Volume 24 Issue 2 - October 2018

SUZANNE BETTENCOURT NEW

SUZANNE BETTENCOURT NEW SEASON OF GREAT CONCERTS 1. Saturday november 10 8 pm Verdi Overture to Luisa Miller Dvořák Slavonic Dance, Op. 46 Stephen Hough CLASSICAL & BEYOND QUICK PICKS !! OCT 10, 12PM: The Rosebud String Quartet, led by COC principal violist Keith Hamm and COC associate concertmaster/National Ballet concertmaster Aaron Schwebel, gives a free noon-hour concert of music by Haydn and Beethoven at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre. !! OCT 10, 8PM: The Jeffrey Concerts (London) presents Canadian violinist supreme, James Ehnes, and his usual collaborative pianist, Andrew Armstrong in works by Beethoven, Brahms and Corigliano. The same program can be heard OCT 11 at 7:30PM in Kingston at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts and OCT 12 at 7:30PM in Niagara-on-the Lake presented by Bravo Niagara! !! OCT 11, 12PM: Pianists Rosemarie Duval-Laplante and Jean-Michel Dube honour the artistic legacy of “the Quebecois Mozart,” Andre Mathieu, on the 50th anniversary of his death by performing a selection of works for two and four hands composed by Mathieu, his father Rodolphe and by some of the composers that inspired them in a free noon-hour concert at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre. !! OCT 18, 8PM: The St. Lawrence Quartet bring their infectious energy and consummate musicianship to the Jane Mallett Theatre in a wide-ranging program of Haydn, Golijov, Barber (Dover Beach with baritone Tyler Duncan) and Beethoven (Op.135). Music Toronto says it’s the only performance of this program anywhere! Cathedral Bluffs SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Norman Reintamm Artistic Director/Principal Conductor 2018-2019 Season Arvo Pärt Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten Schumann Symphony No. 3 (Rhenish) Danish String Quartet !! OCT 28, 3:15PM: Mooredale Concerts present the legendary Dorian Wind Quintet in a program of works by Bach, Perle and Dvořák. !! NOV 3, 7:30PM: The Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts presents the acclaimed Danish String Quartet playing Haydn, Abrahamsen and Beethoven (the indelible Op.59 No.1). The same program can be heard NOV 4 at 3PM, presented by the RCM in Koerner Hall. !! NOV 6, 7:30PM: A recital by Stephen Hough is always worthwhile. For this appearance at the Isabel Centre for the Performing Arts, the British polymath brings his intelligence and flawless technique to a program of Debussy, Liszt (The Mephisto Waltz) and Chopin’s Sonata No.2. Paul Ennis is the managing editor of The WholeNote. 2. Saturday December 15 8 pm nighT aT The opera Favorites from Johann Strauss Jr., including Overture to Die Fledermaus Auf Der Jagd Polka | A Night in Venice Overture | Overture to The Gypsy Baron Unter Donner und Blitz Polka | Tritsch-Tratsch Polka | The Blue Danube Waltz Lehár Overture to The Merry Widow 3. Saturday February 2 8 pm Tango! a collaboration featuring PAYADORA TANGO ENSEMBLE 4. Saturday March 9 8 pm Debussy Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun Robert Horvath Tangos for Orchestra Piazzolla The Four Seasons (arr. Carlos Franzetti) Stravinsky The Rite of Spring Erik Kreem Tone Poem for Symphony Orchestra 5. Saturday May 25 8 pm SeaSon Finale We welcome the YOU dance Apprentices of the National Ballet of Canada for our season finale, presenting favourites from ballets such as Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet, and other well-known masterpieces. Subscribe Today & Save! cathedralbluffs.com | 416.879.5566 22 | October 2018 thewholenote.com

´ Beat by Beat | On Opera Wainwright’s Playwright Daniel MacIvor on Hadrian CHRISTOPHER HOILE The most important operatic event of the current season happens right at its beginning. It is the Canadian Opera Company’s presentation of the world premiere of Hadrian composed by singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright to a libretto by multi-awardwinning playwright Daniel MacIvor. Hadrian is important as the first COC commission for the main stage since The Golden Ass in 1999 composed by Randolph Peters to a libretto by Robertson Davies. Hadrian stars renowned baritone Thomas Hampson making his COC debut in the title role, equally renowned soprano Karita Mattila as Plotina also making her COC debut and tenor Isaiah Bell as Hadrian’s lover Antinous, last seen in Toronto earlier this year as Eurimaco in Opera Atelier’s production of Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria. Hadrian opens October 13 and runs to October 27; it is directed by Peter Hinton and conducted by Johannes Debus. The plot involves the Roman Emperor Hadrian (reigned 117-138 AD), whom historian Edward Gibbon counted among the “five good emperors” of Rome, despite Hadrian’s habit of having his opponents executed and despite his bloody suppression of the Third Jewish Revolt (132-136). Hadrian was married for political reasons to his predecessor Trajan’s grand-niece Sabina, likely at Trajan’s wife Plotina’s behest, and spent more than half of his reign travelling about the empire. In Bithynia he met the youth Antinous, who became the love of his life. Antinous accompanied Hadrian on the rest of his travels for the next six years until Antinous’ mysterious death by drowning in the Nile in 130 at the age of about 20. Hadrian’s grief was so great he spent the rest of his life memorializing Antinous. He had the city Antinopolis built near where the youth died; he deified him, inaugurated games to honour him and established a religious cult to worship him which spread and continued for centuries after Hadrian’s death. The cult was condemned by some pagans of Hadrian’s time and by the early Christian Fathers. Historians, especially in the 19th century, suppressed mention of Hadrian and Antinous’ amorous relationship and it was not brought fully to the general public’s attention until the publication of French author Marguerite Yourcenar’s celebrated novel Mémoires d’Hadrien in 1951. In September just as rehearsals for Hadrian were starting, I spoke to Daniel MacIvor about the genesis and development of writing the Hadrian librettist Daniel MacIvor opera. (Wainwright, in fact, had begun working on an opera about Hadrian after reading Yourcenar’s novel long before he wrote his first produced opera, Prima Donna, that played in Toronto as part of the Luminato Festival in 2010.) When asked how he became involved with Hadrian, MacIvor replied, “They [at the COC] were looking for someone to come on board with this; Atom Egoyan is a friend of mine and he recommended me to Alexander [Neef] who got in touch with me. Initially, I said no because I didn’t know anything about Hadrian or Antinous, and I knew very little about opera. But Alexander suggested that I look at the material about Hadrian and Antinous and as soon as I started to read about them I was floored that I had never heard of them because it seemed so incredibly important. How could I, as a gay man, never have known about it? So I became extremely interested in it. The story deals with grief which is an important theme of mine, so then I took a meeting with Rufus and we determined that we could work together.” Though Wainwright was inspired by Yourcenar’s novel, MacIvor felt the story needed a different perspective: “We did talk about Yourcenar’s book, but I rejected reading it because I prefer not to read JIM RYCE CHARPENTIER ACTÉON & RAMEAU PYGMALION OCT 25 – NOV 3 ELGIN THEATRE, 189 YONGE ST OPENS OCT 25! 18.19 “…powerful, lyrical, emotional … dazzling” —GLOBE AND MAIL Featuring Colin Ainsworth, Mireille Asselin & Allyson McHardy. Season Presenting Sponsor Season Underwriter Season Supported by PHOTO BY BRUCE ZINGER BUY NOW! Tickets start at . OPERAATELIER.COM thewholenote.com October 2018 | 23