There are a couple of Essential Opera shows scheduled for the KW area in June. On June 7th at 2pm they are presenting a double bill of Haydn’s L’isola disabitata and Donizetti’s Il campanello at the New Hamburg Festival of the Arts. Singers include Maureen Batt, Erin Bardua,Stefan Fehr and Giovanni Spanu. Tickets are $20 (free for students) and available here.
There are a few operatic events coming up in June although, as usual things are slowing down a bit.
On June 1st at 7pm, Russian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky has a recital at Koerner Hall singing works by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Medtner and Liszt. Ivari Ilja will accompany on piano.
Brian Current’s new opera Airline Icarus will open at 8pm on June 3rd at Ada Slaight Hall in the Daniels Spectrum complex. The piece stars Krisztina Szabó and Alexander Dobson, among others. Tim Albery directs. The show runs until June 8th. Tickets are $20-$75 and are available here.
So I’m one of those people who doesn’t run a car. I’m a bike, transit, Autoshare kind of guy. This does sometimes present issues though when it comes to getting to places like Westben and the Stratford Festival. I hadn’t thought about it much but yesterday I got an email from someone called Mike asking if I would be willing to post a request for a rideshare. He’s specifically looking for a ride to Westben for the July 5th Dido and Aeneas. Come to think of it, I wouldn’t mind seeing that too!
So, I’m offering the comments to this post as a place to request or offer rides to Westben, Stratford etc. I’m not offering to organise anything but I’m happy for people to use this mechanism if it helps.
Leslie Uyeda’s opera, When the Sun Comes Out, which premiered at Vancouver’s Queer Arts Festival last year is coming to Toronto. It will be given in concert performance at the Ernest Balmer Studio at the Distillery on June 26th and 27th. Set in an imaginary country called Fundamentalia, a country where violation of gender roles is punishable by death, When the Sun Comes Out is the story of a love affair between two women, Lilah, a young, sheltered and wealthy married mother, and Solana, a gender outlaw and rebellious outsider just passing through as she’s passed through so many other countries in her restless, futile quest for happiness. In a land where love between women is punishable by death, Lilah and Solana fall in love but their affair is discovered by Lilah’s enraged and unpredictable husband, Javan.
Ensemble Studio graduate Teiya Kasahara, who premiered the role of Solana is joined by Hamilton based soprano Stephanie Yelovich, soprano, who will play the role of Lilah. Keith Lam, baritone, will play the role of Javan. Opera 5’s Maika’i Nash will act as musical director and pianist. Continue reading
A recent press release from the COC states that they have (so far) sold 9870 subscriptions for next season with 1368 of those being new subscribers. The renewal rate is apparently 79%. A quick bit of arithmetic suggests that this season there were 10762 (or very close to) subscribers and that therefore 2260 of them did not renew. So new subscribers are lagging drop outs by around 900. We can assume that subscribers who intend to renew have already done so as the deadline for keeping one’s seats was April 30th. There’s still plenty of time to close part of that gap of course but it does suggest a decline in the subscription base that’s consistent with experience everywhere else that uses the subscription model.
Toronto Wunderkind director Joel Ivany is directing the premier of Norbert Palej’s EAST o’ the SUN and WEST o’ the MOON for the Canadian Children’s Opera Company. Operaramblings took the opportunity to ask Joel a few questions about his motivation for doing the piece and how directing young people differed (or didn’t) from his other directorial endeavours. Here’s what we got: Continue reading
The saga of “Where in the world is Roberto Devereux?” at the COC continues. Originally Giuseppe Filianoti was slated to sing the title role in the seven show run that began April 25th. At some point, some while ago, it was announced that Leonardo Capalbo would sing the first three performances; which he did to some acclaim. During the week the rumour mill started grinding with news that cover Edgar Ernesto Ramírez would sing tomorrow night’s show and, a bit later, that Filianoti was out completely. All this has now been confirmed. Mexican born Toronto resident Ramirez will sing tomorrow and then Spanish tenor José Bros will complete the run (or at least that’s the plan). It’s a great break for Ramírez and we wish him luck.
Things are starting to quieten down a bit on the Toronto vocal music/opera scene but there’s still a fair bit to seer in May. Here are some of the highlights:
Friday, May 8 sees the opening of Massenet’s Don Quichotte at the COC. It’s strongly cast with Ferruccio Furlanetto, Quinn Kelsey and Anita Rachvelishvili headlining. There are seven performances between Friday and May 24.
Toronto Operetta Theatre has announced its 2014-15 season line up and both Stratford Summer Music and the Westben Festival have announced their programmes.
Toronto Operetta Theatre
The 2014/15 season features three productions. The season opens with Federico Chueca’s zarzuela La Gran Via on November 2nd. The Christmas season (December 27th to January 4th) will see six performances of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. (And I hope Rob Ford is on “the list” though hopefully by then he’ll be well on the way to being forgotten) Finally, and perhaps most interesting, the season closes with Victor Davies’ 2008 piece Earnest, the Importance of Being which is probably the only Canadian work that can properly be called an operetta. There’s no further information at this time but doubtless it will eventually make its way to http://www.torontooperetta.com/. Continue reading
Opera 5’s planned Offenbach and Hahn show this week has been postponed to the fall owing to construction delays at the Alliance Française (probably caused by striking air traffic controllers). By way of consolation there’s a pop up party on Saturday at 8pm, also at the Alliance Française (24 Spadina Road). Tickets are $15 on the door. It should be fun as these guys know how to party. Unfortunately I am otherwise engaged which may not be a bad thing. Last time I was at the Alliance Française the Americans started bombing Baghdad.
In a curiously symmetrical move, Tapestry have announced dates for the long delayed Toronto run of Shelter by Julie Salverson and Juliet Palmer. Described as “a darkly comic chamber opera which maps the journey of a family struggling to be ordinary in the atomic age.” The cast includes Christine Duncan, Teiya Kasahara, Keith Klassen, Andrea Ludwig and Peter McGillivray. Leslie Dala conducts and Keith Turnbull directs. It will play from June 12th to 15th at the Berkeley Street Theatre. Ticket prices range from $55-$75 + HST and can be purchased in person at the Canadian Stage Box Office at 26 Berkeley Street, by calling 416.368.3110 or online at CanadianStage. For more information visit TapestryOpera.
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