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Volume 18 Issue 7 - April 2013

  • Text
  • April
  • Toronto
  • Jazz
  • Theatre
  • Arts
  • Choir
  • Symphony
  • Quartet
  • Concerts
  • Singers

Canada Preserved: A

Canada Preserved: A Grand Concert for the Battle of York, 1813.”Music reflecting the tumult of the times, by Haydn, Boyce, Billings andothers, will be performed at St. James’ Cathedral, the site of the makeshifthospital set up for the injured, 200 years ago.!!April 28: A year-end celebration of the music of Bach takes placein Brampton, as the Georgetown Bach Chorale presents “Music fromthe Great Passions.” Featured are sublime choruses and instrumentalselections from concertos.!!April 28: Two musicians whose musical hearts reside at least partiallyin medieval times bring you a program of medieval and earlyMediterranean folk music. Multi-instrumentalist Michael Franklin(woodwinds, reeds, bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, voice) and percussionistsingerGaven Dianda are featured in this TEMC presentation, whichtakes place at St. David’s Church.!!May 1–5, 7: When Handel is the subject of a performance byTafelmusik and its wonderful Chamber Choir, great music happens. “AHandel Celebration” features odes, serenades and oratorio choruses,“in a celebration of the human spirit” as they affirm.!!May 4: Two choirs double the pleasure of one. The TorontoChamber Choir welcomes as guests the Chamber Singers of theKitchener-Waterloo’s Grand Philharmonic Choir. Each group will performa set (music by Sheppard and Purcell), and then come togetherfor Duruflé’s Requiem (which incorporates Gregorian chant) andTallis’ magnificent 40-voice motet Spem in Alium. “Media Vita: In theMidst of Life” is presented at Grace Church on-the-Hill and will berepeated in Kitchener later in May.!!May 4, 5: Expressions of love originally written in biblical versesor heard in raunchy poems were often transformed by renaissancecomposers into innocent-sounding ditties or lush, sensual motets.The 16-voice a cappella choir Cantemus Singers performs a variedprogram of these works, by early French, English and German composers.“Love Songs” is presented twice, at Holy Trinity Church and atSt. Aidan’s.!!May 5: In Kingston, the Melos Choir and Chamber Orchestra presents“The Tudors,” with music that includes Byrd’s Mass for FourVoices, Gibbons’ This is the record of John, and much else. Guestsinclude tenor Dylan Hayden and a consort of viols, harpsichordand organ.With all the riches of music abounding, we are also a little poorerfor the deaths of two musicians who touched many people with theirheartfelt music making. Washington McClain was a truly gentle andintensely musical soul, an esteemed baroque oboist who performedwith many groups including Tafelmusik and Montreal’s EnsembleArion. Leslie Huggett was a visionary who, with his wife Margaret andtheir four children, “The Huggett Family,” awakened audiences acrossCanada to the pleasures of medieval, renaissance and baroque music,in a day when early music was regarded mostly with disinterest. Bothare remembered fondly and will be missed.Simone Desilets is a long-time contributor to The WholeNotein several capacities who plays the viola da gamba.She can be contacted at earlymusic@thewholenote.com.Beat by Beat | On OperaHistory of OperaDate by Date!CHRISTOPHER HOILEApril, as has become usual, offers the most concentratednumber of opera productions of any month in the year. EveryApril we can always count on large-scale productions from theCanadian Opera Company and Opera Atelier and the spring productionfrom Toronto Operetta Theatre, while smaller companies andoperas in concert serve the important function of adding variety andbreadth. If we artificially extend themonth to May 10, an opera lover cansample the whole history of operafrom the 17th century to the present.1683: Venus and Adonis byJohn Blow on May 10, 11 and 12 byToronto Masque Theatre. The oldestopera presented in this six-weekperiod tells of the love of the goddessVenus (Marion Newman)for the mortal Adonis (AlexanderDobson). The opera, fully stagedwith the TMT Orchestra conductedby Larry Beckwith, is on a doubleA scene fromCanadian OperaCompany’sproduction ofSalome, 2001.bill with the world premiere of The Lesson of Ja Di (below).1733: La serva padrona by Giovanni Pergolesi on April 5 and7. Metro Youth Opera was founded by Kate Applin in 2010 to giveToronto’s young opera singers the chance to perform complete roles.The company’s third production is a triple bill of comedies, the earliestof which is Pergolesi’s important work, often seen as the bridgebetween the baroque and classical periods. The plot is about how themaid Serpina (Applin) tricks her bachelor master (Janaka Welihinda)into marrying her. Alison Wong directs with Blair Salter at the piano.1790: Così fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart on April 27 only.Opera by Request presents the third of Mozart’s collaborations withlibrettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. Jonathan MacArthur is Ferrando, JoshWhalen is Guglielmo, while Naomi Eberhard and Alexandra Beley arethe fiancées, Fiordiligi and Dorabella, whose faithfulness they test.William Shookhoff provides the piano accompaniment.1791: Mozart’s The Magic Flute on April 6, 7, 9, 10, 12 and 13. OperaAtelier remounts its much-loved production of Mozart’s fairy-taleopera with a cast of OA favourites. Colin Ainsworth sings Tamino,Laura Albino is Pamina, Ambur Braid is the Queen of the Night, JoãoFernandes is Sarastro with Olivier Laquerre as Papageno and CarlaMichael Cooper20 | April 1 – May 7, 2013 thewholenote.com

Clive BardaHuhtanen as Papagena. DavidFallis conducts the TafelmusikBaroque Orchestra and MarshallPynkoski directs.1816: Il Barbiere di Siviglia byGioacchino Rossini on April 6 only.Opera by Request presents Rossini’swell-known opera based on thefirst of Beaumarchais’ plays aboutthe wily barber Figaro. Jay Lambiesings Figaro, William Parker is hisfriend Count Almaviva and NicoleBower is Rosina, the object of theCount’s desire. William Shookhoffprovides the piano accompaniment.For those interested in comparisons,the Soulpepper TheatreCompany presents an adaptation ofBeaumarchais’ play itself with previewsbeginning May 9.Anna Christy asLucia in English1835: Lucia di Lammermoor byNational Opera’sGaetano Donizetti on April 17, 20,production of Lucia26, 30 and May 9, 12, 15, 18 and 24.di Lammermoor,The COC presents the acclaimed2008.production of Donizetti’s bel cantomasterpiece created by directorDavid Alden in 2008 for soprano Anna Christy andthe English National Opera. Christy herself sings thetitle role with Stephen Costello as Edgardo, the manshe loves, and Brian Mulligan as Enrico, Lucia’s brutalbrother who forces her to marry someone else. StephenLord conducts the COC Orchestra.1853: Il Trovatore by Giuseppe Verdi on April 18 and 20. Now in itseighth season, Opera Belcanto of York will present a fully staged productionat the Richmond Hill Centre of Verdi’s opera about gypsiesand children switched at birth. Guest soloists from the Yerevan StateOpera include Tatevik Ashuryan as Leonora, Hovhannes Ayvzyanas the troubadour Manrico and Nariné Ananikyan as Azucena withCanadian Jeffrey Carl as the Conte di Luna. OBY founder DavidVarjabed conducts and Gabriele Graziano directs.1866: La Vie Parisienne by Jacques Offenbach on May 2, 3, 4 and5. The final offering of the season from Toronto Operetta Theatre isOffenbach’s first full-length operetta dealing with contemporary lifein Paris rather than the mythological satires like Orphée aux Enfers(1858) and La Belle Hélène (1864) that made him famous. The storyinvolves the first visit to Paris of a Swedish baron and baroness whosetour is confounded by the actions of a Brazilian millionaire and aParisian courtesan. The cast includes Elizabeth DeGrazia, Lauren Segal,Christopher Mayell and Adam Fisher. Larry Beckwith conducts andGuillermo Silva-Marin directs. The TOT last staged this operetta in1992. In an odd coincidence L’Opéra de Québec will later present thework May 11, 14, 16 and 18 in Quebec City.1901: Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák on April 19 only. Opera byRequest presents the first of two Czech operas that form a study incontrasts. Though separated by only three years, Dvořák’s opera isfully romantic, while Janáček’s Jenůfa is realistic. Janáček’s newstyle of composition based on Czech speech patterns is a break fromDvořák’s more traditional symphonic style. Deena Nicklefork singsthe title role of the water nymph who falls in love with a mortal, RyanHarper is the prince she loves, David English is Vodník, the rulerof the lake, and Karen Bojti sings Ježibaba, the witch who changesRusalka into a mortal at a terrible cost. William Shookhoff is, as usual,the piano accompanist.1904: Jenůfa by Leoś Janáček on May 5 only. Unlike Rusalka’sworld of supernatural beings and courtiers, Janáček’s Jenůfa focuseson peasant life. Kostelnička (Monica Zerbe), stepmother of Jenůfa(Michèle Cusson), forbids her to marry Števa (Lenard Whiting),unaware that Jenůfa is already pregnant by him. Meanwhile, Števa’sPLEASE JOIN US FOR THE 13.14 SEASON!Baroque Orchestra and Chamber ChoirJeanne Lamon, Music Director1314Celebrating Jeanne Lamon’sremarkable tenureas Music Directorand looking to the futurewith a revitalized venueat Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre!Concerts also available at Koerner Halland George Weston Recital HallSUBSCRIBE TODAY!Season Highlights Include:Handel SaulSoprano Isabel BayrakdarianBeethoven Symphonies 1 and 2Fortepianist Kristian BezuidenhoutThe Four Seasons: A Cycle Of The SunA Celebration of Jeanne LamonSUBSCRIBEAND SAVEUP TO 25%Order Now!416.964.6337tafelmusik.orgSeason Presenting Sponsorthewholenote.com April 1 – May 7, 2013 | 21

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