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Volume 5 Issue 7 - April 2000

  • Text
  • April
  • Toronto
  • Theatre
  • Choir
  • Symphony
  • Bloor
  • Arts
  • Orchestra
  • Singers
  • Musical

24 CONCERT NOTES Music

24 CONCERT NOTES Music Theatre Spotlight continued from page 22 Tense" program showcases work in development by senior artists who have already produced important work. Oh Pilot, by Nie Gotham and Banuta Rubess (creators of Nigredo Hotel), runs at Tarragon Extra Space from April 18 to 20 in a copresention with Tapestry Music Theatre. This will be a more challenging show, designed for people who are somewhat conversant with new music and · prepared for dissonance, abstraction and non-linear narrative. Besides· plays, there are all kinds of other events around the festival, including readings, panel discussions, professional master classes and cabarets that may appeal to readers of this column. For instance, music theatre fans might want to attend the "interview" with Julie Taymor (she directed and conceived the stunning design for The Lion King) on April 27. To find out more about this amazing theatrical bonanza, call 416-973-4000 or check out the website at www.harbourfront. on.ca. A show that's not included on the official World Stage program (but which might well have been) is Autmun Leaf Performance's Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire and Transfigured Night, which runs at Artword Theatre on Portland music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim book by Hugh Wheeler from an adaptation by Christopher Bond Sar May 13 8pm Sun May 14 3pm Wed May 17 1 pm Fri May 19 8 pm Sa~ May20 8pm Sun May 21 3pm Eve. Stu./Srs. Mar. Sru./Srs. 416 785-0333 FAX 961-8931 Street on various dates from April 20 to 29. In fact, there's even a discount for World Stage passholders! Schoenberg, who lived from 1874 to 1951, is a figure like Stravinsky in that his work brings the music world through the transition from a 19th- to a 20th-century idiom. Both works' are about passion and sexual politics. In Transfigured Night, a woman confesses to her lover that she carries another man's child; in Pierrot Lunaire mezzo soprano Fides Krucker - as a twelve-foot mistress Pierrot - envelopes the stage with her trailing gown. Autumn Leaf and its artistic director Thom Sokoloski have been associated with composer Murray Schafer and his .visionary work.s. They were the ones who created the Alchemical Theatre of Hermes Trismagistos, which (if you recall) ran beginning at midnight right in the middle of Union Station. For more about this very interesting company, visit www.autumnleaf.com. On a last, light note, the young and engaging Da Capo Productions, which j!fst produced a production of the vintage Godspell, is premiering a newer musical called '\Wzat About Luv? From April 6 to23 at Alumni Hall, St. Michael's College. It's written by Jeffrey Sweet, with music by Howard Marren and lyrics by Susan Birkenhead. A lighthearted triangle of thwarted suicide and mixed-up Jove, it stars Chaz Thorne, Julia Moore and Christopher Wilson. These artists are at an earlier stage in their careers than the others I've referred to above, but they've already had some good training and experience (at the National Theatre School, Stratford, the Charlottetown Festival in Prince Edward Island and the Stephenville Festival in Newfoundland - for example). They look like younger versions of the artists who are being featured in the World Stage-level shows, and, as such, deserve a look-in too. OPERA PLUS In addition to Opera Mississauga's Madama Butterfly (see page 50), there are several other fully staged operas to be found in April. Opera Ontario's production of Gounod's Faust opens. in Hamilton on April I, continues there on April 6 and 8 before moving to Kitchener­ Waterloo on April 14. The · Canadian Opera Company, now fifty years old, returns to its roots so to speak" by presenting La Boheme, one of the operas it produced in its very first season. The COC will also be presenting Debussy's 1902 opera, Pelleas et Melisande. And for those of you who are really serious about opera, vocal coach extraordinaire, CBC opera quiz whiz and Opera in Concert founder, Stuart Hamilton is going to MC the Toronto Sinfonietta's evening with Dame Natalie Choquette. With creativity, a sublime sense of humour and an uncanny ability to communicate, she mah:s opera approachable in a way that would make the manager of a symphony orchestra advertising campaign envious. Maybe next year somebody will get Natalie Choquette, Stuart Hamilton, Mary Lou Fallis and Iain Scott together on the same stage!

EUROPEAN AUDITIONS SEMINAR! ,. Andrea Mellis, an Artistic Director from Vienna will conduct a workshop in Toronto April 24-29 on the ins and outs of auditioning for agents and opera houses and how to save money and frustrations by knowing what the new rules are. This course is a must for any singer thinking about auditioning abroad and it includes 5 hours of individual coaching and repertoire preparation, possible selection for a future production overseas and a wrap-up Toronto concert! Total all-inclusive cost is 5. · Hear it from someone who lives there! Call early to reserve. Very limited class size. (416) 410-1808 Z5 TOI\ ONTO OfEIIBITA Wi~ Toronto Operetta Theatre Guillermo Silva-Marin, Founder and General Director presents Musical Treasures for Spring! Nafal~~f'hhtl ~ + ·"-· ,, te ~v6son's o~:n~e~hoif ~ 'tpRQNTO stNFONrETTA #· Milsic DireQ!er Mattht\y Jaskiewicz Master of Ceremonies Stuart Hamilton Famous opera arias and choruses Khachaturian's Galop Rimsky-Korsakov's The Flight of the Bumblebee SATURDAY, MAY 6, 2000 7:30 p.m. Bloor Street United Church Tickets 416-410-4379 A Leo ' One of the greatest Americnn musicltls ... M Fair Lad Yy Lemer and Loewe Y GISELE FREDETTE, CURTIS SULLIVAN, KEITH BOLDT, GREGORY (ROSS, )OHN WEIR PETER 0LESKEVICH, CONDUCTOR GUILLERMO SILVA-MARIN, STAGE DIRECTOR May 5 (prev.), 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13 at 8pm and May 14 at 2 pm Ogilvy()~ jewel in the crown of Cmwdim1 musicnl heritnge The Ror!L~~!! GUILLERMO SILVA-MARIN, STAGE DIRECTOR ERIC SHAW, ALEXANDRA LENNOX, BRUCE KELLY Jµne 26 (prev.), 27, 30 & July 1 at 8 pm and June 28 at 2 pm (416) 366-7723 TOLL FREE 1-800-708-6754 CELEBRATE BACH The 250th ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DEATH This 12 Day Tour of Germany visits: Eisenach (Bach's birthplace), Erfurt, Dresden, Leipzig and Berlin including 4 special Bach concerts Departing July 19, 2000 Personally escorted by: Meta Witthoeft-Rataj, a well-known supporter of Opera and the Classical Music Scene in Canada CONFERENCE WoRLD TouRs INCLUDES: Return air fare from Toronto; First Class Acrommodation; breakfast and lunch or dinner daily; private bus transportation; sightseeing; 4 Bach concert tickets; transfers and baggage handling. 4141 Yonge Street, Ste 402 Toronto, ON M2P 2A8 Tel: (4 16) 221-6411 Fax: (4 16) 225-7334 Toll Free: 1-800-387-1488 E-mail: conftour@interlog.com WVl'W.conferencetours.com

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