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Volume 8 Issue 8 - May 2003

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ON OPERA by Christopher

ON OPERA by Christopher Hoile MUSI COOLS . For the 20th anniversary of Soundstreams Canada, Artistic Director Lawrence Cherney has created a special ~ition of its circumpolar music festival Northern Encounters called Musicools, focussing on opera for children. The target audience is children aged 4 to 12, but the'productions are certain to please all ages.· The festival, the first of its kind in North America, started April 28 and runs till May 11, The centrepiece is A Midwinter Night's Dream (May 8~11) by Harry Somers to a libretto by Tim Wynne- Lawrence Cherney Jones, co-presented by the Canadi- Pacarnambo (May 7-9), produced an Children's Opera Chorus. The . by Chants Libres of Montreal, is in opera, first produced in 1988, con- the form of a memory play in which cerns an Inuit boy WQO feels life in a psychiatrist tries to pei:sµade little the North will be dull after his visit Julie to explain how she came to be . to Edmonton. After a shaman sends waiting by the bodi of her dead him on a quest he experiences a rev- grandmother for three weeks followelation. The show features a troupe ing her death. The title is Julie's of Inuit Drummers iµid Dancers as name for the afterlife. Settel's score well as adult soloists Michael Colvin is electroacoustic with flute, percus­ J ame.s Westman and Allyso~ sion and singers iniked and mixed McHardy. CCOC Artistic Direc- live. · .· tor Arn;i Cooper Gay conducts and Joining these works are Nuts About Todd Hammond directs. · Nosh (April 29-May .3) by Kirmo Two other Canadian operas are on Lintinen from Finland and The Prophthe Musicools playbill - Caribou ecy (May 5-11) by Th6rarinn ldjam Song by Richard Sacks to a libretto from Iceland. Nuts About Nosh, by Tomson Highway based ~n his produced by Ooppera Skaala of o~ children's book; and Pacamam- Helsinki, deals with a battle between bo by Zack Sette! to a libretto by Wad- a squirrel and a woodsman over the ji ·Moua wad from hi,s own play. contents of a Iunchbbx. The Prophe­ Caribou Song (April 30-May 4), pro- cy, presented by The Possible Theduced by Toronto's Red Sky Per- atre of Reykyavik, is based on the formailces, focusses on one north- Voluspa in the Elder Edda in which e{ll Cree family's relationship to the the Norse god Odin visits the seercaribou. Sacks bas scored the work ess Vala to learn about the future. for percussion and electric guitar Odin gains the painful knowledge of ·with each representing a different the death of his favourite son and of · image in the action. Ragnarok, the end of the world, when both gods anct men are destroyed. TORONTO OPERA REPERTOIRE . Giuseppe Macina, Artistic Director 2003/2004 SEASON SOLOIST AUJ)ITIONS Friday, May 30 from 2 to 6 pm Tentative programme for the 2003/2004 season: Don Giovanni - Mozart Lucia di Lammermoor -Doni~etti Faust - Gounod There will also be a program of opera excerpts. o arrange an au 1t10n, or or mformation on ~he non-auditioned chorus, please call . Giuseppe Macina at 416-698-3287 www.thewholenote.com CONTINUES ON PAGE May 1 - June 7 2003

The work is for only two musicians, a singer playing a myriad of characters and a cellist. Performances of A Midwinter Night's Dream take place at the Bluma Appel Theatre in the St. Lawrence Centre. Performances of the other four operas take place at the Isabel Bader Theatre. Pacamambo is sung in French, all the others in English. To pure~ tickets call the St. Lawrence Centre Box Office at 416 366-7723 or 1-800-708-6754. You can also order your tickets online at www.stlc.com .. For further information visit the Musicools website at www.soundstreams.ca/ milsicools.htrnl. Opera (416-%2-7137). Thechamber opera features S\lCh well-known singers as Carolyn Sinclair (Cassandra), Eric Shaw (Apollo/Pyrrhus), Andrew Tees (Agamemnon) and Jane Archibald (AndroIJ13che/Electra). · · Also on hand in May are two old favourites, Toronto Operetta Theatre's The Mikado (May 3-11) in a new production and Opera Atelier's The Marriage of Figaro (May 1-11) in a revival of its popular pr~uction. The Mikado, conducted by Derek Bate, features Elizabeth DeGrazia (Yum Yum), Eric Shaw (Nanki Poo), Keith Savage (Koko) and Gregory Dahl (the Mikado). For tickets call 416-366-7723. Figaro, conducted by D~vid Fal­ IN THE SWIM . in other news, Autumn Leaf has !is, features Dan Belcher (Figaro), added more perfo!'Il1ances of Kafka Marie Lenormand (Cherubino), in Love on May 3 and 4. The "wa- Nathalie Paulin (Susanna), Laura tempera" staged at the Hart House Pudwell (Marcellino) and Monica PooFwith synchronized swimmers Whicher (the Countess). For tickets and water puppets incorporates call416-872"5555. Gyorgy Kurtag's song-cycle based To end on an ominous note, Opon texts from Kafka journals. Fo·r era Mississauga has had to cancel tickets call the Harbourfront Centre its production of fl Trovatore that was Box0fficeat416-973-4000. to have run from April 26-May 3. And May 23 and 25, in Hamilton The reason given is tha~ the singers and Toronto respectively, there are decided to heed the advisory against concert performances of Cassandra travel to Toronto because of SARS. bylanMcAndrew, the inaugural pro- Let's pray that this is not a sign of duction of his company Amphion things to come.

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