The loss of one’s parents is probably the most dreaded, expected life event for most people. I do not really like to talk about it for fear the Grim Reaper will suddenly jump up and snatch them as though summoned. Dead Parent Society is about finding healing through humor in this intimate, grief-themed sketch comedy show. Continue reading Review: Dead Parents Society (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre)→
The COC’s Rusalka is a full-body immersive experience that tingles the spine
In the Canadian Opera Company’s current presentation of the Chicago Lyric Opera production of Rusalka, by Antonin Dvořák, the storytelling begins during the overture, before the curtain comes up. The dedication to telling a philosophical and darkly beautiful version of this well-known fairy tale is unwavering to the final haunting note.
Cheers to Opera in a Bar, Against the Grain Theatre Tours La Boheme across Canada
Over the last decade, Toronto-based company Against the Grain Theatre (AtG) has built a reputation for re-imagining old works and creating boundary-pushing new opera productions. In honour of its Tenth Anniversary, the company is remounting its inaugural production of La Bohème, this time taking the show on the road.
I was curious about the piece and asked the Artistic Director of AtG some questions about the production, which has visited Banff and 7 other communities between it and Toronto, many of which do not have regular access to opera.
Turandot is conversation-sparking opera, on stage in Toronto
With the blackface scandal fresh in everyone’s mind, it is a complex time for Canadian Opera Company to mount Turandot, Giacomo Puccini’s final, and most musically complex opera. Turandot’s story resets the bar for the complexities of the cultural appropriation discussion: it is an ancient Persian fairy tale, set in even more ancient China, which made the rounds through Europe in a variety of incarnations in the 18th and 19th centuries before becoming the basis for an Italian opera in the early 20th century. Since its premiere in 1926, one year after Puccini’s death, the performance tradition has relied upon the most hackneyed tropes of orientalism (think dragons and gongs) to tell a fantastical tale occurring in a make-believe “China.” Continue reading Review: Turandot (Canadian Opera Company)→
Tap:EX blends opera with new age technology in their new Augmented Opera experience
The COC’s Rusalka is a full-body immersive experience that tingles the spine
Over the last decade, Toronto-based company 
Turandot is conversation-sparking opera, on stage in Toronto