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Volume 21 Issue 7 - April 2016

  • Text
  • April
  • Toronto
  • Jazz
  • Musical
  • Symphony
  • Arts
  • Theatre
  • Orchestra
  • Concerto
  • Choir

KEN HOWARD Los Gavilanes

KEN HOWARD Los Gavilanes will be the sixth full zarzuela that Silva-Marin has programmed, but this one has a special meaning for him. As he wrote via email, “Los Gavilanes was the first zarzuela I attended when it was performed in San Juan while I studied at Universidad de Puerto Rico. Actually, it was my first encounter with the lyric theatre during a time when I had little thought that I would someday become a singer.” Silva-Marin notes that Guerrero’s music may remind TOT fans of another great operetta composer. As he says, “Years later, I found myself thinking about Los Gavilanes in Toronto. By this time I had researched and presented Imre Kálmán’s works Countess Maritza, The Gypsy Princess and Der Zigeunerprimas. On revisiting Los Gavilanes years ago, I was struck by Guerrero’s similarity to Kálmán in sonority, orchestration and predilection for melodic invention, and smiled at recognizing that Madrid and Budapest were not truly too far apart. Being 1923, verismo in operetta was not at all an anomaly. Los Gavilanes cannot avoid a Spanish musical sensitivity, but it is not committed to a folkloric palette, rather a more universal sound evolving from the purely comical and satirical in operetta of previous decades.” The dialogue will be in English and the songs sung in Spanish. Miriam Khalil will sing Adriana, Sarah Forestieri will be Rosaura and Ernesto Ramirez will be Gustavo. Guillermo Silva-Marin himself will sing the role of Juan. Larry Beckwith conducts the TOT Orchestra and Silva-Marin directs, assisted by Virginia Reh. COC’s Seventh Rossini: The month closes with the COC’s company premiere of Rossini’s Maometto II from April 29 to May 14. Acclaimed Luca Pisaroni as Maometto II. (Sante Fe Opera, 2012) Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni makes his COC debut in the title role in this production created for Santa Fe Opera in 2012, directed by David Alden and conducted by early music expert Harry Bicket. This will be the seventh Rossini opera the COC has staged and only its second Rossini opera seria, after Tancredi in 2005. Many people will know the opera better under the title Le Siège de Corinthe, the name Rossini gave it when he rewrote the work for Paris in 1826. Loosely based on history, the central character of Maometto II is the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II (1432-81) who conquered Constantinople in 1453 and later, in 1470, the Venetian colony Negroponte on the Greek island of Euboea where the opera is set. In Maometto II, the Venetian debate how to deal with the Turkish threat. Calbo counsels the governor, Paolo Erisso, to continue to fight while General Condulmiero counsels surrender. Yet, as with most opere serie, the focus is more on love than politics. Erisso wishes his daughter Anna to marry Calbo but she confesses that she is in love with a man known to her only as “Uberto.” As one might expect Uberto turns out to be none other than Maometto II. Joining Pisaroni is tenor Bruce Sledge as Erisso, soprano Leah Crocetto as Anna, mezzo Elizabeth DeShong in the trousers role of Calbo, tenor Andrew Haji as Condulmiero and tenor Aaron Sheppard as the Muslim noble Selimo. These five operas are only the largest scale works on offer in April, yet one could hardly hope for more varied and unusual fare. Christopher Hoile is a Toronto-based writer on opera and theatre. He can be contacted at opera@thewholenote.com. Canadian Children’s Opera Company Open House Be a CCOC Chorister For a day! Free Admission Ages 3-10: Tuesday, April 19, 5 - 6:30pm Ages 10-18: Saturday, April 16, 10am - 12pm at First Unitarian Congregation 175 St Clair Ave. W Auditions for 2016-17 Season by appointment canadianchildrensopera.com Drama Instruction Choral Singing Staging an Opera Bake Sale 416-366-0467 22 | April 1, 2016 - May 7, 2016 thewholenote.com

great chamber music downtown STRINGS Oct. 13 Juilliard Quartet Nov. 10 Quatuor Arthur-LeBlanc Dec. 1 Suzie LeBlanc, Robert Kortgaard, Blue Engine String Quartet Dec. 15 Gryphon Trio Jan. 26 St. Lawrence Quartet Feb. 16 Eybler Quartet Mar. 2 Prazak Quartet Mar. 16 Philharmonia Quartett Berlin PIANO Oct. 25 Janina Fialkowska Nov. 15 Danny Driver Jan. 10 Sean Chen Feb. 7 Ilya Poletaev Full season of 12 concerts 9, 4 Other combinations available. Subscription prices include handling charges and HST. All concerts at 8pm. 416-366-7723 1-800-708-6754 order online at www.stlc.com ONTARIO ARTS COUNCIL CONSEIL DES ARTS DE L’ONTARIO Canadian Patrimoine Heritage canadien

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