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Urban Shocker's Neighbourhood Watch

Looking forward to it. Yes, the achievements of our modest Toronto Style in all its forms - be it Jack Diamond designing the Mariinsky2, the Royal Conservatory's educational system being adopted as the model in the States, or our TSO - aren't to be underestimated.

Saw Gregg Araki's Kaboom at Lightbox with friends on Friday night ( director answered a few questions later ), but thought it more suitable for the Sprockets audience than adults. Tuned out after about 45 minutes when I realized I didn't care what happened to any of the protagonists regardless of how pretty they looked naked. Thank God they all got blown up at the end.

Off to the COC's Opera 101 at The Drake on the 20th, I think: Jane Archibald and Richard Margison are guesting.

This afternoon, dropped by Native Child and Family Services at 30 College Street to look at Levitt Goodman's white cedar longhouse. Managed to get a look inside, too. A nice counterpoint to the surrounding lobby, much as the pods at the Leslie Dan Pharmacy building are. May arrange a tour, to see the roof etc.

Arraymusic and Terauds at the Reference Library tonight, may check it out.
 
TSO Saturday April 9th (conducted by James Conlon)

James Conlon presented a style of conducting which put his European discipline on display.

The opener, Dvorak's Carnival Overture, had a rich and thick sound, yet was taken at a near furious pace.

The concerto, Schulhoff's first piano concerto (Orion Weiss on piano), is a very handsome and engaging composition with lots of technical challenges built into it, and the piece is totally new to my ears. The pre-concert chat described the work as "Prokofiev meets Ravel" and I think that is a good way of putting it. This composer, Schulhoff, died in a Nazi concentration camp. Conlon has dedicated a portion of his career bringing to attention composers who were killed during the Third Reich, and he told of his close affiliation to ARC, Artists of the Royal Conservatory, who have the same raison d'etre. This pianist, Weiss, was nothing short of brilliant in the artistic and technical aspects. He is trained by Emanuel Ax.

The Beethoven 3rd Symphony (Eroica) is something I have heard a dozen times, and I have three recordings of it. Conlon showed his stuff here, and bless him, he gave us something fresh! He shone a light on things I just haven't heard before, for example, an almost wailing-like passage in the funeral march second movement. First class results from the orchestra; again, the European sound came through. I hope Conlon guests here a lot more in the future. The orchestra was asked for something special by this conductor and they gave it (and the orchestra handed one curtain call entirely to him very exuberantly). Brilliant concert!

I would love to write more but frankly I am packing for 3 days in the Big Apple! Until later - ciao !!!
 
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^ so, a little aside here - aside meaning off topic: our trip to The Met (Opera), and to Carnegie Hall an evening later revealed that audiences in NYC are just as rude and disruptive as those here in Toronto. During Tosca at the Met, a woman near me blithely unfolded a paper bag during a quiet passage much to the annoyance of all around her, and a guy beside me from France was just going insane while the patron behind him kept scratching one of her legs (I sure hope it wasn't a case of bed bugs!). The Met and Carnegie both have superb acoustics, but one cannot get punch drunk on The Met acoustics as we can at the Toronto opera. Fabulous to hear the voices onstage at the Met, though. Actually, the experience is unforgettable.
 
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Welcome back. Always nice to go away. Always nicer to be back home, I find.

To the newly refurbished Spadina Museum on Friday. When I visited last time, a few years ago, it was decidedly dowdy. They've done a fabulous job in restoring it - cloning small found samples of wallpaper and reproducing them, for instance - and the City is to be congratulated on their investment of time and money in celebrating our heritage like this. There's still some more work to be done, I believe, and I'll return again. They've restored the rooms to a circa 1920s look, abandoning the mish-mash of different styles from different eras from before. I got there at 2:30, just in time for the tour. In fact, I was the tour, and the man who took me around was highly knowledgeable and eager to answer all my questions.

To Mulroney: The Opera earlier this afternoon. Quite fun, and about the right length. A delightful entertainment for a rainy day.

Louise Lecavalier, at the Fleck on Thursday, was tremendous, including the Q&A afterwards. Seeing a woman of mature age throwing herself around the stage like a twentysomething was pretty awesome. These old broads can be pretty hot - Peggy Baker and Larry Hahn's performance of Doug Varone's Home at the COC's lunchtime venue a few months back ( she's got a few years on Lecavalier, pushing 60 ... ) was another contemporary dance piece I'll never forget - for the emotional force as much as the athleticism.
 
Last week's big ticket culture items (TSO, Opera Atelier)

Back to real life, post election. Time to talk about the wanderings of this culture vulture.

Thursday April 28, 2011 - TSO / Slatkin

The band played beautifully for visiting conductor Leonard Slatkin, with selections from Colgrass, Liszt, and Saint-Seans.
Colgrass's "As Quiet As ______" was brilliant, Liszt (Bronfman) showed pyrotechnics galore but the composition, piano concerto #2, is basically just crazy stuff. The main course, Saint-Seans Symphony No. 3 "organ" was sublimely done. Slatkin joins a group of conductors who instruct the strings to go a bit gruff in opening and closing movements, and this amounts to a lot of fun (others who have done this are Levine, Paray, and A. Davis). Slatkin conducted without a score.

Sunday May 1, 2011 - Opera Atelier - La Clemenza di Tito (Mozart)

Mozart-ambivalent moi went to hear/see how Opera Atelier would handle this opera, and I went away a Mozart-lover again. I am now totally a convert to the period performance practice when it comes to composers like Mozart. Thinking back on how many modern Mozart performances have bored me to tears, I know what was missing: a touch of authenticity in a theatre full of gilt (The Elgin). Tafelmusik was in the pit under David Fallis. This production was a huge winner, and the best part is that Maesha B. knows how to act. Unfortunately Sunday was the last run, but look out for Opera Atelier's presentation of Don Giovanni in autumn.
 
I was termpted to go, and now I'm sorry I didn't. Plent of cute, half-nekkid dancing boys in the show, I hope?

La Cenerentola was great fun. The whole cast ( Brownlee and 'Cinders' especially ... ) were a delight to hear, the production a delight to behold, and the band playing as well as ever.

I'm in Engand a the moment: Shockers Baroque Tour - off to Blenheim Palace in an hour. And, by coincidence, I bought a copy of the Dowager Duchess of Marlborough's autobiography ( first edition, 1742 ) in the nice little bookshop here in Brackley where I'm staying, yesterday. A wonderful read - she used to boss her best friend Queen Anne around no end and it caused quite a stir in he chattering classes when it was published. Written in her old age, it dished the dirt on court life from the 1680s to 1710s with relish!

A couple of days ago to Stowe House - one of the finest Neo-Classical "houses" ( ! ) in England, and much improved by restoration since my last visit there.

To Oxford tomorrow. Going for Baroque.
 
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^ Enjoy your time in England, and thanks for share :)

Oh, and yes, in the Mozart opera, the half-nekkid, outright hunky guys in the finale were just a fabulous touch. I don't know why I didn't mention that!
 
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Colen Campbell was so bitchy to Baroque in Vitruvius Britannicus - bitchy because Blenheim is as delightful a monster home as one could imagine, both inside and out, and as wildly expressive and eccentric on the outside as the day is long. And, lordy, those first two huge reception rooms! I'm sorry I didn't step inside when I visited the grounds with my parents as a teenager, but better late than never. Still, it is a show home, the sensible Duchess hated it and was obliged to pay to have it completed under very difficult circumstances, and I must admit to an equally great respect for the restrained, minimalist, and majestically proportioned Stowe - even though Stowe was done on the cheap ( fake marble columns, for instance ) and gets less attention.
 
Great little urban ditty for this rainy weather

During my marvellous mid-afternoon walk in the drizzle yesterday I observed a blatant flirtation in progress at a streetcar stop; this marvellous little ditty from the 60's came to mind. I hear this very often in Muskoka, where the radio stations dabble relentlessly in 60's nostalgia.

"Bus Stop" by The Holies

Bus stop, wet day, she's there, I say
Please share my umbrella
Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows
Under my umbrella

All that summer we enjoyed it
Wind and rain and shine
That umbrella, we employed it
By August, she was mine

Every morning I would see her waiting at the stop
Sometimes she'd shopped and she would show me what she bought
Other people stared as if we were both quite insane
Someday my name and hers are going to be the same

That's the way the whole thing started
Silly but it's true
Thinkin' of a sweet romance
Beginning in a queue

Came the sun the ice was melting
No more sheltering now
Nice to think that that umbrella
Led me to a vow

Every morning I would see her waiting at the stop
Sometimes she'd shopped and she would show me what she bought
Other people stared as if we were both quite insane
Someday my name and hers are going to be the same

Bus stop, wet day, she's there, I say
Please share my umbrella
Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows
Under my umbrella

All that summer we enjoyed it
Wind and rain and shine
That umbrella, we employed it
By August, she was mine
 
... Off to hear / see Ariadne auf Naxos (Richard Strauss) at the opera tonight, shall furnish review tomorrow if possible. Looking forward to this enormously.
 
Ariedne auf Naxos (Richard Strauss) - Canadian Opera Company Wed May 18/11

Ariadne auf Naxos is simply too good to miss, so if you haven't seen/heard it, then go if you can.

Three very strong leads, and I mean strong! No one outshone another (my partner thought Jane Archibald took the night but he's not posting this, I am !!!!).

The Tenor/Bacchus: Richard Margison
Zerbinetta: Jane Archibald
The Prima Donna/Ariadne: Adrianne Pieczonka

There is a witty concept to the whole piece (I wish not to spoil it), and that lush Richard Strauss score. It was hard to believe so much music was accomplished with a small orchestra, too, beautifully overseen by Andrew Davis.

The COC is presenting really great stuff. I am pleased with the turn this company has taken under Neef, bravo!
 
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I'm seeing it tonight. Yes, what a fine season it has been - the strongest and most creative ever as far as my COC full subscription experience is concerned.

Last Saturday I was at Orfeo ed Euridice, which I thought fully the best-of-the-best for the season. Vocally, for soloists and chorus, and for set, staging, and acting ... everything was as near perfect as one could wish for. Isabel Bayrakdarian and Lawrence Zazzo had chemistry, and Ambur Braid was a revelation as Amore. And, though I rarely get that misty-eyed at an opera, when Zazzo sang Che farò senza Euridice? I was moved indeed. It is one of my favourite operas, deals with love and loss in a restrained Enlightenment manner rather than in what might have been an over-the-top way had it been written a century later, and has been given a staging that does it full justice ... and I may see it again if I get the chance.
 
^ Thank you very much for this. I am going on Tuesday to Orfeo ed Euridice, now I look forward even more. Echoing you: at the end of the R. Strauss opera I was thinking to myself that I could see that twice, too - the wrap-up of it is so strongly beautiful, musically speaking.

I do agree that this is very possibly the best opera season here, and next year's programming is actually even better. They're delving into repertoire that they haven't touched before, and what is more, the productions values are fabulous. I'm hooked.

We are working on getting Parterre seating next season.
 
I'm movin' on up to Ring 4 to be with my pals interchange and Archivist on Wednesdays.

Loved Ariadne, especially Jane Archibald's long aria, but thought the comedy parts rather undermined the serious parts at the end.
 
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