Category Archives: Toronto opera news and views

2014-2015 events at UoT

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Notes 2014-15The 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.

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This season’s free concerts in the RBA

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rbaThe 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

WTF SRSLY!

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autocorrectlogoThe 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.

TSMF begins

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Emerson-Quartet-300x200The 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.

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Ben out, Tracy in

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0640 - Cosi - Ferrando_Despina_Guglielmo - credit Michael CooperIf 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

TSM Festival Insiders events

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Toronto Summer Music has announced details details for its Festival Insiders events starting July 23rd.  The events include film screenings, interviews, guest lectures, and masterclasses. The events take place at Walter Hall and Boyd Neel Room in the Edward Johnson Building, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto (80 Queen’s Park).  Here’s the line up:

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Tapestry LibLab participants announced

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Tapestry’s LibLab is a collaborative that brings together composers and librettists to create new work.  It provides participants with the opportunity to work with several partners in a short period of time. Throughout the week-long program, writers and composers are partnered with one another for one day each. With input from music and stage directors, each pair writes a short piece of music theatre and investigates the collaborative process. Their work is performed at the end of each day by a resident ensemble of singers and repetiteurs, and then constructively critiqued by the group.  The best of the works are polished up for a show later in the year (review of last year’s show) and some go on for further development.

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Bicycle Opera Project

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The Bicycle Opera Project has announced dates and rep for their 2014 Ontario tour which will take seven contemporary Canadian operas to 14 towns and cities across Ontario. The singers are soprano Larissa Koniuk (founder of the Bicycle Opera Project), mezzo Stephanie Tritchew (newest member of Calgary Opera’s young artist program), tenor Christopher Enns  and baritone Geoffrey Sirett. They will be joined by instrumentalists: Wesley Shen (music director/piano), Chelsea Shanoff (saxophone) and Tristan Durie (flute). Liza Balkan will direct.

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Summer Opera Lyric Theatre 2014

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Summer Opera Lyric Theatre is a summer study and performance programme for young artists directed by Guillermo Silva Marin.  This season they will present (in English) three fully staged works with piano accompaniment.  The offerings are Mozart’s The Magic Flute (August 1st, 3 rd(mat), 6th (mat) and 9th), Puccini’s Madame Butterfly (August 2nd (mat), 5th, 7th and 9th (mat)) and Barber’s Vanessa (August 2, 6th, 8th and 10th (mat).  All performances are at the Robert Gill Theatre, University of Toronto, 214 College St. (entrance on St. George). Single tickets are $28, students and seniors are $22. For tickets, call 416-366-7723 (Mondays to Fridays 12 to 6 pm).