Vocal - my/maSCENA

Nathan Granner and members of The Young People's Chorus of New York City in Gordon Getty's opera "Goodbye, Mr. Chips"

Review: Goodbye, Mr. Chips – Gordon Getty’s New Opera on Film Takes its New York Bow

By Charles Geyer on 9 March 2022 Choral, Classical Music, Film, Movie soundtrack music, Musical Theatre, Opera, Technology, Theatre

REVIEW: of the New York premiere of a new opera by Gordon Getty, “reimagined for film” – Goodbye, Mr. Chips, screened at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, March 2, 2022, at 7:00 p.m., sponsored jointly by Festival Napa Valley and NYCO (New York City Opera). The idea for an opera version of James’ Hilton’s 1934 novel, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, had been germinating in composer Gordon Getty’s mind for decades – ever since, as a young man, he saw a re-release of the celebrated 1939 film adaptation starring Robert Donat (in an Academy Award-winning performance as the eponymous character) and the…

Iwan Edwards: A Life in Music (1937 – 2022)

By La Scena Musicale Team on 5 March 2022 Choral

Update: March 5, 2022 We are saddened to learn of Iwan Edwards’s passing in the morning of March 4, 2022 at the age of 84. Below is a reflection by Iwan of his career. Marie-Claire Fafard-Blais interviewed Iwan on the occasion of St. Lawrence Choir’s 50th Anniversary in our Feb/March 2022 issue. T’Cha Dunlevy’s touching obituary contained memories from some of Iwan’s students [Montreal Gazette] Robert Rowat’s obituary [CBC] Wah Keung Chan remembers Iwan’s last concert and Iwan’s Mozart Requiem in memory of the victims of December 6. (published Dec. 6, 2014) [Originally published November 7, 2019] Founder of…

Joyce DiDonato: Eden (Erato); Asmik Grigorian: Rachmaninov (Alpha)

By Norman Lebrecht on 25 February 2022 Art Song, Lebrecht Weekly

DiDonato, Rating: 4 stars Grigorian, Rating: 5 stars The American mezzo-soprano is touring a programme of works that are designed to reconnect humanity to nature. On this evidence, her voice has darkened in the COVID absence, acquiring a warming reassurance and companionable presence. This is singing as a form of mildly polemical conversation, from her to us. Her selection, accompanied by Il Pomo D’Oro ensemble with Maxim Emelyanchev, is colourfully varied, from a Baroque aria by Marini to an aubade by the film composer Rachel Portman. I am slightly confused by the presence of Mahler and Wagner but…

Marie-Ève Scarfone: from Montreal to Zürich

By Olivier Bergeron on 7 February 2022 Arts Industry, Opera, Piano

Over the past 20 years, Marie-Ève Scarfone has carved out an enviable place for herself on the Quebec music scene. Recognized as one of the most versatile pianists of her generation, she is known as much for her work as a vocal coach, repetiteur and chamber musician as for her work as a pedagogue. After several years of working with institutions such as the Opéra de Montréal and McGill University, performing all over the world and recording for the ATMA Classique and Analekta labels, she has chosen to continue her musical journey in Zürich. Originally from Montreal, she began her…

Gift Ideas for Valentine’s Day

By La Scena Musicale Team on 2 February 2022 Classical Music, La Scena Spotlight, Romantic, Vocal

Jewelry You simply can’t go wrong by offering a loved one some jewelry for Valentine’s Day, so here are a few spoils for the occasion, and with a nice musical twist at that: earrings in the shape of inverted treble clefs available from BBS Jewelry Shop for $45; silver or gold rings in the shape of musical clefs made by Heavenly Golden for $50 and up; Victorian-style pieces made out of recycled guitar strings created by Heartstrings Jewelry Shop for prices starting at $100. Music Boxes Handmade music jewelry box by MusicWood at $131 that can be personalized on special…

The Cast of THE STREETS OF NEW YORK, Photo by Carol Rosegg

Irish Repertory Theatre: Word on the Streets…

By Charles Geyer on 26 January 2022 Musical Theatre, Opera, Theatre

New York City’s Irish Repertory Theatre this week concludes the run of its 2021-22 holiday production – a revival of artistic director Charlotte Moore’s 2002 musical adaptation of Dion Boucicault’s The Streets of New York – with a final performance on Sunday, January 30, at 3 p.m. The production is a thoroughgoing success – roistering, lyrical, stylish, and bursting with vitality. Dublin-born Dion Boucicault was one of the most successful and prolific actor-manager-dramatists of the 19th Century, and in 1857 he premiered one of his most spectacularly successful dramas, The Street of New York (originally titled The Poor of New…

Oktoecho: Transcestral (2021)

By Justin Bernard on 16 January 2022 CD and Book Reviews, Contemporary, Indigenous, Vocal, World Music

Katia Makdissi-Warren, musical and electronic arrangements; Joséphine Bacon, Innu poet; Nina Segalowitz, Inuit throat singer; Hélène Martel, vocals. The blending of styles and cultures is a topic that comes up a lot when we talk about world music. The approach of Katia Makdissi-Warren and the Oktoecho team, followed by a host of musicians, is somewhat different. Their Transcestral project is, rather, the meeting of two world cultures, Sufism, on the one hand, and that of the First Nations, on the other hand, which is put forward with the notable contribution of Western styles. Needless to say,…

Aux fenêtres du temps (Socan, 2021)

By Justin Bernard on 20 December 2021 CD and Book Reviews, Choral, Literature, Piano

Aux fenêtres du tempsClaudel Callendar, voice, piano and compositions; Maurice Carême, texts; Vox Luminosa Children’s Choir; The Young Voices of the Mills.Label: Socan (2021) For some projects, among other musical ones, the idea is sometimes more important than the result. Such is the case with this double-disc project, which translates to At the windows of time, named after a poem by the Belgian writer Maurice Carême (1899-1978). The composer and pianist Claudel Callender bring together here 33 texts by the same author that he set to music. The first part with choir immerses us in a family-type atmosphere in the…

Giorgia Fumanti: Mystic (Vega2, 2021)

By Justin Bernard on 19 December 2021 CD and Book Reviews, Opera, Vocal

MysticGiorgia Fumanti, voix; Stefano Galante, piano; Galante Media OrchestraLabel: Vega2 (2021) Giorgia Fumanti already has more than a dozen albumsù to her credit. Supported by her lifelong producers, her manager husband Maurice Velenosi, and Stefano Galante, who also provides musical direction, the Italian singer offers here a repertoire of cult songs and instrumental pieces arranged especially for her soprano voice. The album jumbles together several great classics such as Piazzola’s Libertango, Ravel’s Boléro, Albinoni’s Adagio, Orff’s O Fortuna and Puccini’s Nessun Dorma. Added to this are other classics closer to our time, such as Now we are free from the…

George Frideric Handel: Messiah (Leaf Music, 2021)

By Justin Bernard on 13 December 2021 Baroque and Early, CD and Book Reviews, Chamber Music, Choral

George Frideric Handel: MessiahEnsemble Caprice, Ensemble Vocal Arts-Québec; Matthias Maute, conductor; Karina Gauvin, sopranoLeaf Music, 2021 The new recording by Ensemble Caprice jointly with the Ensemble vocal Arts-Québec, under the direction of Matthias Maute, was released on the Leaf Music label. A work by Jaap Nico Hamburger to start, one by Matthias Maute himself to conclude and, as a main course, several excerpts from Handel’s Messiah. The voice and voluptuous timbre of Karina Gauvin are first highlighted in Rejoice greatly, a piece full of lyricism and virtuosity. It is with these same assets that the singer then approaches I know…

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