Reviews

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06May

Boris Eifman delves into another Russian artist’s torment in Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA

Ballet and opera fans, be forewarned. You may never be able to look at such classics as The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades quite the same way after witnessing celebrated Boris Eifman’s searing dance psychodrama, Tchaikovsky. PRO et CONTRA. But that’s no reason to deny yourselves the thrill of experiencing the celebrated Russian choreographer’s unique blend of […]

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30September

Love, possession & sacrifice in Gesher Theatre’s mystical, compelling The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds

Company, with Israel (Sasha) Demidov (bottom left) & Efrat Ben-Tzur (top centre). Set design by Simon Pastukh. Costume design by Stephanie Graurogkayte. Lighting design by Igor Kapustin. Photo by Daniel Kaminski. Show One Productions presents the North American premiere of Gesher Theatre’s production of The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds, inspired by S. Ansky and […]

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30September

The Dybbuk

by S. Ansky, adapted by Roee Chen, directed by Yevgeny Arye Gesher Theater, Elgin Theatre, Toronto September 29-30, 2018; Gerald W. Lynch Theater, New York, NY October 3-4, 2018 Hanan: “If we are not together – the world will cease to exist” Gesher Theatre’s version of S. Ansky’s classic play The Dybbuk is visually arresting […]

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12November

SCRUTINY | Mariinsky Orchestra Invades Toronto In A Night To Remember

The Mariinsky Orchestra with Valery Gergiev (conductor) Denis Matsuev (soloist) at Roy Thomson Hall on Friday. Many of us had waited for months anticipating conductor Valery Gergiev’s return to Roy Thomson Hall Friday night to pilot the sleek-engined Mariinsky Orchestra through an all-Russian program.  Gergiev is not only arguably the foremost Russian conductor of our time, with […]

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28June

Review: Uncle Vanya (Show One Productions / Luminato)

Uncle Vanya played to sold out crowds as part of the 2017 Luminato Festival in Toronto I’ll admit that I approached seeing Uncle Vanya, the classic play about a family caught between between tradition and transformation, with trepidation. The play written by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov was performed during the 2017 Luminato Festival in Russian by Moscow’s Vakhtangov State Academic […]

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25June

Uncle Vanya Lives Passionately Through The Vakhtangov Troop

Pure brilliance was formed last night in the John Bassett Theatre, when the intense text of Anton Chekhov met the meticulous techniques of the Vakhtangov State Academic Theatre of Russia. I am most certain that Rimas Tuminas’ direction of Uncle Vanya, in addition to the roaring sound of applause, summoned both Vakhtangov and Chekhov from the grave […]

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12May

SCRUTINY | Red Giselle Dazzles With Epic Storytelling And Superb Dancing

Eifman Ballet’s Red Giselle at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. Through May 13. Fast on the heels of the success of Trio Magnifico in April, Show One Productions is bringing the Eifman Ballet’s Red Giselle to Toronto’s Sony Centre for a four-performance run. Founded in 1977 by Boris Eifman in St. Petersburg, Russia, […]

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22January

Professor Anna Shternshis on honouring a destroyed culture

‘Musically it sounds amazing.” We spoke to University of Toronto professor Anna Shternshis about lost Yiddish lyrics written by Soviet Jews during the Second World War and recently set to music by poet-musician Psoy Korolenko. The music, reconstructions in the style of popular Russian music of the 1940s, will be premiered in a concert on […]

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25April

Svetlana Dvoretsky packed up her culture and came to Canada

‘I came home crying every night, but I learned how to build something,’ says the Russian-born founder of Show One Productions. Russia and Canada are not on the best of terms these days, but you wouldn’t know it from the work of Svetlana Dvoretsky, who has spent the past decade bringing some of the finest […]

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