Artists of the National
Artists of the National Ballet of Canada in Angels’ Atlas. QUICK PICKS LIVE & DIGITAL: NOV 12, 8PM: All Together Now! is a one-night-only live broadcast event and in-person performance of a new musical theatre revue from Music Theatre International. Live from 56 Queen Street East with a local cast of singers joined by a live orchestra, this show benefits Met’s Community Services program. Metropolitan United Church. 416-363-0331 x228 KAROLINA KURAS on November 24 and running into December. Opera Atelier, who are sticking to the digital format until later in the year, have taken this opportunity to finish their long-gestating original creation, Angel, as a film, adding newly commissioned music by Christopher Bagan to Edwin Huizinga’s original score and Baroque selections, as well as new poetic selections from Rainer Maria Rilke and John Milton. On the sillier side, Tapestry Opera has just released the third instalment of S.O.S. Sketch Opera Singers, their ongoing digital opera/comedy hybrid that is sure to induce giggles from opera fans and new watchers alike. News of more productions, both live and online, is being revealed almost daily for the holiday and winter seasons. The door to live music theatre has been well and truly opened; let the celebration begin. LIVE: NOV 11 to 27: Angels’ Atlas & Serenade (ballets) by Crystal Pite & George Balanchine. National Ballet of Canada Four seasons Centre, national.ballet.ca. NOV 14 to 28: Shaw Festival. Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn. Shaw Festival Theatre, 10 Queen’s Parade, Niagara-on-the-Lake. 1-800-511-SHAW (7429) or shawfest.com. -. NOV 19 to 27: No Change in the Weather by Walter Schroeder and Bernardine Stapleton. CAA Theatre 651 Yonge St. mirvish.com. 1.800.461.3333. NOV 30 to JAN 2: Jesus Christ Superstar (musical) by Andrew Lloyd Webber. North American touring company. Ed Mirvish Theatre. 1-800-461-3333. mirvish.com. TAPESTRY OPERA – S.O.S. Sketch Opera Singers: Episode 3 DIGITAL: FROM OCT 21: S.O.S. Sketch Opera Singers on Tapestry Opera’s YouTube channel. tapestryopera.com/performances/ sketch-opera-singers/ OCT 28 to NOV 12: Opera Atelier. Angel. 70-minute film fully staged and filmed at St. Lawrence Hall. OperaAtelier.com. Uncovered: The Music of Dolly Parton NOV 24 to Dec 11, & DEC 30: Uncovered: The Music of Dolly Parton. The Musical Stage Company. Filmed at Koerner Hall. musicalstagecompany.com. Jennifer Parr is a Toronto-based director, dramaturge, fight director and acting coach, brought up from a young age on a rich mix of musicals, Shakespeare and new Canadian plays. 18 | November and December 2021 thewholenote.com
INSIGHTS POCKET CONCERTS’ EVOLVING PARADIGMS MAX CHRISTIE Rory McLeod and Emily Rho ALICE HONG Once upon a time (the spring of 2021, actually) I made contact with some colleagues and friends known collectively as Pocket Concerts, and individually as Emily Rho and Rory MacLeod, interested in knowing how their particular brand, based on house concerts, was holding up in response to the new paradigms of pandemic performance. Their biggest news back then was a book in progress, expanding on what they’d learned in developing Pocket Concerts, explaining how other artistic entrepreneurs might get their own ideas off the ground. Envisioned as an online publication, the book was at that point already more than 75% complete. Life, however, intervened, as it will, and the book has been sidelined. The two remain committed to it, but have each found they have too many other irons in the fire to give it their complete attention. The goals they originally had for it haven’t shifted but life has. As Rho says: “It will take a different shape in the future, I believe, because everything is changing around us so fast, all the time; it’s one thing to put pen to paper, another to find time for the ink to dry… [when] the dust settles … then I think we’ll have more clarity on how to continue.” Pocket Concerts (PC ) fell as hard as the rest of us did, but was probably better positioned than most to rebound, because it specializes in chamber music, presented in homes for small collections of friends and acquaintances of the homeowner. It works in one of a few ways: they can sell entire events to individuals or businesses, or sell individual tickets to a paying public. The venue, provided by a private householder or small business owner, is deemed a donation-in-kind, thus saving PC the expense of a hall rental. So, like chamber salons of a bygone age, Pocket Concerts take place in settings reminiscent of where and how chamber music was originally offered, with most of the proceeds going directly to the players. Venue providers come away with the feeling of doing something good for the community, and perhaps some social currency, even pride, as well, which seems fair. In existence since 2013, McLeod estimates that during that time they‘ve employed around 120 different musicians (although they stopped keeping track after one hundred). Concerts have taken place before audiences ranging from two to 100, but the typical size was and is still 35 or so. Given indoor restrictions they had to take the show out on the porch (or back deck, or back lawn) over the past two summers, but they managed that without missing a beat. Weather, however, tends to puts the damper on that type of thing, of course, and last year they began to wonder how to connect directly 21/22 Crossing Over Concert Season Announcement Welcome back to live music. NMC is thrilled to embark upon a bold new era of channeling the limitless power of music to traverse all boundaries: between musical traditions, between humans and technology, even between music and memory. newmusicconcerts.com 416 961 9594 Not Alone – Oct.28.21 Aulos – Nov.11,18,25.21 50th Anniversary Distanced Commissioning Series: John Oswald – Feb.17.22 Difficult Grace: Seth Parker Woods in Concert – Mar.10.22 Imagined Sounds – Apr.10.22 SWARA Sutras – Apr.30.22 All concerts at 8pm thewholenote.com November and December 2021 | 19
