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Kyle McDonald talks about Conan and Mightier Productions
Kyle McDonald and Mightier Productions premiere a new opera on May 5th, titled Conan and the Stone of Kelior. I asked Kyle a few questions. Kyle McDonald, creator of Conan and the Stone of Kelior BB:...
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Singulières in Toronto
Singulières is a piece of theatre about single women in Québec, although the most remarkable things about the show are not what I expected. Five women fill the stage of Crow’s Guloien Theatre with...
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To rewild
“No mow May” is over. It’s June which means the back-lawn has had its first complete trim. In front I’ve been able to dodge this question – between protecting pollinators by letting dandelions &...
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Art Canada Institute presents Kent Monkman
The title of the lecture was “Art Canada Institute presents: The Making of a Masterpiece– Kent Monkman.” Monkman is an enormous star, famous far beyond the immediate milieu of art dealers and...
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Immortal Glenn Gould
I want to write something about Glenn Gould. Who is he, what is his legacy in 2022? I’m thinking about what GG means to me as I anticipate Tapestry Opera’s premiere of Gould’s Wall, a new...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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