Things slow down just a little bit in June but with both Luminato and Opera 5’s Opera festival it’s not that quiet. Here’s what’s coming down:
Last Tuesday lunchtime in the RBA we got a sneak preview of some of the music that will feature at this year’s 20th anniversary Toronto Summer Music.
There was soprano Caitlin Wood with Philip Chiu performing three French chansons; at least one of which will feature in Mary Bevan and Roger Vignoles’ Walter Hall recital. Cait herself will be performing as part of the cast of Brian Current’s opera Missing during the festival.
Here are my top picks for May.
There have been a lot of announcements in the last few days. Tapestry announced that they had two companies “in residence” for next season at their new home at 877 Yonge Street. They are Opera Q ;led by Ryan Macdonald and Camille Rogers, who produced the pandemic video Medusa’s Children and Cultureland which is led by Afarin Mansouri and was responsible for Echoes of Bi-Sotoon. Continue reading
Tapestry Opera and Nightwood Theatre’s new digs at 877 Yonge Street are now officially open. I was unable to attend Saturday nignt’s opening gig and party but I did get to attend the free concert for the local community in the afternoon and get a tour of the premises.
Atom Egoyan’s 2023 film Seven Veils filmed at the Canadian Opera Company and featuring members of the cast of that season’s run of Strauss’ Salome is getting a theatrical release on March 7th. I can’t find exact details on whe and where it’s showing but at least some Cineplex and Landmark cinemas will have it. I saw it pre-pre-release at the Four Seasons Centre in September 2023. My thoughts are here.
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Toronto Summer Music has announced the line up for 2025; the last festival with Jonathan Crow in the driving seat. As ever there’s lots to like. There are two operas in concert. The big opening night gig is a concert performance in Koerner Hall of one of the very best early operas which, inexplicably, is not performed as often as the boring repertory staples. It’s Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea in a touring production conducted by Leonardo García-Alarcón at the helm of Cappella Mediterranea. Poppea will be sung by Sophie Junker and Nerone by Nicolò Balducci. That’s at Koerner Hall on July 10th. Continue reading
So what looks fun in March?
Without notice or fanfare the COC season announcement landed in my email inbox at 11.30 this morning. I kind of miss the old 10am press conference which at least offered an opportunity to ask about the rationale of some of the decisions. I guess though that the number of people writing about opera in Toronto these days would fit in a phone box so maybe it’s too much to hope for. There are some mildly surprising aspects to the announcement. There’s no Mozart or Puccini nor, more consequential, any sign of the various new opera projects that COC has/had under development which do have a bit of a habit of disappearing without trace. There’s also no “second stage” production. I guess that experiment is done. So it’s six main stage productions in the traditional three pairs.
Continue reading
Opera Atelier has announced its 2025/26 season and while it’s not especially surprising it is intriguing. As usual it’s two shows. The first show is pretty conventional. It’s a revival of OA’s production of The Magic Flute at the Elgin Theatre on October 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th 2025. Nice cast though with Colin Ainsworth as Tamino, Meghan Lindsey as Pamina, Douglas Williams as Papageno, Karine White as Papagena and Stephen Hegedus as Sarastro.
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