Category Archives: Toronto opera news and views

Saints and sinners

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There are a couple of rather unusual shows coming up on the weekend of May 22nd to 24th.

anna-gates-distilleryA new group, The Friends of Gravity, are putting on Weill’s Die Sieben Todsünde ~ The Seven Deadly Sins.  Projected photography and film stand in for the original production’s ballet. Silent film-style title cards will translate the German text and illuminate the dramatic back-story. Stephanie Conn sings the role of Anna I on stage and acts as Anna II in the pre-taped footage.  The other singers include Christopher Wattam, Charles Fowler, David Roth and James Levesque.  A seven piece band will play Scott Gabriel’s arrangement of the score.  It’s on on May 22nd and 23rd at 8pm at St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church, 509 Dundas Street East.  Tickets are $25 ($15 for students) and are available at https://www.universe.com/7sins or http://thefriendsofgravity.org

At more or less the same time The Toronto Consort are putting on a fully staged version in English translation of the 13th century Latin work The Play of Daniel.  David Fallis directs the Consort medieval players with a cast that includes Kevin Skelton in the title role, Olivier Laquerre as King Belshazzar, Derek Kwan as King Darius, Michele DeBoer as the Queen, and John Pepper as Habakkuk.  This one runs at Trinity St. Paul’s on the 22nd and 23rd at 8pm and the 24th at 3.30pm.  Tickets and info at torontoconsort.org.

Toronto Summer Music and more

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For those of you who won’t be glued to the underwater cycling at the Pan-Am games there is actually music on in Toronto over the summer.  The tenth Toronto Summer Music Festival features a wide range of events in many genres.  The ones likely to be of most interest to AR readers follow.

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Béatrice and Bénédict

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BetBHere’s another listing I missed in the chaos of moving back into the Kitten Kondo.  Metro Youth Opera have a run of three performances of Berlioz’s Béatrice and Bénédict at the Daniels Spectrum (Aki Studio).  The shows are on April 24th and 25th at 7.30pm and the 26th at 2.30pm.  Alison Wong directs with Natasha Fransblow as Music Director.  The cast includes Simone McIntosh as Béatrice and Asitha Tennekoon (Paris in the recent GGS La belle Hélène) as Bénédict.  Full details and tickets are available here.

More contemporary music

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Andrew Ager’s Führerbunker is coming to Toronto under the auspices of the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy.  It plays at the Tranzac Club on May 1st and 2nd at 7.30pm.  It’s a one hour piece, in German, dealing with the last days of the Hitler regime.  There’s an article about it at Musical Toronto.  Tickets are available here.

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And the mainstream stuff…

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Sometimes I forget the obvious… Here’s what the big kids are doing in April/May.

Opera Atelier are staging Berlioz’s 1859 version of Gluck’s Orphée.  There are six performances from April 9th to April 18th.  Mireille Lebel sings Orpheus, Peggy Kriha Dye sings Eurydice and Meghan Lindsay is Amour.  This will be Tafelmusik’s furthest foray yet into 19th century repertoire.  It’s at the Elgin and Marshall Pynkoski directs.  Not sure who is conducting, presumably David Fallis.

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Upcoming events for April/May

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mdea-1038x576Perhaps the most exciting prospect is that from May 26th to 29th you can catch the world premiere of M’dea Undone, a collaboration between Tapestry and Scottish Opera, at the Evergreen Brickworks. The libretto is by Marjorie Chan with music by John Harris in this retelling of the classic story of love and betrayal in the context of today’s perpetual war against whatever.  Tim Albery directs with Jordan De Souza conducting.  The cast includes Lauren Segal, Peter Barrett, Jacquie Woodley and James McLean.

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Voicebox:Opera in Concert announces 2015/16 season

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Isis and Osiris JPGVoicebox:Opera in Concert closed out their 2014/15 season yesterday afternoon with Charpentier’s Louise (review to come in Opera Canada).  Thay also announced their plans for next season.  There will be, again, three productions.  The first two will be single performances, on November 22nd 2015 and February 7th 2016 of Borodin’s Prince Igor (presumably heavily cut) and Salieri’s Falstaff.  The third will be the premiere of Peter Anthony Togni’s and Sharon Singer’s Isis and Osiris which will run from March 29th to April 3rd 2016.  All performances are at the Jane Mallett Theatre.  The first two works will presumably be performed in Voicebox’s “minimally staged” style.  No word yet on staging or musical accompaniment for Isis and Osiris.

Watching singers aspire

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dornemannYesterday morning I got to sit in on one session of a two day workshop for young singers organised by the International Resource Centre for Performing Artists.  The workshop featured Metropolitan Opera assistant conductor Joan Dornemann.  The singers were all unknown to me but seemed, for the most part, to be recent graduates in their early to mid 20s and from what I could gather a fairly wide range of backgrounds in terms of origin and musical education.

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Future ROH broadcasts at the Bloor

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mahagonnyFollowing on from yesterday’s Der fliegende Holländer showing at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema I followed up with them about future plans for the ROH opera broadcasts.  Here’s the scoop though dates may change.

June 28th.  Brecht/Weill The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.  This is a new production by John Fulljames with Mark Wrigglesworth conducting.  The cast includes Anne-Sofie von Otter, Willard White and Christine Rice.  It’s going to be sung in English.

July 26th.  Puccini La Bohème.  It’s the old John Copley production dating from 1975 (which in turn replaced an 1896 production) and it was intended to be “traditional” and it is!  Joseph Calleja and Anna Netrebko headline with Dan Ettinger conducting.

August 30th.  Rossini Guillaume Tell.  This is another new production , this time by Damiano Michieletto.  Gerry Finley sings the title role with Malin Byström as Mathilde.  Antonio Pappano conducts.

So, some decent fillers for the traditionally quiet summer season.