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By Arthur Kaptainis on April 4, 2016
Voicebox Opera offers Isis and Osiris, Gods of Egypt, a collaboration of two veterans, composer Peter-Anthony Togni and librettist Sharon Singer. I think it is fair to say this two-hour-plus enterprise (intermission not included) is a troubled piece that will be need revision before it is mounted again.
(Continue reading)By Arthur Kaptainis on March 11, 2016
Brett Dean, James Ledger, and Paul Frehner participate in the second instalment of TSO's New Creations Festival.
(Continue reading)By Arthur Kaptainis on January 17, 2016
The engagement of Bernard Labadie as the conductor of two January Mozart programs (and five concerts) had been on the Toronto Symphony Orchestra books for years. There was nevertheless an aura of suspense Saturday at Roy Thomson Hall – this evening representing Labadie’s first public appearance in Canada after a long and grueling convalescence from lymphoma that included a month in an induced coma.
(Continue reading)By Arthur Kaptainis on January 8, 2016
The Day the Earth Stood Still. The Bride of Frankenstein. The Thing From Another World. All memorable films for many reasons, including the use of the theremin, the electromagnetic-field-generating apparatus invented in 1920 by Léon Theremin and unfairly associated with science fiction (or, in the case of The Lost Weekend, total drunkenness) since approximately the middle of the 20th century. But this distinctive instrument – the only one that entails no physical contact with the performer – has its concert-hall champions, among whom we may count Alexander Rapoport, whose Sonata for Theremin and Piano will receive its Canadian premiere Monday evening at that west-end clearing house of musical innovation, Gallery 345.
(Continue reading)By Arthur Kaptainis on November 26, 2015
In an evening of impressive orchestral music, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under conductor Kent Nagano made their annual visit to Roy Thomson Hall a memorable one.
(Continue reading)By Arthur Kaptainis on September 25, 2015
"The Bruch is almost a textbook definition of a romantic warhorse. Zukerman gripped it confidently and projected its heart-throbbing melodies with the firmness of a master who has played it a hundred times."
(Continue reading)By Arthur Kaptainis on July 28, 2015
It started not with noisy tuning on stage but a hearty round of applause as upwards of 100 young Canadians emerged from the wings of Koerner Hall.
(Continue reading)By Arthur Kaptainis on July 19, 2015
“The Hollywood Connection” was the hard-to-justify title of the second evening of the Toronto Summer Music series.
(Continue reading)By Arthur Kaptainis on June 11, 2015
Toronto Symphony Orchestra, with Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and guests, perform Mahler's Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection”.
(Continue reading)By Arthur Kaptainis on May 30, 2015
Forty years: It could have been a birthday, as Yo-Yo Ma suggested Friday on the stage of Roy Thomson Hall.
(Continue reading)
