What a marvellous way to say goodbye to the past and to ring in the new!
Bravissimo!, the New Year’s Eve gala concert, has been entertaining Toronto area opera lovers for the past 16 years, the pandemic notwithstanding. Salute to Vienna has an even longer history, now 30 years old. Brought to us by the Hungarian impresario couple Attila and Marion Glatz, these concerts are North American equivalents of the venerable Viennese tradition of ringing in the new year with sublime music and dance.
I have been attending these shows in Toronto from the start, and I have always been hugely entertained. This year was no exception.
Bravissimo! New Year’s at the Opera / Arias, duets and Orchestral selections from Un Giorno di regno, La traviata, Samson et Dalila, La rondine, Turandot, Cavalleria rusticana, La boheme, Don Carlo, Carmen, Un ballo in Maschera, Madama Butterfly, Les contes d’Hoffmann, Rigoletto, Orphée aux Enfers / Eri Nakamura, sop.; Brigitta Simon, sop., Viktoria Vizin, mezz.; Kang Wang, ten.; Mihai Damian, bar.; Johannes Debus, cond., Canadian Opera Company Orchestra., Adi Braun, host. Dec. 31, 7 p.m. Roy Thomson Hall.
The 120-minutes long Bravissimo! always starts early at 7 p.m., leaving enough of the evening for those wanting more merriment elsewhere. It used to take place in Massey Hall until recent years. For a second year, it’s no longer a pickup orchestra, but the official Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, conducted by its music director Johannes Debus. The host this year was jazz vocalist Adi Braun.
It was an evening of many highlights, beginning with a high energy and precision-driven overture from the rarely performed early Verdi opera Un Giorno di regno. The singing began with Tonio’s “Si può” from Pagliacci, by the Romanian Mihai Damian. His dramatic baritone was impressive, sturdy, if a tad stentorian in his delivery. That said, given it’s a verismo aria and the festive occasion, going a bit over-the-top with the final high note is par for the course. Later in the program, he sang a marvellous “Eri tu,” the vengeance aria from Un ballo in Maschera. Bravo!
Australian Chinese tenor Kang Wang, in town for Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, sang Alfredo’s Act Two aria from La traviata with beautiful, clarion tone and a great top as well as a lovely diminuendo. His next piece was “Nessun dorma,” practically an obligatory choice in gala concert programming these days. His gorgeous spinto tone with plenty of squillo is ideal in this aria. The audience showed its appreciation with huge ovations. Wang and Damian later joined forces in the Carlo-Rodrigo duet from Don Carlo, their Italianate timbres blending beautifully.
Hungarian mezzo Viktoria Vizin is no stranger to Toronto audiences. I remember vividly her Marchesa Melibea in Il viaggio a Reims at the COC over twenty years ago. She sang Dalila’s showstopping aria “Mon Coeur s’ouvre a ta voix” with rich tone and a surfeit of theatricality. The same can be said about her signature piece, Habanera from Carmen.
Vizin and Japanese soprano Eri Nakamura joined forces for the Barcarolle from Les contes d’Hoffmann, a sublime moment in that opera. They sang beautifully, although their very different timbres didn’t quite blend in this this duet.
Nakamura is making her COC debut as Cio-Cio San later this month. We got a sneak peek when she and Kang Wang sang the Act One love duet from Madama Butterfly. It’s a fantastic moment in the opera, and it never fails to move an audience. Here the two singers pulled out all the stops and ended with a resplendent high C. My advice? Don’t miss Madama Butterfly at the Four Seasons Centre starting on January 24!
A delightful surprise was the guest appearance of Hungarian coloratura Brigitta Simon, singing Olympia’s aria from Les contes d’Hoffmann. She was wheeled on stage in a cart, in a doll’s costume and makeup. She delivered a stunning “Les oiseaux dans la charmille,” complete with an almost child-like timbre and stratospheric high notes, not to mention over-the-top sight gags. She even touched a F-sharp above high C, the highest note I have heard in a live performance in my 57 years of attending opera. I was speechless…
The formal program concluded with the quartet from Rigoletto, another memorable moment. By then the audience didn’t want to let the singers go, rewarding them with huge ovations. They in turn rewarded the audience with something highly predictable — the “Libiamo” scene from La traviata, all the singers holding a glass of bubbly.
Here’s where I really miss the chorus, something that was done away with the last few years, likely due to cost-cutting. Other than this little fly in the ointment, Bravissimo! was a hugely enjoyable evening.
Salute to Vienna / Operettas, Ballet, Ballroom Dancing and Orchestral selections by Johann Strauss Jr., Franz Lehar, Julius Fučik, Jacques Offenbach / Brigitta Simon, sop., Eric Fennell, ten., Michael Zehetner, cond., Strauss Symphony of Canada. January 1, 2:30 pm. Roy Thomson Hall
The second show of this musical doubleheader was Salute to Vienna, starting suitably late at 2:30 p.m. on New Year’s Day, allowing enough time for the New Year’s Eve revellers to recover enough to make it to the concert hall. I skipped the New Year’s Eve libations so I could show up at Roy Thomson Hall early for my annual ritual of people-watching.
If I may allow myself a bit of an observation: the audience is looking more superannuated than ever! It was a sea of grey and white hair, with the occasional cane, and even a walker or two, although I didn’t see a wheelchair this year. The implication is clear — classical music audience is aging fast, and there isn’t enough young blood to replace the old guards. That said, I applaud the old folks for having the drive and determination to show up to enjoy what they love.
While the Bravissimo! audience was typically decent-sized, Salute to Vienna was announced as sold out. Austrian conductor Michael Zehetner did double-duty, as orchestra leader and comedian. Yes, the jokes were corny, but the audience happily lapped it up. The program was operetta and waltz-centric, beginning with the marvellous overture to Die Fledermaus. The orchestra was the “Strauss Symphony of Canada,” a pick-up band with many of the same musicians as the previous evening’s COC Orchestra, including the concertmaster, Marie Berard.
The singers were coloratura soprano Brigitta Simon and German tenor Eric Fennell. It was obvious from the start that the voices were amplified. Simon has a brilliant coloratura of modest volume, but her voice was twice the size compared to the previous evening’s. This has been the practice all these years, amplifying the second show, but not the operatic evening, for which I am grateful. I must say the amplification was always flawlessly executed, without a technical hitch.
Simon sang Adele’s Laughing Song “Mein Herr Marquis” deliciously, with her brilliant top very much in evidence. Once again, I missed the chorus in this aria. She was later joined by the tenor Eric Fennell in the Watch Duet from Die Fledermaus, and the duet from Land of Smiles. Their voices blended beautifully, and they had excellent chemistry together. Fennell also sang nicely the famous “Dien ist mein ganzes Herz,” not the richest tone to be sure, but fine in an operetta, without showing any sign of vocal strain.
The top focus of Salute to Vienna is not so much the singing as the dancing and the waltzes. There were ten dancers, all uncredited in the program: four women and two men in the ballet troupe, plus two pairs of ballroom dancers. They were all excellent; everything they did was never less than pleasing to the eyes.
Soprano Brigitta Simon reprised her Doll Song from the previous evening. This time around, it was even more outrageous, including some raunchy sight gags when the deflated Olympia stuck her behind out at the audience, prompting the conductor to step in front to shield her. A bit silly, but that’s par for the course in this show — the performers pressed all the right buttons, and the audience loved it.
The formal program ended with the popular Thunder and Lightning Polka by Johann Strauss Jr. Everyone was in a happy mood by then, and they were encouraged by the conductor to whoop it up. Encores followed, including the obligatory Blue Danube Waltz, the Radetzky March, and of course Auld Lang Syne, with the audience joining in the singing.
There you have it, the 2024-25 edition of Bravissimo! and Salute to Vienna. I wish all my readers a happy, healthy and music-filled 2025.
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