If you aren’t already committed to the opening night of Tapestry Briefs or Adrian Kramer and Lucia Cesaroni’s show at the Extension Room, there’s now another option for Thursday night. Aprile Millo is presenting a concert of operatic excerpts performed by members of Mary-Lou Vetere’s studio including Teiya Kasahara. It’s being billed as a “gala”; whatever that means. It’s at Trinity St. Paul’s at 7pm. Ms. Millo is also performing at Trinity St. Paul’s on Saturday at 7.30pm.
More details have been announced on Tapestry Opera’s season. This week sees Tapestry Briefs: Booster Shots; previously previewed here. January 24th, 2015 sees Tapestry Songbook V with baritone Peter McGillivray and young Canadian singers in concert performing the beautiful and absurd repertoire from Tapestry’s 35 year old Canadian collection.
The line up for Centre Stage; the final auditions for the COC Ensemble Studio has been announced. The seven singers are:
This Sunday sees the first of the season for Recitals at Rosedale. Entitled A Walk on the Dark Side: Myths, Legends and Fairy Tales, it will feature soprano Leslie Ann Bradley, mezzo soprano Allyson McHardy and baritone Geoff Sirett with pianists Robert Kortgaard and Rachel Andrist. The programme features works by Mahler, Debussy, Symanowski, Weil, Gershwin and more. It’s on November 9th at 2.30 pm at Rosedale Presbyterian Church and tickets are available here.
New Yorkers will get a chance to see Zhang Huan’s somewhat controversial production of Handel’s Semele at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in March. The COC is touring the production, seen in Toronto in 2012, with the wonderful Jane Archibald again taking the title role. The supporting cast is, on paper at least, more than a match for the one seen at COC. Colin Ainsworth is the god Jupiter, and Welsh contralto Hilary Summers portrays both Jupiter’s jealous wife, Juno, and Ino, Semele’s sister. Katherine Whyte playsJuno’s messenger, Iris and Kyle Ketelsen sings both Semele’s father, Cadmus, and the god of sleep, Somnus. Athamas will be sung by Lawrence Zazzo. Christopher Moulds conducts with the COC Orchestra and Chorus.
November 17th sees the second annual Elizabeth Krehm memorial concert. It’s at Metropolitan United Church at 8pm and will feature Beethoven’s 9th sympony. The soloists will be Rachel Krehm, Erin Lawson, Adrian Kramer and Jeremy Bowes with the Canzona Chamber Players and a choir drawn from the Univox Choir and friends of the Krehm family. Evan Mitchell conducts. Admission is by tax receiptable donation to St. Michael’s Hospital where Elizabeth spent the last month of her life.
On 28th November, at Runnymede United Church a starry cast are donating their services for a charity performance of Bach’s Weinachtsoratorium. The beneficiaries will be the Toronto Symphony Volunteer Committee Education Program and Open Table Community Meal at Runnymede United Church. Johannes Debus will conduct the Bach Consort with soloists Monica Whicher, Vicki St. Pierre, Lawrence Wiliford, Colin Ainsworth and Russell Braun. Tickets are $50 in advance or $60 on the door.
2013/14 saw the decline in ticket sales and box office revenue at the COC continue, though less precipitously than in the previous couple of years. Sales were down from 109297 tickets in 2012/13 to 106748 seats sold in 2013/14. Revenue was also down from $9.9 million to $9.7 million. A reduction in performances boosted capacity utilisation to 94% but heavy discounting at both ends of the season left the revenue per seat essentially static at just under $91.
This evening at 7.30pm at Trinity St. Paul’s The Talisker Players have their first concert of the season entitled Songs of Travel. Virginia Hatfield will be performing the French baroque work Le Sommeil d’Ulisse by Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre and the rarely performed Algoma Central by Louis Applebaum. Also featured is baritone Geoffrey Sirett in Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel and Vally Weigl’s Songs of Love and Leaving. Also on tomorrow.
There a few things coming up in Toronto over the next week or two that might be worth a look.
Tomorrow at noon in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre Lauren Segal and Robert Gleadow accompanied by Sandra Horst are giving a free concert featuring Dvořák’s Gypsy Songs, de Falla’s Siete canciones populares Españolas, Ibert’s Chansons de Don Quichotte and Vaughan Williams’ Songs of Travel.
Tapestry have announced this year’s Tapestry Shorts for November 13th to 16th at the Distillery. There’s a twist this year. Like last year the show will start in the Ernest Balmer Studio but then will move around different venues in the Distillery complex. Some of these locations will feature “booster shots” of flavour stimulants, ranging from craft beer and sake to artisanal ice cream. Think Mill Street, the sake place and Greg’s. Maybe Soma too? Chilli chocolate bleating goat shots? There will be ten shorts performed by Catherine Affleck, Alex Dobson, Keith Klassen and Krisztina Szabò. I’ve seen several of these pieces in workshop and I can’t wait to see them in more polished form. Seriously, this is one of THE opera events in the Toronto calendar. Go if you can.
The complete line up is below the cut.
operaramblings 