Concerts

This page is a compendium of mostly free stuff so that I don’t have to keep sending emails to people event-by-event, and so that you, dear readers, don’t have to find those emails when you want them.

Ongoing

This Week

Notes:

  • The links in the daily listings for the Metropolitan Opera will take you to their main page. Scroll down to find the link to the then-current free opera screening.
  • Some URLs change after the live stream has been broadcast. For example, Wigmore Hall’s concerts move into their library of past streams with a different URL. If you find a link from a recent concert does not take you to it, the likely problem is that I have not updated the URL yet.

Sunday February 21

  • Metropolitan Opera: Puccini’s Turandot
    • Starring Maria Guleghina, Marina Poplavskaya, Marcello Giordani, and Samuel Ramey, conducted by Andris Nelsons.
  • Daniel Hope: Europe@Home 6 (Romania) with Andrei Ioniță, Daria Tudor and Herta Müller
  • Wiener Staatsoper: Carmen

Monday February 22

  • Metropolitan Opera : Verdi’s Il Trovatore
    • Starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Dolora Zajick, Marcelo Álvarez, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, conducted by Marco Armiliato. Production by Sir David McVicar. From April 30, 2011.
  • Wigmore Hall:
  • Wiener Staatsoper: L’Elisir d’amore

Tuesday February 23

  • Metropolitan Opera : Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades
    • Starring Galina Gorchakova, Elisabeth Söderström, Plácido Domingo, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Nikolai Putilin, conducted by Valery Gergiev. Production by Elijah Moshinsky. From April 15, 1999.
  • Wigmore Hall:

Wednesday February 24

  • Metropolitan Opera : Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin
    • Starring Renée Fleming, Ramón Vargas, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, conducted by Valery Gergiev. Production by Robert Carsen. From February 24, 2007.
  • Wigmore Hall:

Thursday February 25

  • Stratford Festival:
    • Up Close and Musical: “Unexpected Dreams” with Alexis Gordon
    • Undiscovered Sonnets, Episode 6: Anne & David
  • Metropolitan Opera : Verdi’s Ernani
    • Starring Angela Meade, Marcello Giordani, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Ferruccio Furlanetto, conducted by Marco Armiliato. Production by Pier Luigi Samaritani. From February 25, 2012.
  • Wigmore Hall:
    • Fretwork: Cranford, Gibbons, Holborne and more
  • Wiener Staatsoper: The Cunning Little Vixen

Friday February 26

  • Metropolitan Opera : Verdi’s La Traviata
    • Starring Natalie Dessay, Matthew Polenzani, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, conducted by Fabio Luisi. Production by Willy Decker. From April 14, 2012.
  • Wigmore Hall:
  • Daniel Hope:
  • Wiener Staatsoper: Carmen

Saturday February 27

Sunday February 28

  • Metropolitan Opera : Verdi’s Il Trovatore
    • Starring Anna Netrebko, Dolora Zajick, Yonghoon Lee, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, conducted by Marco Armiliato. Production by Sir David McVicar. From October 3, 2015.
  • Daniel Hope:
  • Wiener Staatsoper: Le Nozze di Figaro

Canadian Artists/Companies/Venues

Against the Grain Theatre

No current listings.

Angela Hewitt

Angela Hewitt’s performance of the Bach Goldberg Variations in the Thomaskirche is no longer available due to copyright issues.

Arts & Letters Club of Toronto

Art of Time

Art of Time will be posting videos of past concerts for free viewing.

There are many excerpts from past concerts on YouTube.

Koerner Hall / Royal Conservatory of Music

For the following paid events, I will share the link to the live streams with appropriate people as these become available.

There are many concerts/recitals in their library including:

  • Rebanks Fellows at Mazzoleni Hall
  • Glenn Gould School Fall Opera: Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins and William Bolcom’s Lucrezia
  • Royal Conservatory Orchestra playing Mozart (Haffner Symphony) and Beethoven (Emperor piano concerto).
  • Stewart Goodyear Recital, December 4, 2016 Bach / Beethoven / Goodyear / Chopin / Tchaikowsky
  • Barbara Hannigan and Reinbert de Leeuw, November 10, 2017 Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Alexander Zemlinsky, Alma Mahler and Hugo Wolf

Music Toronto

A series of concerts will be available presented by Music Toronto (now free to all).

  • Tue. Mar. 16 7:30 pm: Vadym Kholodenko (piano): Schubert / Saaraiho / Scriabin / Rachmaninoff
  • Thu. Apr. 15 7:30 pm: Castalian Quartet: Haydn / Brahms

National Film Board

The National Film Board has a lot of free online content including their animation page. Of course this includes the ever popular Blackberry Subway Jam.

A series of shorts on recipients of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award:

Opera Atelier

Opera Atelier is offering tickets to their live streamed productions at $25 through the Koerner Hall box office. Their production of Handel’s The Resurrection will be streamed on Thursday, April 1, 2021 at 7:00 pm.

Something Rich and Strange ($25, available to June 1/21)

Russell Braun & Carolyn Maule

Stratford Festival

Free Thursday evening viewing: These are streamed “live” as a watch party with a 7:00 pm curtain, and they are available for 36 hours linked from their main page.

The festival has a $10/month subscription ($11.30 with tax) available for access to much content both from their library and new productions on demand. To access this you have to create a Stratford online account.

Note that much of this will be free as part of the Thursday evening watch parties, but you have to plan to be there when the shows are available. The information below is taken from a subscribers’ newsletter.

Up Close and Musical

A series of moving and entertaining concerts with some of the Festival’s most beloved musical stars and emerging musical artists, conceived and directed by Richard Ouzounian with music director Franklin Brasz. Enjoy intimate encounters with Robert Ball, Dan Chameroy, Cynthia Dale, Alexis Gordon, Chilina Kennedy, Robert Markus, Marcus Nance, Vanessa Sears and Kimberly-Ann Truong.

Undiscovered Sonnets     

A clever twist on a game show in which two people in love share their story and three “sonneteers” compete to win their hearts with a perfect poem created on the spot. Created and directed by Rebecca Northan with sonneteers Raoul Bhaneja, Ashley Botting, Ijeoma Emesowum, Bruce Horak, Kevin Kruchkywich, Ellis Lalonde and Lee Smart.

Week of March 1
  • Live Viewing Party: The Taming of the Shrew 1988 production with Colm Feore and Goldie Semple
Week of March 8
  • Up Close and Musical: “Allow Yourself a Little Time to Cry” with Cynthia Dale
  • Undiscovered Sonnets, Episode 7: Em & Carmen
Week of March 15
  • Up Close and Musical: “Bold, Bruised, Born to Be” with Robert Ball
  • Undiscovered Sonnets, Episode 8: Brian & Gabriela
Week of March 22
  • Up Close and Musical: “Home Again” with Chilina Kennedy
  • Undiscovered Sonnets, Episode 9: Gregory & Angela

Tafelmusik

Free concert: Mozart Together

These are ticketed concerts for which links will be sent by the Tafelmusik Box Office to subscribers as previously arranged. Some dates have changed from those in the original season announcement.

  • Reflections of Mary: March 11 at 8pm Delayed. TBA.
  • On the Road: April 8 at 8pm

Toronto Consort / Early Music TV

The Toronto Consort presents its season and other content through a new site dedicated to Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Baroque music. Subscriptions and single concert purchases available.

Toronto Consort concerts:

Available now:

  • All in a Garden Green: A musical stroll through the verdant gardens of Elizabethan England
  • A Medieval Christmas: A serene and contemplative exploration of enchanting medieval chants, polyphony and carols.

Coming soon:

  • Of Tricksters and Trolls: The musical story-telling of the medieval fables of Valhalla, with Peter Tiefenbach. (Mar 16/21)

Release date TBA:

  • Duly (Un)Noted: Unforgettable originals by forgotten composers and the masterpieces they inspired

Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Mar 12 to Apr 1: Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons (paid concert, $20)

Trio Arkel

  • Mar 7 to 14: La Bonne Chanson: Music by Beethoven, Shostakovich, Vaughan Williams and Faure ($20 suggested donation via Eventbrite)

USA Artists/Companies/Venues

Academy of Vocal Arts (Philadelphia)

Handel & Haydn Society, Boston & WGBH

“Messiah” For Our Time (Much of Part I and the Hallelujah Chorus from Part II)

Metropolitan Opera

The Met has free screenings daily. A list of planned broadcasts is available here.

Across the Pond

Daniel Hope: Europe@Home

Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

The GSO has a page with both their upcoming concerts and links to many previously archived ones.

Holland Baroque

  • Violinist Aislinn Nosky and Holland Baroque play a program of music by Telemann in the Polish style.
  • Bach: Art of Fugue arranged for string quartet and harpsichord

Israel Philharmonic

Israel Philharmonic Archive page

  • Brahms: Trio for Cello, Piano and Clarinet
  • Mozart: Dissonance Quartet No. 19 in C major
  • Beethoven: String Trio in E-Flat Major, Op. 3.

Komische Oper Berlin

London Philharmonic Orchestra

No events available.

London Symphony Orchestra

Available until February/21:

Schnittke: Concerto Grosso No 1 for Two Solo Violins
Sasha Siem: Ojos Del Cielo
Mozart: Symphony No 41 K551, ‘Jupiter’
Ryan Wigglesworth conductor

National Theatre

The National Theatre in London, UK, has announced an NT at Home program allowing subscription access to their library of plays with a choice of monthly or a discounted annual payment.

Productions currently online:

  • Amadeus
  • Three Sisters
  • Phèdre (2009 version by Ted Hughes adapted from Racine starring Helen Mirren)
  • Medea
  • Coriolanus
  • The Cherry Orchard
  • Dara
  • Yerma
  • Othello
  • Mosquitoes
  • Julie
  • Angels in America
  • Antigone

Old Vic Theatre

The Old Vic has a series called In Camera: Playback in which they rebroadcast past live streams. No streams are currently available.

Wiener Staatsoper

To view screenings from the Staatsoper, you must create an account, but then they are free. Normally they are available only for a day or so. Current listings are on their calendar page. A list for the coming weekend usually appears on Wednesday or Thursday.

Wigmore Hall

Wigmore Hall has a spring series of concerts announced through to the beginning of April 2021.

Past Concerts:

You will need to create an account to watch stuff from Wigmore Hall, but it’s free!

There is also an archive of recent live streams. The expiry dates apply to Wigmore Hall’s own site (where these links point), but many YouTube videos stay around a longer.

See also their archive including: