Tag Archives: Robert Lepage

Last Werther to end an era

Posted on May 25, 2026 by barczablog

The matinee of Werther Saturday May 23rd to end the current Canadian Opera Company Spring Season was not without a bit of ceremony. At the end of the curtain call, Music Director Johannes Debus brought out a microphone and began … Continue reading →

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Five composers in two days? If it’s Sunday it must be bel canto romance

Posted on May 19, 2026 by barczablog

I feel like an operatic sausage. I’m stuffed a lot into this post, having jammed too much opera into my head in a brief period of time. Talk about contrast! Saturday was the closing performance of the Lepage Bluebeard-Erwartung double … Continue reading →

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Tragedy of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark from Shakespeare, Lepage, Côté and Gzowski

Posted on April 26, 2026 by barczablog

The run is so brief as to make this review seem pointless. Friday night I saw the opening of the Tragedy of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark. My blog may be done by Saturday, but anyone seeing a weekend showing already … Continue reading →

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Room of Keys with David James Brock and Adam Sherkin playing Béla Bartók

Posted on April 10, 2026 by barczablog

Room of Keys is a sort of sacred mystery play. I don’t throw that M word out there in the spirit of a whodunnit so much as the old sacred pre-Shakespearean plays that would stage a small Biblical episode. No … Continue reading →

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Anticipating David James Brock’s upcoming Room of Keys: an interview

Posted on April 2, 2026 by barczablog

Room of Keys is David James Brock’s one act play, created with Adam Sherkin of Piano Lunaire, inspired by Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle (1918). It’s natural that a mysterious symbolist play invites exploration. As with the piano paraphrases of La … Continue reading →

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A closer look at the COC’s zany Barber of Seville

Posted on February 22, 2026 by barczablog

Your tickets to the opera really are a case of “location location location”. When I saw the Canadian Opera Company’s Barber of Seville two weeks ago seated in the middle of the downstairs at the Four Seasons Centre, yes I … Continue reading →

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Accompanying Lepage to The Far Side of the Moon

Posted on December 24, 2025 by barczablog

Sometimes my need to explain myself leads to huge introductions that may confuse or perplex, pre-ambulations that happen both on foot and in the words of the blog. As 2025 closes I escaped into recreation at the Red Sandcastle Theatre, … Continue reading →

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The Far Side of the Moon takes us into Robert Lepage

Posted on November 2, 2025 by barczablog

If you are a fan of theatrical presentations, brilliant design and innovative stage techniques you must get a ticket to see Far Side of the Moon by Robert Lepage / Ex Machina at the Bluma Appel Theatre until November 16th. … Continue reading →

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COC’s highly original Roméo et Juliette

Posted on October 6, 2025 by barczablog

It might be the best-known of all Shakespeare stories, the star-crossed lovers, dying young for love. Romeo and Juliet becomes Roméo et Juliette when a French composer such as Charles Gounod (1867) is telling the story in music. The rental … Continue reading →

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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 →

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