Rich and enticing voices pair with stunning and complex instrumentals in Canadian Opera Company’s Peter Grimes playing at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre
Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten opens in what appears to be a high school auditorium. The auditorium is being used to conduct an inquest into the death of a young boy. Peter Grimes is the only suspect. The second production of the Canadian Opera Company‘s (COC) current season was written in 1945, and is based on the “Peter Grimes” section of a collection of poems entitled The Borough by George Crabbe.
Tapestry’s Opera Briefs showcases young, contemporary talent creating new and innovative pieces that bring opera to a new generation
“Tapestry Briefs“, Tapestry‘s annual program of operatic shorts, was a wonderful showcase of young, contemporary, operatic talent. The program presents the collaborations from Tapestry’s 17th annual Composer-Librettist Laboratory. This year’s lab was comprised of four librettists (Nicholas Billon, Morris Panych, Julie Tepperman, David Yee) and four composers (Patrick Arteaga, Cecilia Livingston, Jocelyn Morlock, Chris Thornborrow). Each short scene was created by a different librettist/composer pairing. The twelve shorts were extremely diverse and spanned a wide range of human emotions and experience. Continue reading Review: Opera Briefs (Tapestry)→
Alien dance invasion brings the rave to the stage at Toronto’s Electric Theatre.
What’s an alien enthusiast to do when the alien invasion actually happens? High-energy, electronic musical Hello, written and directed by Mandy Leon, posits this question using dance, musical theatre, and projection.
Upbeat, dance influenced electronic music, and laser lights created an upbeat, rave-esque atmosphere for this show. I am an avid techno-dancing enthusiast and had I been hearing this music in a club I would have been a bit bored. As a musical theatre soundtrack, Kait Ast’s compositional approach was ideal.
From the Fringe to the Doras, Top Gun! The Musical delivers fabulous comedy and political satire.
I did not remember the plot of 1986 film Top Gun in great detail before going to see Top Gun! The Musical. Nevertheless, I remembered enough of the gist to appreciate the satirical spoof. My companion, a much more avid connoisseur of the film, found this parody hilarious.
The story line is quite meta in that it tells the story of a small theatre troupe trying to mount a production of a musical version of the Top Gun movie. The production is beleaguered with increasing creative and financial problems. As the director’s artistic vision unravels, he becomes increasingly frantic.
