Category Archives: Uncategorized

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 →

John Gielgud once recalled that, when offered the play Home by David Storey in 1970, he was “quite taken with it but didn’t understand it.” Yet, he added, “there was something very fascinating about it. It’s one of the most … Continue reading →

In Soulpepper’s current production of You Can’t Take It With You, by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, you won’t find anyone hooked up to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, email or other media of incessant and obsessive connection. After all, these … Continue reading →

As the curtain descended yesterday to end Opera Atelier’s performance of  Lully’s systematically evolving Armide, what came to mind, of all things, was music certainly from another musical era, Sviatoslav Richter’s sublime recording of the first movement of Schubert’s  Piano … Continue reading →

    In some ways, the plays of Samuel Beckett are as much an artistic tuning fork of one’s existence as, say, the late quartets of Beethoven which are also, at once, profoundly spiritual, playful, poetic, and uncompromising expressions of resolution … Continue reading →

James Sommerville is a French horn soloist of international reputation and the current principal hornist for the legendary  Boston Symphony Orchestra. He is also the inspiring and inspired conductor of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra and thus a major force in … Continue reading →

-Stacie Dunlop (above right) performs Rêve doux-amer/Bittersweet Dream with pianist Krista Vincent (above left) at Toronto’s Gallery 345 on February 2nd 1.First of all, what personal reasons compelled you to decide on an evening of Baudelaire set to music by … Continue reading →

Christmas cheer this year –or cheering, rather- finds its source in the enthusiastic audience for Miklos Laszlo’s Parfumerie, first produced by Soulpepper two years ago and now in a return run at Toronto’s Young Centre for the Performing Arts. The … Continue reading →