Volume 8 Issue 9 - June 2003

On May 21 the nominations for the
Dora Mavor Moore Awards were
announced. In the past opera, when
included, has found itself in the "Outstanding
Musical" division. This
year opera has a division all to itself.
In the category "Outstanding Production
of an Opera" the nominees
are: "Facing South", Tapestry New
Opera works; "Jenufa", Canadian
Opera Company; "Medee", Opera
Atelier; "Oedipus Rex/Symphony of
Psalms", COC; and "The Queen Of
Spades", COC.
In the category. "Outstanding Performance
in an Opera" the nominees
are: Eva Urbanova, "Jenufa";
Michael Schade, "Oedipus Rex I
Symphony Of Psalms"; Ewa Podles,
"Oedipus Rex/Symphony , Of
Psalms"; Judith Forst, "The Queen
Of Spades"; Xiu Wei Sun, "Madama
Butterfly". Winners will be announced
June 23 at the Princess of
Wales Theatre.
While the nominees above are all
worthy candidates, the list raises a
number of questions. The "General
Theatre" division has separate nom-,
inees for both Best Musical and Best
Play, and separate nomirultions for
Best Director, Best Male Performance
and Best Female Performance
in each of these "General Theatre"
categories. There are also nominations
for Best Feature Role; Best Set,
Costumes and Lighting, combining
the two. Shouldn't all these categories
also be recognized in Opera?
24
ON OPERA
by Christopher Haile
The reality is that a far greater
number of different operas are produCed
in the city than musicals. In '
any given year we can count on seven
productions from the COC, two
each from Opera Atelier and the
Toronto Operetta Theatre and vari-
A fully-staged production .by the Metropolitan f amily
Thursday, Friday, Saturday
June 5, 6, 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Narrator: Anne Thomson
Joseph: Benjamin Stein
Pharoah: Malcolm Sinclair
Directed by William Martyn; Music Direction by
Patricia Wright; Produced by Marlene Smith
· Admission: $20 adults; $10 children 12 and under
For tickets: 416-363-0331 Ext. 51
Metropolitan United Church
56 Queen Street East at Church Street, Toronto
416-363-0331 www.metunited.org
Eva Urbanova
able numbers from the numerous
alternative companies such as Au- Jason in "Mectee", Daniel Belcher
tumn Leaf, Tapestry New Opera for his wonderfully natural portray­
Works and Queen of Puddings. alofthetitlecharacterin "TheMar­
When the Royal Opera Canada be- riage of Figaro", Peter Collins for
gins operations in North York this his eerie Peter Quint in the COC Enfall,
the minimum numlx(r of profes- semble' s "The Tum of the Screw",
sional, fully staged opera productions Gregory Dahl for his haunted Comwill
rise from eleven to fifteen. mander Peary in "Facing South" and
In any given year Toronto is lucky John Mac Master for his tortured
to see half that number of profession- Laca of "Jenufa".
al, fully staged productions ofmusi- Were there a category for "Outcals.
The reason is simple. The standing Feature Performance", it
greatest emphasis on the production could recognize Patrick Carfizzi in
ofmusicalsoccursattheout-of-town the COC's "An Italian Girl in Alsurnmerfestivals,
which, ofcourse, giers", James Martin as Matthew
are out-of-bounds for the Doras. Henson in "Facing South"' Shannon
TheDoracommitteeshouldatleast Mercer as Oscar in the COC's "A
separate the category for "Outstand- Masked Ball", Comelis Opthof as
ing Performance" in opera into Male Sharpless in "Madama Butterfly",
and Female as it does for plays and Nathalie Paulin as Creuse in "Memusicals.
Were that the case, there dee" and Jennie Such as Cherubino
would have been room on the list for in "The Marriage of Figaro".
Stephanie Novacek for her fearless Another quibble: the Dora
negotiationofthedemandingtitlerole Awards committee should make
in "Mectee" an~ Nathalie Paulin, one clear its policy on revivals. In
of the mos~gerual Sus~ ;o:.onto , 1998theCOC's "Oedipus Rex" won
has s~n m ~ra ,,Atelier s The seven Doras including ''Outstanding
Mamage off 1garo ·
Production". How does it come to
And joining lone. male. Micha~! be nominated again? Past winners
Schade could be Cyril Auv1ty .for his should not be eligible a second time
portrayal of the morally ambiguous in the same category.
For what it's worth, !fl were to
award the Doras for opera in the
2002-03 season in the full array of
categories available for plays and
. musicals, these would be my choices:
Outstanding Production: "Jenufa".
Outstanding Performance by a Female:
Eva Urbanova in "Jenufa".
Outstanding Performance by a
Male: Cyril Auvity in "Medee".
Outstanding Feature Role: Jennie
Such in "The Marriage of Figaro".
Outstanding Set Design: Derek
McLane for "Jenufa".
Outstanding Costume Design:
Dora Rust-D'Eye for "Medee".
Outstanding Lighting Design:
Michael Whitfield for "Jenufa".
Outstanding Stage Direction: Nicholas
Muni for "Jenufa". ·
Outstanding Musical Direcfor: tie
between Richard Bradshaw for his
harrowing account of "Jenufa" and
Herve Niquet for revealing Charpentier's
"Medee" for the masterpiece
it is.
www.thewholenote.com
Music THEATRE
SPOTLIGHT
by Sarah B. Hood
Summer
Season
Takes Off'
HIGJl-FLYING HIT
He's one of Hollywood's biggest stars
these days, but back in 1986 Tom
Cruise was only beginning to show
his full potential when he follow~
up 1983 's' popular teen frolic Ris,lcy
Business with his role as Lt. Pete
"Maverick" Mitchell in the fullthrottle
1986 air force drama Top
Gun. The Girogio Moroder theme
song "Take My Breath Away" and
a cast that included Kelly McGillis,
Val Kilmer, Tim Robbins and a
young Meg Ryan probably didn't hurt
Top Gun's success. However, it was
about as far away from the musical
comedy idiom as they come.
Nonetheless, in 2002 Denis Mc­
Grath and Scott White's Top Gun!
Tfte Musical became the most successful
box office draw of the Toronto
Fringe, beating out even the
record-holding The Drowsy Chaperone.
The satirical show, which imagines
one ~riter's struggle to stage
a Top Gun musical adaptation against
many, many odds, went on to score
a hit at Houston's Theater Lab. Now
it's returning to Toronto for a full run
from June 4 to 22 at Factory Theatre
with a cast that includes Drew
Carnwath, Dmitry Chepovetsky,
David Collins, Steven Gallagher,
Alison bawrence, Racheal McCaig
and Mary Francis Moore .
HERE'S TO
THE LADY WHO SINGS
We get a rare chance to see an unquestionably
accomplished Broadway
star when Elaine Stritch turns
up at ~e Elgin Theatre from Juhe 23
to 28 with heF autobiographical onewoman
show Elaine Stritch at liberty.
Her last appearance here was
in 1994, as Parthy Hawks in the Liv­
Ent revival of Show Boat that opened
the (then) North York Centre for the
Performing Arts. Over the course
of her show, Stritch reminisces
about such colleagues as Ethel Merman
(whom she understudied in Call
Me Madam) and Noel Coward (who
wrote Sail Away for her). She also
performs some of the great Coward
material, like "Why Do the Wrong
People Tr:avel?", " I've Been to a
Marvelous Party" and "If Love
Were All", alongside memorable
June 1 - July 7 2003