Posts by author:

Lev Bratishenko

MUSIC

Inside The Opera Machine

Thumbnail image for Inside The Opera Machine

Roberto Devereux, Place des Arts

by Lev Bratishenko
20.11.2010

Continued hassling of the Montreal opera establishment has lead to bizarre and extreme countermeasures: I have been invited into the belly of the beast, its tenderest backstage bits, where motors and maidens meet, and where I am liveblogging a performance of Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux.

[...]

MUSIC

A Sadistic Season Opener

Thumbnail image for A Sadistic Season Opener

Opéra de Montréal, Place des Arts

by Lev Bratishenko
07.10.2010

My double-tall opera companion mortified me by texting during Opéra de Montréal’s season opener Rigoletto. But then I looked at what she had written and it was okay. She had ordered rye delivery.

[...]

MUSIC

Marketing Operatic Fruits

Thumbnail image for Marketing Operatic Fruits

L'Opéra de Montréal, Saturday, Marché Jean-Talon

by Lev Bratishenko
16.09.2010

The young lady (Emma Parkinson) handed me my change and began to sing the Habanera from Carmen, awfully well for a produce retailer. Then a fellow in a cape (Etienne Dupuis) across the aisle gave an unnervingly professional rendition of “Votre toast, je peux vous le rendre”, completing the lyrical geometry begun by a La [...]

[...]

MUSIC

I’m A Queen! Queen! Queen!

Thumbnail image for I’m A Queen! Queen! Queen!

Cendrillon, Opera de Montréal

by Lev Bratishenko
01.06.2010

I asked for it, I understand. I spent two seasons nipping at Opera de Montreal for its turgid sets and now it seems somebody must have been listening. Somebody powerful, with deep pockets and an insatiable hunger for the colour pink.

[...]

MUSIC

Tasty Exotic Fruit

Thumbnail image for Tasty Exotic Fruit

Simon Boccanegra, Place des Arts

by Lev Bratishenko
16.03.2010

In opera as in the grocery store there are the strange fruit (ugli, figli, migli). Usually they will sit in your fruit bowl and look comfortably exotic. Sometimes visiting children will play with them. And occasionally they will get eaten, almost always with surprising pleasure. Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra is such a fruit, and Opera de [...]

[...]

MUSIC

Poor Wet Cat Redux

Thumbnail image for Poor Wet Cat Redux

Nelligan, Monument National

by Lev Bratishenko
08.03.2010

André Gagnon’s opera Nelligan premiered in 1990 at the Grand Theatre de Québec with a pop cast. On Saturday, the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal reprised it, twenty years on, at the Monument National. A more ambitious production than anything the Opéra de Montréal has dared at Place des Arts, it is full of [...]

[...]

THEATRE

Charming, Disarming Company

Thumbnail image for Charming, Disarming Company

Geometry In Venice, Segal Centre

by Lev Bratishenko
05.02.2010

My quarrelsome companion and I argued during the intermission of Michael Mackenzie’s Geometry in Venice. She claimed I was only interested in comparing the play with Henry James’ novella, on which it is based, and that this was ‘boring’. I claimed she was drunk. Of course, I was completely correct.

[...]

MUSIC

Shoot Him Again!

Thumbnail image for Shoot Him Again!

Tosca, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier

by Lev Bratishenko
02.02.2010

Tosca! The name has teeth for good reason. Puccini’s opera averages a death every 37 minutes. It includes 19th century Italian politics, the homicidal lusting of a Roman police chief, a jealous girlfriend, and a superfluity of hypocrites. This is distilled opera of few peers in the repertoire, and is often a final examination for [...]

[...]

FESTIVAL CITY

Feeding Those Baroque Wolves

Thumbnail image for Feeding Those Baroque Wolves

Montreal Bach Festival

by Lev Bratishenko
28.11.2009

Bach is big. Musically, yeah? He’s gigantic that way. We don’t know exactly how big Bach the dude was, but the Montreal Bach Festival is definitely much smaller. Of course, it’s still something to be reckoned with (it is important to be clear when dealing with Germanic temperaments.)

[...]

MUSIC

Boy Prince And Birdbrain Get Lost

Thumbnail image for Boy Prince And Birdbrain Get Lost

The Magic Flute, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier

by Lev Bratishenko
11.11.2009

You can’t have opera without ridiculous plot devices, and the older the opera the worse they get. But modern audiences are used to comprehensible plots and characters that aren’t allegories, so we turn our attention to the singing or fall asleep (Mister Parterre W38). Opéra de Montréal presents The Magic Flute, and the singing is [...]

[...]

MUSIC

Killer Clowns & The Funny Dead

Thumbnail image for Killer Clowns & The Funny Dead

Pagliacci, Gianni Schicchi, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier

by Lev Bratishenko
30.09.2009

The opening night of an opera season is an anxious bit of business. Chandeliers can fall, stage directors can quit, and it takes a few concerts to forget such things (well, not the stage directors.) So we sit in the darkened hall and cross our fingers, for their sakes.

[...]

MUSIC

A Talent Worth Kidnapping

Thumbnail image for A Talent Worth Kidnapping

LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR, PLACE DES ARTS

by Lev Bratishenko
27.05.2009

For the next two weeks Montréal sits atop international opera like Humpty Dumpty on his wall. Opera de Montréal’s Lucia di Lammermoor is the best show of the season, a triumph whose success will bring attention to the company. Unfortunately, the production does not match the strength of the cast, and I doubt I’m the [...]

[...]

MUSIC

Caviar and a Big Mac

Thumbnail image for Caviar and a Big Mac

VIOLINIST GIL SHAHAM, MSO

by Lev Bratishenko
13.05.2009

The Montreal Symphony Orchestra is many things under Kent Nagano, but its repertoire is never less than varied. Tuesday’s concert was an enjoyable example of the rewards and pitfalls of his taste. It started promisingly, wallowed for an hour and then flew up, up and into the eaves to do wonderful things.

[...]

MUSIC

A Tale Lacking Sound and Fury

MACBETH, OPERA DE MONTREAL

by Lev Bratishenko
03.02.2009

VERDI’S MACBETH is a difficult early work. The premiere last week of Opéra de Montreal’s new production, a collaboration with Opera Australia, was an undignified birth.

[...]

MUSIC

Of Jungle Cats and Cherubs

BEETHOVEN, DEBUSSY, BARTOK: MSO

by Lev Bratishenko
02.12.2008

KENT NAGANO HAS BEEN Musical Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra for over a year—time enough to ask, where has he taken us? In terms of programming, last week’s concert could stand for many of that year: super-standards mixed with shorter works, and the occasional grenade. Nagano certainly understands the necessity of throwing pineapples; with [...]

[...]

Page 2 of 212