Volume 23 Issue 3 - November 2017

Edward Franko (left) and
Lenard Whiting
chance to incorporate
all aspects
of the art – singing,
acting and movement
on stage –
with a full orchestra.
Young people don’t
get that chance
very often.”
Toronto operagoers
will be
relieved to hear
Franko affirm that
“Even after we move north we’re keeping a connection with the CBSO
and TrypTych so we’ll be able to do at least one production a year even
though we’re far away.” Whiting has renovated the basement of their
Toronto base at Trinity Presbyterian Church into a combined rehearsal
space and concert/performance space for 125 people, “so there will be
no need to rent since we already have space and a good working relationship
all round.”
The main reason for choosing Kenora for their move is that is where
Whiting is from. As Franko says, “We have a home up there on an
island in Lake of the Woods and Lenard has been going back every
year so that we now know lots of people in the community.”
Franko makes their goal clear: “TrypTych for us has always been
a labour of love. We’ve never made money off it. Our goal now is
to develop a real thriving arts company in Kenora that can operate
all year round but with a summer focus. We want to work with the
community and with young people to really develop a community
organization. We want to make a great impact in a small place and
give them a boost. We’re thinking of it as TrypTych North.”
On October 28 and 29, TrypTych staged the rarity H.M.S.
Parliament (1880), in which the Canadian William Henry Fuller wrote
a new libretto for Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore (1878) in order to satirize
Canadian politics. “This will also be the first staged production we
will do in Kenora,” Franko says. That being said, Franko and Whiting
have already made plans for their next production in Toronto. “In
February 2019 the CBSO and TrypTych will do Donizetti’sThe Elixir of
Love. It will be performed in English because we’ve always been ones
to make opera more accessible. We love the form and we want to make
people more connected with it.”
Asked what some of the highlights were for them in Toronto, they
agree that it was the workshops and the world premiere of Canadian
composer Andrew Ager’s opera Frankenstein (2010). “It was a
wonderful journey for us to work with him and make that piece
come alive.”
Franko also lists the Canadian stage premiere of Grigori Frid’s The
Diary of Anne Frank (1972), starring Shoshana Friedman. The production
was invited to the Three Rings Festival in Prague and was staged
in the gorgeous Spanish Synagogue. “It was overwhelming for me as a
producer-director to have my work performed there,” Franko says.
For Whiting, highlights include Stanford’s Stabat Mater (1906),
with piano and organ reduction, which Whiting calls “just to die for”
and the company’s performance of Bach’s St. John Passion where he
both conducted and sang the role of the Evangelist.
A huge challenge for Franko personally was both performing and
directing himself in The Tell-Tale Heart (2006) for tenor and three
cellos by German-born American composer Danny Ashkenasi, based
on the tale by Edgar Allen Poe.
But they are not ready to talk about highlights only in the past
tense. “We have at least 15 more years of being able to contribute to
the arts scene up north in a really vital way,” Whiting says. “We have
the energy and the imagination and the experience from working in
Toronto, and we think that it’s time to bring our abilities to the people
up north.” And when asked when they plan to retire, Franko states,
“The artistic soul never retires.”
Christopher Hoile is a Toronto-based writer on opera and theatre.
He can be contacted at opera@thewholenote.com.
We’re Still Singing
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Beautiful Music
by Cancer Survivors
& their Loved Ones
Voices Relyea & Quartetto Gelato
with Friends
Monteverdi Laments • Hot Tangos
Sublime Mozart • Passionate Puccini
Songs Old & New
Howard Dyck, Conductor
Gary, Anne & Deanna Relyea
Peter DeSotto • Alexander Sevastian
William Constable • Maggie Dyck
Stephen Harland • Virginia Hatfield
Don McManus • Anne-Marie Ramos
Maria Soulis • Michael York
Piotr Michalowski • Robert Missen
Tim Dawson • David Redgrave, poet
Michael Rose, pianist
Tue.Nov.28th • 7:30 PM
Bloor St. United Church
300 Bloor St. W., Toronto
Adults $30 / Students & Seniors $20 / At Door
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