Category Archives: Uncategorized

CYMBELINE A fluid, dynamic, and unobtrusive energy courses through director Antoni Cimolino’s highly rewarding production of Cymbeline. An insightfully selected group of actors shapes the play’s narrative line into a compelling tale and sculpts the dramatic potential of each scene, … Continue reading →

A WORD OR TWO Although Christopher Plummer ends his one man show, A Word or Two, with several touching references to death, the theme of this ninety minute performance is best summarized in the words of his New York drinking … Continue reading →

When Moya O’Connell’s Hedda Gabler shakes hands with Judge Brack, she does so deliberately and ambiguously at arm’s length. Is this to show her assumed superiority, her distaste, or her fear? When, with Hedda and Brack sitting side by side, … Continue reading →

THE MILLIONAIRESS “Money for Nothing”,” Money Money Money” “Pennies from Heaven” – all perky, hook-rich tunes from the speakers, as we enter the Court House theatre for Shaw’s The Millionairess, music that celebrates the root of all evil to a … Continue reading →

One of my favourite books of the seventies was The Tuning of the World of 1977 (re-published as The Soundscape in 1994). In this rewarding groundbreaker, the Canadian composer, writer, music educator and environmentalist R. Murray Schafer explores soundscape as … Continue reading →

A MAN AND SOME WOMEN A Man and Some Women, in a challenging intimate gem of a production, is an intense and gripping exploration of human relations that pulsates with restrained vindictiveness in some of the characters. It’s not a … Continue reading →

During rehearsals for a 1937 performance, Ralph Vaughan Williams remarked about his Symphony Number 4, not two years old, in these words: “I don’t know if I like it, but it’s what I mean.” And, certainly, this is not a … Continue reading →

Handel Sing-Along, a new release by Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra on their own label named –what else?- Tafelmusik Media, is a filmed record of an eagerly anticipated annual event at Toronto’s Massey Hall, one that has offered many thousands since 1986 … Continue reading →

The combination of conductor Bruno Weil and the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra is a longstanding and inspired musical union with many performances and recordings of distinction to its credit. This pairing proves that the scale and quality of musical performance are … Continue reading →

Some years ago, when I asked Jonathan Miller about directing opera, he declared outright, “I wouldn’t touch historic kitsch like Trovatore with a barge pole. It’s got wonderful music and beautiful arias in it, but the story is just Madame … Continue reading →