Coming up

es1516The lunchtime concert series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre kicks off on Tuesday with the traditional opener; a concert by the members of the COC Ensemble Studio.  It’s always a good opportunity to level set for the season ahead.  Noon in the RBA.  Then on Wednesday and Thursday at 8pm the TSO are doing Mahler 3 with Jamie Barton as soloist.  I was tremendously impressed with Jamie’s Koerner Hall recital and am quite excited to see what she can do singing with an orchestra.

Week of September 19th

fleming_caaspeakers_photo-must-credit-decca_andrew-eccles-330x360This looks like the week the season really starts.  The big event is the season opener at the TSO on Wednesday where Renée Fleming is featured.  There’s Ravel’s Shéhérazade plus Puccini, Walton and others finishing up with three numbers from The King and I.  This one’s at Roy Thomson Hall at the slightly unusual time of 7pm.  The next night at the Alliance Française there’s a show called Singing Stars of Tomorrow.  It features ten young singers who will have been engaged in a day long workshop with Sondra Radvanovsky.  It’s organised by the IRCPA.  Tickets are $25 from ircpa.net.

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Getting even cosier?

topherjoelA bunch of announcements today; most of them from Against the Grain Theatre.  The big one I suppose is the announcement of a formal arrangement with the COC which sees a two year “company in residence” arrangement whereby AtG will be based at the COC’s Front Street offices and where COC execs will mentor their AtG equivalents.  The relationship has been going on for a while so it’s not terribly surprising that they have decided to shack up together.

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Toronto Masque Theatre 2016/17

apollodaphneToronto Masque Theatre have announced their 2016/17 season.  There are two main stage productions and three salon concerts.  First of the main stage shows is a double bill of  Handel’s dramatic cantata Apollo and Daphne with Jacqueline Woodley and Geoffrey Sirett and dancer Stéphaie Brochard, directed and choreographed by Marie-Nathalie Lacoursière paired with Richard Strauss’s Enoch Arden based on the epic poem by Tennyson, performed by actor Derek Boyes and pianist Angela Park.  This one is at 8:00 pm on November 17th, 18th and 19th with a pre-show event at 7:15 pm each evening at the Enoch Turner Schoolhouse.

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MY Opera announcement

Well yesterday’s MYOpera season launch party was a blast with a very competitive game of what we are not allowed to call Jeopardy.  Apart from being a fund raiser the real purpose was to announce the company’s 2017 show.  It’s going to be Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri.  There will be three performances in the Aki Studio at the Daniels Spectrum; April 28 at 7:30 pm, April 29 at 4:30 pm and April 30 at 2:30 pm.  Casting yet to be announced.

myo

Week of September 11th

2011119-under-st-andrew-by-the-lakeIt’s a quiet week coming up.  There’s just a couple of churchy things that I’m aware of and they are both on the afternoon of Sunday 18th.  On the island the Anglican  Church of St. Andrew-by-the-Lake is holding a Piano Fundraising Party in aid of acquiring a new grand piano for their music program.  Works by Mozart, Debussy, Gounod, and Jazz standards will be performed by Vadim Serebryany, Melissa Scott, Gilles Thibodeau, Kristin Day, Louis Lawlor, Jonathan Krehm, Rachel Krehm, Mike Milligan and Roger Sharp.  It’s from 3pm to 5pm. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased either in advance from Roger Sharp at 416-779-3886/ rogerandersonsharp@gmail.com, or at the door.  There will also be art auctions and stuff.

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And so it begins

evolTime to revive the “upcoming week” post I think.  There are two items of interest in the next week.  Evolving Symmetry at the Heliconian Club on Wednesday 7th at 7pm features soprano Adanya Dunn, clarinetist Brad Cherwin and pianist clarinet Alice Gi-Young Hwang in a program of music by Debussy, Françaix, Milhaud, and Poulenc.  Then on Saturday 10th at Opera Bob’s at 5pm MYOpera have their season launch party.  Last year’s was fun.

Tapestry 2016/17

naomiTapestry Opera has now announced its upcoming season.  There are three shows.  The season begins in November with Naomi’s Roadlibretto by Ann Hodges based on the novel by Joy Kogawa with music by Ramona Luengen. Set in Vancouver during the Second World War, the opera follows 9-year-old Japanese-Canadian girl Naomi and her brother, whose lives are upturned when they are sent to internment camps in the BC interior and Alberta. It runs November 16th to 20th at St. David’s Anglican Church, the home of the last Japanese-Canadian Anglican parish in Toronto. Continue reading

Indie Opera Toronto

So it’s happened.  Indie Opera Toronto is a go.  Eleven companies have got it together to create a website showcasing all the upcoming shows and, mirabile dictu, they are going to co-ordinate schedules so I can stop trying to be Schrödinger’s critic.  The new website is http://indieoperatoronto.ca

And here’s the intro video featuring more of my favourite people in sixty seconds than you can possibly imagine.