Season announcements for theatre companies for 2024/25 are coming out fast and one notable thing is that a number of shows from Crow’s Theatre have been picked up by other companies. Both Pierre, Natasha and the Great Comet of 1812 and Fifteen Dogs have been picked up by Mirvish (as Uncle Vanya was this season). Soulpepper have picked up The Master Plan which will also be seen in Hamilton. I’ve linked to my reviews which are enthusiastic about all except Pierre, Natasha. That was a huge hit, especially with people who like Broadway musicals more than I do and, as the prologue warns, it wasn’t written for opera fans who have read War and Peace three times so my views should be viewed through that lens.
Category Archives: Toronto theatre news
May listings
It’s coming towards the end of the traditional “season” but there’s sill plenty happening. Here’s how I see may shaping up at present (I expect more theatre listings will come in. They tend to be somewhat less notice!):
- May 1st and 2nd: The TSO are coupling Brahms’ First Symphony with Emily D’Angelo and material from her enargeia CD.
- Also on May 2nd the Women’s Musical Club are hosting Joyce El-Khoury in recital at Walter Hall.
April preview
Here are some upcoming shows for April:
Music
- First, a late March Show. Yu Dun and Royce Vavrek’s Pulitzer winning opera Angel’s Bone, about human trafficking, comes to Harbourfront Centre Theatre March 22nd to 24th. More information here.
- On the 6th the Happenstancers have a concert; Being Pascal Dusapin, at Redeemer Lutheran. We are promised a “a portrait concert in palindromic form” featuring music by Dusapin, Kaija Saariaho and Samy Moussa.
Looking ahead to March
First some additional February shows
- On the 23rd at Harbourfront Centre Art of Time Ensemble are presenting Music from the Weimar Republic.
- On the 25th VOICEBOX have a concert performance of Verdi’s Ernani at the St. Lawrence Centre.
Opera
- Opera York are presenting Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts on March 1st and 3rd.
- March 14th to 17th UoT Opera are doing Massenet’s Cendrillon at a to be determined location.
- March 20th and 22nd at Koerner Hall, the Glenn Gould School spring opera is Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites. That one has me excited!
February 2024 – mostly theatre
Here’s a round up of February shows not previously mentioned; mostly straight theatre.
- Factory Theatre has two shows. Rockabye by Joanna Murray-Smith deals with the travails of a female rock star who must reinvent herself before age pushes her onto the casino circuit. That’s on the Main Stage from January 26th to February 11th. Then on the 23rd and 24th illusionist Nick Wallace has a one man show in the Studio Theatre.
January 2024
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.
Into December
First some late calls for November:
- The Early Music folks at UoT are doing Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Trinity St. Paul’s on the 21st and 22nd.
- November 22nd and 23rd there’s a 20th anniversary concert for Autorickshaw at Heliconian Hall presented by Confluence Concerts.
- Amici Chamber Ensemble have an afternoon concert on the 26th at Trinity St. Paul’s called The Winds of Time featuring chamber music for wind instruments from the 18th to 21st centuries.
November gigs
Here’s what I’m looking forward to in a busy November.
- The reprise of Tapestry’s Rocking Horse Winner at Crow’s Theatre. That’s November 1st to 12th.
- The Glenn Gould School’s fall opera offering. It’s a presentation of five of Tapestry’s short operas from the 2000s. November 3rd and 4th in Mazzoleni Hall.
- Voicebox are doing Verdi’s Un giorno di regno at the St. Lawrence Centre on the 5th.
Additional September and October gigs
Here are a few shows that didn’t make it into earlier listing posts:
- Opera 101 at the Redwood Theatre at 4pm on September 23rd and October 7th is a free recital programme organised by Alexander Hajek.
- There are a couple of highly experimental audience participation shows at the Theatre Centre. In asses.masses the audience creates a video game based on the story of a herd of unemployed asses. In work.txt which runs September 27th to 29th the audience “designs a welcoming space for collectively processing “working” in capitalist metropolitan cities”. I’m going to the latter. I don’t think I’ve been in/at a show of this kind since I was an undergrad.
Late September and into October
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!