Mozart at the HPO

Recently, I had a phone call from the Hamilton Philharmonic enquiring why I had subscribed to fewer concerts this season than last. I explained that the season was very heavy on pops concerts, and I prefer to attend concerts of real orchestral fare. The caller seemed satisfied. Perhaps this was not the first time she had heard this explanation.

Having said that, I am pleased not to have the job of programming orchestral concerts in this market. There’s a segment of the audience, young concert goers and, perhaps, occasional ones, and regular but conservative ones who would be happy to hear the same standard 19th C. works over and over again, and will shell out for pops concerts, of whatever ilk. 

There are otherwise more discriminating concert goers (you may substitute a more disparaging descriptor) like me who really don’t want to hear the 1812 Overture or Beethoven’s Fifth again, concerts of operatic bleeding-chunks or orchestrally accompanied pop songs.

Programming for such diverse potential audiences must be a nightmare but, sometimes, all’s well that ends well.

We went last night (Sat. Nov. 29) to hear the Hamilton Philharmonic play an all-Mozart concert under the baton of Ivars Taurins.

The framing works were familiar ones; the Overture to Abduction from the Seraglio and the Symphony #40 in G Minor. It was the middle one which brought me to the concert, the Sinfonia Concertante in Eb for Violin, Viola and Orchestra. It’s a work which I had never encountered before in concert or recording.

Whatever misgivings I had before hearing two very familiar pieces, no part of this concert was disappointing.

The Abduction Overture is one of Mozart’s shorter opera overtures. It is largely composed of melodic material that actually occurs later in the singspiel, like a Broadway overture. It features tympani and three percussionists who contribute the Turkish flavour that was so in vogue at the end of the 18th C.

The orchestra gave an exciting performance of the work and it was an ideal opener.

The Sinfonia Concertante is, at about 30 minutes, as long as the symphony which comprised the entire second half of the concert. It featured as soloists HPO Concertmaster Stephen Sitarski and Principal Violist Chau Luk. The orchestra was reduced to 18 strings and a pair each of horns and oboes very like the orchestras of most of the Haydn symphonies.

It is a delightful piece and one can actually hear the difference in style of a work which was intended for a Paris orchestra and audience rather than Viennese ones. Taurins described it as a duet between soprano and alto voices but much of the imitative interplay between the soloists was at the octave so it was, to my ear, more like the soprano and tenor duets from the operas, like those between Constanze and Belmonte for example.

The soloists played beautifully and there was a nice sense of interplay between them. The violin projects better than the viola in this context, a consequence of register and acoustics rather than the actual volume the instruments produce, so the viola was sometimes harder to pick out of the texture than the violin. The soloists play elaborated versions of materials which are introduced in orchestral tuttis and I was impressed to see the basses playing sixteenth note passages in unison with the cellos at the same pace as the soloists.

Sitarski and Luk returned to their places in the orchestra for the second half Symphony. Taurins’ tempos are brisk. I don’t recall hearing the third movement Minuet played as quickly, with a contrasting slower tempo in the trio. He brings almost exaggerated dynamic contrasts and obviously strives to highlight important lines in the inner voices.

This conductor dances around and gestures more than we usually see at the HPO whether for his benefit, that of the players or of the audience I can’t say, but he was certainly effective. He attempted to conduct the symphony with only a little break between the movements and, even though he gestured to the audience, some insisted on applauding after each movement, even the slow one.  He also, alas, likes to talk.

It was, altogether, a very satisfying concert.

For my Hamilton readers, we have a very good professional orchestra and, as I keep hearing, much better than one would expect for a market this size. The Hamilton Place Great Hall is an excellent concert space. As noted above, many of their concert offerings are approachable to those who aren’t usually orchestral concert goers. Tickets start at only $10.00. 

La Traviata at the COC

We attended the Canadian Opera Company performance of Verdi’s La Traviata on Wednesday (Oct. 21) evening at the Four Season Centre in Toronto. We saw the First Cast including Russian soprano Ekaterina Siurina, American tenor Charles Castronovo, and his countryman baritone Quinn Kelsey.

It was an ultimately successful performance although hardly without its faults, vocal and dramatic.

I have a long personal history with this opera having performed bits of Alfredo in concert, sung in the COC chorus in two different productions, witnessed several other performances as an audience member, and then prepared and conducted a bowdlerized version with children (!) singing some of the solo music and choruses. For all that I never understood what an unhappy and finally cathartic story this is until seeing this production.

La Traviata literally means “the lost woman”, but might more properly be translated as “the fallen woman” and, as was made clear through this Arin Arbus directed production, Violetta Valery is doomed from the opening curtain both by her moral turpitude and her failing health. In spite of living the high life of a Parisian courtesan, she is friendless and without family. When she moves out of Paris to live, in sin, with young Alfredo Germont, his father finds them and pleads with her to shame his family no further. She agrees and leaves Alfredo without telling him why. Back in Paris, he humiliates her and himself in public and in the presence of his father. Finally, after the misunderstandings are cleared up and all is forgiven, within minutes of her lover’s return, she dies.

Ekaterina Siurina has made a career of lighter soprano roles (i.e. Susanna, Gilda) than this one. Her first act was surprisingly under-sung and even dramatically under-involved. None of her high notes rang in the hall. She was sometimes covered by the orchestra even though the conductor kept them down. The Sempre Libera must be sung with abandon and wasn’t. With a lighter voice I expected the interpolated Eb at the end, but she didn’t sing it. 

Elkaterina Siurina

At the time, I feared she simply hadn’t the voice to sing this role. It was pleasant, but not convincing. But by the end of the performance it was clear she was simply being too careful. The role of Violetta gets progressively more dramatic as the opera goes on and the most dramatic singing is near the end, three hours on. Beginning in the second act she was much better, dramatically and vocally, and assuredly communicated Violetta’s suffering. She is going to have to figure out how to bring that intensity to all three acts.

Her real life husband, tenor Charles Castronovo is more baritonal and mature sounding than most Alfredos. He simply overwhelmed Siurina, at times, in their first act duet. In later acts, their voices matched much better. This production includes the usually-cut cabaletta following a fine rendition of Dei Miei Bollenti Spiriti and he sang it beautifully except for an ill-advised final high C.

Baritone Quinn Kelsey has the right voice for Germont. He has ringing high notes and the gravitas necessary to bring off the role. He sang a lovely Di Provenza il mar and the following cabaletta which I had never heard before. He does have some inconsistency in his sound, holding some shorter notes without vibrato, then releasing and opening on the longer ones. This was less evident later in there opera, presumably when he was better warmed-up.

Smaller roles were capably handled by James Westman (Baron Douphol) who sings Germont in the other cast, Lauren Segal (Flora), Charles Sy (Gastone), Aviva Fortunata (Annina), Robert Gleadow (Dr. Grenvil).

Second Act Party Scene

Marco Guidarini conducted the big orchestra (including a cimbasso) which was was excellent as usual as was Sandra Horst’s chorus. There were some dancers in the Gypsy and Matador scene and I have no idea what relationship their performance had to the singing. There must had been a sub-text to which we were not privy.

This very traditional production is beautiful and a fine musical rendering of Verdi’s masterfully dramatic score. It convincingly conveyed the pathos of Violetta’s character and situation. I recommend it.

Vox Metropolis and Buster Keaton

in Hamilton last spring, Vox Metropolis presented their newly composed soundtrack to Sherlock Jr., while the 1924 Buster Keaton film played and a short second half of varied repertoire.

I missed that one, so I went Saturday (Oct. 4) to Maple Grove United Church in Oakville to hear another presentation of a similar program.The Hamilton based classical and crossover trio group, composed of pianist David Jones, flautist Sara Traficante and cellist Kirk Starkey, are in the midst of a Southern Ontario tour. They are all multi-instrumentalists.

Buster Keaton was an actor/director who made a series of very successful silent comedic films in the 1920s of which Sherlock Jr. is one. This movie is short on plot but filled with truly amazing stunts and effects. Keaton conceived, planned and executed all of his own stunts, many of them truly death defying. It’s amazing he survived. He fractured his neck doing one of the stunts in Sherlock Jr. and, apparently didn’t notice.

Silent films were originally accompanied by a pianist or organist who watched the screen and played music from a standard set of memorized  pieces whose mood fit the action. Sometimes music was improvised to suit the scene.

Modern film scores are composed after the movie has been cut, that is when it is nearly finished. This score is of the modern sort.

The music, by David Jones, is as ecclectic as any piece you are likely to hear. It ranges from ascending passages of diminished seventh chords, exactly as you might have heard from a theatre pianist or organist 90 years ago, to an original waltz tune, some very jazzy passages, a nod to musical modernism with some quartal harmony, all neatly stiched together into a coherent whole.

There was considerable “Mickey Mouse-ing”, the technique in which the music moves in sync with the action on the screen. Anyone who has every watched Wile E. Coyote and The Roadrunner will know what I mean. 

Jones played piano and two different organs. Starkey played cello and guitar. Traficante played flute and performed the sound effects (train whistles, for example), although she plays alto saxophone in another of their concerts. All of this added variety to the texture.

You are not usually intended to be aware of movie music. It plays in the background and supports the film. This is a little different with the performers in plain view in front of the film. I’ll admit to losing track of the music sometimes while laughing at Keaton, but that’s what is supposed to happen with film music.

The second half started with a two movement Haydn trio. The music took off at breakneck speed and I was reminded of what accomplished performers these three musicians are. Each played briliantly in the familiar idiom of the European International Style which was ubiquitous in the second half of the 18th century.

They followed with Jones’ arrangement of Over the Rainbow, more properly a jazz fantasy. What a beautiful piece it is, taking this familiar, simple song and turning it on its head through changing metres and variation!

They finished the concert with a transcription/arrangement of Chick Correa’s Spain. Jones displayed his awesome jazz credentials, Starkey and Traficante keeping pace. The latter encouraged the audience to sing back the pianist’s phrases in the last section, involving everyone in the performance.

Vox Metropolis keeps innovating in yet another genre, pop music. You can hear them in this video accompanying Yer Yard, in Tunnel to the Reservoir.

I’d encourage readers to find the trio on Facebook and get out to hear them (and watch a film) when they come to a venue near you. Bring your kids.

Chopin and Beethoven at the HPO

We went to hear the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra’s inaugural concert of the new season on Saturday evening (Sept. 19, 2015) in the Great Hall at Hamilton Place. 

The program was in keeping with the seemingly standard form of symphony concerts hereabouts: a short Canadian work, a concerto featuring a well-known soloist and an 18th or 19th Century symphony.

On this occasion the Canadian work would be Robert Rival’s Spring. Concerto soloist Janina Fialkowska would play the Chopin Concerto No. 1. The orchestra would play Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony in the second half.

Rival was the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra’s Composer in Residence from 2011 to 2014. He holds a Doctorate in Composition from the University of Toronto and is presently on the faculty of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. Spring, a short work for string orchestra, was written for the Ottawa Youth Orchestra in which the composer used to play violin. Rival writes in a very approachable tonal style. The opening motive even recurs as the subject of a fugue in the first section of the work. Spring was an unusual choice to open one of these concerts, which usually start with lots of brass and percussion, but it is an effective work by a composer who writes capably and idiomatically for strings.

Pianist Janina Fiaklowska, an Officer of the Order of Canada, daughter of a Montréalaise mother and a Polish father, has an illustrious professional career now stretching back through 40 years. She played with the Montréal Symphony at the age of 12 and won the first Arthur Rubinstein Master Piano Competition in 1974 which launched her professional career with Rubinstein himself as her mentor.

Through her long association with Chopin’s music, she must have performed this concerto dozens of times and that was in evident during this concert. She manages to make the long, running, chromatic scale passages that punctuate the phrases sing like coloratura. Her use of rubato is masterful and the clear, ringing passages of thirds, not to mention the extraordinary double trills, reflect a remarkable technique. By the energetic third movement rondo she was clearly enjoying herself. This was a fine opportunity to hear this unique performer.

The balance was sometimes off, the orchestra rendering the left-hand of the piano inaudible from where I was sitting. The orchestral tuttis are pretty bombastic compared to the lyricism and sophistication of the piano passages but that’s just Chopin, who wrote no other orchestral music than that of the two piano concertos. 

After the intermission the orchestra performed Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony. The even numbered symphonies are, on the whole, less dramatic than the odd numbered ones and are, consequently, less often performed. This is a pretty sunny piece.

The conductor for this concert, Bernhard Gueller, has been the Artistic Director and principal conductor of Symphony Nova Scotia since 1992. He had previously been the conductor of the Cape Town Philharmonic and the Nuremberg Symphony.

It was a spirited performance but not a very convincing one. The orchestra played the piece well enough. The dynamic contrasts were there as were the written articulations. The mood was pretty much the same throughout, however. The orchestra began a heavily accented dance after the slow, mysterious introduction to the first movement and carried on with it through the entire symphony, including even the slow movement. It was unrelievedly of one colour, lacking nuance, and might even have been boring if it hadn’t been Beethoven.

The four principal woodwind players stood out. Bassoonist Eric Hall and clarinetist Stephen Pierre were outstanding.

There are eight concerts left in the HPO’s 2015-16 season. Of particular interest, the orchestra’s new conductor, Gemma New, leads the orchestra in the Shostakovich First Symphony and the Third Prokoviev Piano Concerto on Feb. 6, 2015.

Hamiltonian popular musician Ian Thomas joins the orchestra for A Life in Song on October 17.

Brott Festival Grand Finale.

I went last night (Thurs. Aug. 14) to hear the National Academy Orchestra, Festival Choir and soloists, all under the baton on Boris Brott and his apprentice conductor Janna Sailor, perform Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and Carl Orff's Carmina Burana at the McIntyre Theatre at the Fennel Campus of Mohawk College.

It was an impressive performance by any standard. The Orff, however familiar to choral music fans, is a blockbuster piece. Brott was mentored by Bernstein, serving an assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, so he has unique ties to that master and his music.

Maestro Boris Brott

They opened with the Bernstein which is only about twenty minutes in length. This meant that even after Jaqui Templeton-Muir's long introduction the audience were out in the lobby for the intermission only 35 minutes after the lights went down.

I'd never had the opportunity to hear the orchestral version of this piece. Bernstein made a version with a much reduced orchestration so he obviously felt the choral and solo vocal parts were strong enough to stand without a big orchestra. I had, however, heard the Chichester Psalms recently, in a much more modest presentation accompanied by piano and a percussionist.

With the full orchestra we get the full flavour of the Bernstein of the Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and Candide, which is to say lush, full and rhythmic. In this version the instrumentalists are full partners with the choir, not merely an accompaniment. It really is a lovely piece which includes sections which are both very uplifting and meditative as suits the texts of the six Hebrew psalms on which it is based. The orchestra includes two harps which are central to the orchestration.

Stephane Potvin's chorus (an amalgamation of the Arkady Singers and the ad hoc Festival Chorus) were well rehearsed and better than simply competent throughout the concert. The balance between the 75 voices and the orchestra was problematic, though, with the orchestra frequently overwhelming the singers in spite of the improvised sound baffles over their heads. I suspect this had more to do with the acoustics of the stage rather than any lack of volume on their part and that there was nothing that could be done about it and, frankly, there was no room for more choristers even if they had had them. Most of the sopranos straighted out their tone and stood in for the children's choir in the Carmina.

To my surprise, soprano Lesley Fagan sang the 23rd Psalm solo. Bernstein intended it for a treble or a countertenor reasoning that David, the supposed author, was a man, expressing male sentiments. Brott said in the program that if Bernstein had heard Fagan he'd have approved. I never met Berstein, but I'm not so sure.

Lesley Fagan

I wouldn't usually mention concert attire, but she wore a dark ladies' suit, not unisex, but not a gown either. She sang tastefully and restrainedly as the music requires and probably more musically than any child could do. My impression (of course prejudiced by the composer's intentions) was that it was like listening to someone play a piece on one instrument that was intended for another, like a clarinet playing an oboe sonata. It can be beautiful, musical and immaculately interpreted and still not be quite right.

The work ends quietly after a short passage of unaccompanied choral singing and there was an intangible sense of peace in the hall before the applause. Very nice, touching even.

After the break there was more talk as the organizers and Brott presented awards to two of the orchestral apprentices and we finally arrived at the Carmina Burana. For those unaware, the orchestra includes two pianists and a half-dozen percussionists in addition to a full Romantic orchestra, a big chorus (necessary to balance all the sound from the instruments) and solos for soprano, tenor and baritone.

From the powerful opening O Fortuna it was clear that the participants were "all in" and we were to hear an exciting and enthusiastic rendition of the piece.

As much as there is to like about the Carmina Burana, it does have musical limitations. The choral writing is relatively simple with lots of unison singing and no true polyphony to speak of. The texts are strophic (i.e. verses) and there is a great deal of literal repetition, repetition with some orchestral embellishment or repeated statements, louder and more involved each time. That's nothing to do with the performance, that's just the piece Orff wrote.

Apprentice conductor Janna Sailor conducted the first section, ten numbers, and did pretty well except for a passage (repeated, of course) in the Ecce gratum, where she attempted to accelerate and only some of the chorus followed her resulting in a bit of a mess from which they quickly recovered.

Janna Sailor

The soloists were all very good. Baritone Cairan Ryan coped admirably with a part which is sometimes allotted to two different singers  He was expressive when it was called for and did some fine full-throated singing especially at the top of his voice.

Cairan Ryan

We're all spoiled by recordings and I would rather hear a darker, more heroic sound in this baritone part. There can't be many men that can sing it like that and they probably all have international careers.

Bud Roach sang the Roasting Swan and made the most of his short part. Few will be aware that Orff intended the Carmina Burana to be costumed and staged with dancers. It is thus appropriate that Roach acted out the song of a swan, spitted and roasting on an open fire, and not too pleased about it. In a very funny bit of business he carried, not the full piano reduction that the others had, but a tiny black book, to which he occasionally referred although he'd certainly memorized his three stanzas he had to sing. I don't know who Orff wrote this part for but it is very high causing whomever is singing it to exaggerate or strain to reach the top notes. Roach, a very light tenor, moved seamlessly from head voice to reinforced falsetto and came close to what I surmise the composer was after.

Bud Roach

Lesley Fagan had returned in a multi-coloured gown for the Carmina. She's an awfully good concert performer with an international career and demonstrated that in her singing last night.

Most of the soprano part is in the middle voice and is more challenging interpretatively than it is vocally since she is called upon to sing the same music several times. The soloist is judged, however, on a very short, almost unaccompanied passage at the end, the Dulcissime, in which she has to sing a high C# out of nowhere and then sing a passage of high, quiet coloratura. She nailed it.

So the Brott Summer Music Festival is done for another year and I mourn its passing. Tickets are getting more expensive but it is still a deal for exceptionally good music making. The hall was packed last night and the audience seemed to enjoy the show giving it the mandatory Standing O and keeping up the applause for longer than I can remember. Yeah, Boris!

Music of the Americas at the Brott Festival

I went Thursday (July 30) evening to hear a concert in the Brott Festival series at the McIntyre Theatre at the Fennel Campus of Mohawk College. This one was not as well attended as last week's Barber of Seville. On that occasion, all the seats in the centre section in front of the balcony had been sold as reserved and I sat off to the side under the balcony. Very few reserved seats were sold this evening and I was able to sit in Row 9, right in the middle where the sound was excellent.

I usually only attend classical-style concerts of whatever period. Renaissance to 21st C., it's all good for me. Pops concerts? Not so much. The Brott Festival provides lots of opportunities to hear the latter (about half of this year's offerings) but they really don't interest me.

I made an exception for last night's concert. I'd heard John Williams' pieces from Schindler's List before and thought it would be worth another live listening. Bernstein's overture to Candide is a brilliant work I always enjoy and the Academy Orchestra makes a wonderful sound in the 1100 seat McIntyre Theatre whatever they're playing.

Janna Sailor, Brott's apprentice conductor, opened the program with the Candide Overture and it was a very convincing performance. All the players must have spent some time in the woodshed because every note in the texture was absolutely clear in this familiar but demanding work. Full marks to this young conductor and especially to the various woodwind soloists.

Brott himself came on stage and described all the pieces on the program as lollipops. Everyone immediately knew what he was talking about. They'd be shorter, accessible works that would be at home in an orchestral pops concert. I couldn't say I hadn't been warned.

The second piece was Danzón from the Suite No. 2 by Mexican composer Arturo Marquez. Brott pointed out that the rhythms that pervade it, including a persistent claves part, are more Cuban than Mexican. The music has the shifted accents of commercial Latin music that so many find irresistible. There are also changes of meter and tempo. The percussionists appeared to be having a great time. This is a work I'd be pleased to hear again.

Next up was the Alexander Courage's Fantasia on Themes from Porgy and Bess featuring violinist Lindsay Deutsch.  Courage is best known as the composer of the theme for the original Star Trek series but had a lengthy career as a film and TV composer and arranger. He had a long association with John Williams and wrote this piece for Joshua Bell when Williams was the conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra.

Truth be told, I'd rather have heard Robert Russell Bennett's Porgy and Bess: A Symphonic Picture. It is a more satisfying musical take on the opera than the Courage piece but it doesn't have much of a solo violin part.

Fantasia on Themes from Porgy and Bess is like those 19th C. violin show-pieces based on themes from operas. Deutsch played brilliantly although she was sometimes entirely covered by the orchestra in forte passages.

Lindsay Deutsch

All sorts of superlatives have been used to describe her stage presence which, as a musician, I view quite separately from her ability to play the violin or interpret the music. She dances about quite a lot while she plays. Sometimes it almost seems choreographed. She also employs lots of facial expressions that some must interpret as reflecting her interpretation of the music.

It brought to mind a conversation I had some years ago with a certain singing teacher about art song interpretation. A singer must communicate, with their facial expression, the text they are singing. Some singers have difficulty doing this and instead resort to "making faces" that they have decided fit with the song. That was the impression I had of what this performer was doing, making faces to go with the music.

I think this, and the dancing about, detracted from the performance of the music rather than adding to it. This was repeated in the second half when she played the music from Schindler's List. In that work, standing so close to Brott (who often turned to face her) she played some notes so quietly that I suspect only she, he and the first stand violins could hear them properly. They were but a rumour to me.

Clearly, mine is a minority view. Maestro Brott, always the showman, really likes this performer whom he discovered in Los Angeles and who played here 11 years ago when she was 19 or 20. Many in the audience were bowled over and gave a standing O for a brilliant performance of what isn't a very consequential piece in the world of solo violin and orchestra music.

The second half started with two short genre pieces, I'm Jazzed and Della Rag, by American organist and entrepreneur Craig Zobelein. They're really quite charming lightweight music and would fit nicely in an orchestral pops concert.

They followed with the familiar Hoe Down from Aaron Copland's ballet Rodeo. Again, as in the Bernstein which opened the concert, the orchestra gave a clear and competent performance.

After the aforementioned music from Schindler's List orchestra played British Columbia from Alexander Brott's suite From Sea to Sea which was commissioned by the CBC in 1947. It has the sound of mid-century modernist music, tonal but with some interesting dissonance, rhythmic and taking full advantage of the full orchestra. It was pleasant to hear and a strong contrast to all the other music in the concert.

They finished with Argentine Alberto Ginastera's early suite from the ballet Estancia. This piece dates from Ginastera's first compositional period and is rather conventional compared to some of his later pieces. He wrote many film scores and this work often sounds, unavoidably, like movie music. The slow movement is lovely and evocative of a the sunrise before a hot day on the estancia, a cattle ranch. The rest of the suite is rhythmic and, especially in the finale, rather repetitive.

It's a bad sign for me when the most engaging pieces in a concert are the first two as was the case in this concert. I would really prefer to hear at least one extended work in an orchestral concert. It doesn't have to be a Bruckner symphony. The Bartók Dance Suite or Kodály's Galánta Dances would do nicely. Speaking of Bartók, I've been waiting years to hear a live performance of the Concerto for Orchestra.

Their next concert, Cirque du Festival, includes several familiar suites and aerial acrobats. They finish up on August 13 with Bernstein's Chichester Psalms and Orff's Carmina Burana.

Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece. I am a musician who shares his experiences and conversations through writing. I make no pretence of following professional journalistic standards of practice.

Brott does The Barber of Seville

I went Thursday night (July 23) to see and hear Rossini’s comic masterpiece, Il Barbiere di Siviglia as part of the Brott Music Festival in the McIntyre Theatre at Mohawk College Fennel Campus.

I’d seen them do opera before, Aida two years ago, but that show was made up of excerpts and a narrator. This was to be presented with action and in costume but in front of the orchestra, thus without a set. This seemed like a reasonable compromise, certainly better than a concert performance. None the less, I was curious to see what sort of choices director Ellen Douglas Schlaefer would make.

I’ve always had difficulty reconciling Rossini’s Il Barbiere and Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. Il Barbiere, written later, is a prequel. Le Nozze is a continuation of the same story with some of the self-same characters that appear in Il Barbiere some ten years later in the plot. The vivacious, self-possessed Rosina from l Barbiere morphs into the tragic Contessa in the Mozart opera. To me, these two woman are not believably the same person at different stages of her life.

The explanation is relatively simple. Both operas are based upon Beaumarchais’s satirical late 18th C. French plays. Le Nozze is largely concerned with the relationships between nobles and their servants. Librettist da Ponte stays very close to the original French in his singable Italian text. This is something I discovered when I was preparing an English translation of some Le Nozze for a chldren’s show, comparing the libretto and the play. In Il Barbiere, Rossini’s librettist, Cesare Stervini, takes Beaumarchais’s premise and populates it with sterotypical Commedia dell’arte characters: Dr. Bartolo, the lecherous old man, Rosina, the bright, scheming soubrette and so forth.

So the characters in Mozart’s opera, like those in Beaumarchais’s plays, seem like real flesh and blood people whereas those in Il Barbiere don’t and were never intended to.

Incidentally, Il Barbiere was and Le Nozze would be good choices for Brott Opera’s purposes. While they are part of the standard repertoire of opera houses they are also frequently presented in opera studio and opera school settings both in complete performances and in excerpts. The arias are party pieces of many advanced students.

All in all, it was a remarkably satisfying evening. They started promptly at 7:30 and, even with one intermission, were done by about 9:45. The full COC production last year ran two hours and fifty-five minutes. So I wouldn’t even have been in car for the drive home until after 11.

The orchestra gave a stirring performance of the familiar overture and the presence of a full orchestra made a big difference in the overall effect of the performance. When I last saw the opera performed by Opera Hamilton at Theatre Aquarius it was with a seriously reduced orchestration.

In spite of not being in a pit, the orchestra never covered the soloists. When the 16 male choristers, standing behind the orchestra, joined the other players in the two acts finales they all certainly made a big, impressive sound.

The staging was entirely fitting given that there was no balcony for Lindoro to sing to, no ladder or staircase to climb and little furniture to toss about or fall over. There was appropriate staging and business, a little movement in time to the music and there were the usual pranks and sight gags. At one point, for example, the long suffering Berta, who has been offering drinks from a tray to no avail, has been ignored by all the other characters, stood alone at centre-stage. She looked perplexed for a moment and then sneezed on the glasses. It got a good laugh from the audience.

The singers were uniformly good both in singing and acting. On the opera-singing-food-chain, they are all one step below those who performed in the aforementioned Opera Hamilton performance but the show didn’t suffer for that.

Christopher Dunham was a charming Figaro, singing a spirited Largo al Factotum to begin the first act. He sang and acted the role with ease and confidence and, as Figaro must, he carried the show. He also actually played the guitar on-stage for Almaviva’s second aubade, and skillfully I may add.

Tenor David Menzies was a bright voiced Lindoro/Almaviva. His coloratura singing was clean and tasteful, his acting convincing. I was disappointed that he didn’t interpolate any extra high notes into his aria as is usually done. 

Jeremy Ludwig sang Doctor Bartolo, portraying him as a not-very-old fellow with respiratory problems. I found this an odd directorial choice. Usually, Rosina doesn’t want to marry him because he’s a creepy old man. In this case she doesn’t want to marry him because he’s a creepy, sick man. Ludwig sang the part well and did some very funny falsetto vocalizing in the singing lesson scene. 

Mezzo Charlotte Burrage was an understated but, ultimately, convincing Rosina. Immediately after the frenzied duet between Figaro and the Count, Rosina must make her first entrance and match their intensity in her celebrated aria, Una Voce Poco Fa. Burrage didn’t really do that. Her singing, however, grew stronger as the performance went on. On the other hand, she possess a lovely, lighter mezzo voice which is a better match for the lyric tenor with whom she so often sings than a more dramatic mezzo would be.

Baritone Keith Lam sang the duplicitous Basilio nicely and displayed a flair for physical comedy that kept him in the spotlight throughout his scenes.

Soprano Hélène Brunet stepped up, demonstrating a strong voice and comic sense in an entertaining rendition of Berta’s woebegone aria which separates the major scenes of the second act.

Baritone Aaron Durand capably sang Fiorello in the opening and the Police Officer in the two finales.  I look forward to hearing him again in a more substantial part.

Next season Brott Opera will present an opera highlights concert, as they did last week, and then the orchestra will move into the pit of the McIntyre Theatre for a performance of what is, perhaps, the greatest opera of them all, Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Brott and the Academy Orchestra last performed it in a concert performance in 2004.

Like Il Barbiere and Le Nozze di Figaro, it is sometimes taken on in school and studio productions so it’s a good fit and young singers can tackle it successfully. You do need two outstanding bass baritones and a couple of very capable sopranos. Maestro Brott told the audience Thursday night that no fewer than 150 singers had auditioned for Il Barbiere in New York and Montréal so I have no doubt they will be able to find young Canadian opera performers who are up to the challenge.

The Brott Festival moves back into orchestral music next week with Music of the Americas including Violinist Lindsay Deutsch playing John William’s beautiful Suite from Schindler’s List.