Last weekend I attended the Canadian Opera Company’s closing performance of Maometto II, and while it’s not high on my list of operas I’d see again, the three leads were all outstanding. I can’t imagine anyone out there who could give mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Deshong a run for her money as Calbo, and I wish I could find a video of her in this role to share with you. But we do have this! A good video of a stellar in-concert performance bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni gave about four years ago, featuring his introductory aria in the lead role. Rossini is better know for his comedic operas, so it was interesting to hear this serious opera, versus, say, The Barber of Seville! Pisaroni was truly excellent as this dark and violent character (based on a real fifteenth century Ottoman ruler), heard here encouraging his warriors to arise and triumphantly conquer the world with him. With love, light, and song… ~Melissa~
Ah love! “L’amour est un oiseau rebelle” sings Carmen in the opening of the famous Habañera in the opera of the same name. The bird you think you’ve caught can fly away any time, just like a fickle lover! Sultry, sexy, and stunning singing is one of the hallmarks of this piece, and mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili offers it in spades! I had the sincere pleasure of hearing her two weeks ago in the Canadian Opera Company’s new Carmen production by director Joel Ivany. Rachvelishvili carried herself gorgeously throughout the show, and was definitely my favourite of the three Carmens I’ve seen on the big stages. Here is a great video of a captivating in-concert performance she gave last year. With love, light, and song… ~Melissa~
Last week I was fortunate enough to see one of my long-time musical loves, Lawrence Gowan, at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts. Over 60 now, Gowan still sings, plays, dances, performs, and writes better than the majority of artists out there half or less his age. He is truly an inspiration and I had the time of my life at this concert! He played all his greatest hits and generously shared memories and musings with a very dedicated, fan-filled audience. I remember spending many afternoons in the basement, where I had my own record player, listening to my Strange Animal LP. The quality isn’t great but here is the original (You’re A) Strange Animal video, plus a fun mini-interview with Gowan from last year about recording the song. I can’t even say anything profound right now because I am still swimming in joyful memories and delerious feelings from the concert! With love, light, and song… ~Melissa~
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4eT_0tnj1w (Unfortunately this video won’t embed, so click on the link above and watch it on YouTube, please! The video is blurry but it has the best audio out of the links available.)
I love attending live performances. It’s a testament to how wrecked I feel through every winter that I’ve yet to post any live music reviews on my own blog and it’s almost two months old. Well, situation rectified as this week there were two amazing concerts at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts that I couldn’t miss!
Last night my sister and I heard Telly Leung and Anthony Rapp in a combined concert. Telly Leung is a Broadway star best known for roles in the revivals of Godspell and Flower Drum Song, plus he’s been with Rent on tour, and on the tv show Glee. He’s very talented and entertaining but since I wasn’t there to see him, it was a tough hour-long set. Instead of wowing us with traditional Broadway fare, he sang a number of overworked arrangements of non-Broadway music that I certainly recognize as accomplished vocal performances, but just weren’t good arrangements. He sang with a band, but the mix in the house wasn’t great. Hands down my favourite song he sang was Before The Parade Passes By from Hello Dolly, which he had seen Carol Channing sing live(!) and she inspired him to pursue his Broadway dreams. Very moving.
When it finally started at 9:15pm, the second half of the concert featured the sensational Anthony Rapp and a guitarist friend of his who was truly outstanding. I could share his name if they’d printed a program! Anthony Rapp is the original (and best) Mark Cohen from Rent. It wouldn’t be an understatement to say I’ve had a love affair with this show for almost two decades now. If you can hear the words “December 24th, 9pm, eastern standard time” and not hear Anthony’s voice, well, that’s a reality I can’t imagine. Anthony is a unique talent; his turn of phrase, the way he can dig so deeply into a lyric, his uncommon tone, wouldn’t fly from just anyone. He’s a real singing actor, and he brought me to tears with his takes on Losing My Religion (his audition song for Rent), Falling Slowly (from Once), and to a near standing ovation for his cover of Radiohead’s song Creep. I hate Radiohead but that song is amazing. It’s so great to hear someone else sing it! I’ve been privileged enough to see Anthony in Rent twice in New York (about a decade between shows), three times in the Rent reunion tour in Toronto, and once in his solo show, also called Without You. Without You isn’t Mark’s song in the show, but has become a hallmark of Anthony’s as a dedication to his beloved mother, and the creator of Rent, Jonathon Larson, both of whom tragically passed on. My only complaint about Anthony’s part of the show was that it was too short, although since he’s in town for the tour of If/Then, I suppose it was wise to sing a reasonably short set before eight more performances the rest of the week! I’m looking forward to seeing If/Then with my sister next week. I’ll definitely review it. And I’ll come back to Rent in future posts, as it indelibly affected my listening life.
YouTube videos with quality audio of Anthony’s solo performances are hard to find, so here’s the recording of Without You from his solo album of 2012. Cue tears at 2:38. No one can sing this piece like he can. With love, light, and song… ~Melissa~
