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(BeckWITH) Andre LeducNovember’sContrastschristopher hOILENovember offers those in Torontoand vicinity a chance to see theCanadian premiere of a new Scottishopera with a Canadian connection, andthe revivals of seldom-seen American andCanadian operas. This is a further demonstration,if anyone needed one, of howvital such companies are in maintainingthe diversity of Toronto’s opera scene.First to appear, on November 10, 11and 12, is Pub Operasby Scottish composerGareth Williams, to alibretto by Canadian DavidBrock. The two met in2009 at Tapestry NewOpera’s LibLab, Tapestry’scomposer/librettistincubator, and the projectgrew out of that meeting.The opera premieredearlier this year in July,at Sloan’s Bar in Glasgowas part of the MerchantCity Festival. The venuewas no quirk becausePub Operas was writtenspecifically to celebrate thehistory of Sloan’s, whichis Glasgow’s oldest pub,having been founded in1797. The libretto, aboutlife’s cycle of love, marriage, birth anddeath, is based on letters sent in by thepublic for whom Sloan’s played a realrole at key points in their lives.For the performance, the ErnestBalmer Studio in the DistilleryDistrict will substitute for Sloan’s. The singers will be XinWang, Heather Jewson, James McLean and Benjamin Coveywith Wayne Strongman leading a six-piece band. Sue Minerdirects. For more information about the opera, visit www.tapestrynewopera.com; and for the history of Sloan’s visitwww.sloansglasgow.com.Also playing on November 11 and 12 will be the Torontopremiere of the 1989 opera Crazy to Kill by John Beckwithto a libretto by James Reaney. Toronto Masque Theatre willmount this production of “Canada’s first detective opera” atthe Enwave Theatre starring singers Kimberly Barber, DougMcNaughton and Shannon Mercer and actors Brendan Walland Ingrid Doucet. The work, scored for piano and percussion,wiill feature Greg Oh as pianist and conductor and Ed Reifel aspercussionist. David Ferry will direct.The story for the libretto comes from the 1941 novel of thesame title by Ann Cardwell (pseudonym of Jean Makins Pawley)that is still in print. It concerns Detective Fry who, with thehelp of “model patient” Agatha Lawson, investigates a series ofmurders at Elmhurst, a private mental asylum for the wealthy inSouthwestern Ontario. Reaney has stated that it was reading thisnovel that inspired him to become a writer. The commission (fromthe Edward John Music Foundation and Billie Bridgman for theGuelph Spring Festival) limited the cast to three singers and twoactors. To get around these constraints Reaney had the idea ofgiving Agatha the habit of making life-sized doll puppets, eighteenin all, who, manipulated by the performers, also portray charactersat Elmhurst. After a workshop at Banff in 1988, the one-act operapremiered at the Guelph Spring Festival on May 11, 1989, withJean Stilwell as Agatha, Paul Massel as Fry and Sharon Crowtheras Mme Dupont, an Elmhurst patient. For more information visitwww.torontomasquetheatre.com. Also note that the fall editionof Opera Canada includes an article adapted from a chapter fromUnheard Of: Memoirs of a Canadian Composer by John Beckwith,to be published in 2012 that deals with the background of Crazy toKill and other of his operas of the period.On November 23 and 26, Operaby Request (OBR) and EnsembleTrypTych (ET) co-produce thefirst Canadian performance of TheSaint of Bleecker Street by GianCarlo Menotti. The 1954 opera hadits Canadian premiereat the University ofBritish Columbia in the1980s, but as far as OBRartistic director WilliamShookhoff can determine,has not had a full performancein Canada sincethen. OBR and ET chosethe opera in consultationwith the performers tocelebrate the centenary ofthe birth of the composer.OBR traditionally doesone choral opera perseason with the Universityof Toronto ScarboroughConcert Choir, and asthis is Menotti’s onlychoral opera it fit the bill.Besides, this seldom-heardopera provides somethingTop, clockwise: Sloan’s Bar inmore out of the way thanGlasgow; opera puppets; composer The Medium (1946) or TheJohn Beckwith; and inside Sloan’s.Consul (1950).Bleecker Street, which won the 1955 PulitzerPrize for Music and the New York Drama CriticsCircle Award for Best Musical, is set in New YorkCity’s Little Italy, where a young woman namedAnina manifests the stigmata and begins to seeangels. A conflict develops between her atheistbrother Michele, who thinks she needs medicalattention, and the neighbourhood which regards heras a saint. Shookhoff says, “As with The Consul,there is a timelessness to it which resonates particularlywith younger participants, as it does with all ofus: the conflict between tradition and new surroundings;between faith and rationale; and the stigma ofrelationships which go against the norm.”The work will be performed in concert with Shookhoff aspianist on November 23 at the University of Toronto ScarboroughCampus and on November 26 at Trinity Presbyterian York Mills.Deena Nicklefork will sing Anina and Avery Krisman will singMichele with six other soloists rounding out the cast. For more visitwww.operabyrequest.ca.Christopher Hoile is a Toronto-based writer on opera andtheatre. He can be contacted at opera@thewholenote.com.18 thewholenote.comNovember 1 – December 7, 2011