October is the month things usually really get going again in Toronto and this year is no exception. The calendar for the first third of the month is very busy. Highlights include three free concerts in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, the opening of two productions at the Canadian Opera Company and Nuit Blanche events at the Canadian Music Centre and the UoT Music Department.
Toronto Operetta Theatre and Toronto Masque Theatre have announced their respective 2014/15 season line ups. TOT will present three shows. The first is a zarzuela; Federico Chueca’s La gran via. Jose Hernandez conducts and the cast includes Margie Bernal, Fabian Arciniegas, Pablo Benitez and Diego Catala. There’s one performance on November 2nd. The Christmas show will be Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. Singers include Lucia Cesaroni, Mia Lennox, David Ludwig and Giles Tomkins with Derek Bate conducting. There are six performances scheduled between December 27th and January 4th. Finally, and perhaps most exciting, is a revival of Victor Davies’ 2008 piece Ernest, the Importance of Being. It’s based on the Wilde play and will star Jean Stilwell as Lady Bracknell. Larry Beckwith conducts. There will be four performances on April 29th and May 1st to 3rd. All three shows will be directed by Guillermo Silva-Marin and will be staged at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. (www.stlc.com)
The always entertaining Opera 5 have a couple of events coming up. Firts there’s a fundraiser at Rosemarie Umetsu’s called Equinox: Day vs. Night. Two teams of singers, Team Day and Team Night, will battle for the greatest prize of all: Ruler of the Sky! It’s on Tuesday September 9th at 6pm and there will be drinks and food provided by the University Avenue Fionn MacCools 181 University Avenue. We are promised performances by Claire de Sévigné, Lucia Cesaroni, Peter Bass, Jeremy Ludwig, Beste Kalender, Maika’i Nash and more. Let’s hope it’s a bit cooler than last year! Tickets are $25 and can be purchased here: https://be-mused.ca/group/opera5
Then there’s the show postponed from the Spring which will open the new Alliance Française de Toronto – Centre cultural Theatre. It features performances of Reynaldo Hahn’s L’île du rêve and Jacques Offenbach’s Ba-ta-clan. Performances are at 7.30 pm on September 19th, 20th and 21st. The Alliance Française is at 24 Spadina Rd (just north of Bloor) and just happens to be where I learned that the First Gulf War had begun. Tickets as above.
I don’t know whether I’d call this opera or not but it’s certainly music theatre and of a rather interesting kind. Obeah Opera is an a cappella theatre piece in which an all-female cast examines the story of the Salem Witch Trials from the perspective of enslaved African women. it’s being workshopped, in preparation for next year’s PANAMANIA; the arts and culture program of the Pan Am games, at the Dancemakers Studio in the Distillery (9 Trinity St, studio 313) on Sept 11, 12 and 13 at 8pm and Sept 14 at 2pm. It’s directed by Weyni Mengesha with music direction by Andrew Craig.
The University of Toronto Faculty of Music has released its schedule of events for the 2014/15 season. There’s a lot of interesting stuff for the opera and vocal music fan (and much else besides). Highlights include:
Opera
The first of two major productions is Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore which will play November 27th-30th. Michael Albano directs and Sandra Horst and Russell Braun will share conducting duties. The second, Dominick Argento’s Postcard from Morocco, will run March 12th to March 15th with Michael Cavanagh directing and Les Dala conducting. Both shows will be in the MacMillan Theatre.
The Canadian Opera Company has just announced the 14/15 line up for the free lunchtime (mostly) concerts in the very beautiful Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre at the Four Seasons Centre. Highlights, from my point of view, include recitals by Jane Archibald, Krisztina Szabó, Lauren Segal, Colin Ainsworth, Joshua Hopkins, Robert Gleadow, Barbara Hannigan and Ekaterina Gubanova. There will also be ten concerts by the Ensemble Studio plus the Quilico competition. The Canadian Art Song Project will showcase Allyson McHardy in a new song cycle by Marjan Mozetich. There’s also a themed series of concerts to commemorate anniversaries of the First and Second World Wars, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. This will comprise six concerts drawn from the Vocal, Chamber Music and Piano Virtuoso programs.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are vocal, chamber, piano, dance, jazz and world music programs to suit a very wide range of tastes. And it’s all free. Full details at http://www.coc.ca/PerformancesAndTickets/FreeConcertSeries.aspx
For Toronto folks wanting some more or less academic background on opera in general and the upcoming COC season in particular there are a few options under the cut featuring the COC, University of Toronto, Opera Canada magazine and the Royal Conservatory.
The latest offering from Loose Tea Theatre is a show called AuroCorrect Operas. Basically it’s Mozart’s Bastien et Bastienne and Stravinsky’s Mavra updated for the internet age. I seem to have seen a lot of internet themed opera recently ranging from cyberbullying to screaming goats. Perhaps it’s a meme? The show runs August 21st to 24th at the Navillus Gallery on Davenport. Loose Tea’s previous effort; La tragédie de Carmen, was well worth seeing so this is probably one to see.
More details and tickets here.
The Toronto Summer Music Festival kicked off last night with a concert by the venerable and renowned Emerson Quartet. The theme for the festival is “The Modern Age”; explained to us by the festival director as meaning the many threads and styles that emerged in the opening years of the 20th century. It might seem a bit odd then that the Emersons chose a programme of Beethoven, Britten and Schubert but in fact the rest of the programming doesn’t seem much closer to the tree with Bach, Haydn and Brahms all featured in upcoming concerts.
If you have been wondering who would replace recently retired Ben Heppner in Westben’s annual Sunday Afternoon at the Opera, to be held this year on July 20th at 2:00 pm, the wait is over. It will be veteran coloratura soprano Tracy Dahl, last seen in Toronto as Despina. She’ll be accompanied by Ensemble Studio head honcho Liz Upchurch. Tickets available at www.westben.ca
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