Almost 2 months...

...wow! I suck at updating this thing! But since Shannon is singing today I may have to come out of 'early retirement' to write many wonderful things about her later!

p.s.

Wednesday November 21st @ 9:45pm
Silvercity Newmarket
Enchanted***

I saw Enchanted with Angie and Bianca on opening night. We had lots of dorky fun. Yay for new Disney and yay for Amy Adams! But... I can't believe they cut a song by Idina Menzel!

Sadness... I missed Elliott.

Monday November 19th @ 7pm
the Mod Club
Elliott Yamin

Due to some extenuating circumstances, I did not see Elliott Yamin tonight. I will probably always regret that. He's really good... really, really, really!

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Friday November 16th @ 7:30pm
Bethel Christian Reformed Church
the Newmarket Voice Festival's "Concert of the Stars"

Firstly, major congratulations to my student who won a Best In Class award and received it at this concert the night before her birthday. Good times & way to go!

Secondly, it was so much fun hanging out with Shannon & Lindsay all night, and hanging with the Newmarket voice teacher glitterati at the reception after... LOL... some cute singers, some good singers, and some potentially very great singers... we shall see!

"God That's Good"*

Saturday November 10th @ 8pm
Princess of Wales Theatre
Sweeney Todd*****

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this show since I saw it. Based solely on impeccable musicianship, staging and production, I absolutely recommend this show to anyone. Unfortunately, the gruesome tale upon which it is based and the complexity of the Sondheim score will narrow that recommendation about 75%... as proven by the stupid chatty bitches behind me who clearly didn't get it, but chose to stay and bless us all with their commentary right up until intermission. Shut the f*** up!

We noticed they weren't the only people to leave, by the way. And for goodness' sake, if you do go, don't bring your kids. I was very much reminded of Doc watching us watch King Lear in OAC English... even though it's "just" a representation of something bloody and gruesome (in KL when Gloucester's eyes are plucked out), what is manifested in each of us to look, or to look away?

To be honest, nobody's singing blew me away... but I don't even care. The actual production is so genius that it doesn't matter. Confined to a wooden platform, the 10 actors sing, play the entire score on various instruments, do the set and costume changes, and bring Brechtian theatre onto a whole new plane (thank you Professor Wickens, FACS 1900). Also, I had entirely forgotten that "Johanna", one of my favourite melodies of all time, is from this show... I like it better out of context, but it was still a nice surprise... even if David did mock my tiny little gasp during the reprise. :-P to him!

You have to love art that gets people talking... as long as they're not right behind you. Some extra reviews... Mr. Ouzounian, Globe & Mail (totally agree about the diction and inconsistent accents), Variety (disagree about Tobias, I thought he was good), and John Coulbourn (no sightline problems for us with our sweet seats in the first row of the mezz!). And just for the record, I wrote the rest of my blog before I read their comments...

*not being offensive, it's a number from the show...

Incidentally...

...the Newmarket Voice Festival happily takes up this entire week (come out if you can), AND you may also wish to know that tickets go on sale on Friday (Nov 9) for the Met broadcasts... (read this).

I suck.

How is it possible that a whole week went by without any note-making on the operas I saw last weekend? What could I possibly remember after all that time? *Le sigh* as the kids say. Oh, and Shannon. ;)

Sunday October 28th @ 3pm
Elgin Theatre
Opera Atelier's
"Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria" by Monteverdi

I'm happy to report that Vanessa put up with me for the entire afternoon, including two car trips and a stop at Timothy's, as well as the opera! I'm also proud to mention that I've seen all three Opera Atelier Monteverdi productions over the last few years (this one, "Orfeo" last year, and "L'incoronazione di Poppea" five years ago starring my soprano-crush Meredith Hall). Actually I've seen 9 out of 15 Toronto productions on that list. I love Opera Atelier. Co-artistic director Marshall Pynkoski's introduction provided context and enthusiasm for the afternoon, and The Toronto Consort played so magnificently throughout. There were 12 billed singers (unbelievable!), most of whom were fantastic, and my three stand-outs were:
- my bass-baritone crush Olivier Laquerre as Ulysses (so hot... ahem... such a good singer... that I'm tagging both his websites, 1 and 2)
- my mezzo-soprano crush Stephanie (needs a website!) Novacek as Penelope (though mezzos Laura Pudwell and Vicki St. Pierre totally gave her a run for her money)
- and WOW! As Telemachus, Cory Knight! My diction bud from York! SO COOL! It was a thrilling privilege to watch Cory's debut with Opera Atelier, and he sang and moved and acted so well that I'm sure I'll see him in many more in the future. OA tends to create a 'family' of singers and he will be so lucky to be part of that. Yay Cory!

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Saturday October 27th @ 4:30
the real Opera House
the Canadian Opera Company's
"Le Nozze di Figaro" by Mozart

Hands down favourite part was Figaro (Robert Gleadow) giving Cherubino (Sandra Piques Eddy) a noogie. On stage, during a scene... I guess it was directed that way, but still, it looked so funny and out-of-place! Eddy was such a great Cherubino; not too boyish or too girly, and a beautiful voice! Actually everyone sang so well, I thought, including the Marcellina (Meghan Latham) and Susanna (a preggers Isabel Bayrakdarian, whom I do not usually like all that much; maybe the baby bump makes her more likeable) during "Via resti servita" which made me miss my singing buddy Jen Carter a whole lot! Russell Braun pretty much blew everyone else away, but that was to be expected. Celebrity sighting at the opera was Liesl Schade, mother of Michael Schade, who knows me and said hi to me... yay! And after the opera Shannon and I had a fantastic dinner at Il Fornello where we met rising star Robert Gleadow, who was pretty much as yummy as our dinner. He was all "might I have the honour and pleasure of dining with you beautiful ladies?" and we were all "umm thanks but not tonight (because we are about to chow down like pigs, but tell us where you're staying and we'll be happy to drop by after we've gorged ourselves on garlic, goat cheese and gorgonzola)." ;)