Category Archives: Uncategorized

SAINT CARMEN OF THE MAIN AT CANADIAN STAGE

Posted on February 16, 2011 by strecker

The slowly ascending curtain reveals 70s-ish high heels, then some leg, then high hemlines, then fourteen garishly attired members of the Chorus, some of indeterminate gender. These are whores and cross-dressers of every sexual persona, a loud bunch of aggressively … Continue reading →

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OPERA HAMILTON POPERA

Posted on February 10, 2011 by strecker

Opera Hamilton’s last Popera at Hamilton Place, before the company’s move to the more intimate and less pricey Dofasco Centre for the Arts for 2011-2012, was a richly satisfying evening. With David Speers conducting, the orchestra began the overture to … Continue reading →

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SOULPEPPER: DAVID MAMET’S OLEANNA

Posted on February 8, 2011 by strecker

“It’s just a course,” says Prof John. He speaks from the world of academic concept where he, on the verge of tenure, is secure, assertive, intellectually confident, professorally efficient, and a man of patronizing empathy. Yes, he is annoying. But … Continue reading →

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TORONTO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Posted on February 3, 2011 by strecker

First Movement: Press conference regarding the 2011-2012 Season Conductor Peter Oundjian is warmly chatty, richly anecdotal , ingratiating, and gently passionate about music and all else it seems. He tells us he has put together “a bold season” for 2011-12, … Continue reading →

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A CHRISTMAS CAROL (SOULPEPPER IN TORONTO)

Posted on December 8, 2010 by strecker

As terrifying as it is, “the spirit world” that torments Joseph Ziegler’s Scrooge, in Soulpepper’s enthusiastically heartwarming A Christmas Carol, might be, ironically, a preferable fit for the man. The corporeal world, after all, is a pleasure-less place for him … Continue reading →

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CD REVIEW SHELBY LYNNE MERRY CHRISTMAS

Posted on November 19, 2010 by strecker

Shelby Lynne, on her new seasonal CD Merry Christmas, combines a sense of childlike wonder and adult worldly smarts. Her musicality is thoroughly compelling as she imbues often overly familiar lyrics with a worldly understanding of life’s complexity. On every … Continue reading →

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SOULPEPPER THEATER: DEATH OF A SALESMAN

Posted on November 3, 2010 by strecker

Albert Schultz’s production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is so exquisitely unforced, so subtly true to human desperation, so consistently acted with unfailing integrity by an exemplary cast, that its beauty hurts without relief. As Willy Loman first … Continue reading →

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OPERA HAMILTON: THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO

Posted on October 29, 2010 by strecker

Opera Hamilton’s subtly realized and thoroughly entertaining production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro satisfies in so many ways. Right at the outset, the overture is conducted by the much-travelled Gordon Gerrard for a lightness of energy and buoyancy of … Continue reading →

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SOULPEPPER THEATRE IN TORONTO 2010

Posted on September 7, 2010 by strecker

DOC Doc, with Diana Leblanc directing Sharon Pollock’s Canadian classic of 1984, opens like a frenzied Altman film of simultaneous or overlapping words inside a tormented skull. Is this the playwright’s mind to which we are witness? Her characters can’t … Continue reading →

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SHAW FESTIVAL 2010

Posted on September 7, 2010 by strecker

SERIOUS MONEY Caryl Churchill’s Serious Money depicts a frenzied and pummeling world of buy and sell, “takeover mania,” and insider deals -with champagne, coke, sex, silk shirts from Jermyn Street, and all else that money can buy as a bonus. … Continue reading →

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