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Urban Shocker's Neighbourhood Watch

'Tis a lie.

Plus I is a slow learner.

No, seriously, I'm enjoying myself, but I don't think the music flows through my veins quite to the extent that it does through some of yours.

Unless of course you want to talk Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, or New Order. Then I can talk you under a table.

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But the time has come to cast off for another shore, to leave Senta, her red fright wig and her "pale seaman" ... and set sail for Crete, where ... Hello sailor! ... Idomeneo will be shipwrecked on May 15th ... before moving on to listen to a couple of bitch-slapping old queens fighting over a young man in Maria Stuarda on the 22nd ...
 
Maria Stuarda-COC

A good time with the Stuart/Tudor girls at the COC today. Excellent voices, excellent music and an almost excellent set. Why they used red curtains to mar the "Globe Theatre" design is beyond me;they added nothing, and were freaking irritating! As the program states, this isn't a history lesson, a LOT of liberties are taken with the actual events, but hearing the two women square off is pretty exciting stuff! They have terrific voices and can ACT! Double bonus!:)
 
Welcome back.

To the AGO yesterday with a friend, and James who visits from England, to see Rembrandt/Freud. We paid more attention to the Freuds. Was it because they were bigger, contemporary, or uglier? I wish I knew. It was the last day for Tut - crowds on the second floor Walker Court walkway, where the spiral staircase was closed. And when will they be installing something new in the Galleria Italia? Much as I've enjoyed that show, I thought that space was for changing exhibitions.
 
Oh, and the first part of the TSO's Sibelius festival was broadcast yesterday on CBC Radio 2's In Concert starting at 11:00 a.m. - symphonies one and two. The rest will air over the next two weeks.
 
^ Yes, I caught the Sibelius broadcast, great to hear it again.

I also caught Gianandrea Noseda's efforts with the TSO (the magnificent Verdi Requiem) broadcast the past Sunday a.m. on CBC 2. What a wonderful conductor that Noseda is, I'd choose him above Dausgaard, frankly - but only by a shade. Noseda has drama in every single pore, and he gets first rate results.
 
Idomeneo - COC

This was the best singing I've heard in a long, long time. Wow. No weak links at all. Paul Groves' ditches the noble poses, and wears his heart on his sleeve as Idomeneo. You can really hear his emotional struggle in his voice as he writhes around the beaches of Crete, cursing the Gods. Krisztina Szabó, as Idamante, blew us away with her voice as well, but was a bit rigid at times, and wasn't helped by the fact that he/she was dressed as K.D. Lang. Isabel Bayrakdarian did not disappoint as Ilia, but I honestly thought Szabo out-did her.

The orchestra has never sounded better, and Harry Bicket deserves credit for that. This was one of those performances where I closed my eyes a few times in an attempt to realize the beauty of what I was hearing.

I think De Carpentries' direction will be polarizing. Some felt it distracted from the arias, but I say it worked, and managed to complement the libretto. However, the mass, grieving baby scene was over-the-top and clunky. The set and costumes were 60's sci-fi, which initially turned me off, but I was fine with it all by the 40 minute mark. The production was emotionally-charged, and successfully held our hearts and ears captive, and it deserves great credit for arriving at a sum that was greater than its parts.

In the end, I was left with a very good taste in my mouth, and feeling in my ears!
 
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Thanks for the review, Roy. I writhed around on the beaches of Crete in the summer of '79, so I'm now breathlessly anticipating the staging. It'll be interesting to compare it with Opera Atelier's version two years ago.

I go on Saturday night. Hope to get the vast and extensively landscaped grounds of the Summer Palace tidied up a bit first.
 
Idomeneo (Mozart) – COC, Tuesday May 18, 2010

“I don’t care for Mozart operas”. There, I’ve said it, and I’m glad. My tastes run so contrary to the easy-to-digest, predictable opera formulae that this composer used. I know I am in quite a minority but there it is – I need the more dramatic music and the diabolical plots of Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, to make an opera evening come alive for me. Perhaps another way of saying it would be "pretty-pretty doesn't always work for me".

But this opera was in my series, and I can’t see any major opera company offering a series without Mozart, so there I was, for the most part, sitting in Ring 4 thinking to myself “when is this thing going to end?”. (For next season, we’ve ordered up a 4-pack instead of going full season, that way I don’t have to see The Magic Flute).

On to the presentation: listening to Isabel Bayrakdarian sing Ilia made the entire evening worthwhile for me. She blazed at the start of the opera, and she tore up the stage at the beginning of the third act. I couldn’t ask for more. That woman has it all. Hearing Bayrakdarian last night has prompted me to buy up tickets to her forthcoming TSO appearance. She will sing a gorgeous Ravel suite.

The other singers? Well, there was an absolutely wonderful performance by Paul Groves as the lead.

I couldn’t stand Szabo’s work, as Idamante. I just wanted to go home. Elettra (Wilson) was generally excellent but there were times she let me down.

The orchestra was wonderful. Bicket's skills match Olmi's (Otello) skills. The Idomeneo orchestration is larger than most Mozart operas, and I enjoyed that aspect.

The best fun of the evening was during the intermission. We decided to hang out on the fabulous all-glass catwalk outside of Ring 4. If you look toward the auditorium from the catwalk, you can gaze down and catch a dramatic view encompassing the main bar and the all-glass stairway to the heavens, all in one sweep. If you turn around in spot, you can see the fountains on University, or you can see the traffic movement mirrored on the slightly reflective ceiling surfaces of City Room (that was a brilliant stroke by the architect, maybe even an accident). Given that this was my favourite part of the evening, it doesn’t say much for the opera (for me), does it? I shook my little tush on that catwalk …. that’s what I’ll remember.

Next, and last of the season for me is Donizetti's Maria Stuarda and I can hardly wait, I love that opera.
 
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Urban Shocker said:
Maybe they could jobshare, if Oundjian ever goes away?
Click to expand...

Well it's a fun thought !!!

It is done, the job sharing thing, you know.

I don't like to see Oundjian tarred too much -- notwithstanding his Beethoven and Mozart. He has developed one of the finest sounding bands in the world, and -- shock of shocks -- he has turned out to be a brilliant Mahler interpreter, the Seventh last month was exhilarating. I won't put him down, I'll merely avoid his "classical era" work. A sixth sense tells me that his tenure here will be very fondly remembered when it's over; he's got great ears.

It is worth mentioning that some of the conducting tyrants, notably Abbado, are brilliant with composers such as Mahler, but bomb out with Beethoven and Mozart.
 
With Idomeneo, I thought the quality of the singing was exceptional - what a delight that was, and a luxury I could easily get used to. It's great when everyone is on like that, and I think we have Neef to thank for this emphasis on vocal excellence after years of listening to Richard Bradshaw's sometimes rather iffy Eastern European finds. And while I have enjoyed Krisztina Szabó in lighter roles - as Musetta a few years ago with the COC and in Queen of Puddings The Midnight Court for instance, she seemed rather constrained in this serious pants role - though I had no problems with her singing. The honeyed voice of Tamara Wilson as Elettra worked well in consort with that of Ms. Bayrakdarian, as did the rougher sound of Paul Groves as Idomeneo.

thecharioteer, who I met briefly at intermission, didn't think much of the costumes ... and I agree. We both longed for a frothy Opera Atelier take in that regard - but the COC's singing struck me as generally much better than Atelier's Idomeneo a few years ago ... and we got the full version of this opera. The orchestra under Bicket was wonderful, the chorus magnificent as always. The lighting was expressive, though the staging a bit fussy with too much business going on - people striding about and bodies and clothes strewn about everywhere.
 
The surtitles failed to happen at the beginning of Maria Stuarda on Saturday night, causing a collective groan of disappointment. I won't say that fear gripped the hall, but many of us knew we were on our own for a change. After the announcement, as the lights dimmed, the youngish woman to my right feverishly scanned her programme: "Italian ... " was all she had time to discover. I told her that if she knew the story, or the language, she'd figure it out. She wondered if she'd get a ticket refund. I found it rather refreshing to focus exclusively on the qualities of the singing for a change. After ten minutes or so the surtitles returned.

Beautifully sung, from beginning to end. What's not to like about a couple of bitchy old queens going after one another at full throttle? A fine end to the season!

A couple of weeks ago, when CBC rebroadcast the Sibelius 5th, I noticed that the sound engineers - bless 'em - had edited out the Mad Clappers.
 
^ Thanks very much for the review of Maria Stuarda, Shocker! I am looking forward to that one (Friday). I saw this opera under a different director years ago at "the barn" and found the piece to be quite a fabulous bit of work.

Re the Sibelius broadcast, I heard that too. There were two public performances of it, both recorded. My friend went to the performance that did not feature the premature ejaculations from the audience. He said it was a superb concert, I guess we picked the wrong date. Who knew?

I'm catching Spano conducting at the TSO this Thursday and I will furnish a review. Works by Falla, Piazzolla, and Stravinsky. The website is incorrect, this is not Spano's debut here, I heard him years ago (when he had hair).

Just speaking of conductors ... Dudamel is getting his fair share of drubbing. I heard a live broadcast of his Toronto appearance earlier this year, and I thought I had a bone to pick here and there with his interpreting. Now I know I am not alone.
 
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