The Canadian Opera Company brings a perfect interpretation of Verdi’s Otello to the Toronto stage

Canadian Opera Company’s current production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Otello is the perfect interpretation of this well-known tale for 2019. The original story by Cinthio on which Shakespeare’s play is based was meant as a cautionary tale on the perils of interracial marriage and miscegenation. This production of Verdi’s opera, directed by David Alden comes across as the story of an unscrupulous man fueled by vengeance and racism using his foe’s internalized racism to manipulate him and bring about his demise. Continue reading Review: Otello (Canadian Opera Company) →

Canadian Opera Company’s revival of its 2013 production of La Bohème is aural perfection

The Canadian Opera Company’s current elegantly simple production of Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème is aural perfection. Regardless of what certain pompous composers and music historians have had to say about Puccini’s composition style, there is a reason why he has been an audience favourite for almost one hundred and fifty years. In my view Puccini is what opera is all about. Towering, raw emotion in response to life and death situations and breathtaking musical beauty. Continue reading Review: La Bohème (Canadian Opera Company) →

Dreamwalker Dance Company’s current presentation All of our Dreaming, dramaturged by Sarah Chase opens with an intimate performance in the antechamber of the theatre of Grace Theatre Centre. The audience sat in a semi-circle on the floor, cushions, and camp stools enclosing company founder and artistic director Andrea Nann as she delivered In a Landscape, a solo choreographed by Peggy Baker that comes across as highly personal. This modern dance piece is accompanied by a rippling piano piece of the same name by John Cage. The walls and ceilings are draped with back-lit sheets, upon which were projected stencils of flowers and patterns (designed by Elysha Poirier), heightening the cocoon-like feel of the space. The experience, characterized by impossibly supple and graceful gestures by Nann, set the tone for the performances that followed on themes of nature, transformation and spiritual discovery. Continue reading Review: All of our Dreaming (Dreamwalker Dance Company) →

Against the Grain Theatre presents a unique piece of experimental opera in Toronto

Against the Grain Theatre‘s production of Kopernikus: A Ritual Opera for the Dead by late Montreal composer Claude Vivier is unlike anything I have seen at the opera to date. This unique piece blurs the lines between dance, opera and theatre and pushes the boundaries of our understanding of operatic singing. In the composer’s own words “there is no story” and the experience is much more akin to a musical meditation than watching a show. Continue reading Review: Kopernikus (Against the Grain Theatre) →