PLANTING NOT PAVING! In this JUNE / JULY /AUGUST combined issue: Farewell interviews with TSO's Peter Oundjian and Stratford Summer Music's John Miller, along with "going places" chats with Luminato's Josephine Ridge, TD Jazz's Josh Grossman and Charm of Finches' Terry Lim. ) Plus a summer's worth of fruitful festival inquiry, in the city and on the road, in a feast of stories and our annual GREEN PAGES summer Directory.
intimate view of the
intimate view of the classic work. Julie Nesrallah Coffee Time: Shifting to another successful music festival, Stratford Summer Music will be presenting a staged version of a secular J.S. Bach cantata not in a restaurant but in the Revel Caffe in downtown Stratford. The work is, of course, Bach’s so-called Coffee Cantata of 1733, in which a father tries to prevent his daughter from becoming addicted to her favourite pick-me-up. Simon Chalifoux, Elizabeth Polese and Asitha Tennekoon are the three singers and Peter Tiefenbach provides the staging and the keyboard accompaniment for the three performances on July 27, 28 and 29. Then, in early August, SSM presents a brand new response to The Coffee Cantata in the form of The Cappuccino Cantata, by the suspiciously pseudonymous “J.S. Bawk.” Set in Stratford in 2018, Gordon, who manages a coffee bar, is smitten with his barista, Stephanie, but she has a crush on the “boy with the MacBook” who comes in every day. Katy Clark, Adam Harris and Zachary Rioux are the singers and again Peter Tiefenbach provides the staging and the keyboard accompaniment. Performances are on August 10, 11 and 12, also at the Revel Caffe. Also in August Highlands Opera: In Haliburton, the Highlands Opera Studio is presenting three operas. On August 16 and 17 it presents an unusual double bill of two 20th-century Canadian comic operas by Tibor 2018 2019 SUNDAY OCTOBER 21 Comedy Unbound! A Tribute to Stuart Hamilton SUNDAY NOVEMBER 25 Werther by Jules Massenet SUNDAY FEBRUARY 3 Fierrabras by Franz Schubert SATURDAY MARCH 30 & SUNDAY MARCH 31 The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny by Kurt Weill Polgar (1907-93). Polgar was born in Budapest and was a pianist and conductor with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1925 to 1950. He fled Hungary after the Russian invasion, first to Germany and then to Canada, where he became a citizen in 1969. He was an instructor at the University of Toronto Opera Division from 1966 to 1975. First on the double bill is The Glove, Polgar’s most performed opera, commissioned by the CBC in 1973. The libretto is based on the 1797 ballad by Friedrich Schiller about a princess who asks a knight to enter an arena of lions to fetch her fallen glove. Andy Erasmus sings the Ringmaster, Grace Canfield the Princess and Matthew Dalen the Knight. Second on the bill is The Troublemaker from 1968, based on a tale from The Thousand and One Nights. Matthew Dalen sings Abu Hussein, Andy Erasmus is Sherkan, Maria Lacey is Tamatil, Emma Bergin is Nushmet and Joseph Trumbo is The Cadi. On August 24 through 27 the Highlands Opera Studio presents Puccini’s La Bohème with two casts, one on August 24 and 26 and the other on August 25 and 27. Opera Muskoka: The second summer opera company in cottage country is Opera Muskoka, now in its ninth year. On August 21 it presents a concert performance of Mozart’s Così fan tutte in Italian with English surtitles at the Rene M. Caisse Theatre in Bracebridge. Soprano Sharon Tikiryan is the producer and will sing the role of the calculating maid Despina. All of this operatic activity all over the province is certainly enough to occupy any Southern Ontarian opera-goer until the fall. Christopher Hoile is a Toronto-based writer on opera and theatre. He can be contacted at opera@thewholenote.com. Guillermo Silva-Marin General Director EXTRA EVENTS TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 25, 2018 Little Mahagonny A tribute to Kurt Weill WEDNESDAY APRIL 3, 2019 Viva Verdi A tribute to Giuseppe Verdi Information: Call 416-922-2147 or e-mail admin@operainconcert.com Visit www.operainconcert.com 32 | June | July | August2018 thewholenote.com
FREE CLASSICAL KIDS CONCERTS SERIES Three free, fun, and engaging concerts that introduce children ages 4-10 to classical music. Summer camps and groups welcome! Kinan Azmeh City Band (Wed, Jul 18 at 11:00am) Join us for a blend of classical, jazz, and the music of Kinan Azmeh’s homeland, Syria, for this very special concert which will be presented in both English and Arabic. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Wed, Jul 25 at 11:00am) Jonathan Crow and the TSM Festival Orchestra explore the magic of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with host Joanna Kellam. Music From Wartime (Wed, Aug 1 at 11:00am) TSM Favourites Eric Nowlin, Ani Aznavoorian, Philip Chiu, and Alexander Kerr perform music composed during both World Wars and show how composers were influenced by events of their times. Concerts at Walter Hall, Edward Johnson Building, University of Toronto, 80 Queen’s Park TORONTOSUMMERMUSIC.COM Kids Concerts Media Sponsor thewholenote.com June | July | August2018 | 33
