There are all sorts of fantastic graduates from our music schools, but only so many jobs through our established concert presenters and opera companies. So what to do? Create your own work, like the gang at Opera 5, who kick off their second season with a three-opera show at Gallery 345 that runs to Thursday.
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
As far as this collective is concerned, opera needs to be cheeky, cheap and unconventional. It also needs to engage more than just the eyes and ears.
To that end they’ve used the informal, high-ceilinged space at Parkdale’s Gallery 345 to excellent effect, introducing its three-opera bill with a thematically appropriate food appetizer.
The three works are: Hin und Zurück (There and Back), a 15-minute opera written in 1929 by a 35-year-old Paul Hindemith for a festival of short operas in Baden-Baden; Aleko, the hour-long 1892 first opera by a 19-year-old Moscow Conservatory student called Sergei Rachmaninov; and Talk Opera, a 20-year-old spoof of daytime talk shows and Verdi’s Rigoletto by American composer Milton Granger.
Based on Tuesday’s opening night performances, this is an impressive effort by a large and talented musical gang. Anyone looking to tickle their operatic fancies with something unconventional wouldn’t go wrong in checking out the fruits of Opera 5’s latest efforts.
Artistic director Aria Umezawa directs the two shorter operas, having a lot of fun with the comic elements in both. The Hindemith piece gets the most clever treatment, with comic-book sound effects and other visual gags carried out by supernumeraries dressed all in white.
Erik Thor directs Aleko, which is the most awkward of the works to stage in a compact way. Its verismo depiction of a wayward Roma wife and her murderously jealous husband is also an awkward fit on this triple bill, and the ensemble singing would have benefitted from a conductor — but even so was nicely sung.
There is one famous aria, sung by Aleko, the jealous husband, which was nicely rendered by baritone Joshua Whelan, with excellent support from music director Maika’i Nash at the piano. Soprano Natalya Matyusheva is excellent as Zemfira, the adulterous wife.
The evening’s closing Talk Opera was the most accessible and, to the opera fan, the most fun. It’s about the three main characters from Rigoletto appearing on a cheesy talk show to be torn apart and warned that, if they don’t seek counselling, one of them is likely to end up dead.
Granger’s score is as funny as the dialogue, neatly mixing a modern musical idiom with highlights from Verdi’s original.
The singers are perfectly cast, all doing a fine job. But I do want to single out lyric soprano Leigh-Ann Allen who was a luminous Gilda. We need to hear her more often. Kimberley Bartczak provided excellent support at the piano.
It is fantastic that so many young artists in Toronto are getting organized and making their own music. That, in itself, deserves our encouragement and support. To see it done well and with wit, as is the case with Opera 5 this week, is even nicer.
You can check out the details here.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
