I attended a Christmas Special presented by the Opera Revue at the Granite Tied House and Brewery in Toronto on 20December2023.Take away from this performance is that they are somewhat akin to Maoist rebels in the Peruvian jungle.
Can you imagine these upstarts attacking traditional opera? I can as I saw them. In fact can you comprehend that baritone Alexander Hajek said there are rules concerning an Opera Revue performance. Well at least there are rules so we can’t fully elevate these radicals to the ranks of anarchists. But imagine a performer singing in a gaudy Christmas sweater….. a thinly veiled attack on Christianity!
Oh yes these rules:
- No shushing
- Use your phone and record our performance and share it
- Wear what you like. No need to dress up
- The more alcohol you drink the better
- Feel free to move around and stretch your legs or use the facilities
Oh petty hateful people. Part of the fun of opera is to revel in snobbery and hold it in! And that Danie Friesen opening the show saying expect a bit of everything. In opera we expect the usual and not a bunch of performers “jamming” and singing….oh my something about a Grinch who stole Christmas thinking it some obscure Wagnerian piece of opera. I am not sure I should go on but as an opera lover and as all opera lovers we must crush these operatic Misfits. Hajek as Clark Gable and Friesen as Marilyn Monroe?
There were excerpts from Handel, Wagner and Bach so that scruffy Hajek has baritone talent but his simmering disrespect for the greatest art form, opera, was hurtful to all opera lovers. And what was that filth Friesen was singing about. Mrs. Claus lamenting the absence of Mr. Claus and keeping “warm” with the elves. And a destructive number “Twelve Days After Christmas”. I hear Bing Crosby, Julie Andrews and the cast of “It’s a Wonderful Life” letting loose blood curdling screams of betrayal from their graves. And they even passed around a hat for donations to the Daily Food Bank. In the real opera we have tiers of wealthy donors and don’t embarrass ourselves groveling for charitable donations other from our donors.
How ridiculous trying to make the audience comfortable with opera. That is against the entire operatic concept. And all done is less than two hours. Admit it all of you pine for a four-hour opera with two 20 minute intermissions which is EVERYONE’s operatic dream that puts to shame the $10 performance staged by the Opera Revue.
As a last comment the audience, or most of them, were wearing jeans and eating and drinking DURING THE PERFORMANCE! Gadzooks!
It is time you all go an Opera Revue and verify my stern words. They don’t call me the Jim Baker of the true way to salvation for nothing……….
If you wish to see opera humiliated catch an Opera Revue performance. If you want further details about this sordid outfit check out their website in all of its flippancy at https://operarevue.com/ . Read and weep.
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