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Soundstreams Presents Airline Icarus

6/4/2014

Airline Icarus boldly ascends. But what is its destination?

Last night, as I stood in line for my ticket at the Airline Icarus counter, I was tempted to ask if I would be on a movie flight.

There was no movie, but there was an opera: Airline Icarus, by composer Brian Current (who also conducted) and librettist Anton Piatigorsky. Presented by Soundstreams Canada at Toronto’s Ada Slaight Hall, the production featured a small cast who were well chosen and ready for take-off. Director Tim Albery’s staging was nicely paced, and engaging enough to overcome the modesty of Teresa Przybylski’s sets and costumes. (This was no big-budget show.)

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The Weight Issue in Opera

6/4/2014

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Mezzo-sopeano Tara Erraught.

Recently, a scandale erupted in the opera world around the question of the physical appearance of opera singers. This is as recurring issue – and on this occasion, it percolated to the top of the opera world’s consciousness because of some disparaging comments made by critics about the body size of mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught, cast as Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at Glyndebourne.

Andrew Clark at the Financial Times dubbed her “a chubby bundle of puppy-fat.” And Michael Church at the Independent called her “a dumpy girl.” (These words have since been deleted from the newspaper’s website.)

You can read more of the offending reviews here, here and here. And you can read some of the hostile responses to these critics here, here and here.

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Soundstreams Presents Airline Icarus

The Weight Issue in Opera

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