What a marvellous technique to say goodbye to the previous and to ring within the new!
Bravissimo!, the New Yr’s Eve gala live performance, has been entertaining Toronto space opera lovers for the previous 16 years, the pandemic however. Salute to Vienna has a good longer historical past, now 30 years outdated. Delivered to us by the Hungarian impresario couple Attila and Marion Glatz, these concert events are North American equivalents of the venerable Viennese custom of ringing within the new yr with chic music and dance.
I’ve been attending these exhibits in Toronto from the beginning, and I’ve all the time been massively entertained. This yr was no exception.
Bravissimo! New Yr’s on the Opera / Arias, duets and Orchestral alternatives from Un Giorno di regno, La traviata, Samson et Dalila, La rondine, Turandot, Cavalleria rusticana, La boheme, Don Carlo, Carmen, Un ballo in Maschera, Madama Butterfly, Les contes d’Hoffmann, Rigoletto, Orphée aux Enfers / Eri Nakamura, sop.; Brigitta Simon, sop., Viktoria Vizin, mezz.; Kang Wang, ten.; Mihai Damian, bar.; Johannes Debus, cond., Canadian Opera Firm Orchestra., Adi Braun, host. Dec. 31, 7 p.m. Roy Thomson Corridor.
The 120-minutes lengthy Bravissimo! all the time begins early at 7 p.m., leaving sufficient of the night for these wanting extra merriment elsewhere. It used to happen in Massey Corridor till current years. For a second yr, it’s now not a pickup orchestra, however the official Canadian Opera Firm Orchestra, carried out by its music director Johannes Debus. The host this yr was jazz vocalist Adi Braun.
It was a night of many highlights, starting with a excessive vitality and precision-driven overture from the not often carried out early Verdi opera Un Giorno di regno. The singing started with Tonio’s “Si può” from Pagliacci, by the Romanian Mihai Damian. His dramatic baritone was spectacular, sturdy, if a tad stentorian in his supply. That mentioned, given it’s a verismo aria and the festive event, going a bit over-the-top with the ultimate excessive be aware is par for the course. Later in this system, he sang a marvellous “Eri tu,” the vengeance aria from Un ballo in Maschera. Bravo!
Australian Chinese language tenor Kang Wang, on the town for Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, sang Alfredo’s Act Two aria from La traviata with lovely, clarion tone and a terrific prime in addition to a stunning diminuendo. His subsequent piece was “Nessun dorma,” virtually an compulsory alternative in gala live performance programming today. His beautiful spinto tone with loads of squillo is right on this aria. The viewers confirmed its appreciation with enormous ovations. Wang and Damian later joined forces within the Carlo-Rodrigo duet from Don Carlo, their Italianate timbres mixing fantastically.
Hungarian mezzo Viktoria Vizin is not any stranger to Toronto audiences. I keep in mind vividly her Marchesa Melibea in Il viaggio a Reims on the COC over twenty years in the past. She sang Dalila’s showstopping aria “Mon Coeur s’ouvre a ta voix” with wealthy tone and a surfeit of theatricality. The identical could be mentioned about her signature piece, Habanera from Carmen.
Vizin and Japanese soprano Eri Nakamura joined forces for the Barcarolle from Les contes d’Hoffmann, a chic second in that opera. They sang fantastically, though their very totally different timbres didn’t fairly mix on this this duet.
Nakamura is making her COC debut as Cio-Cio San later this month. We acquired a sneak peek when she and Kang Wang sang the Act One love duet from Madama Butterfly. It’s a implausible second within the opera, and it by no means fails to maneuver an viewers. Right here the 2 singers pulled out all of the stops and ended with a resplendent excessive C. My recommendation? Don’t miss Madama Butterfly on the 4 Seasons Centre beginning on January 24!
A pleasant shock was the visitor look of Hungarian coloratura Brigitta Simon, singing Olympia’s aria from Les contes d’Hoffmann. She was wheeled on stage in a cart, in a doll’s costume and make-up. She delivered a shocking “Les oiseaux dans la charmille,” full with an nearly child-like timbre and stratospheric excessive notes, to not point out over-the-top sight gags. She even touched a F-sharp above excessive C, the very best be aware I’ve heard in a stay efficiency in my 57 years of attending opera. I used to be speechless…
The formal program concluded with the quartet from Rigoletto, one other memorable second. By then the viewers didn’t wish to let the singers go, rewarding them with enormous ovations. They in flip rewarded the viewers with one thing extremely predictable — the “Libiamo” scene from La traviata, all of the singers holding a glass of bubbly.
Right here’s the place I actually miss the refrain, one thing that was carried out away with the previous couple of years, seemingly resulting from cost-cutting. Apart from this little fly within the ointment, Bravissimo! was a massively gratifying night.
Salute to Vienna / Operettas, Ballet, Ballroom Dancing and Orchestral alternatives by Johann Strauss Jr., Franz Lehar, Julius Fučik, Jacques Offenbach / Brigitta Simon, sop., Eric Fennell, ten., Michael Zehetner, cond., Strauss Symphony of Canada. January 1, 2:30 pm. Roy Thomson Corridor
The second present of this musical doubleheader was Salute to Vienna, beginning suitably late at 2:30 p.m. on New Yr’s Day, permitting sufficient time for the New Yr’s Eve revellers to recuperate sufficient to make it to the live performance corridor. I skipped the New Yr’s Eve libations so I might present up at Roy Thomson Corridor early for my annual ritual of people-watching.
If I’ll permit myself a little bit of an remark: the viewers is wanting extra superannuated than ever! It was a sea of gray and white hair, with the occasional cane, and even a walker or two, though I didn’t see a wheelchair this yr. The implication is evident — classical music viewers is growing old quick, and there isn’t sufficient younger blood to switch the outdated guards. That mentioned, I applaud the outdated people for having the drive and willpower to indicate as much as get pleasure from what they love.
Whereas the Bravissimo! viewers was sometimes decent-sized, Salute to Vienna was introduced as bought out. Austrian conductor Michael Zehetner did double-duty, as orchestra chief and comic. Sure, the jokes had been corny, however the viewers fortunately lapped it up. This system was operetta and waltz-centric, starting with the marvellous overture to Die Fledermaus. The orchestra was the “Strauss Symphony of Canada,” a pick-up band with most of the similar musicians because the earlier night’s COC Orchestra, together with the concertmaster, Marie Berard.
The singers had been coloratura soprano Brigitta Simon and German tenor Eric Fennell. It was apparent from the beginning that the voices had been amplified. Simon has a superb coloratura of modest quantity, however her voice was twice the dimensions in comparison with the earlier night’s. This has been the follow all these years, amplifying the second present, however not the operatic night, for which I’m grateful. I have to say the amplification was all the time flawlessly executed, and not using a technical hitch.
Simon sang Adele’s Laughing Tune “Mein Herr Marquis” deliciously, along with her sensible prime very a lot in proof. As soon as once more, I missed the refrain on this aria. She was later joined by the tenor Eric Fennell within the Watch Duet from Die Fledermaus, and the duet from Land of Smiles. Their voices blended fantastically, they usually had glorious chemistry collectively. Fennell additionally sang properly the well-known “Dien ist mein ganzes Herz,” not the richest tone to make sure, however tremendous in an operetta, with out displaying any signal of vocal pressure.
The highest focus of Salute to Vienna is just not a lot the singing because the dancing and the waltzes. There have been ten dancers, all uncredited in this system: 4 girls and two males within the ballet troupe, plus two pairs of ballroom dancers. They had been all glorious; the whole lot they did was by no means lower than pleasing to the eyes.
Soprano Brigitta Simon reprised her Doll Tune from the earlier night. This time round, it was much more outrageous, together with some raunchy sight gags when the deflated Olympia caught her behind out on the viewers, prompting the conductor to step in entrance to defend her. A bit foolish, however that’s par for the course on this present — the performers pressed all the proper buttons, and the viewers liked it.
The formal program ended with the favored Thunder and Lightning Polka by Johann Strauss Jr. Everybody was in a cheerful temper by then, they usually had been inspired by the conductor to whoop it up. Encores adopted, together with the compulsory Blue Danube Waltz, the Radetzky March, and naturally Auld Lang Syne, with the viewers becoming a member of within the singing.
There you will have it, the 2024-25 version of Bravissimo! and Salute to Vienna. I want all my readers a cheerful, wholesome and music-filled 2025.
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Joseph So is Professor Emeritus at Trent College and Affiliate Editor of Opera Canada.He’s additionally a long-time contributor to La Scena Musicale and Opera (London, UK). His curiosity in music journalism focuses on voice, opera in addition to symphonic and piano repertoires. He seems recurrently as a panel member of the Large COC Podcast.He has co-edited a guide, Opera in a Multicultural World: Coloniality, Tradition, Efficiency, printed by Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group).
