This is a list of concerts we are attending, wishing we could attend, or thinking about attending between April 21 and 27, 2025. For more of what’s happening around Toronto, visit our calendar here.
Soulpepper/Musical Stage Company/Crow’s Theatre/TO Live: A Strange Loop
Tuesday, April 22, 7:30 p.m, Wednesday, April 23, 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 24, 7:30 p.m., Friday, April 25, 7:30 p.m, Saturday, April 26, 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., Sunday, April 27, 7:30 p.m; show runs till June 1, 2025
Young Centre, $65+
A Strange Loop is a great live theatre work. As recipient of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, two Tonys — including Best New Musical, two Drama Desk Awards, two Obie Awards and seven Lucille Lortel Award nominations — ASL instigates a strong audience reaction: in favour, and in dislike. As we carefully try to remain non-offensive with others on divisive issues: racism, homophobia, HIV stigmatisation, self-hatred, and depression, it’s no wonder that ASL is problematic for many, as it meets these issues head-on. There isn’t a clear conclusion, and there is no easy salvation. However, isn’t that what art is about — of life that is impossible to determine clearly, with edges eroding with difficulties? Out of its six week run, the first week is nearly all sold-out; don’t dally for too long, get your ticket and go see what the fuss is about. Info here.
Royal Conservatory of Music: GGS New Music Ensemble
Tuesday, April 22, 7:30 p.m.
Temerty Theatre, Royal Conservatory of Music. Free with ticket registration
This is a short and sweet program of contemporary music, featuring Christina Volpini (1992), Clara Iannotta (1983), and a giant of the past: Edgard Varèse (1883-1965). As one of the early experimentalists of ‘contemporary’ music, Varèse explored many of the things-to-come, including the theremin, electronic music, and percussion ensemble. Varèse’ Offrandes, featuring a chamber orchestra — including six percussionists, and a soprano (Daniele Carreon Herrera) — is a great work to experience live, where the composer’s genius in his use of textures and timbres becomes a visceral experience. Come out and see another beautiful, if strange, facet of classical music, and marvel at the musicianship and maturity of the GGS New Music Ensemble players — this music demands technical mastery and sharply tuned ears. Info here.
Guitar Society of Toronto: Maximo Diego Pujol
Saturday, April 26, 7:30 p.m., St. Andrew’s Church
73 Simcoe St., $45+
The Guitar Society of Toronto is hosting Pujol, one of the best guitarists of our times, as part of the 2025 Toronto Guitar Weekend, with his Saturday evening concert as the high point of the three-day event. Pujol, as a composer, draws heavily from his Argentinian background: his exposure to tango and milonga in the night clubs of Buenos Aires, both as a soloist and as an accompanist, along with study of traditional tangos, gives him incredible depth as a musician. It’s an incredible thing, to experience a true master of a genre live — and living in cosmopolitan Toronto, we have many great opportunities to witness incredible beauty. Head to the bustle of the downtown on the weekend, edging on bursting spring, and experience the pin-drop quiet concentration of the Toronto guitar audience listening to this master. Info here.
Soundstreams: Garden of Vanished Pleasures
Friday, April 25, 7:30 p.m., Saturday, April 26, 2 p.m., and 7:30 p.m., Sunday, April 27, 2 p.m.
Canadian Stage, 26 Berkeley St., $46.05+
This is a big weekend for Toronto operaheads. Along with Wozzeck, there’s a last project by Soundstreams 24/25 season: Garden of Vanished Pleasures. A finalist for Opera America’s 2022 Award for Excellence in Digital Opera, it takes over the CanStage for the weekend. A blended work of Cecilia Livingston and Donna McKevitt, GVP’s first run in 2021 as a digital work gathered many favourable reviews, and it’s great to have a second chance to see this young work, undoubtedly changed and matured yet once again, through its first run. Yes, music, though engraved in a static form of score, does grow and change with the world — especially for works that are conceived in our own time, by living composers. The way we understand, and express, though subtle, never stays the same — we are not the same person we were, even just yesterday. So come out and see this fresh offshoot from the traditional opera world — after all, good storytelling is timeless. Read out Preview here. Info here.
Canadian Opera Company: Wozzeck
Friday, April 25, 7:30 p.m., Sunday, April 27, 2 p.m., with 5 additional May 2025 performances
Four Seasons Centre, $45+
Written in the tumultuous times of 1914-1922, surrounding the unfortunate massacre known as WW1, Wozzeck is a true masterpiece in its observation of once normal people, deprived of their humanity through war, social exploitation, and savage, furious sadism. I cannot help but to relate this brutal work to other current human tragedies. As we accustom ourselves to systemize and reduce actual human suffering into a simple political and commercial transaction in faraway lands — a simple headline that we don’t click on, because — oh, it’s bit too much for a weekday morning — perhaps facing this art, blood-stained and twisted with violence, can be a way to re-humanize the great pain of ‘others.’ Once we feel their pains, perhaps the next logical question may come to our heart: who are these others? How do we relate? What blood do we have on our own hands? Wozzeck, typical of Alban Berg’s work, is succinct; in its 90-minute course with no intermission, it expresses so much — please do come out and experience it. These human expressions are not for history papers. These are for the living. For us. For all of us. See where it may take you, away from the cushy, safety of YYZ. Info here.
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