Tag Archives: toronto operetta theatre

A Northern Lights Dream

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A Northern Lights Dream is a new operetta by Michael Rose which premiered this last week at Toronto Operetta Theatre in a production directed by Guillermo Silva-Marin.  A new operetta is a very rare thing.  It;’s just not a form that contemporary composers seem to take to.  There’s far too much spoken dialogue for an opera but the musical language; mostly tonal, often quite beautiful but not afraid to get more abrasive when appropriate, is much closer to that of contemporary opera than musical theatre.  So an operetta it is.

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Balance of April and into May

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rurThere’s a fair number of shows appearing at fairly short notice as people scramble to adapt to relaxing regulations so this post will contain events for April not previously noted plus a look forward to May.

  • April 26th at 7.30 pm Likht Ensemble have a free Holocaust Remembrance Day concert at Mazzoleni Hall.
  • April 28th at 8pm at St. Andrews on King St. Soundstreams are reprising the Vivier Lovesongs concert that was done as a stream last fall.
  • April 29th at 7.30pm at 918 Bathurst The Happenstancers have a concert featuring music by Julia Wolfe, Nahre Sol, Kaija Saariaho, Gyorgy Kurtag, Oliver Knussen, and WA Mozart.

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Toronto Operetta Theatre announces live season

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StLawrenceCentre4So the latest Toronto organisation to announce a return to “live” is Toronto Operetta Theatre.  There are three shows:

  • Oscar Straus’ A Waltz Dream will play December 29th, and 31st and January 2nd and 4th.  The cast includes Andrea Nuñez, Scott Rumble, Elizabeth Beeler, Keith Klassen and Greg Finney.  Derek Bates conducts.
  • Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld will be presented on February 16th, 18th, 19th and 20th.  The cast includes Vania Chan, Tonatiuh Abrego, Ryan Downey and Rosalind McArthur with Derek Bates again conducting.
  • Finally, there’ll be the premiere of Michael Rose’s musical, A Northern Lights Dream.  This will play May 5th, 6th and 7th with Natalya Gennadi, Karen Bojti, Ian Backstrom, Daniela Agostino and Stephanie O’Leary.in the cast.  Suzy Smith conducts.

All three shows will play at the St. Lawrence Centre.  At time of writing two shows in each run will be restricted to 50% capacity though I imagine that could change before May.

The Csárdás Princess

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Toronto Operetta Theatre’s latest offering is a webstream of Emmerich Kálmán’s 1915 operetta The Csárdás Princess (Die Csárdásfürstin) presented here in English with the usual minor tweaks to the dialogue including obligatory Rob Ford jokes, which have become something of a TOT tradition.  The plot turns on the fact that an Austro-Hungarian aristo, let alone a second cousin of the Emperor, can’t marry someone with fewer than 64 quarterings on their coat of arms, let alone a cabaret singer.  Implausible impersonations etc abound and love triumphs in the end.  It’s all entirely harmless for heaven forfend that anything satirical might have made it past the Vienna censorship, especially in wartime.  And there’s no sex because this isn’t France.  The humour mostly turns on Hungarian antipathy for their Austrian masters.  It’s light hearted and very tuneful fun.

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TOT’s streamed The Csardas Princess

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lmargisonToronto Operetta Theatre are offering a streamed performance of Emmerich Kálmán’s The Csardas Princess.  It’s another film made in the Edward Jackman Studio and with TOT’s usual team in charge.  The cast includes Lauren Margison in the title role with Michael Barrett as Prince Edwin.  The cast also includes TOT regulars Caitlin Wood as Countess Stasi, Ryan Downey as Boni and Gregory Finney as Feri, Rosalind McArthur and Sean Curran appear as Edwin’s  parents Anhilte and Leopold Maria.

The stream will be available from July 9th to 23rd and an access code is $20 plus fees and can be purchased here.

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Get your TOT fix

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Like pretty much everybody else Toronto Operetta Theatre has chosen to go virtual for their latest offering.  It’s a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers filmed at the Edward Jackman Centre.  It’s very much a “bare bones” production.  The cast is reduced to nine roles and the chorus is gone.  Accompaniment is piano and accordion.  The Jackman Centre is a rehearsal space and looks like one.  The film appears to havebeen filmed with a single camera, in one take with minimal post processing though, despite which the audio and video quality is excellent.

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Upcoming

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gondoliersThere a couple more on-line events coming up.

  • Tafelmusik have a moderated panel discussion on the mental, physical and spiritual benefits of choral singing.  That’s on March 18th at 7pm.  It’s a ticketed event ($5).  Tickets are available from tafelmusik.org
  • Toronto Operetta Theatre is doing Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers.  It will be available from March 19th at 7pm until April 5th.  This one is also ticketed ($20) plus there are dinner delivery packages available for March 19th and 20th.  Full cast and other details at http://torontooperetta.com/shows.html

Youtube roundup

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New(ish) content you might want to check out:

  • AtG’s Youtube channel has a really interesting interview with Peter Sellars and a very nice film presentation of Celia Livingston’s Penelope (after Homer’s Odyssey)
  • Toronto Operetta Theatre is also on Youtube now with excerpts from various shows from the last few years.  technical quAlity is very good.

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And coming up, this year’s Mysterious Barricades event in support of World Suicide Prevention Week is on September 10th. It’s virtual this year, of course, but needed now more than ever. Details on their Facebook page

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Pinafore at TOT

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Toronto Operetta Theatre’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore opened last night.  Director Guillermo Silva-Marin has chosen to translate the piece to a cruise ship in the 1920s which has its incongruities but they aren’t particularly disturbing (except perhaps for Sir Joseph Porter’s shoes!).  In fact what we get is basically a crisp, well paced and idiomatic Pinafore which is what I want in G&S.  It’s also genuinely funny, though some jokes age better than others, and occasionally even quite moving.

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A couple more shows in March

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440px-H_m_s_pinafore_restorationNot noticed by me when posting a week or so ago….

Toronto Operetta Theatre are doing that infernal nonsense Pinafore.  It’s at the St. Lawrence Centre on March 4th, 6th and 7th at 8pm and 8th at 2.30pm.  It’s a nice looking cast includingb Ryan Downey, Bradley Christensen and Holly Chaplin.  Derek Bates conducts.

On the 27th the Exultate Chamber Singers are doing Brahms’ German Requiem in the four hands piano version.  Pianists are Mira Jung and Elaine Choi while the soloists are baritone, Parker Clements, and soprano, Julia Frodyma,  It’s at the rather lovely St. Thomas’ Anglican Church on Huron Street at 8pm.