I’ve been complaining fior ages that the sort of curated artsong concert by young singers disappeared with COVID.  Monday night gave me cause for hope.  The first concert in Tapestry Opera’s Free Underground Concert series was given on Monday evening by a new initiative called GentleFreak.  It’s led by Danika Lorèn who has form in this area.

Slaying My Demon Lover is a concept by Daevyd Pepper and consists of readings and music around the idea of loss or break up (romantic or otherwise).  Monday’s show was a cut down version of the whole thing which can be seen on the evening of the 15th at Arrayspace (tickets here).  It’s very varied with some very lyrical pieces like Hahn’s L’heure exquise (sung beautifully by Queen Hezumuryango) and much mor abrasive material like Weill’s Je ne t’aime pas (sung forcefully by Reilly Nelson).  There was musical theatre material on the same theme; for example Sondheim’s Losing My Mind (Danika) and some weirder or more playful numbers like George Aperghis Récitation 14 (Danika) and Vernon/Ivor’s 715 CRΣΣKS sung into the piano by Daevyd.  Accompaniment throughout was by Claire Harris on piano.  Bottom line it all worked and came together to make a most satisfying and very welcome show.

Tapestry’s Free Underground Concerts programme runs on selected Monday evenings from 6pm to 7pm at the Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre.  Next up on the 23rd is a preview concert of Kevin Wong’s new musical In Real Life.