Dr. Colin Eatock, composer
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James Galway at Koerner Hall

10/28/2014

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PictureSir James came to town with his golden flute.
Sir James Gallway – a.k.a. The Man With the Golden Flute – appeared at Toronto’s Koerner Hall on Saturday night before capacity audience. Just a couple of months shy of his 75th birthday, he is white-haired and walks with a bit of a shuffle. Yet he cut a fine figure in his red silk jacket, and there was a twinkle in his eye as he told the audience stories in his broad Belfast accent.

More to the point, he remains an impressive master of his instrument. Throughout the concert, his distinctive tone was much in evidence: clear, articulate, and as bright as the sun. He wasn’t always perfectly in tune (he tends to sharpness), but his big sound filled the hall with a presence and immediacy that made every note he played come alive. Moreover, he possesses such a deeply ingrained technique that his flute seems to play itself.



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Opera Atelier Triumphs with Alcina

10/25/2014

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PictureThere's never a dull moment in Opera Atelier's Alcina.
On Thursday evening, Opera Atelier’s co-artistic director Marshall Pynkoski stepped before the curtain at the Elgin Theatre to say a few words about the company’s new production of Alcina. He pointed out that this was the first time, in Opera Atelier’s 29 years that the Toronto-based opera producer had staged a full-length Handel opera.


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Esprit Orchestra Offers a Blast From the North

10/23/2014

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PictureThomas Adès looks skyward.
Here’s my review of the Esprit Orchestra’s concert of October 16. The review was originally published on Classical Voice North America.

There aren’t many orchestras in North America with an exclusive commitment to new music. But Toronto has one — Esprit Orchestra — led by the conductor-composer Alex Pauk.

Since creating the approximately 60-member orchestra in 1983, Pauk has focused on championing recent music by living composers. He has chosen his repertoire from around the world — with an emphasis on Canadian works — and has worn his modernist allegiances on his sleeve. The works Pauk programs may be stridently dissonant or texturally complex, and they’re often brightly colorful in their orchestration. This is the kind of music he likes, and he’s built up an audience in Toronto for what he has to offer.



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Madama Butterfly at the COC

10/15/2014

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PictureKaduce as Cio-Cio-San (photo: Michel Cooper).
Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is a strange work of art: an ugly story swaddled in lush, gorgeous, music. And the challenge, I believe, that it presents anyone who would stage it, is to make its beautiful and brutal aspects somehow work together. Further complicating things is the fact that the opera draws on Japanese and Italian sensibilities, with an added American touch. All three of these cultures that have very different ways of expressing themselves, and pull the opera in different directions.

These thoughts were on my mind as I made my way to  Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre on Saturday afternoon (October 11), to see poor Cio-Cio-San once again take one for the team.



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Falstaff at the COC

10/12/2014

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PictureSir John is no match for these four women (photo: Michael Cooper).
The Canadian Opera Company’s current production of Falstaff is endowed with many virtues. But perhaps its greatest virtue is the way it has probably silenced – at least, temporarily – many “operatic fundamentalists.”

What is an “operatic fundamentalist”? This term (of my own devising) denotes an opera fan who believes that moving an opera out of its originally ordained time and place is a mortal sin. The composer is God, the librettist is His prophet, and the opera is a sacred text. What business do modern-day directors have changing things? Such presumption! Such vanity! And, inevitably, such dreadful productions!



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Toronto's Incredible Shrinking Opera Company

10/3/2014

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PictureThe COC's Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
We have arrived at the opening of the Canadian Opera Company’s 2014-15 season – the Toronto-based company’s ninth presented in its own purpose-built theatre at the corner of Queen and University. I’ll be reviewing the company’s crop of productions, right here on this blog (and perhaps in a few other places), as I see them. But today I’d like to take a brief look at how much the COC has accomplished since it moved into the Four Season’s Centre, almost a decade ago.


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Soundstreams Opens Season at Koerner Hall

10/3/2014

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PictureDaniel Hope with Soundstreams' Virtuoso String Orchestra.
Soundstreams Canada opened its 2014-15 season on Tuesday evening, at the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall. For the occasion, the Toronto-based new-music presenter brought some international star-power to the stage, in the form of violinist Daniel Hope.

Soundstreams also assembled a chamber orchestra – the “Virtuoso String Orchestra” – made up of some of the leading players around town, and led by conductor Joaquin Valdepeñas (better known as the TSO’s principal clarinetist).



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The Plight of the Composer-Performer

10/1/2014

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PictureComposer-performers were once the norm.
On the weekend, I turned to the Collective Wisdom of Facebook with a question I’ve been pondering.

“Can anyone name a (classical) musician who is both a composer and a performer, and who successfully balances the two activities? And by ‘successfully balances’ I mean someone who is fully accepted as a composer and a performer. It seems to me that this is a hard thing to do – the musical world likes people to be one thing, primarily. And often musicians who try to be both composers and performers find that their efforts in their ‘other’ musical métier are viewed as secondary activities.”




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    Eatock Daily

    I'm a composer based in Toronto – and this is my classical music blog, Eatock Daily.

    When I first started blogging, Eatock Daily was a place to re-post the articles I wrote for Toronto’s Globe and Mail and National Post newspapers, the Houston Chronicle, the Kansas City Star and other publications.

    But now I have stepped back from professional music journalism, and I'm spending more time composing.

    These days, my blog posts are infrequent, and are mostly concerned with my own music. However, I do still occasionally post comments on musical topics, including works I've discovered, enjoyed, and wish to share with others.


    – CE

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