Dreck. The Yiddish word is short, sharp and evocative — everything that Giacomo Variations isn’t. The first Toronto performance of this touring show at the Elgin Theatre on Friday night revealed such a nasty piece of theatre that I left at intermission feeling that writer and director Michael Sturminger was abusing my time.
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
Aside from fine performances from American soprano Kirsten Blaise and Austrian baritone Daniel Schmutzhard and decent work by the period-instrument Vienna Academy Orchestra and its founding music director Martin Haselböck, Giacomo Variations marked the low point of this Toronto opera (or opera-related) season.
Ironically, Giacomo Variations‘ short run comes just a week after the season’s best show: Figaro’s Wedding, Against the Grain Theatre’s 2013 reimagining of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro.
Both productions were based on Mozart. But, to borrow a metaphor from Secret Agent 86 of Control, Against the Grain’s Joel Ivany and Christopher Mokrzewski used Mozart for good, while Sturminger & co. plundered the great composer’s work for evil.
The point of this comparison is to show that a vital theatrical and musical ecosystem is vital to ensuring that fine art happens on stage.
First of all, Toronto is a city with a sophisticated audience, exposed to dozens of fine musical, operatic, dance and theatre choices nearly every week of the season. Although, like the rest of North America, we’ve become way too generous with our standing ovations, we know good art when we see it and hear it.
Because there is a lot going on, and there is an awful lot of cultural outreach being carried out amongst the city’s children, chances are better than ever that a Toronto 10-year-old has heard classical music or theatre live.
Hundreds of the city’s kids get to sing in choirs and play in bands during and after school. They have the opportunity to study with the fine musicians at the Royal Conservatory of Music or the experienced faculty at York or University of Toronto if they want to continue in a classical vein.
Dozens of talented singers and collaborative pianists and instrumentalists and conductors pour out of those institutions’ doors every June.
There are professional learning opportunities at the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio. Tapestry New Opera works hard at getting writers and composers used to the particular needs of making words and music work well together on stage.
Many underemployed recent grads have gone on to create their own opportunities in this city — think Bicycle Opera, Essential Opera as two examples.
Others go away to get experience elsewhere, many coming back to share what they’ve learned.
Each one of these steps helps build a rich mix of sensibilities, ideas, experience and, ultimately, a creativity built on top of the mastery of form and technique.
Because none of this is easy, the regular acts of creation breed collegiality and cooperation. International stars who come to work with the Canadian Opera Company regularly tell me how warm and welcoming the atmosphere is compared to the world’s other companies.
One particularly fond memory of local artists at work burned into my brain is of sitting in on a Tapestry librettist read-through session in a lounge at Rosedale United Church two summers ago. The writers, composers, singers and artistic director Wayne Strongman sat in a circle, listening, suggesting, laughing and, ultimately, supporting the undefinable forces that make artistic creation possible.
The finest dynamics can still produce artistic misfires. That’s the nature of art and creation, and you can’t have hits without failures.
But the product of creative energy nurtured, supported, and workshopped is rarely dreck.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
