Volume 28 Issue 6 | Summer 2023

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cont’d from p25 AS EASY AS 1,2,3,4 … Navigating an Organ Transplant One of the historical instruments featured in the Festival of Pipes is the Hutchings/Stuart tracker-action organ at St. John’s Norway, located at Woodbine and Kingston Road. I had the privilege of sourcing this instrument from its previous home in Winnipeg and overseeing its dismantling, shipping and reconstruction in Toronto – it was a sort of organ “transplant”, if you will. Here is an outline of the process: The organ is deconstructed – every pipe is removed and the motors and electrical components are dismantled MUSIC THEATRE SOME ENCHANTED SUMMER JENNIFER PARR The parts are placed in crates and/or pallets for transportation The organ is reassembled in its new location. This may require rearranging the location of pipes and other components, which does not affect the heritage status of the instrument (unless a number of new components are introduced). The newly installed organ is voiced and tuned and is ready to play. Matthew Whitfield is an Edmonton-based harpsichordist and organist. PHOTOS BY MATTHEW WHITFIELD The beginning of the summer season is exploding with the openings of new musicals – shows previously delayed by COVID shut downs, new projects and classics revisited – with a little flood in late May, inconveniently early for our May 31 release, but worthy of mention nevertheless. The Tides of May First up is the world premiere May 26-27 of The Lancashire Lass, a new musical telling of the suffragette story by preeminent Canadian composer Leslie Arden. Developed over the last few years at Queen’s University’s DAN School of Drama and Music, excerpts from Lancashire Lass previewed at last year’s Watershed Music Theatre Festival and this year appears in full. There are apparently no plans yet for a longer run as Festival artistic director Dean Burry says they are acting more as an incubator than producer. But I’m sure there will be other producers on hand for the birth of this new musical feminist story, seen through the eyes of Annie Kenney (1879-1953), an English working-class suffragette and socialist feminist who became a leading figure in the Women’s Social and Political Union. watershedmusictheatre.com At same time in Toronto’s beautiful Koerner Hall (May 26-28) director Richard Ouzounian, who brought a stunning concert staging of Stephen Sondheim’s Follies to Koerner Hall back in the fall of 2021, is dipping in, again, to the pool of Sondheim classics to bring us another concert staging, this time of A Little Night Music (based on Ingmar Bergman’s film Tales of a Summer Night) most famous for the song, Send in the Clowns. Eric McCormack and Cynthia Dale again lead the starry cast, and this time are joined by Fiona Reid, Dan Chameroy, Chilina Kennedy, and others. rcmusic.com/ events-and-performances/a-little-night-music Opening on May 25 and running to June 4 is another world premiere, Inge(new) in search of a musical, an experimental new show from Evan Tsitsias (book & direction), Alexis Diamond (lyrics) and Rosalind Mills (music). Playing on the idea and concept of ingenue roles, the play sees three women meet at an audition and find themselves having to navigate a meta-theatrical world where past and present collide in absurd and mysterious ways. A very strong cast, including Astrid Van Wieren and Cory O’Brien from Come from Away,along with Elora Joy Sarmiento and Mairi Babb, brings the 26 | Summer 2023 thewholenote.com

WATERSHED MUSIC THEATRE Leslie Arden’s The Lancashire Lass (top), Annie Kenney and Christabel Pankhurst show to life at the intimate Red Sandcastle Theatre in Toronto’s East End. redsandcastletheatre.com A third world premiere, and one that musical theatre fans have been waiting for three years to see, is the tango-infused, mother/ daughter courtroom drama Kelly v. Kelly beginning previews on May 26 and running until June 18 at Canadian Stage Berkeley Street. Created by the exciting combination of Sara Farb (book) and Britta Johnson (music) Kelly v. Kelly is the third Johnson musical developed by the Musical Stage Company’s Crescendo program. Eva Foote, who made a splash this spring in Fall on Your Knees,plays the daughter. Listen to an excerpt here. musicalstagecompany.com MINISTRYOFHISTORY.CO.UK ★★★★ —Toronto Star GLUCK’S ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE Oct 26 to Nov 1, 2023 Elgin Theatre ALL IS LOVE April 11 to 14, 2024 Koerner Hall operaatelier.com SEASON PRESENTING SPONSOR 23/24 SEASON ON SALE NOW! Two for June The Luminato Festival, now back in its traditional time slot in June, is showcasing another two world premieres – two operas that have been postponed repeatedly until now, thanks to the pandemic. Dragon’s Tale, celebrating the origin of dragon boat racing from acclaimed team Mark Brownell (book) and Chan Ka Nin (music) who gave us the awardwinning opera Iron Road, is Alicia Ault being presented by Tapestry Opera with Luminato at Harbourfront’s outdoor Concert Stage. Reaching across time, the beat of the Dragon Boat’s drum ties together exiled poet and politician Qu Yuan in ancient China with Chinese Canadian Xiao Lian in present day Toronto as she yearns for liberty and independence. Alicia Ault of the jazz trio The Ault Sisters stars as Xiao Lian. Tickets are free but should be booked ahead of time. June 15-18. luminatofestival.com/event/ dragons-tale-2 The other Luminato opera world premiere (with many Canadian, and international sponsoring companies) is Volcano Theatre’s new reworking of Scott Joplin’s 1911 opera Treemonisha at the Bluma Appel Theatre (St Lawrence Centre) June 6-17.Treemonisha is one of the few pieces set soon after the abolition of slavery, actually written by a survivor of that era, and Joplin’s nearly lost opera fuses European classical music with the sounds of ragtime, folk and gospel to create a thrilling and distinct sound. The new reimagined version has been created by a predominantly thewholenote.com Summer 2023 | 27