Here’s a look at the start of 2024 in Toronto.
On the 7th and the 9th OPUS chamber music, who feature some of Canada’s best young chamber musicians, have a pair of concerts. The first is at Trinity St. Paul’s and features music by Rebecca Clarke, Leo Weiner, Anton Webern and Robert Schumann. The second is at the Arts and Letters Club and includes music by Tcherepini, Klein, Wegener and Beethoven.
Those who know me are probably fed up of hearing me lament how slow the indie opera scene in Toronto has been to recover post plague. Well here’s some good news on that front. Opera 5 will be mounting a fully staged version of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw with the proper thirteen piece chamber orchestra at Theatre Passe Muraille in June next year. Yea!
First some late calls for November:
Here’s what I’m looking forward to in a busy November.
Some organisations hold off on their season announcements later than others! Two came in today.
Tapestry Opera announced a season that includes:
I’ve known for ages that Ian Cusson was working on an opera for the COC main stage and that it was a bout a Métis werewolf legend. It’s the sort of thing that gets me howling at a full moon. Anyway it’s all now official and talkaboutable. It’s called Empire of the Wild and the libretto is by Cherie Dimaline based ion her 2019 novel of the same name. It’s a co-commission of the COC and the NAC in Ottawa and there’s no date given for the premiere yet. (And yes I do have a bit of “I’ll believe it when I see it” given that COC commissions seem to disappear mysteriously often enough to provide the plot for a werewolf novel). I think it’s a great subject for an opera and Ian’s record of writing for vopice and the opera stage is good so, yeah, I really want to see this. So keep your fingers crossed it actually happens! All the details are in the press release which is here.
Here are a few shows that didn’t make it into earlier listing posts:
There are a few adds for September. This Saturday (16th) you can catch Rachel Krehm in recital with Janelle Fung. That’s at 3pm. Details here. Saturday 30th is a busy day. At 7.30pm at Church of the Redeemer The Happenstancers have a concert.of mostly 20th century music for soprano and chamber ensemble. Details and tickets here. At the same time and repeated at 4pm on the Sunday Confluence Concerts have a concert of Irish music, both traditional and modern art song. That’s at Heliconian Hall. Details etc. Also from the 22nd to 24th Tafelmusik are performing Beethoven’s 4th and 5th symphonies at Koerner Hall. Their take on Beethoven symphonies is unusual and very interesting. And while Tafelmusik are absent from Jeanne Lamon Hall on the 22nd and 23rd, ther Toronto Mendelssohn Singers are presenting a programme including dance. A choreographed version of Handel’s Dixit Dominus is a rare event!
On Monday I attended an event at Hope United Church billed as “Toronto Vocal Showcase”. It was, in a way, an extended audition. Sixteen singers sang for representatives of a number of (mostly) Ontario based music producing organisations together with a small contingent from the media. The affair was organised by Ryan Hofman and designed to give (mostly) unrepresented singers a chance to display their talents to the invitees.
The new season starts to ramp up in September. My month will start at Factory Theatre on the 7th with Mary Beath Badian’s The Waltz; a coming of age drama set in Saskatchewan. That runs until the 17th. The following night there’s a screening at the Four Seasons Centre of Atom Egoyan’s new film Seven Veils that was created in conjunction with last season’s production of Salome. A young woman is tasked with remounting her former mentor’s production of Salome. It stars Amanda Seyfried, Ambur Braid, Michael Schade and Michael Kupfer-Radecky. It’s a chance to see the film ahead of the official premier at TIFF. More details and tickets here.
operaramblings 