Burnt Toast

Operas specifically composed for TV are rare enough that any effort is notable, but this little comedy, featuring a libretto by Dan Redican and music by Alexina Louie, is pretty feeble. Produced for broadcast on the CBC, and nicely photographed and fluidly directed by Larry Weinstein, Burnt Toast is comprised of eight short standalone scenes, each introduced by a mute, mugging Redican playing a scientist mimicking the process of making (and ruining) toast. The scenes follow “the stages of love,” from “attraction” and “connection,” through “commitment,” “marriage,” “consummation,” and “perseverance,” before arriving at “disintegration” and “starting over.” In each, a different troupe of actors—including well-known Canadian stars such as Paul Gross and Colm Feore—play the roles (a few sing their own parts, but most lip sync). Unfortunately, the mini-stories are awfully obvious (a fumbled proposal, a man tired of his wife's nagging, a guy going bananas when he meets his ex and her new boyfriend in a grocery store), the lyrics are rarely witty, and the music is hardly memorable (during the “perseverance” segment, the score simply lapses into a parody of one of the Queen of the Night's arias from Mozart's The Magic Flute—a ploy that seems less clever than desperate). Optional. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)