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Barbora Perná in the title role of Jenůfa at Janáček Brno Festival. Photo: Marek Olbrzymek

Review | A Divisive Jenůfa at Janáček Brno Festival

By Gianmarco Segato on 21 November 2024 Concert Reviews, Opera

Janáček Brno Festival presented a new staging of Janáček’s Jenůfa on Nov. 20 in a co-production with the Moravian Theatre Olomouc where it had its premiere on Nov. 15. Director Veronika Kos Loulová offers a radical take that includes spoken text as well as some surprising tinkering with the score. The result was both stimulating and provocative, raising the ire of audience members who vocalised their disapproval. Ultimately, Loulová and her all-woman team have created a Jenůfa for today that questions tropes around motherhood and familial relationships. The creative team worked in conjunction with the organisation Úsměv mámy (A Mother’s…

Dorothea Röschmann as Emilia Marty in Staatsoper Berlin's The Makropulos Case at Janáček Brno Festival. Photo: Marek Olbrzymek

Review | Berlin Staatsoper’s fragmented The Makropulos Case at Janáček Brno Festival

By Gianmarco Segato on 19 November 2024 Concert Reviews, Opera

Leoš Janáček’s penultimate opera, The Makropulos Case returned to Brno, where it premiered in 1926, in Claus Guth’s 2022 production from Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden. This was the company’s first appearance at the bi-annual Janáček Brno Festival where it presented two performances (seen Nov. 18) of the opera based on Karel Čapek’s 1922 “comedy” dealing with the complex emotional baggage associated with immortality. Guth, along with set designer Étienne Plus and costume designer Ursula Kudrna, have chosen a “period” 1920s Art Deco setting that includes a troupe of dancers/movement artists who cater to opera singer Emilia Marty. From the…

Hungarian State Opera's Falstaff. Photo: Valter Berecz/Hungarian State Opera

Review | Fabulous 50s Falstaff at Hungarian State Opera

By Gianmarco Segato on 19 November 2024 Concert Reviews, Opera

Verdi’s final opera, his comic masterpiece Falstaff, was revived by Hungarian State Opera on Nov. 16. in Swiss director Arnaud Bernard’s 2013 staging set in the fabulous 1950s. Opening and closing with a freeze frame set within a giant period TV screen, the update perfectly suits the work’s constant plot shifts and intricately-wrought musical ensembles. Despite a slightly misjudged directorial nod that we are watching a show within a show, this tightly-executed revival delivers all the self-mocking humanity of Verdi’s late comedy. The scene opens with Falstaff and his shady henchmen, Dr. Caius (Péter Balczó), Pistola (András Kiss) and Bardolfo…

Scene from Hunagarian State Opera's Turandot. Photo: Valter Berecz / Hungarian State Opera

Review | Intriguingly ambiguous new Turandot at Hungarian State Opera

By Gianmarco Segato on 13 November 2024 Concert Reviews, Opera

Puccini’s final opera, Turandot, was famously left incomplete due to the composer’s untimely death. It premiered at Teatro alla Scala in 1926 using composer Franco Alfano’s ending based on fragments of vocal lines and indications for orchestration left by Puccini. Much controversy and critical dissatisfaction has always swirled around the Alfano ending prompting the commissioning of many alternate completions. The most famous of these is Italian composer Luciano Berio’s 2002 rendering which the Hungarian State Opera is currently using in their new production of Turandot, alternating in some performances with Alfano’s more familiar ending. Psychological Turandot As director Dóra Barta indicates…

Suzie LeBlanc. Photo: Mark Mushet.

Suzie LeBlanc: Full Circle

By Holly Harris on 10 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Classical Music, Vancouver, Vocal

Life came full circle when acclaimed Acadian soprano Suzie LeBlanc took over the helm of Early Music Vancouver as its newly appointed Artistic and Executive Director in January 2021, returning to the province where she first launched her illustrious, 35-year international career. “Coming here felt not only like a return to the organization that gave me one of my first professional engagements outside of Montreal, but also an incredible opportunity because so much of the concert season was at a standstill due to the pandemic,” says Order of Canada member LeBlanc, of her bold leap from La Belle Province to…

Tafelmusik

Choral Calendar (Nov 2024)

By Kristen Whittle on 9 November 2024 Choral, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Toronto, Vancouver

West Early Music Vancouver Dec. 22, Vancouver Under the direction of Alexander Weimann, Early Music Vancouver will present a pairing of “Festive Cantatas” featuring Gloria in excelsis Deo cantata by J.S. Bach and Missa Nativitatis Domini by Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka. www.earlymusic.bc.ca Vancouver Chamber Choir Dec. 12, 13, Vancouver Peace and tranquility is the theme of the Vancouver Chamber Choir’s holiday concert entitled “Christmas by Candlelight.” Under the direction of Kari Turunen, the choir will present a large selection of holiday classics and new works, including Laura Hawley’s Mary called it an angel and the world première of Chris…

Pro Coro Canada : Two Edmonton Holiday Favourites

By Kristen Whittle on 9 November 2024 Choral

Pro Coro Canada is a professional chamber choir based in Edmonton, Alta. The 24-voice ensemble was founded in 1981 by Michel Marc Gervais. Today, the choir is directed by Michael Zaugg, and has a strong commitment to community engagement exemplified in part through their internationally-renowned composer-in-residence and emerging artist programs. Indeed, presenting new music and promoting artistic exploration is a core piece of the choir’s mission, and they have commissioned dozens of new works in the past years, the majority by Canadian composers. Although they mainly perform for local Edmonton audiences, their work is now available across Canada through increased…

CD Review | Rachel Fenlon, Winterreise

By Gianmarco Segato on 8 November 2024 Art Song, CD and Book Reviews, Vocal

Schubert: Winterreise Rachel Fenlon, soprano & piano Orchid Classics, 2024 Franz Schubert’s devastatingly confessional song cycle, Winterreise (1828) charts the journey of a spurned narrator through 24 songs set to poems by Wilhelm Müller. It is a pinnacle of Romanticism and foundational to the German Lied (Song) tradition. Although more associated with male singers, it was recorded by German mezzo-soprano Elena Gerhardt as early as 1928 and, in more recent times, by mezzos Christa Ludwig, Brigitte Fassbaender and contralto Nathalie Stutzmann. What makes Canadian soprano Rachel Fenlon’s new traversal unique is that she acts as her own accompanist, the first…

Tafelmusik: A rare presentation of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio

By Denise Lai on 8 November 2024 Choral

With the Christmas season fast approaching, that holiday staple, Handel’s Messiah, is being performed everywhere. Tafelmusik is no exception, and its singalong version is a perennial holiday tradition in Toronto. This year, however, Tafelmusik will also present a much less ubiquitous seasonal work: Johann Sebastian Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Composed in 1734, the Oratorio tells the story of the nativity, from the birth of Jesus through to the arrival of the Three Wise Men. It comprises a series of jubilant choruses, tender chorales and introspective solo arias, with recitatives sung by a tenor Evangelist to provide the narrative. Bach uses chorales…

Dorothéa Ventura. Photo: Tam Photography

Dorothéa Ventura : At the Crossroads

By Justin Bernard on 8 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Interviews, Piano, Vocal

Dorothéa Ventura knows how to do almost everything: dance, act, sing, conduct. The versatility of this artist is such that today she is employed as a harpsichordist, soprano, dancer and actress—and sometimes does double or triple duty! Her preferred repertoire, however, remains Baroque music. Meet the woman who has taken over the reins of Les Idées heureuses, succeeding the ensemble’s founder, Geneviève Soly, as artistic director. Snowy wedding, happy marriage Dorothéa Ventura remembers the first concert of Year 1—38 years ago, in the middle of a snowstorm. “At the time, I was Geneviève Soly’s harpsichord student. She introduced me to…

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