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Opera Atelier’s Freischütz

10/31/2012

Kresimir Spicer is front and centre as Max.

I’ve always wanted to see a production of Carl Maria von Weber’s famous-yet-almost-never-done opera of 1821, Der Freischütz. However, I never thought I’d see it staged by Opera Atelier.

Toronto’s “period” opera company is closely associated with baroque repertoire. But before the curtain rose on Tuesday night at the Elgin Theatre, artistic co-director Marshall Pynkoski stepped forward to point out that the company has been moving forward (chronologically speaking), and already has several Mozart operas in its repertoire.

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New Music I Like (No. 5): Arvo Pärt

10/27/2012

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The high priest of holy minimalism.

Welcome to the fifth installment in my entirely subjective and gently polemical survey of outstanding living composers. Today, let us consider the high priest of “holy minimalism”: Arvo Pärt.

He was born in Estonia in 1935, and his early works showed the influence of Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Schoenberg. Then, in 1968, he stopped composing for several years, devoting himself to the study of music of the distant past. And then, inspired by Gregorian chant and Renaissance polyphony, he forged a new style, which he called “tintinnambuli.” Because of the overt historicism of this music, it’s sometimes hard to know if a work by Pärt was written last week or a thousand years ago.

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A Chat with Bruno Monsaingeon

10/15/2012

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Glenn Gould and Bruno Monsaingeon.

French filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon is perhaps most famous for documenting performances by Glenn Gould from 1974 to Gould’s death in 1982. Honens is bringing him to Calgary next week, where he’ll give a public talk on October 23 with retired CBC announcer Eric Friesen about filming Canada’s most famous pianist (see here).

Monsaingeon is not one of the people I interviewed to for my recent book, Remembering Glenn Gould (see here) – but I spoke to him on the phone today from Paris, and he shared some thoughts about his association with Gould.

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Schafer Heard and Seen in Toronto

10/14/2012

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R. Murray Schafer, in his natural habitat.

Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer is famously shy of big cities, preferring to live on a remote farm on in central Ontario. But he was sighted in downtown Toronto twice in the last week – on both occasions, at performances of his own music at Koerner Hall.

Once upon a time he was the “bad boy” of Canadian music, but today he’s an éminence grise, in his 80th year. And two performances of two very recent works, by a couple of Toronto’s leading new-music presenters – Soundstreams Canada and the Esprit Orchestra – shows that he’s still active on the contemporary music scene. As well, the two pieces nicely profiled different sides of Schafer: the outward-looking Citizen of the World; and the deeply rooted Canadian.

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The COC's Die Fledermaus

10/11/2012

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Ambur Braid (photo: Chris Hutcheson).

When I heard that Christopher Alden was directing the Canadian Opera Company’s new production of Die Fledermaus, I wondered if Toronto audiences could expect a “Regietheater” approach to Johann Strauss’s popular operetta. And it occurred to me that such a light and fluffy piece would be an odd vehicle for such a venture. After all, Fledermaus isn’t exactly subtle, nuanced, emotionally profound or laden with subtexts.

Now, having seen it (the production’s second performance, on October 9), Die Fledermaus still strikes me as an odd vehicle for such a venture.

It’s clear that Alden and his co-creators – set designer Allen Moyer and costume designer Constance Hoffman – have given the piece a lot of thought. And, to their credit, they were successful in creating a series of visually fascinating tableaux. (Even the final jail scene had an arresting quality.)

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The COC's Il Trovatore

10/6/2012

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Elza Van Den Heever (photo: Michael Cooper).

The Canadian Opera Company has launched its 2012-13 season in a strange and underwhelming way.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with starting a season with a blood-and-thunder work like Il Trovatore (an “opera-opera” if ever there was one). But rather than mounting a production that seeks to make a strong statement in all ways, the company has delivered a static, stand-and-deliver staging.

Charles Roubaud’s direction seems bereft of dramatic ideas, beyond the most obvious and the least demanding. And it doesn’t help that the sets, by Jean-Noël Lavesvre (rented from l’Opéra de Marseille), are clunky and generic. The result is something that’s neither fish nor fowl. It’s not really a modern re-imagining of the opera – and although Katia Duflot’s drab costumes suggest a setting in Verdi’s own era, the production evokes little sense of historical period.

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The Return (?) of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

10/5/2012

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Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Every now and then, a musicologist sets out to revive a forgotten composer. Overall, the success-rate for these ventures is probably pretty low. But when the stars align, an unjustly neglected composer may be restored to the repertoire.

Will the stars align for Samuel Coleridge-Taylor? Here’s something I wrote for today’s Houston Chronicle, about a Coleridge-Taylor festival at the University of Houston.

So who was Samuel Coleridge-Taylor?

No, not the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge – but the composer, who died 100 years ago.

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New Music I Like (No. 4): Michael Torke

10/2/2012

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Composer Michael Torke.

In a world where new music is often dark, sombre and as serious as a heart-attack, Michael Torke’s bright, joyful scores are a breath of fresh air. Perhaps there’s also a touch of irony in his music, too – but if so, it’s charming and good natured.

Torke was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1961, and he studied at Eastman and Yale. His music is thoroughly American (and I mean that in a good way). There’s some jazz and swing, some Bernstein on Broadway, a big tip of the hat to Steve Reich, a dash of Copland, and marching bands proudly parade through it. (For more information on Torke, see here.)

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Opera Atelier’s Freischütz

New Music I Like (No. 5): Arvo Pärt

A Chat with Bruno Monsaingeon

Schafer Heard and Seen in Toronto

The COC's Die Fledermaus

The COC's Il Trovatore

The Return (?) of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

New Music I Like (No. 4): Michael Torke

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