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.

Tom Diamond, Resident Director at Tapestry and director of the  The Shadow took the Toronto Star’s Rita Zekas to St. Lawrence Market in Toronto during his weekly shopping ritual to chat about his career and Tapestry’s upcoming world premiere.

From the Toronto Star:

It’s 4 p.m. on Saturday, one hour before closing time at St. Lawrence Market, and Tom Diamond, director of The Shadow, is a man on a mission.

He’s here for the deep discounts.

Click here to read the full article.

The Shadow premieres May 21-30, 2009 at the Berkeley Street Theatre, Downstairs.

Click here for more info.

Tickets
$20-$49

Box Office
416.368.3110
canstage.com
totix.ca

Photo: Tom Diamond (c) Meghan Hall, 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.