria Dueñas, Gustavo Gimeno & the Toronto Symphony

Posted on June 7, 2026 by barczablog

In a week when every item in the Toronto Symphony’s concert program has a connection to film, it was amazing to see such a remarkable variety, the many different ways music and movies can be connected. And the results were … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Reviews, University life | Tagged 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bekah Simms, Beneath the Twelve Mile Reef, Bernard Herrmann, cinema, classical-music, Dennis Christopher, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Fahrenheit 451, Felix Mendelssohn, film music, Gustavo Gimeno, Gyorgy Ligeti, Hollywood Sound, John Mauceri, John Williams, leit-motiv, Maria Dueñas, Masterworks, Max Steiner, Nostalgie, Richard Wagner, Rodney Dangerfield, Samy Moussa, Steven Reineke, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Toronto Symphony | Leave a comment

Co-existing worlds of Epic Wagnerian Toronto Symphony

Posted on May 15, 2026 by barczablog

Thursday night the Toronto Symphony showed us they could blend Western & non-Western cultural traditions. When Gustavo Gimeno spoke in his program note of the imminent arrival of thousands from abroad into our city for the FIFA matches, he spoke … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Reviews | Tagged Abel Selaocoe, Bernard Herrmann, classical-music, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Gustavo Gimeno, improvisation, Jessie Montgomery, Lorin Maazel, Richard Wagner, Ring Without Words, Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto Symphony | Leave a comment

Ugly crying at Yuval Sharon’s brilliant Tristan und Isolde from the Metropolitan Opera

Posted on March 23, 2026 by barczablog

Saturday March 21st I was among the viewers in a Scarborough Cineplex watching and listening to the Metropolitan Opera high definition broadcast of Tristan und Isolde directed by Yuval Sharon, conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin. At least as far as the … Continue reading →

Posted in Opera, Reviews | Tagged Cineplex, classical-music, Gary Halvorson, Jon Vickers, Liebestod, Lise Davidsen, Metropolitan Opera Company, Metropolitan Opera High Definition Broadcast, Michael Spyres, music, Norman Lebrecht, opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, Richard Wagner, Tomasz Konieczny, Tristan und Isolde, Yannick Nezet-seguin, Yuja Wang, Yuval sharon | 4 Comments

One of Joyce Wieland’s paintings

Posted on December 31, 2025 by barczablog

Zoe and I walked through the many wonderful pieces displayed in Joyce Wieland’s show Heart On, running at the AGO until Sunday January 4th. The conversations I have been having with Zoe about criticism can feel different depending on where … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Opera | Tagged AGO, Art Gallery of Ontario, Das Rheingold, feminist, Heart On, Joyce Wieland, nationalist, Richard Wagner, Shaping Matter, Toronto Wagner Society | Leave a comment

Kyle and Corey reflect on the Lion-hearted King and the operas telling their stories

Posted on November 4, 2025 by barczablog

Kyle & Corey, as in Kyle Derek Mcdonald and Corey Arnold are the two creators of The Lion Heart, an opera being presented in concert in Ottawa November 15-16, one of several things they’re doing. I wanted to ask Kyle … Continue reading →

Posted in Dance, theatre & musicals, Interviews, Opera | Tagged classical-music, Corey Arnold, Ethandun, Kyle Derek McDonald, Kyle McDonald, Mathew Li, music, Philip Klaassen, Possession, Richard I, Richard Wagner, Samuel Andreyev, Scott Thompson, The Lion Heart, theatre, William G. Carpenter | Leave a comment

Robert Lepage’s Macbeth at Stratford

Posted on September 6, 2025 by barczablog

Bruce asked me whether the Scottish play is worth seeing. I had seen it from the front row, able to see every detail of the complex presentation in the Avon Theatre, less Shakespeare’s immortal play than Robert Lepage’s Macbeth. YMMV … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Architecture & Design, Dance, theatre & musicals, Opera, Reviews | Tagged 887, Avon Theatre, Bertold Brecht, Bluebeard's Castle, Canadian Opera Company, Eonnagata, erwartung, Ex Machina, Gesamtkunstwerk, John Gzowski, Lucy Peacock, Macbeth, Needles and Opium, Richard Wagner, Robert Lepage, Stratford Festival, The Tempest, Tom McCamus, Verfremdungseffekt, William Shakespeare, YMMV | 2 Comments

Inside the Cabinet Full of Curiosities 2, to be randomly presented by Apocryphonia

Posted on May 29, 2025 by barczablog

June 8th Apocryphonia will present a concert at Heliconian Hall titled “A Cabinet Full of Curiosities 2”. As the program says “an eclectic mix of classical music from around the world performed entirely at random!” Alex Cappellazzo, and his Apocryphonia … Continue reading →

Posted in Music and musicology, Press Releases and Announcements | Tagged Alexander Cappellazzo, Apocryphonia, Cabinet of Curiosities, classical-music, Claude Debussy, embedded journalist, Franz Liszt, Heliconian Hall, Liebestod, music, Nuages, orchestra, pianist, piano, piano transcriptions, random, Richard Wagner | Leave a comment

Thinking about Richard Strauss’s death in 1949

Posted on August 29, 2024 by barczablog

On September 8, 1949 composer and conductor Richard Strauss died after a long productive life. I think of him as a romantic composer carrying on the stylistic traditions of Richard Wagner. In Salome and Elektra he was the modernist pushing … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, video & DVDs, Music and musicology, Opera, Personal ruminations & essays | Tagged Akhnaten, Ariadne auf Naxos, Bill Shookhoff, Claude Debussy, Franz Liszt, Hart House, Mathieu Marcil, Percy Grainger, Philip Glass, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Salome, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Venus in Furs | Leave a comment