Dark Star Requiem ran for a whirlwind 2 night run at  Koerner Hall over the weekend, to open Luminato, and we’ve gotten some great feedback from local and international press and blogosphere!

Here is a quick round up of some reviews.

From the Toronto Star:

John Terauds calls Dark Star Requiem “Artistically adventurous and intellectually provocative” and “exactly the kind of project that the Luminato festival wants to be about”, comparing it to “the best executions of new music you can find anywhere in the world.”
Click here for the full review.

John also lauds the “marvel” that is Koerner Hall in a subsequent Sound Mind blog post, and writes:

“Just as the Royal Conservatory of Music did earlier this year with its inaugural opera production, Tapestry New Opera Works shows us how a concert-hall stage, with its wrap-around balconies, can effectively work as a theatrical stage as well. Dark Star Requiem director Tom Diamond and his creative team have used every curve and wooden texture around the stage to enhance the clever lighting and video projections. In fact, it was probably a more effective staging than would have been possible on a conventional proscenium stage.

From Arts & Culture Maven:

Arts & Culture Maven calls Dark Star Requiem “Striking, beautiful, and wonderfully weird.”
Click here for the full review.

From La Scena Musicale:

Joseph K. So writes “For anyone who cares about this 20th century tragedy, it should not be missed”.
Click here for the full review.

From The Baltimore Sun:

Tim Smith calls Dark Star Requiem “an ambitious work with a noble aim” which “provides a valuable jolt out of complacency.”
Click here for the full review.

From Positive Lite

Bob Leahy calls the staging of Dark Star Requiem “astonishing”, “captivating”, and “all handled with great dignity”.
Read the full review here.

Will update as more reviews are posted.

Artist Pictured: Neema Bickersteth and Peter McGillivray (turned) in the world premiere of Dark Star Requiem.
Photo © Brian Mosoff

Opera Canada Magazine has just published their 50th Anniversary issue and featured a thoughtful, rave review for The Shadow from Editor Wayne Gooding.

Here are a few quotes:

“…Daniel and Poch-Goldin have fashioned a splendidly theatrical piece, one of the strongest developed by Tapestry.”

“We’re in absurdist territory in this opera, a world of dark impulses and imaginings, where private inner worlds break through public masks. Shakespeare’s Falstaff lightly referes to the inner world as ‘Our Saturday selves,’ but Jung talks of ‘a shadow side…of a positively demonic dynamism.’  The opera impressively exemplifies the same dualism; playfulness and farce animate The Shadow’s external storyline, but hte comic evocation of the dark side leaves you with the disquieting sense that you’re in a room full of dirty little secrets-and wondering whether you’ve let any of your own slip out.”

“Among a very fine ensemble of singers, pride of place must go to baritone Peter McGillivray as Raoul/Hernando. His central role bears the biggest burden, and he negotiated the difllcult and taxing score with great musical skill and all the dramatic chops to create a strong, pivotal character. Countertenor Scott Belluz, resplendent in a long, pleated topcoat and dark glasses, threw himself with evident relish into the diabolical title role, for which composer Daniel made full use of a high singing voice and lower speaking voice to create the Shadow’s other-worldly presence. Soprano Carla Huhtanen created a winsomely lovelorn Allegra, a powerful and eloquent presence in an otherwise all-male ensemble, while the not-inconsiderable supporting roles of the moneylender and the waiter (a  kind of Fawlty Towers Manuel in musical overdrive) were vividly handled by; respectively, baritone Theodore Baerg and tenor Keith Klassen. This is first and foremost an ensemble piece, and it’s for the
excellence of this that the singers and the seven-piece orchestral ensemble conducted by Tapestry Managing Artistic Director Wayne Strongman deserve the greatest kudos.”

Click here to read the full review.

The Shadow

by Alex Poch-Goldin & Omar Daniel
(World Premiere May 2009  in Toronto)
Director: Tom Diamond
Music Director: Wayne Strongman
Set & Costume Design: Camellia Koo
Lighting Design: Robert Thomson
Cast: Carla Huhtanen, Peter McGillivray, Scott Belluz, Keith Klassen & Theodore Baerg

One-act opera of intrigue, desire and deception featuring a countertenor in the title role; premiered at the Berkeley Street Theatre, Downstairs in May 2009.

Shelter
Juliet Palmer, composer
Julie Salverson, librettist

Dark Star Requiem
Andrew Staniland, composer
Jill Battson, libretttist

The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G.
Aaron Gervais, composer
Colleen Murphy, librettist

Blog T.O. is the latest to applaud The Shadow.

From Blog T.O.:

“The opera, directed by Tom Diamond, isn’t your typical lavish, melodramatic production and it’s more pleasurable as a result. The intimate Berkely Street Theatre houses this show and most of the story sung in English. There’s a small flat-panel TV suspended above the left side of the stage, hovering over the seven-piece stage “pit orchestra” ensemble. It subtly provides translation surtitles to the Spanish-sung passages. In such a small venue, it’s a delight to see up close the facial expressions of the performers.”

“The Tapestry production is top-notch, with especially strong voices from Peter McGillivray (baritone) as Raoul, Carla Huhtanen (soprano) Allegra, his love interest and Scott Belluz (countertenor) as the Shadow. Theodore Baerg (baritone) impresses in dual roles as the Don and Allegra’s father as well.”

“Tonight’s your last chance to see this show, unless it gets a remounted production, which it rightfully deserves. Let’s hope The Shadow never dies.”

Click here to read the full review.

Artist Featured: Theodore Baerg as Allegra’s Father
Photo © Michael Cooper, 2009

Glenn Sumi from NOW Magazine is the latest to review The Shadow and he has given the production 4 N’s!

From NOW Magazine.

“There’s no shadow of a doubt that this production, in development for seven years, was worth the time and effort.”

Click here to read the full review.

The Shadow runs until May 30 at the Berkeley Street Theatre, Downstairs.

Click here for more info.

Tickets
$20-$49

Box Office
416.368.3110
canstage.com
totix.ca

Artists Featured: Scott Belluz as the Shadow & Peter McGillivray as Raoul
Photo © Michael Cooper, 2009

Here is what some of the reviewers have been writing about The Shadow.

From the Globe & Mail:

“The recession has done no harm to debt collectors, whose booming business gives an unforeseen timeliness to The Shadow, the new opera by composer Omar Daniel and librettist Alex Poch-Goldin. This engrossing 90-minute piece, which was performed for the first time on Thursday, tells the story of a postman who borrows too much money in order to deceive and impress a bored upper-class woman he meets on his route.”

Read the full review here:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/the-postman-delivers-lessons-in-social-climbing/article1149337/

From EYE Weekly:

“A clever mix of comic opera and high melodrama, this humorous and heightened world premiere seems designed to be enjoyed by opera aficionados and lay-folk alike.”

Read the full review here:

http://www.eyeweekly.com/arts/theatre/article/61364

The Shadow runs tonight at 8pm and tomorrow at 4pm and next week Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm at the Berkeley Street Theatre, Downstairs.

Click here for more info.

Tickets
$20-$49

Box Office
416.368.3110
canstage.com
totix.ca

PHOTO: Carla Huhtanen, Peter McGillivray & Keith Klassen (c) Michael Cooper, 2009.

Byron Lavoilette from EYE Weekly has reviewed The Shadow.

From EYE:

Taking inspiration from a dark, debt-collecting figure from Spanish history and a Carl Jung archetype based around the desires locked in our unconscious mind, The Shadow is lighter fare than it may first appear. A clever mix of comic opera and high melodrama, this humorous and heightened world premiere seems designed to be enjoyed by opera aficionados and lay-folk alike.

Read the full review here.

The Shadow runs until May 30 at the Berkeley Street Theatre, Downstairs.

Click here for more info.

Tickets
$20-$49

Box Office
416.368.3110
canstage.com
totix.ca

John Terauds has given Tapestry a rave for Opera to Go!  Read his review here.

Only 3 more performances – buy tickets here or call 416.973.4000, or in person after 1pm at the Harbourfront Centre box office, 235  Queen’s Quay West.

$40 regular
$25 “birds eye view” seats (available by phone or in person only).
$20 students
$20 arts worker (available by phone or in person only).

Don’t be scared of the “birds eye view” seats on the side or even behind the stage.  They are fun, and only $25!

Opera to Go runs at the Enwave Theatre, Harbourfront Centre (231 Queen’s Quay West) tonight at 8pm, Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 3pm.

Photo Credit: (L-R) Scott Belluz, Peter McGillivray, Keith Klassen & Kristina Szabo in One Lump or Two by Sandy Pool & Glenn James – part of Opera to Go 2009. (c) Michael Cooper, 2009.

Tapestry Resident Director Tom Diamond received a fantastic review from WIFU Public Radio for his February 2009 production of Handel’s Giulio Cesare at Indiana University Opera Theatre.

“Guest stage director Tom Diamond has done a fine job in both offering the singers plenty of space in which to sing and then enough business during the interludes to keep the drama in focus. There’s also plenty of action in this Giulio Cesare, some very clever staging of the conflict between Caesar and scheming Tolomeo and some just gorgeous scenes. The sets come from an earlier production, but Diamond’s use of them and the lighting by Michael Schwandt make them all very much a new experience.”

Click here to read or listen to the review as well as an interview of Tom and Conductor Gary Thor Wedow by Opera/Theater critic George Walker.