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Elizabeth Futral as Alice B. Toklas with Theo Lebow, Tobias Greenhalgh, and Daniel Brevik as paintings in Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’ 2014 production of “27.” Photo by Ken Howard.

Gertrude Stein is at Home! You are Cordially Invited

By Charles Geyer on 18 October 2016 Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Interviews, Opera

An Advance Profile of Ricky Ian Gordon’s 27, an opera about Gertrude Stein, with libretto by Royce Vavrek, to be presented at New York’s City Center, October 20 and 21, 2016. “Knock, knock” was no joke at chez Gertrude Stein in early 20th-century Paris. Rather, a knock at the private side entrance of one cramped room in Stein’s small apartment at 27 rue de Fleurus cued the commencement of serious and exciting business on any given Saturday evening. That was when the likes of Matisse and Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Man Ray, and other artists, writers, and avant-garde headliners of…

Robert Normandeau, Photo: Bernard Préfontaine

Robert Normandeau: Metro Music

By Caroline Rodgers on 1 October 2016 Contemporary, Interviews, Quebec Music

For the first time in its history, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal will showcase a piece in which the musicians won’t play a single note. Tunnel Azur is an acousmatic composition created by Robert Normandeau on commission by the OSM and the STM. The ten minute long Tunnel Azur celebrates, and is entirely inspired by, the 50-year history of the Montréal metro. “With permission from the STM, I had the privilege to go and record the sounds of the metro at night, afterhours. It is a universe that nobody knows, because the metro is closed at night,” says Normandeau. “I…

Brian Current

Brian Current: The Keys to Creativity

By Caroline Rodgers on 1 October 2016 Canadian Music, Choral, Contemporary, Interviews, La Scena Spotlight, Orchestral

This month, Brian Current will experience something many composers would envy: the premiere and recording of one of his major works by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. The $50,000 Azrieli Prize enabled him to compose The Seven Heavenly Halls for solo tenor, choir and orchestra. The composer talked to La Scena Musicale about this work and his career. Like many musicians, Brian Current first learned piano as a child. “I was lucky my parents were so persistent and constantly got me to practice, even when I didn’t want to,” he says. “My parents weren’t musicians by profession, but they sang in…

Jan-Fryderyk Pleszczynski, Photo: Denis Beaumont

The CAM at 60

By Hassan Laghcha on 1 October 2016 Arts Industry, Interviews

“To be innovative, you need to have the means to take risks.” The Conseil des arts de Montréal is celebrating its 60th anniversary. To mark the occasion, La Scena Musicale takes a look at the high points of this institution’s history, its contributions to Montreal’s artistic scene, and the prospects for its continued development with president Jan-Fryderyk Pleszczynski. What moments have been turning points in the evolution of the Conseil des Arts de Montréal? One of the highlights is definitely April 18, 1956, the date that the institution then known as the Conseil des Arts de la Région Métropolitaine de Montréal was…

Bess (soprano Kiera Duffy) realizes she must “complete the task” in order to save Jan. Photo by Dominic M. Mercier for Opera Philadelphia.

With Breaking the Waves, Opera Philadelphia Breaks Toward the Future

By Charles Geyer on 29 September 2016 Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Interviews, Opera

OPERA REVIEW: Breaking the Waves at Opera Philadelphia Brotherly Love, Independence, the Phillie Phanatic – this city has always been a hotbed of innovative and big ideas. How apt, then, that Opera Philadelphia has taken on a big idea of its own, having committed to the future of indigenous American opera with a 2011 pledge to present, every season for ten years, a major new American operatic work. More than halfway through that initial pledge period, the company’s “American Repertoire Program” can claim impressive achievements, including Dark Sisters in 2012; A Coffin in Egypt in 2014; and Charlie Parker’s Yardbird…

James Ehnes, Photo: Benjamin Ealovega

Interview – James Ehnes @40

By Kiersten van Vliet on 14 September 2016 Chamber Music, Interviews, Violin

As part of his 40th birthday celebrations, Canadian virtuoso violinist James Ehnes is hitting the road. Travelling across Canada with his family and accompanist Andrew Armstrong in tow, Ehnes will cross coast-to-coast-to-coast in Canada, trekking from Vancouver to St. John’s and all the way North to Iqaluit as part of his James Ehnes @40 tour. Next month, Ehnes plays the Dvořák Violin Concerto with the OSM (October 13, 8PM & October 14, 7PM), and a recital of Beethoven, Franck, and Ravel with Armstrong (October 16, 2:30PM). He returns to Montreal this spring in recital at LMMC Concerts, (April 30, 2017, 3:30PM). Below is a…

Borodin Quartet (Ruben Aharonian, Sergey Limovsky, Igor Naidin, and Vladimir Balshin) with Nuné Melik (centre)

Interview – Borodin Quartet at MISQA

By Nuné Melik on 13 September 2016 Chamber Music, Interviews, Strings

To catch all the members of the Borodin Quartet off stage is almost impossible. Formed in 1945, the legendary Russian ensemble, rarely, if ever, gives interviews – especially when they are on tour abroad. I conducted this interview after their spectacular opening Pollack Hall concert on August 14 at the McGill International String Quartet Academy (MISQA), where they gave masterclasses to quartets from all over the world. Speaking in Russian, first violinist Ruben Aharonian, second Sergey Limovsky, violist Igor Naidin, and cellist Vladimir Balshin covered a range of subjects at the four-star Omni Hotel in downtown Montreal. Nuné Melik: The…

Alessandro Costantini as Marc Hall, Photo: Tafari Anthony

Prom Queen: The (Mega) Musical

By Rebecca Anne Clark on 1 September 2016 Interviews, Musical Theatre

The Segal Centre’s latest mega-musical celebrates teen spirit, family, and a Canadian milestone for gay rights. In 2002, 17-year-old Marc Hall invited his boyfriend to his high school prom. His Catholic school in Oshawa, Ontario, declined Hall’s proposed guest on the grounds that homosexuality is incompatible with Catholic teaching. With support from his parents and friends, Hall took the Durham Catholic School Board to court, sparking a controversial case that questioned how the religious freedoms guaranteed in the Canadian Charter should be applied to a school receiving public funding, and about queer rights at a time when same-sex marriage had…

James Ehnes with his accompanist Andrew Armstrong, Photo: Ben Ealovega

James Ehnes @40

By Kiersten van Vliet on 1 September 2016 Chamber Music, Interviews, Violin

Age may be but a number, but its influence is broad. For celebrated Canadian violinist James Ehnes, turning 40 earlier this year has led to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tour his homeland in a series celebrating family, community, and (of course) great music. Though he is no doubt still fielding quips about being over the hill, Ehnes’s bustling performance schedule certainly erases any doubts about him slowing down any time soon. Ehnes, a Brandon, Manitoba native, began playing the violin at the age of 4 and studied with renowned violinist and pedagogue Francis Chaplin at 9. From 1993 to 1997…

Les Funerailles de Joe Beef, Credit: Lemieux Pilon 4D Art

City of Memories in Old Montreal

By Hassan Laghcha on 1 September 2016 Interviews, Multimedia, Visual Arts

Old Montreal is currently the site of an international premiere: the advent of the world’s largest permanent multimedia projection exhibit. Cité-Mémoire (sometimes translated as Memory City) is a series of walking tours featuring 19 animated scenes that bring to life some of the characters who made the city’s history. Recall key moments about Montreal via a free mobile app. La Scena Musicale spoke with two of the architects of this tribute to Montreal’s 375th anniversary. “The original idea was to create an event to celebrate Montreal’s anniversary every May 17,” says Martin Laviolette. The executive director and producer at Montréal…

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