Toronto Summer season Music: Songs by Duparc, Fauré, Debussy, Lili Boulanger, Amy Seaside, Déodat de Séverac, Jeanne Landry, Nadia Boulanger, Pauline Viardot, Mel Bonis, Pierre de Bréville, Marguerite Canal. Mary Bevan, soprano; Roger Vignoles, piano. Walter Corridor, July 14, 2025.
A serious element of the annual Toronto Summer season Musical Pageant is its Artwork of the Tune program, which incorporates an Academy wing that gives intensive coaching for aspiring singers and collaborative pianists.
Annually, two established professionals, a singer and a pianist, function mentors within the Academy. Additionally they give a recital to the TSM public. Through the years, we’ve heard many excellent Canadian and worldwide artists in efficiency.
This 12 months, the Artwork of Tune company are two well-known UK artists, soprano Mary Bevan and pianist Roger Vignoles. Whereas Vignoles has carried out in Canada a number of instances, I’ve a sense that this is perhaps Ms. Bevan’s Canadian recital debut. Final night, an enthusiastic crowd of music lovers had been handled to a tasty program of artwork songs within the intimate, 495-seat Walter Corridor.
The Program
It was an fascinating program of songs about love, composed by well-known male composers, contrasted with songs by extra obscure ladies composers. That mentioned, names comparable to Pauline Viardot, Nadia Boulanger and Amy Seaside hardly want introductions as of late. It’s a testomony to the altering instances and the rising recognition of the contribution of girls music composers.
Mary Bevan has recorded fairly just a few of those songs in a Signum Classics CD that got here out in 2017. You will discover a style of it on YouTube right here. Identical to her CD, she sounded pretty final night in a few of these songs, providing a felicitous mixture of great thing about tone and communicative energy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWxS7kUIwm8&record=RDFWxS7kUIwm8&start_radio=1
Efficiency
Her supply has exceptional depth, by means of her voice in addition to by means of facial features and physique language. A few of these songs have nearly operatic moments, which she delivered with aplomb.
Some are well-known, comparable to Duparc’s “L’Invitation au voyage” and “Romance de Mignon.” For the much less acquainted ones, the surtitles got here in helpful. That mentioned, it was unusual that music titles had been omitted within the projections.
Bevan is a really high quality recitalist, with out query. However, maybe in her purpose to provide the loveliest sounds doable, her supply of the textual content was not ideally clear. It was tough to make out the phrases. Whereas it may very well be my poor French, however not completely; I additionally seen that within the single encore, it took me awhile to determine it was sung in English!
Remaining Ideas
One other level — whereas I respect the thematic nature of this system, I might have appreciated a bit extra selection and distinction within the songs — the inclusion of 1 or two joyful songs would have been good!
By all of it, Mr. Vignoles was the rock-solid, supportive pianist. He has been to TSM earlier than, and it’s all the time a pleasure to listen to him play. I sit up for his upcoming masterclass.
The live performance was relative brief, with below an hour of music. The viewers confirmed its appreciation with enormous ovations, particularly from the younger members. A good way to spend a summer time night.
- There are many fantastic concert events to return between now and August 2 at Toronto Summer season Music; discover particulars [HERE].
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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 Massive COC Podcast.He has co-edited a ebook, Opera in a Multicultural World: Coloniality, Tradition, Efficiency, printed by Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group).
