The 2025 edition of the 21C festival of contemporary music at the Royal Conservatory of Music basically runs from January 18th to 25th next year with an outlier in May. As usual it’s heavy on premières; World, North American and Canadian and there’s an intriguing mix of genres.
November is looking busy and interesting in both the theatre and the concert hall. Here are some shows you might be interested in…
Roiyce Vavrek. Photo by Ser Amantio di Nicolao
Today’s big news is that Against the Grain Theatre have announced the appointment of a new Artistic Director and it’s Royce Vavrek. He’s probably best known to opera audiences as a librettist. He has written the libretti for 23 operas including a bunch with Missy Mazzoli of which perhaps my favourite is Proving Up, done in Calgary recently by Ammolite Opera. He’s also the writer for Ian Cusson’s Indians on Vacation and Luna Pearl Woolf’s Jacqueline which features in Tapestry’s recently announced season and is just out on CD. So not dead yet then!
And talking of Tapestry, they announced their season today. With the new space at 877 Yonge almost ready they have emerged from semi-hibernation. As implied above the first show is Luna pearl Woolf’s Jacqueline in The Betty Oliphant Theatre in February . I’m assuming it’s essentially the same show as five years ago (see Opera Canada Summer 2020). There’s also a venue launch concert for the new home on March 22nd. The first Tapestry show at the new venue will be Sanctuary Song; music by Abigail Richardson, libretto by Marjorie Chan, which, apparently, is about an elephant. Which may be an operatic first. Continue reading
Opera’s back with the start of a new COC season and more. Here’s a look at what I think looks interesting in October.
First up there are two theatre festivals with multiple shows. Aluna Theatre’s RUTAS International Performing Arts Festival runs from September 26th to October 9th (various venues). There’s a distinct Latinx twist to this one. Then from the 16th to the 27th at Buddies in Bad Times there’s the Next Stage Theatre Festival run by the same folks as the Fringe. Both are pretty varied with something for pretty much everyone.
Edmonton Opera today announced that Robin Whiffen, Executive Director of Against the Grain (though on mat leave for a while now) is joining as their new Executive Director; teaming up again wiith Joel Ivany, Artistic Director, in Edmonton.
Now all the original forces behind AtG have left and what was supposed to be the stability and continuity team has lost its leader (and pretty much everyone else as best I can tell).. AtG have only produced one live show since COVID and that wasn’t really their’s, it was Theatre of Sound’s production of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle which played in Toronto in March 2023. Add to that that they have been without artistic leadership since Ivany left in July 2023 and that’s officially. He took up his Edmonton post in November 2021. Continue reading
Well late August has been a bit thin in terms of live performances but September. sees things back with a bang.
It’s still mostly festival season with two events coming up in Toronto.
There’s Summer Opera Lyric Theatre It runs July 26th to August 4th and features three operas in piano score with young artist singers. The operas are Puccini’s La Bohème, Handel’s Serse and Mozart’s Idomeneo and the venue is the Alumnae Theatre on Berkeley Street. Full details, tickets etc. Continue reading
When I look at my calendar for July it’s all about two festivals, both of which include far more events than I could possibly cope with.
The first is the Toronto Fringe which runs July 2nd to 14th and features 77 shows in 16 venues. There really is something for everyone from clowns and comics to mass murderers and funeral directors. There’s even a musical. Most shows are $18 but that drops to $14 if one buys a ten ticket pass. I think I’ll be able to get to maybe half a dozen shows given an overlap with… Continue reading
Here’s an events listing for June as it currently stands:
It’s coming towards the end of the traditional “season” but there’s sill plenty happening. Here’s how I see may shaping up at present (I expect more theatre listings will come in. They tend to be somewhat less notice!):
operaramblings 