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COC 2012/13 season announcement
Jan. 18th, 2012 01:34 pmThis morning the Canadian Opera Company announced its 2012/13 season. I was there in my capacity as Official Social Media Bear. Full report.
Paul Curran and others on Tosca
Jan. 18th, 2012 06:10 amMy write up on last night's pub session with the director and some of the cast of the COC's Tosca.
Review of today's excellent recital at the Four Seasons centre. Including an excellent account of Judith Weir's King Harald's Saga by Jacqueline Woodley. Plus I got to chat to Jacqueline afterwords.
Joan Sutherland in Toronto
Jan. 16th, 2012 07:17 amIn 1981 the late, great Joan Sutherland sang Bellini's Norma at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. CBC television recorded/broadcast it and it's still around on DVD. It's appalling.
Tinker, Tailor
Jan. 15th, 2012 04:53 pmI saw Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy this morning. I'm a huge John LeCarré fan. I've read just about all his books and I've read TTSS at least twice as well as having seen the TV miniseries and listened to the BBC Radio version. I was impressed by the movie. It conveys the narrative remarkably well given it only lasts two hours. It's also wonderfully atmospheric and complete avoids the sort of gimmicks that Hollywood seems so hooked on in favour of old fashioned things like plot and character development.
Can't complain about the price either. Sunday morning shows are only six bucks.
Can't complain about the price either. Sunday morning shows are only six bucks.
Last night's culinary experiment
Jan. 9th, 2012 09:07 amLast night I made chou farcie for the first time. It was quite fun, very cheap and delicious.
This is what you do:
Step the first The Cabbage. Take a large savoy cabbage. Trim off any ragged outer leaves and cut out as much of the stalk as you can. Cook it stalk side down in boiling water to cover for 10-15 minutes. (You will need a decent size stockpot). Cool it under cold running water. Peel away the leaves (cut the centre rib out of any where it's prominent) and put to drain on a tea towel. Kepp going until you have a big pile of leaves and just the heart of the cabbage.
Step the second: The Stuffing. Cook 100g smoked bacon, diced fine, and an onion, also diced fine, in a little olive oil. Place in a mixing bowl. Cook 75g rice and add to the bowl. Add 300g good quality sausage meat (or cooked diced ham), a good handful of chopped parsley, two eggs, the grated rind and juice of a lemon, the chopped cabbage heart and a small handful of chopped black olives. Mix well. Season with salt,pepper and coriander. It should be highly seasoned. Possible variations on this are infinite.
Step the third: The Assembly. Take a large bowl (big enough to comfortably hold all the cabbage and stuffing) and line with cheesecloth or muslin. Make sure there's a good 'margin'. You are going to gather this up into a ball. Make an overlapping layer of cabbage leaves and cover with a thinnish layer of stuffing. Keep going with successive layers until everything is used up. Keep a couple of large leaves to make the final layer. Gather up the edges of the cloth and bring them together so the whole thing forms a ball about the size of the original cabbage. Tie securely with string.
Step the fourth: The Cooking. Bring your large pot to the boil with enough salted water (or stock) to cover the cabbage. Place the cabbage in this and turn down to a simmer. Cook for one and a half hours. Meanwhile prepare some root vegetables; carrots peeled, halved and cut into 5cm lengths, turnips peeled and quartered, celery root peeled and cut in cubes. Whatever you like really. You can also include some highly flavoured sausages well pricked with a fork. After the hour and a half add these to the pot and cook for half an hour more.
Step the fifth: Serving. Make a cold sauce with two or three seeded and chopped tomatoes, a couple of tablespoons of chopped fresh herbs, a healthy glug of olive oil, ground coriander, salt and pepper. Remove the sausages (if used) and slice. Place on a heated platter with the vegetables and keep warm. Remove the cabbage from the pot and place in a colander. Cut away the string. At this point you may be able to slide away the cheese cloth. If not don't panic. Either way, take a large warm serving plate and invert over the colander. In a decisive gesture invert the colander plate assembly. Now, remove the cheese cloth if necessary. At this point you should have you cabbage neatly unmoulded on a warm plate. Sprinkle with fresh herbs, cut into six or eight wedges and serve along with the sauce, the sausages and the vegetables.
Serves six to eight, possibly more.
Here's the unsliced version...
...and with a slice cut.
This is what you do:
Step the first The Cabbage. Take a large savoy cabbage. Trim off any ragged outer leaves and cut out as much of the stalk as you can. Cook it stalk side down in boiling water to cover for 10-15 minutes. (You will need a decent size stockpot). Cool it under cold running water. Peel away the leaves (cut the centre rib out of any where it's prominent) and put to drain on a tea towel. Kepp going until you have a big pile of leaves and just the heart of the cabbage.
Step the second: The Stuffing. Cook 100g smoked bacon, diced fine, and an onion, also diced fine, in a little olive oil. Place in a mixing bowl. Cook 75g rice and add to the bowl. Add 300g good quality sausage meat (or cooked diced ham), a good handful of chopped parsley, two eggs, the grated rind and juice of a lemon, the chopped cabbage heart and a small handful of chopped black olives. Mix well. Season with salt,pepper and coriander. It should be highly seasoned. Possible variations on this are infinite.
Step the third: The Assembly. Take a large bowl (big enough to comfortably hold all the cabbage and stuffing) and line with cheesecloth or muslin. Make sure there's a good 'margin'. You are going to gather this up into a ball. Make an overlapping layer of cabbage leaves and cover with a thinnish layer of stuffing. Keep going with successive layers until everything is used up. Keep a couple of large leaves to make the final layer. Gather up the edges of the cloth and bring them together so the whole thing forms a ball about the size of the original cabbage. Tie securely with string.
Step the fourth: The Cooking. Bring your large pot to the boil with enough salted water (or stock) to cover the cabbage. Place the cabbage in this and turn down to a simmer. Cook for one and a half hours. Meanwhile prepare some root vegetables; carrots peeled, halved and cut into 5cm lengths, turnips peeled and quartered, celery root peeled and cut in cubes. Whatever you like really. You can also include some highly flavoured sausages well pricked with a fork. After the hour and a half add these to the pot and cook for half an hour more.
Step the fifth: Serving. Make a cold sauce with two or three seeded and chopped tomatoes, a couple of tablespoons of chopped fresh herbs, a healthy glug of olive oil, ground coriander, salt and pepper. Remove the sausages (if used) and slice. Place on a heated platter with the vegetables and keep warm. Remove the cabbage from the pot and place in a colander. Cut away the string. At this point you may be able to slide away the cheese cloth. If not don't panic. Either way, take a large warm serving plate and invert over the colander. In a decisive gesture invert the colander plate assembly. Now, remove the cheese cloth if necessary. At this point you should have you cabbage neatly unmoulded on a warm plate. Sprinkle with fresh herbs, cut into six or eight wedges and serve along with the sauce, the sausages and the vegetables.
Serves six to eight, possibly more.
Here's the unsliced version...
...and with a slice cut.
War and Peace
Jan. 8th, 2012 01:45 pmWe've been watching the amazing 1967 Soviet film of Tolstoy's Voyni i Mir. This is the one that used 100,000 extras for the battle scenes. It is remarkably faithful in tone to the book. Although abbreviated,it isn't condensed; by which I mean bits are left out but that the bits that are left in are played at a truly Tolstoyan pace and with a kind of Tolstoyan grandeur. The cinematography is absolutely exceptional. It was shot in 70mm and the director, Sergei Bondarchuk, is utterly unafraid of holding a shot for as long as he needs. In the same vein he'll show a series of images with no sound at all for even a couple of minutes. This is almost inconceivably far away from the current Hollywood pattern of ultr-rapid cuts and noisily busy soundtracks. It's spellbinding. Budget was obviously not an issue and whether it's a battlefield or a ballroom everything is on a grand scale and gorgeous to look at. The acting is very good too. Lyudmila Savelyeva is a gorgeous Natasha Rostova and both the ironically named Vyacheslav Tikhonov as Prince Andrei and the director himself as Pierre Bezukhov really inhabit their characters.
The only downside, which may only be true of the edition we watched, is that there are some issues with dubbing and subtitles. Basically the English soundtrack keeps breaking into Russian and with the Russian sound on there are odd breaks in the sub-titles. By watching the dub with subtitles we could get it all. It's not ideal but worth it for the visuals and some amazing performances.
Here are three screencaps to give you an idea:
The only downside, which may only be true of the edition we watched, is that there are some issues with dubbing and subtitles. Basically the English soundtrack keeps breaking into Russian and with the Russian sound on there are odd breaks in the sub-titles. By watching the dub with subtitles we could get it all. It's not ideal but worth it for the visuals and some amazing performances.
Here are three screencaps to give you an idea:
