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Tips for very vocal sort of Saturday in a concert hall or in an armchair

By John Terauds on February 9, 2013

Soprano Gillian Keith rehearsing Friday with  keith Weber at Rosedale Presbyterian Church (Samuel Tam photo).
Soprano Gillian Keith rehearsing Friday with Keith Weber at Rosedale Presbyterian Church (Samuel Tam photo).

There are several good reasons to go snowbank hopping today to catch some fine vocal music. There are a couple of equally good reasons to make rum-spiked hot cocoa and curl up on the sofa.

IN OR OUT

The Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and conductor Noel Edison serve up one of my favourite pieces of choral music: Giacomo Rossini’s Petite Messe Solenelle. The long-retired opera composer wrote this gem after he’d turned 70.

It had its first performance in 1864 in the private chapel of a French aristocrat, with accompaniment of piano and harmonium.

Even though it’s a setting of the ordinary of the Mass, plus a little something for the Elevation of the Host, there is nothing pious about Rossini’s always operatic, often funny, writing for soloists and chorus. Rossini called it the last of his “péchés de vieillesse” — sins of old age.

You can catch it in the flesh at 3 p.m., at Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, or you can watch it stream live online. You’ll find all the details here.

Rossini orchestrated the piece before he died, but we’re hearing the original at Yorkminster Park. Here, for a taste of this delectable piece of music is the opening Kyrie, courtesy of Robert King and his Consort:

IN

Medici.tv is still offering free on-demand streaming of Wednesday’s Madrid premiere of Philip Glass’s The Perfect American, an opera about Walt Disney’s obsession with his image and legacy.

The score is vintage Glass, who gets incrementally more melodious with each new opera (the sins of his old age, perhaps?). The hope-fear dichotomy in the story is vividly depicted in the shifting colours of the orchestra. The highly stylized staging is a wonderful, whimsical example of how nicely video and live action can mesh. Disney is beautifully brought to life by English bass Christopher Purves.

You’ll find it here.

The Metropolitan Opera’s broadcast today is of the boffo box office sort, featuring Anna Netrebko in Gaetano Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore. Matthew Polenzani gets to sing “Una furtiva lagrima.” The broadcast starts at 1 p.m. on CBC Radio 2’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera.

OUT

Soprano Gillian Keith dips into the German, English and American art-song books for a recital with multi-faceted American pianist Keith Weber at Rosedale Presbyterian Church at 7:30 p.m. The building sits at the corner of Mt Pleasant Rd and Elm St. It’s a little bit of a walk from the Sherbourne subway station, but should be worth the slog. Details here.

Soprano Nathalie Paulin joins violinist Emily Eng, cellist Kerri McGonigle and harpsichord player Lysianne Boulva in an evening of music by J.S. Bach at 8 p.m. It’s part of the Academy Concert Series at Eastminster United Church, on the Danforth just west of the Chester subway station. Details here.

Matthew Larkin’s Singers teams up with Eric Paetkau’s Group of 27 orchestra and soloists for a mix of classical and modern: Joseph Haydn’s Theresienmesse, Franz Schubert’s Mass in G and Michael Oesterle’s Unreasonable World. The concert is at Church of the Holy Trinity, right outside the back entrance to the Eaton Centre, at 8 p.m. Details here.

John Terauds

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