I received an email from an audience member asking why we were producing The Marriage of Figaro in English. This is a legitimate question and I take for granted if one person is asking, there are another hundred silently wondering the same thing. The fact is, Opera Atelier has always produced comedy in English whenever [...]
Posts from ‘November, 2009’
A breath of fresh air
Jeannette and I have just returned from our week in Rome. As always, it was overwhelming and exhilarating. We averaged a trip to 3 galleries or special exhibits per day and were on our feet from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sometimes we were looking for specific references but often we were simply letting impressions [...]
Advanced Book Exchange…
As I am not a computer literate person, I frequently ask colleagues in the office to navigate through the intricacies of the internet for me. In particular, at one point or another everyone in the office has been corralled into ordering books for Jeannette and me. Consequently, I was amazed when Nancy Hitzig mentioned to [...]
The road to Rome…
Very soon Jeannette and I will be leaving for a week in Rome – something that I would love to be a yearly event for the rest of my life. This is our fifth trip to Rome in the past decade and I still have an overwhelming sense of anticipation. The city is so extraordinary, [...]
Changing gears…
It’s always a relief to have another major project on the burner while getting over a show which has just closed. Our new production of Figaro will have to be completely built and painted by the new year and you would think this would be enough to keep all of us fully occupied. But as [...]
I wonder if any experience knits people so closely together…
You would think after all these years I would have toughened up to the point that the closing of a show (ie. Iphigénie) would not leave me devastated. Sadly, this is not the case. Our rehearsals are too thrilling and the number of performances too few to leave any of us with a sense of [...]
Is it just me or should we all be outraged…Jim M comments about Iphigenie
Is it just me or should we all be outraged that in this day and age a columnist can apparently get away with the super-charged, coded language of 1950’s-era homophobia that was used in the Toronto Star review of Iphigenie? “All well and good but Pynkoski also sees fit to decorate the stage with fit, [...]
Is there a by-law that prohibits standing ovations at the Elgin? Patron Richard Rix on Iphigenie
Is there a by-law that prohibits standing ovations at the Elgin? During this past week I saw both COC’s Madama Butterfly and Atelier’s Iphigénie. Butterfly was solid; Iphigénie was outstanding. But while Butterfly got the crowd on its feet, Iphigénie left the audience, though warmly appreciative, firmly rooted to its seats. I can only assume [...]
Iphigénie en Tauride, Wednesday Nov 4
Tonight was the third time I’ve been in attendance for an Opera Atelier production (Idomeneo and The Coronation of Poppea), and I am astounded. For an ‘esoteric’ piece, it was fantastically performed. Kresimir Spicer’s performance of Oreste was profoundly good, and Peggy Kriha Dye was phenomenal. Thank you. I look forward to Figarro.
A post from Karin Michael
There was nothing to complain about, an over all beautiful production, good voices, lovely staging, cute dancers! Would Herr Gluck have liked the production? I was visualizing a performance 300 years ago but could not compare it with O.A’s rendition. Looking forward to Mozart. Congratulations Karin Michael