Volume 19 Issue 4 - December 2013

production of Rigoletto. She had just completed a day’s photo shoothere (for Flare magazine, she said) along with director Atom Egoyan,in whose new COC production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte she willappear starting in January. “It was just a photo shoot,” she said, “butit was a chance to connect as well; to get a bit of asense of where he’s heading overall with theproduction and his senseof what he will want of mycharacter and of me.”She plays Dorabella inthe opera; New BrunswickbornLaila Claire is Fiordiligi,her sister. For two Canadianredheads constantlymistaken for each otherwhile both were enrolledin the Met’s LindemannEnsemble program thesepast two years, it’s a greatopportunity to work together,especially in a show wheretheir characters can’t keeptheir own boyfriends straight.(In fact Giunta has worked orstudied with with almost allher Cosi castmates — ThomasDanielSerafin.Allen, Tracy Dahl, Robert Gleadow — at one time or another, so itpromises to be a crackling ensemble production. )As for getting Giunta to divulge the particulars of Egoyan’s take onthe opera, she was somewhat circumspect, other than to say that itseems the subtitle of the opera, “The School for Lovers” is probablymore central to Egoyan’s thinking than the title itself. Sounds likeEgoyan to me; we might well be in for a treat (with some controllingcharacters getting their comeuppance via a reversal or twoalong the way.)As for Giunta, circle March 2 as a date to watch. That’s when she’llbe doing a recital for Visual and Performing Arts Newmarket on thatdate, with repertoire ranging from Vaughan Williams to Fauré to JoniMitchell (the latter with her singer-songwriter sister Marley on guitar).For two Ottawa-born sisters with the Rideau Canal in their imagerepertoire “I Wish I had a River I Could Skate Away On” promises to bea rare treat.Michael Patrick Albano: Albano is stage director at the Universityof Toronto Opera School and as such his handiwork is not oftenin the public eye, but “handy work” it is. It was his pen that inkedthe libretto for last year’s runaway success Rob Ford opera at U of T.It’s his direction that will be on view, if you’re quick, for the lastperformance, December 1, of the U of T Opera School production ofDonizetti’s Don Pasquale. And it will be his penmanship under scrutinyagain January 30 (at 5pm) when, as part of the Faculty’s “NewMusic Festival: Encounters,” five miniature operas, written by studentcomposers and all based upon librettos by Albano, will be presented.As resident stage director of the Opera School’s training program atU of T, Albano has staged over 25 operas. Perhaps less well known, hewas for several years Wayne Strongman’s right-hand man in TapestryNew Opera’s groundbreaking composer/librettist “lib/lab” incubatorwhich led to the formation of some of the country’s most interestingcomposer/librettist pairings. It will be interesting to see how manyof these early inspired collaborations feature in “Tapestry Songbook”February 1, when Tapestry (sans Strongman and Albano) puts “thenext generation of opera stars on display” at their Ernest BalmerStudio, in the Distillery Historic District.Toronto Operetta Theatre: Before proceeding to the “Quick Picks”that are an inevitable part of at least giving some kind of a nod to thevast array of interresting subject matter in the opera/music theatrelistings, I want to to give a bit more attention than that to TorontoOperetta Theatre. While I have indicated the extent to which othercompanies have tended to tiptoe around New Year’s Day, the samecannot be said for the whole holiday season. In fact for as long as Ican remember, Toronto Operetta Theatre, under the indefatigabledirection of Guillermo Silva-Marin, has made the last week inDecember and first week in January their own, staging the best of thelight opera repertoire at the Jane Mallet Theatre.This year’s offering is Lehár’s Land of Smiles, commencingDecember 27 and running Dec 28, 29, 31(eve); and Jan 2, 3, 4, 5. In factcalling Silva-Martin “indefatigable” is to sell him short. He is a directorwith an extraordinary sense of the art of the possible, managing notonly to elicit the most from the minimal set decoration possible atthe Jane Mallett, but also bringing an ensemble unity to casts withactors ranging from the luminously professional to the company’sMichael Patrick Albano’s Cosi fan tutte.ChandaVandenhart andRebecca Nelsen.most stalwart part-timers. Derek Bate conducts, drawing astonishingresults from what is usuaslly a pit band (sans pit) with far more alacrityand heft than one would expect, based on numbers. I have yet tocome away from one of their year-end shows without my expectationsbeing exceeded.QUICK PICKS!!Dec 1, 2:30: Recitals at Rosedale. A New Vocal Series: Opera NellaChiesa. Handel: Theodora; Massenet: Manon; Menotti: Amahl and theNight Visitors. Laura Albino, soprano; Laura Tucker, mezzo; AdamLuther, tenor; Timothy Wong, countertenor; Anthony Clevertonand Jason Howard, baritones; and others. Not opera per se, but withperformers who know what opera is!RICHARD LU14 | December 1, 2013 – February 7, 2014 thewholenote.com