Announcements for the upcoming season in Toronto are starting to come in.  Voicebox: Opera in Concert have announced a thee show season at the St. Lawrence Centre for the arts. The season opens on Sunday, November 24, 2013 at 2:30 PM with Benjamin Britten’s Gloriana.  This isn’t a work one gets to see very often so even a piano accompanied concert version is very welcome.  Musical Director and Pianist will be Peter Tiefenbach.  Soprano Betty Waynne Allison will sing Elizabeth I with tenor Adam Luther as Essex. The cast also includes Jennifer Sullivan, Jesse Clark and Mark Petracchi.

The second show is Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie which is being given on Sunday February 2, 2014 at 2:30 PM.  Being a concert performance there will be no broccoli forest but we will get the Aradia Ensemble on period instruments. Kevin Mallon conducts and the cast includes Allyson McHardy as Phèdre, Meredith Hall as Aricie, Colin Ainsworth as Hippolyte and Alain Coulombe as Thésée.  That’s a pretty impressive line up.  The season closes on Sunday, March 23, 2014 at 2:30 PM with Verdi’s inflammatory work from 1850, Stiffellio.  The cast includes Laura Albino, Ernesto Ramirez and Geoffrey Sirett with Michael Rose as Music Director and Pianist.  Tickets for all the shows are available from the St. Lawrence Centre’s Jane Mallett Theatre Box Office, 27 Front St. East, by phone – 416-366-7723 or 1-800-708-6754 – or online at www.stlc.com.

Also coming up is a show by Toronto Masque Theatre, Salon: Ten years of Toronto Masque Theatre — a retrospective.  This will be a salon type event with food and drink as well as Artistic Director Larry Beckwith and special guests exploring the company’s first decade of wide-ranging programming. The show is on Monday September 30, 2013 at 7:30 pm at 21 Shaftesbury Avenue, Toronto. Tickets are by donation ($20 suggested) through the Toronto Masque Theatre website or phone 416 410 4561.