Toronto City Opera’s third annual Macina Voice Competition is set for February 21, 2026 at Church of the Redeemer. The finalists are:
Leçons de Ténèbres is a genre that became popular in France in the 17th and 18th century. It’s a set of texts from the Vulgate version of the Book of Jeremiah to be sung on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of Easter week. Over time setting these texts became something of a competitive exercise as they came to play a similar role to Handel’s oratorios in 18th century England. They were musical works that one could listen to during Lent when most other musical outlets were unavailable. The fashionable set would roam from church to church in search of the finest settings and the finest singers. Continue reading
On Thursday evening soprano Reilly Nelson and composer/keyboardist Friedrich Kern presented an intriguing programme based around songs by Kurt Weill. Songs were interleaved with composed passages for electronics based on glass harmonica and texts in English and German. It was a “celebration” of impermanence and of the never quite dying hope that there is something more substantial out there somewhere.
The songs were a mix of the familiar; Youkali, Surabaya Johnny, and the less familiar; Und was bekam des Soldaten Weib? and Ballade vom ertrunkenen Mädchen, for example. All of it was sung in the original language (French or German) with keyboard accompaniment and Reilly made no attempt to make it lovely. This was Weill at his cabaret rawest which is just the way I like it; gritty not pretty Crooned, bowdlerized English translations be damned! Continue reading
Here’s a few things to look forward to next month. Weirdly everything I know about so far is in the first half of the month so I’ll maybe do a supplemental for the back half in a couple of weeks time. Continue reading
Wednesday night I attended the second performance of the current run of Verdi’s Rigoletto at the COC. This is a revival of the Christopher Alden production first seen in 2011 (first cast, second cast) and again in 2018. So the basic concept is the same. All the action is played out, quite publicly, in the “gaming room” of a Victorian gentlemen’s club. I think the production has grown on me over time. I felt the tweaks in 2018 were improvements and I suspect some more tweaks this time. Certainly from where i was sitting in the Orchestra the set seemed bigger than I remember. It’s huge and very painterly. It also has great acoustics.
The nominations for the 2026 Juno awards have been announced and four of the nominees are recordings that I have reviewed here or elsewhere. Continue reading
Soprano Lise Davidsen recently gave a recital at the Metropolitan Opera with pianist James Baillieu. The live recording of that gig is now being released by Decca in various formats. My gut reaction was to think that a piano recital at the Met is not such a great idea but the recording turns out to be terrific.
It starts out with a couple of opera arias, There’s a powerful but very beautiful account of “Vissi d’arte” and a very stylish account of “Morrò, ma prima in grazia” from Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera. In this one she shows some interesting colours as well as terrific, clean, high notes. Continue reading
The annual GGS New Music Ensemble 21C Afterhours concert, with Brian Current conducting, of course, took place late on Saturday in the Temerty Theatre. This year it consisted of three concerti; two of them world premieres. Besides the soloists 26 musicians were used in various combinations during the evening. Continue reading
Thursday’s noon hour in the concert was a really great idea; combine the COC Ensemble Studio with the COC Orchestra for an all Mozart concert. Mozart’s Symphony No.35 in D major (Hafner) was split into into its four movements with pairs of arias inserted between the movements to create what Johannes Debus, conducting, described as an opéra imaginaire. It worked really well.
UoT Opera’s annual Student Composer Collective production was presented on Sunday afternoon at CanStage Berkeley Street. This year Michael Patrick Albano’s libretto took three stories from antiquity and presented each twice; essentially in the original and then with a modern twist. The three stories were Antigone, Medea and Helen and five composers were involved in creating the music. Sandra Horst conducted with a seven piece ensemble on stage to one side.
operaramblings 