First up is Toronto Operetta Theatre’s annual holiday offering.  This year it’s Lehar’s Land of Smiles and the cast includes Adam Fischer, Curtis Sullivan, Ernesto Ramirez and Lara Ciekiewicz.  Guillermo Silva-Marin directs and Derek Bate conducts.  There are eight performances between December 27th and January 5th including a gala performance and dinner/dance on New Year’s Eve.  Venue is the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts and tickets are available here.

Talisker players have their annual cabaret at Trinity St. Paul’s Centre on January 12th and 14th.  It’s a Cole Porter themed show called Anything Goes.  Mezzo-soprano Jennifer Enns Modolo and tenor Bud Roach will share the stage with the Talisker Players quartet.  If you haven’t already made it this is a good opportunity to see the renovated performance space.  More details and tickets here.

Later in January Toronto Masque Theatre have a clown themed show at the Enoch Turner Schoolhouse.  Billed as “Arlecchino Allegro: a glittering musical fête gone awry”,  Toronto Masque Theatre’s annual cabaret features clowns, chamber music and the Gorgonetrevich Corps de Ballet Nationale.  I am fascinated and appalled.  The show runs January 23rd to 25th.  More details and tickets can be found here.

Last, but not least, the COC’s winter season opens on January 18th with a new production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte directed by Atom Egoyan.  The cast comprises Layla Claire, Wallis Giunta, Paul Appleby and Robert Gleadow as the lovers; and that’s about as impressive an array of young Canadian talent as one could hope for.  They are joined by veterans Tracy Dahl and Sir Thomas Allen.  Johannes Debus conducts.  There are nine performances between January 18th and February 21st plus the annual Ensemble Studio performance on February 7th.

The second production is Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera featuring Adrianne Pieczonka making her role debut as Amelia, Dimitri Pittas as Riccardo, Elena Manistina (who was brilliant in Il Trovatore) as Ulrica and Simone Osborne as Oscar.  Stephen Lord conducts.  The production, originally staged at the Staatsoper Berlin, is directed by Jossi Wieler & Sergio Morabito.  There are eight performances between February 2nd and 22nd.  Both COC productions play at the Four Seasons entre and tickets and more details can be found at www.coc.ca.