For Episode 8, “State of the Nations”, we welcome back Opera Canada magazine’s editor, Wayne Gooding; opera blogger and journalist John Gilks as well as Claire Morley, the COC’s Communications Assistant. Gianmarco Segato, the COC’s Adult Programs Manager, is your host.
Our panel looks at the COC’s recently announced 2013-2014 season, and opinions are fired up by Sir Peter Jonas’s recent survey of the current German opera scene in the January issue of Opera. Spurred on by a recent conversation on operaramblings, we tackle the often polarizing views of opera sung in translation and then lighten things up with our favourite seat-jumping tales, inspired by an interesting Twitter conversation.
To end the podcast, we offer up our monthly list of favourite historic recordings, DVDs, and YouTube clips.
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Posted by Gianmarco Segato / in The Big COC Podcast / comments (0) / permalink
Beekeeper Fred Davis regularly updates us on the honeybees that live on the roof the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. located at 145 Queen St. W., here in Toronto. In this blog post, he ponders the very real issues facing honeybees, and us:
There is no one cause or smoking gun for Colony Collapse Disorder, but rather a storm of pressures the bees face because humans have pretty much failed at maintaining the complex balance of animal husbandry and respect for our environment. In my opinion, we have allowed CCD to happen but not intentionally.
Posted by Gianna Wichelow / in FSCPA Honeybees / comments (0) / permalink
By Jon Kaplan, Senior Theatre Writer at NOW magazine
If you think of a tortured operatic love triangle, you’ll most likely come up with a scenario where the soprano (occasionally a mezzo) is caught between the tenor and the baritone; sometimes the latter changes to a mezzo. Tosca, Aida and Carmen come to mind.
Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito offers viewers a different sort of love triangle, in which the young Roman patrician Sesto – a male role but sung by a mezzo-soprano – has pledged his loyalty both to Vitellia, daughter of the former Roman emperor, and to the current emperor, Tito.
That latter connection is based in deep friendship, but it’s more than personal. In dedicating himself to Tito, Sesto gives his loyalty to the Roman Empire and all it represents.
Posted by Danielle D'Ornellas / in La clemenza di Tito / comments (0) / permalink
Sara Fulgoni in the COC production of Bluebeard's Castle. Photo: Michael Cooper © 2001