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Nathan Sawaya’s ART OF THE BRICK
The Art of the Brick show has now come to Toronto as of today March 12th. Nathan Sawaya is the artist. Yes I want to call his creations “art” and yes he is an artist, working with LEGO blocks and...
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One of Joyce Wieland’s paintings
Zoe and I walked through the many wonderful pieces displayed in Joyce Wieland’s show Heart On, running at the AGO until Sunday January 4th. The conversations I have been having with Zoe about...
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Accompanying Lepage to The Far Side of the Moon
Sometimes my need to explain myself leads to huge introductions that may confuse or perplex, pre-ambulations that happen both on foot and in the words of the blog. As 2025 closes I escaped into...
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Mendelssohn Choir — Brahms German Requiem
Friday night Toronto Mendelssohn Choir & Musicians of Kitchener – Waterloo Symphony presented Brahms German Requiem in a sold out Koerner Hall to rapturous applause. I had been initially concerned...
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Robert Lepage’s Macbeth at Stratford
Bruce asked me whether the Scottish play is worth seeing. I had seen it from the front row, able to see every detail of the complex presentation in the Avon Theatre, less Shakespeare’s immortal play...
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Poet and Peasant: a picture and an overture
In 1967 Joseph Budai was working on a renovation of a Chinese restaurant in Peterborough. An old lithograph picture was left inside the walls that he was renovating. At the time it was still inside an...
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Gestures of Love – Hunters and Collectors: Evan Jones & Patrick DeCoste at...
I just visited The Drey Gallery on Woodbine in East York, just north of Danforth. I was drawn by seeing Patrick DeCoste’s mention of the show on Facebook, plus the convenience of the location. I have...
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2024 Met Gala – JG Ballard’s Garden of Time tone deaf to the rabble
The 2024 Met Gala fund-raiser used a JG Ballard story for its theme, The Garden of Time. Ballard is one of my favourite writers, especially his short stories and science fiction. Several have made...
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Philip Chiu’s Fables
Pianist Philip Chiu I have been listening to FABLES, the excellent ATMA CD of piano music by Philip Chiu pairing two piano transcriptions of music by Ravel with Mnidoonskaa (A Multitude of Insects), a...
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Adam Klein reflects on the beginning of his operatic career
How do we begin? It’s a good question to ask on January 1st. I am a big fan of tenor Adam Klein. I saw him play Loge in the Robert Lepage production of Das Rheingold, just about the only singer who...
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Questions for Constance Adorno Barcza
Barczablog is like a public diary, a place where I reflect & offer opinions. It should be no surprise that in such a self-centred medium I should write about a Barcza occasionally. In those...
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Feline friendly aesthetic
I thought at first I’d call this “life in a cat house”, until I realized it might have some unsavory associations. Last week Erika and I went to visit our friend Eryna Huzan, one of the most...
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The view from The Inn at Lock Seven in Thorold
Watching boats from the Inn at Lock Seven? Our friends Jim and Louise gave us the idea. You must have heard that ships are able to travel inland as far as Chicago or Minnesota. But how do they get...
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Being Legendary at the ROM: Kent Monkman confronts Colonialism and rethinks...
Kent Monkman’s current show Being Legendary at the Royal Ontario Museum continues for a couple of weeks more until April 16th. Art Canada Institute have created a book that helps preserve the show and...
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Salome: from Matthew and Mark, through Oscar, Richard and Atom
It can be enjoyable to trace the changes in the way a story is adapted and/or interpreted. Salome begins in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Matthew 14:1-11 (NIV)1 At that time Herod the tetrarch...
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TSO – TMC Mozart Requiem: Best Concert of the Year
The headline is only partly in jest. Yes it was the best concert so far in 2023, as of January 11th. Many are still saying “Happy New Year” and writing the wrong date on cheques (if they even write...
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Mother Sorrow: workshop December 9th
I was privileged to observe an open rehearsal of a new creation titled “Mother Sorrow.” The creative team is large, but I should mention director & choreographer Jennifer Nichols, Composer and...
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Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas—In Concert with the TSO
Tonight Erika and I watched The Nightmare Before Christmas shown with the Toronto Symphony playing the score live, conducted by Sarah Hicks at Roy Thomson Hall. Conductor Sarah Hicks As with the 100...
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Competing icons at the RCM: Gould, Liszt and others
It’s a branding exercise to give a building a name. Roy Thomson has his hall. Both Rogers and Four Seasons have Centres. They already have The Glenn Gould School in the Royal Conservatory of Music. So...
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Gould’s Wall
Tapestry Opera have premiered Brian Current’s new site-specific work Gould’s Wall, an event that adds another layer to the association between the Royal Conservatory of Music and one of their most...
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