Tag Archives: Ryan Harper

Talking to Karina Bray about the first complete recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel by a female artist

Posted on August 28, 2025 by barczablog

Karina Bray is an award-winning mezzo-soprano. Karina’s new recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Songs of Travel most definitely travels somewhere new, given that the song cycle is normally sung by a man. Her new recording is the world premiere of … Continue reading →

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Alceste on Bloor

Posted on January 13, 2025 by barczablog

After half a century at the Jane Mallett in St Lawrence Centre on Front St, Voicebox – Opera in Concert presented Gluck’s opera Alceste today at their new venue, Jeanne Lamon Hall in the Trinity-St Paul’s Centre on Bloor St … Continue reading →

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Voicebox Adriana Lecouvreur

Posted on July 2, 2021 by barczablog

What is the point posting a review when the run is over? My motto is borrowed from the Hippocratic Oath, namely “above all do no harm,” if that tells you anything. Some of the voices sounded better than others, some … Continue reading →

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Post

Posted on September 7, 2013 by barczablog

When i go to write a new piece here on the blog, i follow the tab to “new post”.  We were promised a paperless office, a paperless world long ago, but it never happened.  It’s funny to keep bumping into … Continue reading →

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Filet of Carmen

Posted on September 7, 2013 by barczablog

Considering that the heroine of Bizet’s opera usually ends up stabbed, I want to make clear that the headline refers to Peter Brook’s La Tragédie de Carmen, a much shorter version of the original, and not the violence meted out … Continue reading →

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10 questions for Alaina Viau

Posted on August 23, 2013 by barczablog

Alaina Viau works at the Glenn Gould School at the RCM as the Opera and Royal Conservatory Orchestra Manager.  What makes her tick? Real performances where there is natural movement and real emotions on stage, with singing that will make … Continue reading →

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Boheme Against the Grain again

Posted on December 2, 2011 by barczablog

You can only be shocked that way once. When I attended the opening night of Against the Grain’s La bohème in June, it was thrilling to experience a modern adaptation of this well-worn opera in a downtown Toronto bar, in … Continue reading →

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