Urban Shocker's Neighbourhood Watch

[Urban Shocker]

Welcome to our 50,000th visitor ... whoever it was.

To The Magic Flute on Saturday. Candy-coloured and saccharine-laden, and intended as the COC's version of The Nutcracker, I think. A bit too gooey for my tastes, but well enough sung and as popular as ever. Michael Schade lumbered about the stage and appeared to be wearing the same unflattering, tight white suit that made him look like a beached whale when he lay on the stage in the COC's recent Rusalka, and he reprised the lounging for this opera to equally risable effect - though both he and Isabel Bayrakdarian sounded lovely whether vertical or prone. Aline Kutan as the Queen of the Night ( she sang Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen at the hall's opening gala in 2006 ) got to wear a big, sparkly black number that was pure Liberace, and the Three Ladies - dressed as Goths - were entertaining enough in their own ways. Papageno ( Rodion Pogossov ) was as much fun as he was as Figaro in The Barber of Seville and skipped about the stage.

The play-within-the-play ploy was a bit precious in act 1, and there was too much hedge-moving in act 2. The trials by fire and water effects were hokum.

 

[TonyV]

Opera

^ We decided not to subscribe the full current opera season for a variety of reasons, but my chief reason was that I had no interest in seeing Aida one more time (despite the fact that the amazing Sondra R. was the lead) and most certainly I wasn't interested in seeing / hearing The Magic Flute one more time. But thanks for your insights on it.

On the other hand the Britten thing was amazing and we are looking forward to Adams' Nixon in China (Feb 26), Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss, one of my favourite opera composers, on May 15, and finally, the Gluck opera, Orfeo ed Euridice on May 24.

I guess it is convenient to add that I am going through a time when I want to hear unfamiliar things, or, if repeats, the meaty repertoire - something demanding.

The 2011-12 COC season contains 7 things that I absolutely want to hear, so we will subscribe to the full season. We'll probably go to parterre seating, it is fabulous. They're doing Tosca again, and I have no objections to that, it is a wonderful opera and if they bring it back every four years, I'll probably go to hear it. Am thrilled that Tales of Hoffman is finally on the bill, next season -- that thing is a beauty.

 

[Urban Shocker]

What night are you going in '11/12 ? Now I'm retired, it is just as easy to go on weeknights as on Saturdays. And Thursdays next season have 4 opening nights, so I'm thinking of switching back ... or maybe going on Wednesdays.

To the City Room for the lunch-hour vocal series concert today. The "storm of the century" kept some of the audience away ( also, the horn player, who lives out in the hinterlands, couldn't get there - so the Schubert was cancelled ), but it was a lovely concert. My baritone friend loved the Ralph Vaughan Williams Songs of Travel, arranged by Harold Birston, as did I.

I'm so glad Bramwell Tovey has piled on in the debate over getting Canadian opera performed by the COC.

 

[TonyV]

^ Being semi-retired gives me more freedom with respect to COC and TSO subscriptions. At this time we don't know what day we will choose for opera, but TSO will probably revert back to a Saturday night subscription and some extra Thursday concerts. Lovely bunch of stuff coming from TSO next season. My fave (Noseda) is returning with Sondra R. along for the ride; I will definitely catch that concert in April / 2012.

(Glanced at something to do with Tovey & Canadian opera last weekend, forget what it was about. Recalling Bradshaw's response to the issue, and chuckling a bit. Personally, I don't care what nation any opera comes from, I just want good opera, whether chestnut material or contemporary).

 

[Urban Shocker]

Yes, though it'd be nice to see quirky Canuck "us" represented in what we see on stage, now and then, rather than universal truths.

Managed to snare a couple of extra tickets ( $22 each! ) to Nixon for next Wednesday ( parterre ... never been there ) in addition to my subscription. My baritone friend and his partner will be in Ring 3 that evening.

To Maharaja at the AGO last night with friends - a quick walk-through, half an hour before the place closed. Loved the little paintings - the pastel colours, and delightfully unadorned backgrounds on some of them reminded me of the Fra Angelico frescoes in San Marco. And I felt that the large silver coach was rendered all the more attractive as a result of the understated grey roof and subtle interior upholstery that went with it. Not since the Romanov state coach in the Catherine the Great exhibition there five years ago have I been so enamoured of ancient modes of vehicular transport.

Then down McCaul to that Korean/Japanese place on Queen for supper. After, the four of us took off for MoCCA and the Luis Jacob opening. Plenty of cuties to admire, a few people we knew to chatter to, and some art that failed to move any of us much - though we felt that the vast dimensions and pretentiousness of the AGO's recent Schnabel show put it in a class of its own. The show Jacob curated, from the National Gallery collection, impressed us more.

David Mason Books has a 70% sale on right now. I spent a couple of hours nosing around there on Thursday. I love musty old bookshops; they'll all be gone a few years from now, I expect.

 

[Benc7]

Nixon in China- Four Seasons Centre

Everyone is convincing in their roles; Robert Orth has Nixon down pat, and Maria Kanyova has Pat down...pat. In fact, I think this should be called "Pat Nixon in China" , she's that good, and Scene 1 of Act 2 was my favourite.Adrian Tompson is a rather sprightly Mao, when he isn't being all old and philosophical. Loved the libretto; poetic, filled with allusions, double-entendres...quite funny at times, when it didn't fall in love with its own abstruseness. Marisol Montvalo as Madam Mao sings an aria"I am the wife of Mao" that must be torture for any singer. Lovely voices all the way around.

There were some technical difficulties at yesterday's opening; one of the television sets used to show footage of the real people portrayed in the opera, resisted being liberated from its support. In act three, that same rebellious TV set broadcast irritating snow instead of video. Maybe Rogers disconnected service for non-payment? In act one it was hard to hear Robert Orth. The Ballet in the third act should have been bigger, maybe more like the posters of that time, all heroic flag-waving and socialist liberation.

In any case, when all was sung and done, it was the non-singing peasant woman who opens the show and is present through out that sticks in my mind. She symbolized the ten of millions of Chinese people for whom all this chatter meant nothing; Emperor or Chairman, Socialism or Capitalism, what the hell difference would it make to her?

Three Acts, One Intermission. Act three an anticlimax and too long.

http://www.coc.ca/PerformancesAndTickets/1011Season/NixonInChina.aspx

 

[Urban Shocker]

Thanks for the review, Benc7!

Interchange, Archivist, my designer/illustrator friend and I will form our own Gang of Four on Wednesday night, becoming a Gang of Six when we meet up with our pals at intermission.

Not sure what to wear, but I'm leaning towards my eye-dazzling Chinese flag top of bright red with yellow stars. If so, I'll accessorize with a copy of Mao's "Little Red Book", which can be purchased for less than ten dollars in Chinatown.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/LittleRedBook_English.jpg

 

[Urban Shocker]

Trudeau in Havana, based on the Great Liberal Helmsman's 1976 historic love-in with Fidel ( with Maggie and their son in tow ... ) might make a swell Canadian opera.

 

[Urban Shocker]

The people are the heroes now behemoth pulls the peasant's plough ...

Starting as a formal affair of state choreographed for the media, moving through states of confusion and exasperation as Mao and Nixon talked at cross purposes in private meetings, through surrealist states where reality tried to upstage staged fiction, to the banalities of tired Dick and Pat and Mao and the Missus in their jammies reminiscing about their past ... I was carried along by this glorious, poetic and musically hypnotic production from start to finish. Pat at the pig farm, Kissinger as a sadistic rapist warlord, Madame Mao telling the orchestra to hit it boys, some outrageously zany and very funny moments. There's so much to mine here, it is a delight to leave an opera with as many questions as answers ... and I'm looking forward to doing it again on the 19th.

Loved the parterre, Tony!

( Added later: It should be noted that a sizeable number of people in the audience bolted for the exits as soon as it was over! )

 

[Roy G Biv]

US, I liked it until the last scene which lasted 30 min too long and was excruciating at best. I literally was angry. Perhaps it went over my head, but when something goes over the head of 90% of the people in attendance, it should not be on stage. Entertainment sacrificed for what? Self-indulgence? Perhaps the creative team would have been better off participating in a private circle-jerk, all the while winking and nudging...


Also, I saw you and your blue suede jacket. Yes I did.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Also, I saw you and your blue suede jacket. Yes I did.

You are soooo lucky ...

Interchange and Archivist go on Wednesdays, and I'll be joining them next season so don't be a stranger - come over and say hello some time! Were you at the Opera 101 on The Magic Flute? I saw a cluster of nice young men sitting near Neef and I wondered if they might be you and your courtiers.

As mentioned earlier, I took the last scene to be about banalities and how tired old couples tend to reminisce in private. Admittedly, it is audaceous to try and make opera out of the banal, but it seemed to fit with the trajectory of an opera that went from grand set piece at the start through the surreal middle section to the summing up and philosophical ending.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Also, I think there's plenty of depth and mystery to this opera for it to be interpreted by different directors in endless ways in the future. It has already veered off from 1987's fairly literal original staging.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Also, I saw you and your blue suede jacket. Yes I did.

I now regret abandoning my initial shocking all-Chinese red and yellow colour scheme, accessorized with Mao's "little red book" ( all the more so because said book had a starring role on stage ), for the all-American red pants/white shirt/blue jacket, coupled with the Chinese red-and-yellow bow tie so as to be more diplomatically balanced.

 

[Benc7]

The Magic Flute- Four Seasons Centre

It was pure pleasure to sit back and let beatuiful music and beautiful voices do their thing. No effort required! A great cast; Aline Kutan rocked it as "Queen of the Night" and Rodion Pogossov was a terrific "Papageno". Loved every second.



http://www.coc.ca/PerformancesAndTickets/1011Season/TheMagicFlute.aspx

 

[TonyV]

Bach - B Minor Mass - Tafelmusik

Attended the B Minor Mass by Tafelmusik on Saturday night, and what a wonderful treat that was. If ever they do it again, if you like Bach, then just go!

Great soloists, instrumentalists and choir all led by Ivars Taurins. The combined forces made for an exceptionally satisfying night of music at its best. That old saying about the "sum being greater than its parts" is what comes to mind, when I think about this music.