Tag Archives: art of time ensemble

The Soldier’s Tale reimagined

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Sankofa: The Soldier’s Tale Retold is the latest and, probably, the last show from Art of Time Ensemble.  It’s a bold and successful attempt at updating Stravinsky’s iconic work.  The music is all Stravinsky but Titilope Sonuga’s libretto is new.  It preserves the basic triad of Narrator, Soldier and the Devil but moves them to WW1 Canada.  Our soldier is a Black Canadian of West African extraction who is trying to join the Canadian army, which rejects him because of his skin colour.  His faith in his heritage, symbolised by the spirit bird Sankofa, with a little help from the Devil leads to the formation of the 2nd Construction Battalion, a non-combat unit, which was the only way Black Canadians could serve.  He survives the war and returns from France to find that the same battles must be fought over (and over, and over) again.

Ordena Stephens-Thompson & Olaoluwa Fayokun_Sankofa_ The Soldier_s Tale Retold_Art of Time Ensemble_photo by John Lauener

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October 2024

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oct24Opera’s back with the start of a new COC season and more.  Here’s a look at what I think looks interesting in October.

First up there are two theatre festivals with multiple shows.  Aluna Theatre’s RUTAS International Performing Arts Festival runs from September 26th to October 9th (various venues).  There’s a distinct Latinx twist to this one.  Then from the 16th to the 27th at Buddies in Bad Times there’s the Next Stage Theatre Festival run by the same folks as the Fringe.  Both are pretty varied with something for pretty much everyone.

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Dance to the Abyss

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artoftimeDance to the Abyss is a show of music from the Weimar Republic currently on stage at Harbourfront Centre Theatre.  It’s given by Art of Time Ensemble as part of their 25th and final season.

It’s an interesting mix of instrumental and vocal music.  The first piece in the programme is Erwin Schulhoff’s Hot Sonate for Sax and Piano which is a four movement, heavily jazz piece influenced, expertly played by Andrew Burashko and Wallace Halladay (I think).  It’s followed by three pieces by the prolific Mischa Spoliansky.  There’s the atmospheric instrumental piece Sehnsucht and two songs sung by Patricia O’Callaghan in English translation; I Am a Vamp and L’heure Bleue.  The songs are pretty well known and fun and I liked O’Callaghan’s playful treatment of them. Continue reading →

Schubert to Mercury to Beethoven

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The main stage concert for TSM at Koerner Hall last night was given by the Art of Time Ensemble with vocalists John Southworth and Sarah Slean.  It’s my first encounter with Art of Time have been around for about ten years and specialise in cross genre collaborations inspired by their founder, pianist Andrew Burashko.

TSM July 25-Dale Butterill

Last night was classical meets singer songwriter.  There was an introductory piece by Christos Hatzis, some Schubert, plenty of Gershwin and lashings of Leonard Cohen plus much more (there was no set list and I didn’t take notes).  It’s rather out of my usual zone but I enjoyed.  Southworth is a really quirky vocalist, exemplified by a rather weird version of The Old Folks at Home; which needed to be weird!  Slean is quite a performer; good voice, very funny, great mover.  The ensemble was terrific across the board.  I’m sold.  There are lots of reasons to stretch the boundaries of classical performance.  Larry Beckwith does it very well with his Confluence series.  Here’s another example.

TSM July 25-Photo Dale Butterill

The late show, also at Koerner, featured Jonathan Crow, Katya Poplyansky, Minkyoung Lee and Allison Rich in a performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 12 in B-flat Major Op. 130 but with a twist.  They played the full original version in which the Grosse Fuge Op. 133 forms the finale.  So, basically, an hour long string quartet!  It was very well done though I confess late Beethoven at 10.30 pm was straining the grey matter.

Photo credit: Dale Butteril