Volume 21 Issue 1 - September 2015

More documents

Info

JEFF HIGGINS Barbara Monk Feldman Peggy Kriha Dye and Carla Huhtanen. The new production will be Mozart’s early opera Lucio Silla (1772). Director Marshall Pynkoski and choreographer Jeannette Lajeunnesse Zingg had such success with it at the Salzburg Festival in 2013, they were invited to take it to La Scala in Milan. Now they will present it for a Canadian audience. Krešimir Špicer sings Lucio based on the Roman dictator Lucius Cornelius Sulla (c.138-78 BC). Meghan Lindsay sings Giunia, the woman Lucio lusts after but who is already engaged to the Roman senator Cecilio, a trousers role sung by Peggy Kriha Dye. Performances run April 7 to 16 and are likely to be in high demand. Toronto Operetta Theatre also offers two fully staged productions this year. Its season begins with a concert performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore (1878) on November 1, but its end-ofyear show is a fully staged return of Sigmund Romberg’s The Student Prince (1924) starring Ernest Ramírez, Jennifer Taverner and Curtis Sullivan. The season concludes with the Canadian premiere of Jacinto Guerrero’s Los Gavilanes (The Sparrow Hawks) from 1923. Running April 27 to May 1, this work, well-known in Spain, is the latest in TOT’s admirable exploration of the Spanish and Latin American form of operetta known as zarzuela and stars Guillermo Silva-Marin and Miriam Khalil. CanStage: An unexpected source for opera this year is Canadian Stage. The company’s artistic director Matthew Jocelyn directed both plays and opera during his time in Europe and now fulfills his dream of broadening Canadian Stage’s scope to include opera. As a co-production with Soundstreams, the company will present the North American premiere of Julie (2005) by Belgian composer Philippe Boesmans from November 17-29. Based on Strindberg’s seminal naturalistic play Miss Julie (1888), the opera stars Lucia Cervoni as Julie, Clarence Frazer as Jean and Sharleen Joynt as Christine. Les Dala conducts and Jocelyn directs. Opera in Concert: Adding variety and sparkle to Toronto’s opera scene are the offerings of Voicebox: Opera in Concert. Its 2015/15 season begins with the Canadian premiere of Alexander Borodin’s Prince Igor (1890) on November 22 in Russian with English surtitles. On February 7, it presents the Canadian premiere of Falstaff (1799) by Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) – yes, the villain of Peter Shaffer’s play Amadeus (1979) whom Shaffer unjustly accuses of murdering Mozart. Luckily, due to the efforts of such singers as Cecilia Bartoli, Salieri’s reputation has revived and Voicebox, with accompaniment by the Aradia Ensemble under Kevin Mallon, will give us a rare chance to hear Salieri’s take on Shakespeare’s great comic character. The season ender is the world premiere of Isis and Osiris by Peter Anthony Togni to a libretto by poet Sharon Singer. Based on ancient Egyptian mythology, the opera concerns the sibling rivalry of the titular gods, fratricide and the quest for immortality. It stars Lucia Cesaroni, Julie Nesrallah, Ernesto Ramírez and Michael Nyby. Robert Cooper conducts the orchestra and the Voicebox Chorus. Although not every company has announced its plans, there is already much to look forward to. Stay tuned for more. Christopher Hoile is a Toronto-based writer on opera and theatre. He can be contacted at opera@thewholenote.com. D o n i z e tt i ’ s Don Pasquale Thursday, March 3, 2016 at 7:30 pm Saturday, March 5, 2016 at 7:30 pm Artistic Director ~ Geoffrey Butler Stage Director ~ Renee Salewski Production Design ~ Frank Pasian Opera for Everyone 2015/2016 SEASON Puccini’s Tosca Thursday, November 5, 2015 at 7:30 pm Saturday, November 7, 2015 at 7:30 pm Artistic Director ~ Sabatino Vacca Stage Director ~ Giuseppe Macina Production Design ~ Frank Pasian Subscriptions and Tickets: Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts 905 787. 8811 28 | Sept 1 - Oct 7, 2015 thewholenote.com
Beat by Beat | Art of Song Pieczonka in Soundstreams Spotlight HANS DE GROOT In 1963 Lawrence Cherney was still in his teens learning to play the oboe. One day his teacher, Perry Bauman, who was the first oboe in the CBC Symphony Orchestra, asked Cherney to join him in the orchestra as a third oboe was needed. The work to be played was something called Symphony of Psalms. It was only after Cherney arrived for a rehearsal in Massey Hall that he realized that the Symphony was by Igor Stravinsky and that Stravinsky himself would conduct. Stravinsky remained important to Cherney. In 1982 he was concerned that the centenary of Stravinsky’s birth was not being noted, oddly not only because of Stravinsky’s centrality to modern music but also because of his long association with Canadian orchestras. It was in that year that Cherney, by then a well-known oboist (he was one of the original members of the York Winds as well as the National Arts Centre Orchestra), founded Chamber Concerts Canada (later renamed Soundstreams). Its opening concert was a centenary celebration of Stravinsky’s work. Over the years Soundstreams has specialized in the performance of contemporary works. Many of the composers featured were Canadian and a number of new works were commissioned. In 1988 Soundstreams programmed George Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children. The soloist was a young soprano called Adrianne Pieczonka. September 29 at Koerner Hall, Pieczonka, now a famous singer, will again sing this work with Soundstreams. She will also perform Luciano Berio’s arrangements of songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Together with the mezzo Krisztina Szabó she will sing selections from Crumb’s American Songbook as well as the world premiere of Analia Llugdar’s Romance de la luna, luna based on the poetry of Frederico García Lorca (as is Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children). Soundstreams is also presenting, on September 18 at the Gardiner Museum, an exploration of the connections between poetry and music through the work of Lorca, including four short new works. The singer will again be Krisztina Szabó. PWYC. Hannigan sings Nono at TSO: Another important concert featuring modern music will take place on October 7 and 8 at Roy Thomson Hall, when the soprano Barbara Hannigan will perform Djamila Boupacha by Luigi Nono. Boupacha was a member of the Algerian National Liberation Front. She was arrested in 1960, subjected to torture and rape, and condemned to death in 1961. She was released in 1962 after the Evian Accords. The work has been recorded by Sophie Boulin and there is a haunting rendition by Janet Pape on YouTube. Hannigan has never been the kind of artist who restricts herself by concentrating on only one kind of music. The concert will also include three arias by Mozart as well as a number of orchestral works conducted by Hannigan: Haydn’s Symphony No. 49 “La Passione,” Ligeti’s Concert Românesc and Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements. The Cathedral Church of St. James continues its Cantatas in the Cathedral sequence. On September 2 Sheila Dietrich, soprano, Christina Stelmacovich, alto, and David Roth, bass, will perform Bach’s Cantata BWV 78; on October 7 the featured work is Bach’s Cantata BWV 5. Roth will again be the bass soloist and the other singers are Julia Morson, soprano, Laura McAlpine, alto, and Andrew Walker, tenor. PWYC. Lunch-time recitals in the Richard Bradshaw Auditorium at the Four Seasons Centre will resume on September 22 with a performance by the incoming artists of the COC Ensemble Studio. On September 29 thewholenote.com Sept 1 - Oct 7, 2015 | 29
Page 1 and 2: PRICELESS! Vol 21 No 1 CONCERT LIST
Page 3 and 4: ESPRIT ORCHESTRA 2015-2016 Season A
Page 5 and 6: Volume 21 No 1 | September 2015 FEA
Page 7 and 8: the event from the inside out; Bria
Page 9 and 10: GREAT CHAMBER MUSIC... DOWNTOWN SPE
Page 11 and 12: The Silk Road Ensemble with Yo-Yo M
Page 13 and 14: philosophical theories unspool in a
Page 15 and 16: KOERNER HALL IS: “ A beautiful sp
Page 17 and 18: seemed re-engaged if not re-energiz
Page 19 and 20: i ❤ Brahms stéphane lemelin arti
Page 21 and 22: and is a perfect concert Thierry Ti
Page 23 and 24: CANADIAN WORLD PREMIERE PYRAMUS AND
Page 26: and interesting concert repertoire
Page 31 and 32: September is Building Time! BRIAN C
Page 33 and 34: Elmer Iseler Singers Lydia Adams, C
Page 35 and 36: from American publishing companies.
Page 37 and 38: 416-928-3553. Free. Weather permitt
Page 39 and 40: (transcr. by Rodolfo Richter). Tafe
Page 41 and 42: Black CMYK ●●Sep 28 4:30: Chris
Page 43 and 44: B. Concerts Beyond the GTA IN THIS
Page 45 and 46: Beat by Beat | Mainly Clubs, Mostly
Page 47 and 48: the same improvisational spirit as
Page 49 and 50: The biggest thing is to watch. It
Page 51 and 52: DAVID HOU. C. Music Theatre MUSIC T
Page 53 and 54: AUDITIONS & OPPORTUNITIES AUDITIONS
Page 55 and 56: very surprised parishioners who kne
Page 57 and 58: The Future of Canadian Music, Back
Page 59 and 60: I almost gave the next disc to Toro
Page 61 and 62: The Franck Sonata is the centrepiec
Page 64 and 65: the same age as Grieg when he wrote
Page 66 and 67: hanging in a basket suspended high
Page 68 and 69: Walton - Symphony No.2; Cello Conce
Page 70 and 71: else will likely quibble with that
Page 72 and 73: Bradford - an on-off member of Cole
Page 74 and 75: Something in the Air Many Musical I
Page 76 and 77: Old Wine, New Bottles Fine Old Reco
Page 78 and 79:
TIFF TIPS continued from page 13 pr
Page 80:
Celebrate 20 years of FREE! Trinity
show all

Volume 21 Issue 1 - September 2015

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?