The Scene of the Scene

By MegaphonicTV & Film Arts Performing Arts Film Reviews

The Scene of the Scene episodes

February 17, 2025 36. Víkingur Ólafsson.
Chris and Mikey see Víkingur Ólafsson perform J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations. They were supposed to see him perform a concert with Yuja Wang, but alas, things don’t always work out as expected. The concert was still a delight.
23 min
February 07, 2025 35. La Reine-garçon.
Chris and Mikey see
La Reine-garçon, a new opera about Queen Christina of Sweden. Or is that King Christina? Either way, she’s got a lot of irksome gentleman suitors, but she’s also got a favourite countess in her court. And she’s also brought René Descartes to Sweden? There’s a lot to talk about.
Show Notes.
La Reine-garçon (composed by Julien Bilodeau, libretto by Michel Marc Bouchard) runs through the Febrauary 15 in Toronto.
Finally solved this: It premiered in Montreal last Febraury!
We saw Donizetti’s Roberto Devereaux long before we started this podcast!
And Roberto Bolaño is the Chilean writer. OK, I think that sorts out most of the mistakes?
15 min
July 21, 2023 34. Barbie.
Chris, Charlotte, Mikey, and Garrett go see the
Barbie movie! And though
only one of them grew up playing with Barbie, they all have a terrific time.
(Also they do not go on to see Oppenheimer.)
22 min
August 22, 2022 33. Drawfee Live.
Jared and
Jess got to see Drawfee Live in
Seattle! We are all big Drawfee fans here
at The Scene Of The Scene, so we’re very jealous. (Oh, here’s the Batman
video.)
13 min
May 20, 2022 32. Tori Amos.
We’re… back? We’re back! Chris and
Mikey leave the house and go see Tori Amos
in concert. Mikey is a lifelong fan, but this is his first time seeing her!
And this tour is coming off Tori’s strongest album in ages. Hurrah!
14 min
February 20, 2020 31. Jacqueline.
We saw the world premiere of
Jacqueline, an opera
about the tragic life of Jacqueline du
Pré. Du Pré was a phenomenal
cellist (see her perform the Elgar Cello
Concerto with her husband, Daniel
Barenboim, conducting) who, at the age of 28, was diagnosed with multiple
sclerosis and lost her ability to perform. She passed away in 1987 at the age
of 42.
The opera is unusually intimate, performed by just two people—a soprano
(Marnie Breckenridge, who was on a recent
episode of This Is Your Mixtape) and a
cellist (Matt Haimovitz, who
knew du Pré when he was young). It was composed by Luna Pearl
Woolf with libretto by Royce
Vavrek and produced by Tapestry
Opera (who also produced last year’s excellent
Shawnadithit).
Chris and
Michael gushed about the opera immediately
after seeing it.
20 min
February 17, 2020 30. Hansel and Gretel.
We didn’t see Gretel & Hansel (the new movie), but we did see the Canadian
Opera Company’s production of Englebert Humperdinck’s Hansel and
Gretel. This
production transforms the setting to a modern-day Toronto apartment building,
with surprisingly effective results.
Chris and
Michael talked about it just after seeing it,
and kinda want to see this production become A Thing.
22 min
January 20, 2020 29. The Barber of Seville.
We went to see the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Rossini’s The
Barber of Seville,
which—hey, this is a first—we’d seen before, when they put the same production
on in 2015. I guess we’ve officially seen all the opera, if they’re already
repeating!
Chris and Michael chatted about it afterwards, and wondered what the goal of putting on a comic opera should be.
15 min
October 28, 2019 28. Turandot.
We went to see the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Puccini’s
Turandot, with stage design by
Robert Wilson. If
you want to marry Princess Turandot, you’ll first have to answer three
riddles. And even if you solve them, it won’t be easy to win her heart.
Chris and
Michael didn’t really like this one, despite
Nessun dorma…
16 min
October 21, 2019 27. Rusalka.
We saw Antonín Dvořák’s opera
Rusalka at the Canadian
Opera Company. Rusalka is based on a Slavic version of the Little Mermaid
myth—but were any of its tunes as memorable as “Under the Sea”?
Chris,
Michael,
Daniel, and
Julie shared their thoughts on the opera,
the staging, and what it means to put this opera on today.
23 min