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AN INFORMATION FEATURE
T U E S DAY, A P R I L 1 7 , 2 0 1 2
SECTION PA
Special
JUNO Award-winning singersongwriter Melanie Doane
rocks in Mirvish’s spectacular
production, War Horse.
PHOTO: CAITLIN CRONENBERG
Page PA 8
Say goodbye to
winter and hello
to another spring
and summer of
sizzling performing
arts across Ontario.
Inside, a look at the
hottest shows –
from classical music
and dance to live
theatre, jazz, pop
NATIONAL BALLET OF CANADA
STRATFORD FESTIVAL
On its 60th anniversary, dance
company pops the eternal question
Milestone season a celebration of variety
o be or not to be?”
Kevin O’Day sees
Hamlet’s indecisiveness
as a trait shared by humanity.
The artistic director of Ballet
Mannheim and the choreographer of Hamlet – the National
Ballet of Canada’s full-evening
work for the spring season,
which runs June 1 to 10 at the
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts – sees many parallels between the famous Danish
prince and the world at large.
“It was shortly after my father
suddenly passed away that I
realized what a potent symbol
the father is,” says O’Day home
Speaking from his in Mannheim,
Germany, which he shares with
former National Ballet soloist
Dominique Dumais and their
four-year-old son O’Day adds,
“We cannot escape our fathers.”
Not long after arriving at this
new perspective, O’Day began
working on Hamlet, a commission for the Stuttgart Ballet in
2008. His version takes as its
starting point the grim realization that Hamlet must avenge
his father’s murder and that this
act will inevitably decide his fate.
“Hamlet may have admired his
father; he certainly didn’t love
him,” comments O’Day. “And
so he faces a dilemma: to act or
not to act; to avenge his father’s
death or not.”
O’Day is not the first to
attempt a ballet version of
Hamlet. But he believes he
has succeeded in translating
both Hamlet’s morbid wit
and profound anguish into
movement.
In collaboration with avantgarde composer John King, O’Day
has invested equally in the realization of his vision in dance and
music. King, who has composed
National Ballet, Page PA 4
cting in a repertory theatre ensemble requires
stamina, dexterity and
teamwork. Returning to the
Stratford Shakespeare Festival for
its 60th anniversary season, Kyle
Blair and Graham Abbey display
all of that – and more.
Blair is cast this season in musical lead roles, as the young Billy
Lawlor in 42nd Street and Frederic in the operetta The Pirates
of Penzance, while Abbey takes a
more serious note as Posthumus
CLASSICAL
Residency brings
Yo-Yo Ma for an
extended stay
with the TSO.
PA 3
OPERA
Colin Ainsworth
reprises the role
of Renaud in JeanBaptiste Lully’s
baroque opera
Armide. PA 4
ON STAGE MAY 8
2012 lead sponsors
Depression, which talks about
the urgency of the lives of actors,
Blair says. “It’s funny how art and
life are running parallel.”
One treat for audiences is that
the orchestra, typically hidden
behind the scenes in the Festival
Theatre, will be positioned on
a balcony for all to see, he says.
The show also marks the return
to Stratford of Cynthia Dale, as
femme fatale Dorothy Brock.
Stratford, Page PA 9
INSIDE
YOU CAN’T
HOME
DAVID STOREY
TAKE IT
WITH
YOU
MOSS HART & GEORGE S. KAUFMAN
ON STAGE APRIL 19
in Shakespeare’s late romance
Cymbeline and Aigisthos in the
Greek tragedy Elektra. Their challenging roles show the variety
and talent that have brought
Stratford to this milestone.
“That’s what makes it a festival,
there’s such wonderful variety,”
says Blair, 33, in his eighth season
at Stratford. “Your muscles get
stretched in a lot of different
ways.”
42nd Street is a play-within-aplay, set at the height of the Great
production sponsor
DANCE
Ballet Jörgen’s
Anastasia rewards
with classical,
gravity-defying
moves. PA 6
production sponsor
Two new comedies
on stage for spring!
illustrations: brian rea
FESTIVALS
Ragtime, a
sweeping saga of
turn-of-the-century America, is part
of the 2012 Shaw
lineup. PA 9
FOLK
JUNO-nominated
Newfoundland
folk trio The Once
is on a roll. PA 11
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AN INFORMATION FEATURE • PA 3
t h e g lo b e a n d m a i l • t u e s daY, a p r i l 1 7 , 2 0 1 2
Showtime
TORONTO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Residency brings Yo-Yo Ma to inspire, play and teach
o-Yo Ma is a world-renowned cellist. He’s also
zany and fun to be with,
a diplomat, a humanitarian and
someone who takes on tough
challenges and encourages others to follow his example. That
assessment comes from Jeffrey
Beecher, who travels the world
regularly as part of Ma’s Silk
Road Ensemble.
Beecher is also principal
double bass player with the
Toronto Symphony Orchestra,
which Ma is joining for two concerts on May 30 and 31. Ma is here
as part of a TSO residency, which
is also getting him involved with
some Toronto elementary school
students.
A highlight of the Toronto
concerts will be Night Music:
Voice in the Leaves by Uzbekistani composer Dmitri YanovYanovsky. Beecher describes the
piece as “incredibly beautiful,
very elegiac.” Yanov-Yanovsky
has familiarity with many different styles, he says. “He’s very well
versed, not only in baroque mu-
sic, but also in Eastern European
languages.” Also on the program
are Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic
Dances and Elgar’s Cello Concerto.
“Yo-Yo is probably the most
inspiring and hard-working
person I’ve ever met. He has tremendous energy, not only for his
own concerts and his colleagues,
but also for strangers,” Beecher
says.
“He makes you think really
hard about yourself,” he explains. “For me, it was jazz. I’m
very well educated in classical
music, but I’ve started to take
my first steps playing professional jazz music. That was through
his encouragement.”
Part of Ma’s Toronto residency
involves working with a group
of seventh- and eighth-graders
at Alexander Muir elementary
school. He has already been
connecting with the students
through Skype, encouraging them to pursue whatever
inspires them, says Beecher.
“Yo-Yo is exceptionally courageous at dipping his toe into un-
World-renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma and TSO Principal Double Bass Jeffrey
Beecher will perform together in special performances on May 30 and 31.
Beecher describes Ma as ”probably the most inspiring and hard-working
person I’ve ever met.” PHOTO: SUPPLIED
KOERNER HALL
Inventive orchestra cooks up
creative sound, feel and look
he Australian Chamber
Orchestra is unique in
many ways, says artistic
director Richard Tognetti.
Its repertoire ranges from
Egyptian lutes to electronic music. Its members stand when they
play. And it tours almost nonstop, its current North American
tour bringing it to Koerner Hall
on April 22 as part of the Royal
Conservatory’s concert series.
“We’ve cooked up quite a
cake,” says Tognetti, who is also
the orchestra’s lead violinist.
The program opens with works
by Austrian composer Anton
Webern and American composer
George Crumb. Then comes
Maria Schneider’s Winter Morning
Walks, which was written specifically for the ACO and American
soprano Dawn Upshaw, who is
taking part in the tour. The concert ends with pieces by Robert
Schumann and Franz Schubert.
The orchestra has had a profound friendship with Upshaw,
ever since it invited her to
Australia many years ago, says
Tognetti. Also joining the orchestra’s 17 core members on the tour
will be three jazz musicians for
the Schneider piece.
Based in Sydney, the ACO tours
regularly around Australia, as
well as doing two international
tours a year. Its wide-ranging
repertoire comes from Tognetti’s
personal curiosity, he says. “We’re
not just trying to tick all the
boxes.”
By standing, orchestra members are carrying on a tradition
set by small orchestras in the
past. “It feels better,” Tognetti explains. “It’s liberating, and all the
violins and violas prefer it. We
find it makes us breathe better –
and we see each other better.”
www.rcmusic.ca
As part of the Royal Conservatory’s concert series, the inventive Australian
Chamber Orchestra plays Koerner Hall on April 22.
PHOTO: PAUL HENDERSON-KELLY
A special information feature produced in co-operation with the advertising department of The Globe and Mail.
Andrea D’Andrade, Manager Special Reports and New Product Development, [email protected].
charted territory,” he says. “It’s
wonderful that the symphony
is bringing a cultural icon to the
city so adults can go and enjoy a
concert, while also being a part
of an educational initiative.”
Beecher joins Ma and the Silk
Road Ensemble for three or four
tours each year; for example,
a trip in March took them to
China. As well, the ensemble has
a five-year residency at Harvard
University.
When Beecher performs with
the TSO, he plays what may well
be the world’s oldest double
bass. “It was made by Giovanni
Battista Rogeri in Brescia, Italy,
in 1690,” he says. “It’s not only
in fantastic condition, but I can
trace the ownership through the
early 1800s. The depth and the
quality of the sound are unique.
As well, it’s the loudest bass I’ve
ever heard in my life.”
Beecher learned the instrument was for sale while in
Amsterdam about five years ago.
“I had a three-day window to
go and pick it up and secure the
financing,” he says.
www.tso.ca
PA 4 • AN INFORMATION FEATURE
t h e g l o b e a n d m a i l • t u e s daY, a p r i l 1 7 , 2 0 1 2
Showtime
OPERA ATELIER
Tenor came late to music
he lead tenor in Opera
Atelier’s production
of Armide grew up in a
house without music.
Colin Ainsworth was born
to deaf parents in Toronto. He
learned to speak with the help
of two aunts and a Montessori
school, but came to music very
late, he says. “There wasn’t
music in my house, and it wasn’t
a thing I was interested in at the
time.”
Ainsworth is reprising the
role of Renaud in Jean-Baptiste
Lully’s baroque opera Armide,
now playing at the Elgin Theatre
until April 21. He sang the same
part in an Opera Atelier production in Toronto in 2005. This
time around, international audiences will also have a chance
to see the show. After Toronto,
it’s headed to the Royal Opera
at Versailles, France, and the
Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Ainsworth’s interest in music
began with a drama course
he took in high school, which
included a segment on musical
“I almost fell into it in a
sense. It’s very unusual.
Not a lot of kids of deaf
parents go into opera.”
Colin Ainsworth,
lead tenor
Toronto native Colin Ainsworth performs as lead tenor in Opera Atelier’s
Armide now through April 21. PHOTO: KEVIN CLARK
theatre. His teacher advised him
to take up music seriously and
get some lessons. He did, but not
before completing a one-year
exchange program in Germany.
“I thought I’d take it up as fun,
just as a hobby,” he recalls. He
went on to study under Darryl
Edwards at Western University
and the University of Toronto.
“I almost fell into it in a
sense,” says Ainsworth. “It’s very
unusual. Not a lot of kids of deaf
parents go into opera.”
Ainsworth says he’s lucky
that his voice allows him to
sing both baroque and modern
music. Lately, he’s appeared in a
lot of modern pieces, including
Moby Dick with Calgary Opera,
West Side Story with Vancouver
Opera and Rufus Wainwright’s
Prima Donna in both London
and Toronto. But he also enjoys
performing Mozart and Donizetti, he says.
Ainsworth is also busy in
recital halls, where his favourite composers are Schubert,
Schumann and Britten.
As for Armide, he calls the
music “pretty amazing.” Many
of the scenes feature Renaud, a
Christian knight, and Armide,
a Moslem princess played by
Peggy Kriha Dye. The two, however, don’t really get together
until the end. When Armide
casts a spell on Renaud, “there
are these beautiful legato lines
of flutes and water rippling. It’s
very seductive,” he explains.
“Lully does a great job of
imitating what’s going on on
stage and of showing what’s
happening emotionally,” says
Ainsworth. “Not only what the
characters are thinking, but
what’s underneath.
www.operaatelier.com
RITMO FLAMENCO
Family story tells the power of dance
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir conductor and artistic director Noel Edison
leads three epic choral performances on May 23, including a rare appearance by Metropolitan Opera star John Relyea who sing Belshazzar’s Feast.
PHOTO: FRANK NAGY
TORONTO MENDELSSOHN CHOIR
Epic choral works, talents
come to the stage
Flamenco sensation Angelica Scannura and her parents, artistic director Valerie and virtuoso guitarist
father Roger, light up the Al Green
Theatre on April 21. PHOTO: IDEN FORD
absorb the latest trends and then
make them their own. With concerts only every two years, Ritmo
Flamenco’s performances are like
limited editions.
Their latest offering – Vida
Flamenca, or “A Way of Life,”
which will be presented at the Al
Green Theatre in the Miles Nadal
JCC on April 21 – brings together
the power of mother, father and
daughter with two additional
seasoned dancers, whom Valerie
Scannura trained, accompanied by
violin, cello and percussion.
“Vida Flamenca is a program of
new compositions without storytelling,” she explains. “With our
authentic approach, we wanted
to create an evening of ‘pure’
flamenco like no other.”
Flamenco aficionados: the
gauntlet has been dropped.
www.algreentheatre.ca
is based on a Biblical story about
the Jews in Babylon and contains
lots of operatic theatre, he says.
The evening begins with
Francis Poulenc’s Gloria. Edison
describes the composer’s music
as “fractured and colourful and
strong and luminous.” The work
contains a soprano solo, which
Shannon Mercer will sing “like a
lark,” he says.
Also on the program is Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.
“It’s unabashedly very Jewish, in
that he employs Hebrew texts
and excerpts from Psalms,” says
Edison, adding that some of the
music was originally sketched
out for West Side Story, when
Bernstein considered featuring a
Jewish-American gang.
The 65-piece Festival Orchestra
will accompany the 150-voice
Mendelssohn Choir for the performance.
www.tmchoir.org
Piotr Stanczyk in Hamlet. PHOTO: CHRISTOPHER WAHL
FROM PAGE 1
National Ballet: Hamlet’s feelings and emotions embraced
for opera, theatre, dance and film,
brings a contemporary sensibility to the score. “With [John], I
wanted the structure and poetry
of Shakespeare’s text to resonate
in the sonic vocabulary of the
ballet.”
O’Day and King assigned
signature instruments to each of
the ballet’s protagonists – similar
to the leitmotifs of Chopin and
Prokofiev. “We chose the bass
trombone for Hamlet. Its ability to
slide between notes echoes Hamlet’s chronic vacillation, as well as
his humour and his sarcasm.”
Comparing their partnership
to that enjoyed between Russian
choreographer Marius Petipa and
composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchai-
PERFORMANCE SPRING 2012
PERFORMANCE SPRING 2012
Annual festival of groundbreaking new work from the national scene
Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland
OIL AND WATER
by Robert Chafe
directed by Jillian Keiley
music by Andrew Craig
musical direction by Kellie Walsh
April 18 – May 6
… a story told with incredible
skills and soaring gospel music…
Photo: Paul Daly
hen Noel Edison and
John Relyea did a show
together years ago at the
Elora Festival, one was the front
end of a cow, the other the back.
When they link up at Koerner
Hall on May 23, Edison will be
conducting the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir in a program of
three epic choral works. Relyea, a
Metropolitan Opera star, will be
singing Belshazzar’s Feast.
Edison, the choir’s conductor and artistic director, says
he’s thrilled that Relyea, who
regularly performs in the U.S. and
Europe, will be back in Canada.
English composer William
Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast will be
the cornerstone of the program.
Edison describes it as “quite a
mass of forces of brass bands and
full orchestra and the doubling of
every instrument and tripling of
some instruments – percussion,
organ, piano, harp – and an incredible bass solo part.” The work
ompetition between
flamenco companies in
Toronto can be fierce.
Each troupe vies for artistic kudos
by inviting the best flamenco
choreographers, dancers, singers
and musicians from Spain to wow
their audiences and set the bar a
little higher.
“There is so much pressure to
innovate,” explains Valerie Scannura, artistic director of Ritmo
Flamenco. “But in Spain, the
smaller companies are run like
family businesses. Innovation
comes from intergenerational
dancers and musicians working
together slowly over time, honing
their craft.”
Scannura, along with her husband, virtuoso guitarist and composer Roger Scannura, and their
22-year-old daughter Angelica,
have created their own flamenco
family. They travel to Spain to
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factorytheatre.ca
kovsky during the heyday of the
Ballets Russes, O’Day is clearly
inspired. King’s composition,
which will be performed with
additional speakers installed in
the Four Seasons Centre for a
surround-sound effect, is digitally
manipulated in real time through
a computer to enhance certain
tones and pitches.
For the North American première of Hamlet by the National
Ballet, part the company’s 60th
anniversary season, O’Day has
selected principal dancers Guillaume Côté and Piotr Stanczyk in
the title role. “They are such different dancers,” he explains. “But
I did the same thing at Stuttgart....
What is exciting is that one could
see the ballet two nights in a row
and see two completely different
– but equally revealing – interpretations.”
Though polar opposites stylistically – Côté is lyrical and smooth,
where Stanczyk is dynamic and
angular – O’Day perceives that
both dancers possess the technique and presence to command
the stage for the two hours of the
ballet.
“My job as choreographer is
to adjust the emphasis of the
movement to match the physicality of the performer. In doing so,
we embrace the different sides
of Hamlet, but also his universal
feelings and emotions.”
www.national.ballet.ca
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Showtime
SOUNDSTREAMS
BALLET JÖRGEN CANADA
Anniversary year looks back and forward Anastasia rewards with classical,
oundstreams is celebrating its 30th anniversary
season this coming year
with high-energy performances,
international travel and special
friends.
Founded in 1982, Soundstreams
is dedicated to the music of living
composers. Besides presenting
a six-concert series each year in
Koerner Hall, it has created and
produced contemporary opera
and eight international festivals.
This spring features a fundraiser on April 19 at Integral House,
with guest of honour Canadian
composer R. Murray Schafer and
performances by Shannon Mercer
(soprano), Serouj Kradjian (piano) and Sanya Eng (harp). The
repertoire includes a harp solo of
Schafer’s Crown of Ariadne.
In a May 4 concert at Koerner
Hall, Brazil’s
Egberto
Gismonti
(composer,
piano, guitar)
embraces the
influences of
his heritage
with pulsating
energy. Joined by his
son, Alexandre Gismonti (guitar),
and Canadian
jazz icon
Jane Bunnett, they perform classical, jazz and Brazilian popular
music. Soundstreams’ string
orchestra will also perform movements from Egberto Gismonti’s
Sertoes Veredas.
Soundstreams is “always interested in putting together Canadian and international performers and composers on the same
stage,” says Lawrence Cherney,
the company’s artistic director.
A recent example involved the
Stuttgart Chamber Choir, which
performed at the Carlu in Toronto
with a local group called Choir 21
and the TorQ Percussion Quartet. They played a new piece by
Canadian composer Paul Frehner
commissioned for the occasion,
says Cherney. The work was then
taken on tour by the Stuttgart
Chamber Choir and performed in
two other Canadian cities. In May,
it will be presented in Germany
by the Stuttgart Chamber
Choir and TorQ.
“Similarly, there are works
by foreign composers that our
groups here have learned at
a Soundstreams performance
and will continue to perform,”
Cherney says. Canadian
audiences like the
practice, he
adds, because it exposes them
to music they don’t know and to
cultures they don’t know much
about.
On October 11, Soundstreams
will stage a gala concert at Koerner Hall that “looks back, but
it also looks forward,” Cherney
says. “By incorporating younger
composers, we’re trying to point
to the future.”
A key component of the 2012-13
season will be a tour to China and
Taiwan. A Koerner Hall concert on
May 14, 2013, will feature a chamber orchestra of Canadians and
members of Tapei’s Chai Found
Music Ensemble, under conductor
Les Dala. The same ensemble will
then go on tour, giving concerts
in Beijing, Taipei and other cities
in China.
The tour will coincide with the
80th birthday of Schafer, who will
travel with the company and will
be the composer-in-residence
at the Beijing
Modern Music
Festival, says
Cherney.
“We’ve been
invited to present two concerts there in May of 2013.
This festival in Beijing is the
biggest festival of contemporary music in all of Asia.”
Cherney spent a lot of time
over the past three years travelling in Asia and especially Latin
America, exploring possible linkups with musical groups there.
“Latin America remains one
of the great undiscovered
treasures on Earth,” he says.
“We think of certain stereotypes of course – mariachi
and salsa. Those are all
wonderful, but there’s so
much more to Mexican
culture, Brazilian culture,
Argentinean culture.
These are very rich musical
cultures. You can only scratch
the surface through one concert at a time.”
gravity defying moves
horeographer Bengt
Jörgen created his ballet
Anastasia to celebrate the
20th anniversary of his Torontobased company, Ballet Jörgen
Canada, in 2007. Jörgen, who
has developed a reputation for
pleasing chamber ballets, does
not disappoint. This ambitious
full-length work features beautiful dancing and a soaring original
score by Russian-Canadian composer Ivan Barbotin.
Jörgen’s Anastasia is a dramatization
of episodes
from the life
of Anastasia
Romanov,
the youngest daughter of Tsar
Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia. There is much controversy
surrounding the death of the
real-life Grand Duchess Anastasia
at the hands of the Bolsheviks
during the 1917 Russian Revolution. Her alleged survival has
fuelled a number of legends and
more than a few pretenders who
claimed – some quite convincingly – to be the Romanov
princess.
Jörgen’s ballet has the Romanovs and their privileged
entourage performing
classical, gravity-defying moves, while the
agitating peasants are
weighted down by a
more contemporary vocabulary.
www.soundstreams.ca
Left: Soundstream artistic director
Lawrence Cherney. PHOTO: BRUCE ZINGER
PHOTO: KAROLINA KURAS
Presented by
Hamlet
June 1—10
national.ballet.ca 416 345 9595
presents
Chroma
featuring music by The White Stripes*
orchestrated by Joby Talbot
& Song of a Wayfarer
& Elite Syncopations
June 13—17
2011|12 season is presented by
Celebrating 60 Years of Partnership with The Volunteer Committee, The National Ballet of Canada
*Music: Joby Talbot and Jack White.
Piotr Stanczyk in Hamlet. Photo by Christopher Wahl. Artists of the Ballet in Chroma. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann.
Showtime
WAR HORSE
Songstress Melanie Doane brings her talent to live theatre
he emotional melodies
she weaves through War
Horse are instrumental
to the play, but Melanie Doane’s
musical roots set the tone long
before the curtain rises on each
performance at Toronto’s Princess
of Wales theatre.
Standing in a circle amid the
seats that will soon fill with
patrons thrilling to the majestic
puppet horses and moving tale
that have made War Horse a theatrical triumph, its 35 cast members,
led by Doane on the ukulele, sing
songs from the start of the First
World War.
The brief ritual began during
dress rehearsals for the show,
when the actors warmed up by
running through two numbers
they perform together onstage,
and has expanded to include a selection of tunes Doane and others
have unearthed from the period.
“The music takes us back in
time,” says Doane, 45, whose
character in War Horse, “Songperson with Fiddle,” plays and sings
traditional English folk music,
threading together scenes from
Devon to the horrors of the Great
War. “It helps to tell the story.”
The Juno-winning singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist
(she plays guitar, piano, mandolin and bass as well as violin
and ukulele) was born in Truro,
N.S., part of an extended musical
family. Her first cousins on her
mother Jean’s side are the late
folk musician Stan Rogers and
singer-songwriter Garnet Rogers.
Her father, J. Chalmers Doane,
received the Order of Canada for
bringing music programs into
Halifax schools, especially using
the ukulele. Her sister Suzanne
In War Horse, Melanie Doane (left) plays and sings traditional English folk music, threading together scenes from
Devon to the horrors of the Great War. PHOTO: BRINKHOFF/MÖGENBURG
and brother Creighton are professional musicians.
“Growing up, we didn’t listen
to records,” Doane remembers.
Instead, her dad put instruments
like the bass into their hands
“and he said, ‘just play.’” Which
they did together each night. “It
taught me to be a musician.”
Doane recalls those sessions in
each warm-up with the War Horse
cast. “It’s a very safe place….
Sometimes it’s silly, sometimes
it’s emotional,” she says. “I’ve
done it my whole life; today I do
it with my own kids.”
She studied music at Dalhousie
University, intending to follow
in her father’s footsteps as a
teacher, when she was cast in a
1986 production of Joseph and the
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at
Halifax’s Neptune Theatre. More
stage roles followed, including a
stint on Broadway with the Mirvish production of Buddy.
Doane moved to Toronto in
1988 and five years later recorded
the first of her solo pop-rock
albums. She won the Juno for
best new artist following her 1998
breakthrough release Adam’s
Rib, and has toured and recorded
with Jann Arden, Great Big Sea,
Jim Cuddy and Ron Sexsmith.
Her music is featured on hit TV
shows like Brothers & Sisters, Being Erica, Flashpoint and Buffy the
Vampire Slayer.
By last summer, Doane had
released her sixth full-length
album, The Emerald City, and
was running the Ukulele in the
Classroom program in 10 Toronto
schools (based on her father’s
method) and raising her kids
Theo, 10, and Rosie, 8. When she
was asked to audition for the Canadian production of War Horse,
“I felt, ‘That’s not what I do,’” she
says. But inspired by the show’s
creative team, including songmaker John Tams, and comfortable with the folk songs of the
period, she picked up her fiddle
and returned to the theatre.
“It’s a full circle,” she says. “I
feel at home with the music; it’s
a perfect fit.”
Doane feels she and fellow War
Horse songperson Tatjana Cornij,
on the accordion, are “spirits”
who connect with the audience, heightening emotions and
“drawing the story.” The show’s
producers let the Canadian
production, which opened on
February 28, “be our own,” she
says, “Every scene, every note of
music, every movement on stage.
That’s a gift.”
Doane keeps busy with eight
shows a week of War Horse,
which has been extended to the
end of September, along with
motherhood and the ukulele
teaching program, though she
plans to give a Toronto concert in
the next few months.
www.mirvish.com
Visit www.melaniedoane.com/
globe for more information about
Melanie Doane and to get a free
song download from her latest
album, The Emerald City.
NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE
All-Aboriginal King Lear comes to the national stage
Lear to a new culture and place,
with an all-Aboriginal cast performing the tragedy set in 1608,
when it was written, but situated
in Canada during the Iroquois/
Huronia Wars.
The play, which runs from May
hakespeare’s plays are often staged in new and different ways, for example
giving a contemporary spin or
language to the bard’s classical
works. Ottawa’s National Arts
Centre this spring will bring King
The Hockey Sweater
45 years.”
Schellenberg first conceived
of an all-Aboriginal King Lear in
1967, when he performed at the
then-new NAC alongside Chief
Dan George, whom he imagined
in the title role. He doggedly
pursued the idea, “to prove to the
world that native actors can do
Shakespeare,” Schellenberg says.
“Augie Schellenberg is built
to play this part,” says Hinton,
adding that Lear’s followers will
be portrayed onstage by The Four
Nations Exchange, a group of
people from the Aboriginal community in Ottawa who took part
in a series of theatre skills workshops over the last four months.
The show will be the last as
artistic director for Hinton, who
says he’s proudest of increasing the level of Shakespeare
and commitment to Aboriginal
programming at the institution
during his seven-year term.
Other highlights of the NAC’s
spring and summer programming
include a visit from the Bolshoi
Ballet in Don Quixote (May 23-26),
as well as concerts by Canadian
icons Dan Hill (May 3-4) and Gordon Lightfoot (June 15-16). From
July 5 to 7, the NAC Orchestra
performs the musical score of The
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of
the Ring, while the complete film
is shown on a large screen.
May 12 at 1:30pm & 3:30pm
www.nac.ca
8 to 26 and stars August Schellenberg as Lear among a cast of
Aboriginal actors from across
the country, is a fitting production that’s been more than four
decades in the making, says NAC
English Theatre artistic director
Peter Hinton.
“Lear is an incredible play to
talk about first contact, with its
themes of land, justice and love,”
explains Hinton, who directs
the production. “This is a huge
dream that’s been incubating for
Itzhak Perlman
April 25 & 26 at 8:00pm
Peter Oundjian, conductor
Itzhak Perlman, violin
Khachaturian: Suite from
Masquerade and Spartacus
Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini
Beethoven: Violin Concerto
April 28 at 8:00pm
SPRING!
at the
toronto
symphony
416.593.4828 tso.ca
Itzhak Perlman, conductor and violin
Peter Oundjian, violin
Mozart: Overture to The Abduction
from the Seraglio
J.S. Bach: Concerto for Two Violins
and String Orchestra, BMV 1043
Conversation from the Stage with
Peter Oundjian and Itzhak Perlman
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5
Alain Trudel, conductor
Roch Carrier, narrator | Ken Dryden, host
Abigail Richardson: The Hockey Sweater
Bring the whole family to the public
première of a delightful, newly
commissioned work based on Roch
Carrier’s classic story The Hockey Sweater!
Yo-Yo Ma
May 30 & 31 at 7:30pm
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Dmitri Yanov-Yanovsky: Night Music:
Voice in the Leaves for Cello
and Orchestra (Canadian Première)
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances
Elgar: Cello Concerto
Mahler Symphony
of a Thousand
June 13 & 14 at 8:00pm
Canadian cast of soloists and 4 choirs
Mahler: Symphony No. 8
“Symphony of a Thousand”
Visiting Toronto?
We can recommend hotels!
CONCERTS AT ROY THOMSON HALL
ONTARIO CULTURAL ATTR ACTIONS FUND
LE FONDS POUR LES MANIFESTATIONS
CULTURELLES DE L’ONTARIO
Young People’s Concerts Series Sponsor
Presenting Sponsor Celebrate 90,
The Grand Evening
May 31 Concert Sponsor
Set in Canada in 1608, during the
Iroquois/Huronia Wars, the National
Art Centre’s adaptation of King Lear
features an all-Aboriginal cast starring August Schellenberg.
PHOTO: NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE
Showtime
SHAW FESTIVAL
Ragtime forms centrepiece of Shaw Festival lineup
rogramming the 2012
season at the Shaw
Festival was a difficult
task for artistic director Jackie
Maxwell. Last year’s lineup was
critical to celebrate the festival’s
50th anniversary, “but this is the
first season for the next 50 years,”
Maxwell says. “We want to really
look ahead.”
As a centrepiece of the new
season, Maxwell chose the musical Ragtime, a sweeping historical
saga of tumultuous, turn-of-thecentury America. An interesting
mix of shows, casting and production decisions followed, amounting to a groundbreaking lineup
of 11 plays on the festival’s four
Niagara-on-the-Lake stages.
Ragtime, to be performed in
the Festival Theatre, explores
the notions of race and immigration through the intimate stories
of three families. “It captures a
period in history that has had a
huge impact on the way we live
now,” says Maxwell, who is in her
10th year as artistic director at the
Shaw and directs the production.
“It was clear to me that this is the
show that should lead off our next
half-century.”
The festival has a mandate to
produce works created during or
about the period of playwright
George Bernard Shaw, from 1856
to 1950.
Maxwell says this is the first
time that Ragtime, adapted from
the critically acclaimed novel by
E.L. Doctorow that was considered
a metaphor for the era, has been
performed in a significant way following the events of 9/11 and the
election of Barack Obama. “To be
able to put it on stage with a really
new context is fascinating.”
Playing the part of Harlem
musician Coalhouse Walker Jr.
is Thom Allison, who returns to
Shaw for a second season directly
from Broadway, where he was
playing in Priscilla Queen of the
Desert. Allison says that Ragtime
“deals with such great issues,”
while at the same time it’s important to present shows about race
and cast performers with a mix of
races and ethnicities.
“Audiences are increasingly
mixed as well,” Allison says. “It’s
always better to get people to
come to the theatre when they see
themselves reflected in it.”
Allison, 40, who comes from
Winnipeg, says that the Tony
Award-winning music in Ragtime
also touches a strong emotional
chord. “Everyone’s in tears; it hits
Ragtime, which will be performed in Shaw’s Festival Theatre, explores the notions of race and immigration through
the intimate stories of three families. PHOTO: EMILY COOPER
with the movie His Girl Friday,
resulting in a 1930s-era romantic,
screwball comedy with a strong
political punch that’s also relevant
to our times.
Directing the show is actor Jim
Mezon, among a number of mem-
bers of Shaw’s acting ensemble
who are putting on directorial
hats this season. “I’m really delighted about this development,”
Maxwell says.
TARRAGON THEATRE
FROM PAGE 1
Tremblay classic asks difficult questions
Stratford: Timehonoured plays
and musicals
general director, who next year
takes over from Des McAnuff as
artistic director. Cimolino says
Cymbeline is less well-known
than many of Shakespeare’s
works; indeed, this is only the
festival’s fourth production of it
in 60 seasons, which adds to the
appeal for him. “I have to admit
that it is in the margins that I really enjoy myself.”
Abbey says there’s a strong
link between the classical plays
and musicals at the festival;
singer-songwriter Steven Page is
composing the music for Cymbeline. “It’s not your mother’s
Shakespeare, as they say.”
The variety presented at
Stratford is good for audiences,
he says, who might see him
in a serious role like in Elektra
in a matinée and a somewhat
lighter play like Cymbeline in the
evening.
“Sometimes they don’t even
recognize you, which is thrilling
as an artist,” Abbey says. “You
can lose yourself a little bit.”
or Jane Spidell, performing in The Real World at
the Tarragon Theatre is
like going to a reunion.
Spidell played the character
Mariette 1 when the Tarragon
toured Michel Tremblay’s Canadian classic to Scotland 23 years
ago. When the play returns to
the Tarragon from April 24 to
June 3, she’ll be playing Madeleine 1.
Then there are the other connections. This will be the third
or fourth time Spidell has played
the on-stage wife of actor Tony
Nappo. He’s cast here as Alex
1. The production also reunites
Spidell with director Richard
Rose, the Tarragon’s artistic
director. She worked with him
for three years when she was a
member of the Young Company
at the Stratford Festival and he
was a director there.
So, why do many of The Real
World characters have names
with numbers? Spidell explains it
this way: “There are two Madeleines, there are two Alexes and
there are two Mariettes. They are
the mother, father and sister of
the playwright character, who’s
known as Claude. He’s written a
play about his mother, father and
sister. So we see both versions of
them on the stage, the real version and the play version.”
As Madeleine 1, Spidell is the
real mother. The last time she
did the play, as Mariette 1, she
was the real daughter. As Alex 1,
Nappo plays the real father. “It’s
quite a fascinating conceit,” Spi
Jane Spidell reunites with director
Richard Rose and actor Tony Nappo
in Tarragon Theatre’s The Real
World. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
“I guess there are a lot
of plays about families,
because families, and the
relationships between
family members, will
never become tiring.”
Jane Spidell,
actor
all the right buttons.”
Showing the strength of the
Shaw company, Allison plays
a very different role, that of an
Italian named Diamond Louie, in
His Girl Friday. That production
blends the play The Front Page
dell says. “I love the split reality.”
The play unfolds after Claude
shows his manuscript to his
mother, Madeleine 1. Not surprisingly, things don’t go well.
He has taken liberties and put
words into his family’s mouths
that he wishes they would say.
The play explores the theme of
the authorship of a person’s life
and whose version of the story is
being told, Spidell says.
“The writer gets the story out
there, and it’s the ones who
don’t speak whose versions of
the story never get told,” she
explains.
The play presents the parallel
universes of Claude’s real family
and the family that he writes
about. “It’s not an easy story,
because it provides no easy answers, but it asks a lot of difficult
questions,” says Spidell.
Even though The Real World
was first published in 1988, it’s
still relevant, she says. Families
never go out of style, nor does
the pursuit of authenticity.
Spidell notes that many of
the plays she’s appeared in are
about families. Last year, for
example, she won a Dora Mavor
Moore award for her portrayal of
an alcoholic wife in Soulpepper’s
production of Sharon Pollock’s
play Doc.
“I guess there are a lot of plays
about families,” she says, “because families, and the relationships between family members,
will never become tiring.”
www.stratfordfestival.ca
A WORD OR TWO WITH CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER
www.tarragontheatre.com
PLEIADES THEATRE
PHOTO: ANDREW ECCLES
One-woman show celebrates
comedienne Luba Goy
Funny lady Luba Goy is the focus
of a touching Pleiades Theatre
production. PHOTO: RICHARD PICTON
Performing in Gilbert and
Sullivan’s Pirates is exciting for
Blair, whose grandparents lived
in Stratford, and who recalls first
visiting the festival to see The
Mikado.
Abbey, 41, literally grew up in
the festival, performing there
in bit parts at the age of 11 and
graduating from high school on
the Festival Theatre stage. Known
more recently for his role as Detective Sergeant Gray Jackson in
CBC’s The Border, he is in his 13th
season at Stratford.
“It really does feel like home
for me,” Abbey says, adding that
the festival “has a very strong
company feeling.”
Cymbeline is being directed by
Antoni Cimolino, the festival’s
www.shawfest.ca
pening May 7 at the
Berkeley Street Theatre,
Pleiades Theatre presents
Luba, Simply Luba, a one-woman
show based on the life of Canadian comedienne Luba Goy.
From her arrival as a child from
Stalinist Ukraine to membership
in The Jest Society that eventually
became the Royal Canadian Air
Farce, Luba, Simply Luba offers a
touching portrayal of immigrant
struggle and achievement over
adversity.
“Luba is a cherished national
icon, but her story is the story of
many Canadians,” explains director Andrey Tarasiuk.
More than 15 years in the making, Luba, Simply Luba brings
together the talents of writer
Diane Flacks (Royal Canadian Air
Farce, Kids in the Hall) with fellow
Ukrainian-Canadians Tarasiuk
and musician Victor Mishalow.
“We know Luba as endearing
and funny,” says Tarasiuk. “But
the truth is that she turned to
comedy because of a traumatic
childhood as a Ukrainian immigrant growing up in the 1950s and
’60s.”
Christopher Plummer first performed at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in 1956 as Henry V in a tent. The following year, he
played Hamlet to open the Festival Theatre, and he’s gone on to
perform in numerous roles at Stratford through the years.
To celebrate the festival’s 60th season, Plummer will perform
in a solo piece called A Word or Two that he has written and arranged. The play is Plummer’s reflection on the literature that has
inspired and influenced him, from A.A. Milne to Stephen Leacock,
Ben Jonson and the Bible.
The show, to run from July 25 to August 26, offers a “deeply personal insight into its creator,” says artistic director Des McAnuff,
who directs it. “In watching it, you realize how Christopher Plummer became the artist he is.”
Plummer, 82, who recently won the Oscar for best supporting
actor, says he’s presented versions of A Word or Two informally,
and finds it constantly evolving. The show at Stratford “will be a
much fuller production,” he adds.
McAnuff first saw Plummer present the piece in the living room
of his home in Connecticut. “It was an absolute blast,” he recalls.
“I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to sharing it with
audiences.”
Showtime
DANCAP PRODUCTIONS
Contemporary take on West Side Story reinvigorates American musical classic
hen it first opened, audiences walked out. Now,
they can’t get enough.
“During the first-ever run of
West Side Story on Broadway
in 1957, more than a hundred
people walked out every night,”
muses Dancap Productions
president Aubrey Dan. “They
could not handle it!”
What audiences in 1957 had
difficulty dealing with was a love
story that paired a white Irish
American boy with a brown
Puerto Rican girl. Even the musical’s highbrow provenance –
Shakespeare’s classic text Romeo
& Juliet – could not save this
tale of rival street gangs from
controversy.
Fast-forward 50 years and
the story that forever changed
American musical theatre continues to find new inspiration
and new audiences.
“The idea for this updated
version took shape after a tour
of West Side Story to Brazil,
where audiences sided with the
Hispanic Sharks rather than the
All-American Jets,” says Dan.
“That juxtaposition created a
whole new dynamic.”
The 2009 Broadway revival, on
which this touring production is
based, translated key songs and
much of the Sharks’ dialogue
into Spanish.
“The question that West Side
Story librettist Arthur Laurents
asked was, ‘How can we make
the musical more authentic,
More real?’” explains Dan. “The
answer was to see the story in
light of our current climate of
overt racial equality but hidden
racial tensions.”
“West Side Story was definitely
ahead of its time,” says Alexandra Frohlinger, the Winnipegborn actress, singer, dancer and
sole Canadian in the production
who takes the role of Anybodys.
“This production capitalizes on
what was there all along. It’s just
grittier and more realistic. And it
gives the Sharks a voice.”
Frohlinger describes the
updated, edgy choreography created by the Jerome Robbins as
fierce and aggressive.
“In this production, the dancing arises from the action of the
play,” explains Frohlinger. “The
Sharks and the Jets are gang
members first, dancers second. It
makes it more believable.”
Frohlinger, who took part in
Garth Drabinsky’s Triple Threat
reality television series, caught
Dancap’s adaptation of West Side Story is based on a 2009 Broadway revival inspired by Brazilian audiences who
sided with the Hispanic Sharks. “That juxtaposition created a whole new dynamic,” says Dancap Productions
president Aubrey Dan. PHOTO: JOAN MARCUS
the attention of West Side Story’s
producers due to her obvious
skills and knowledge of the
Anybodys role. “Anybodys is a
totally unique character. There
SOULPEPPER
Romantic comedy sends timeless,
uplifting message
Eric Peterson plays Grandpa Martin Vanderhof the Soulpepper production
of You Can’t Take It With You. The play delves into the lives of the eccentric Sycamore family, who have learned to live simply. PHOTO: JASON HUDSON
rtistic works from the past
can often speak to the
present. You Can’t Take
it With You has been doing it for
generations.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning play,
being presented by Soulpepper
Theatre Company at the Young
Centre for the Performing Arts
from April 19 to June 21, has a
message that’s as relevant today
as when it was first staged in 1936,
says director Joseph Ziegler.
“What it has to say about living
for right now, and being content
and happy with your life as you
have it, is timeless,” says Ziegler,
a Soulpepper founding member.
“It’s pretty-well irresistible.”
The romantic comedy by Moss
Hart and George S. Kaufman was
a smash hit on Broadway at the
height of the Great Depression. It
was made into a movie by director
Frank Capra that won the Academy Award for best picture in 1938,
Ziegler says, and “was considered
one of the greatest comedies ever.”
The play delves deeper than the
film, he says, into the lives of the
eccentric Sycamore family. It takes
place entirely in the living room
of their home, where their levelheaded daughter Alice invites her
new buttoned-down beau and his
conservative parents to dinner,
with mad-cap results.
Krystin Pellerin, who plays loveable Alice, says the production is
“definitely relevant at any time,”
and is especially appropriate for
the spring.
“It’s a play about accepting and
embracing who you are and where
you’re coming from, and accepting and appreciating others and
their lifestyles and what makes
them people,” explains Pellerin,
who also plays a romantic lead as
Sergeant Leslie Bennett on CBC
TV’s Republic of Doyle. She says the
play is a “really feel-good, uplifting, life-affirming story.”
www.soulpepper.ca
really isn’t anyone like her in the
genre,” says Frohlinger.
Adding to the new interpretation is Frohlinger’s debut as the
first Anybodys to sing Some-
where, the wistful ballad in Act
2. “All in all,” says Frohlinger,
“being a part of this production
is an honour that I will not soon
forget.”
HAROLD GREEN JEWISH
THEATRE
Days. “Marion Ross is as sweet
and nice as you would imagine
her to be, and the role she’s playing is the direct opposite,” says
Eisner.
The Canadian stars include
Linda Kash, Ari Cohen and
Sheila McCarthy. Joining them
will be Eisner himself, making
his acting debut with the company. Eisner has played many
film and TV roles over the years,
but lately has devoted most of
his time to running the theatre
company, along with co-artistic
director Avery Saltzman. Eisner
appeared recently in the TV
miniseries Titanic playing Benjamin Guggenheim. Kash was also
featured in the series, in the role
of Molly Brown.
Eisner says that Lost in Yonkers
“is probably the biggest play
we’ve ever done.” The production has a month-long run,
which has not been done before.
Yonkers serves
up an ambitious
production
five-time Emmy Award
nominee, some top Canadian stars and a Tonyand Pulitzer Prize-winning play:
“It’s a great recipe,” says David
Eisner, co-artistic director of the
Harold Green Jewish Theatre
Company.
He’s speaking of Neil Simon’s
Lost in Yonkers, which will run
from May 12 to June 10 at the
Jane Mallett Theatre in the St.
Lawrence Centre for the Arts.
The Emmy nominee is Marion
Ross, remembered for playing
Mrs. Cunningham in TV’s Happy
www.hgjewishtheatre.com
FACTORY THEATRE
Oil and Water
sure to leave an
indelible mark
on audiences
Star of TV and stage Marion Ross
performs in Neil Simon’s
Lost in Yonkers. PHOTO: DENICE DUFF
DANCING INTO CANADIAN HEARTS
for 25years
For exciting news on our 2012/2013 Season and
special events throughout the year, please visit us at
www.balletjorgencanada.ca
July 18 – August 12, 2012
ased on the real-life story
of American sailor Lanier
Phillips, Factory Theatre’s
production of Robert Chafe’s
award-winning play Oil and Water cannot fail to make a lasting
impression.
“It is just such a remarkable
story,” says the Newfoundlandborn playwright. “I knew the
moment I became aware of what
happened to Phillips that I had
to do something with it.”
In 1942, the U.S. naval destroyer USS Truxtun was shipwrecked
off the Newfoundland coast
during a north Atlantic storm.
Those who did not drown were
taken in by the residents of St.
Lawrence, an isolated outport
community on the Burin Peninsula. Phillips, who was among
the few survivors, became the
first black person ever to set foot
in the village.
Phillips grew up in the South
and never knew a kind word
from white folks. He was forever
changed by the colour-blind
compassion shown him by the
people of St. Lawrence.
Welcome to the 33rd
Festival of the Sound.
We invite you to take part
in our 10th Season at the
Charles W. Stockey Centre
for the Performing Arts
in Parry Sound —
on beautiful Georgian Bay.
James Campbell
Artistic Director
DON’T MISS the final performances of Anastasia!
Tickets on sale at www.uofttix.ca or call 416-978-8849
Toronto | April 21,2012 | 7:30pm
| April 22,2012 | 2:30pm
www.festivalofthesound.ca
Online Ticket Sales or Call 1.866.364.0061
Where the world’s
great musicians
come to play.
Jeremiah Sparks as “Lanier” and
Starr Domingue as “Vonzia” in
Factory Theatre’s Oil and Water.
PHOTO: PETER BROMLEY
Showtime
THE ONCE
SKYDIGGERS
Juno-nominated Newfoundland folk trio on a roll
New album
mixes it up
hen The Once formed in
St. John’s, Nfld., international success was not on
the agenda. As multi-instrumentalist Phil Churchill explains, “We
didn’t even plan to be a band.
The three of us were working as
actors at a summer theatre festival. We got a call at 2 p.m. on a
Friday asking us to sing and play
as a band at an extra show that
night. The genesis of the band
was ‘Let’s just get through tonight.’ Once we did, we thought,
‘Let’s do it again.’”
Since then, the folk-rooted
trio has risen to become one
of the folk music circuit’s most
in-demand acts, both in North
America and Europe. The band’s
self-titled 2009 album earned
2010 Canadian Folk Awards for
Traditional Album and New Artist
of the Year. Their sophomore CD,
2011’s Row Upon Row Of The People
We Know, available on Borealis
Records, was recently nominated
for a Juno Award.
The Once comprise purevoiced singer Geraldine Hollett
as well as Churchill and fellow
multi-instrumentalist Andrew
Dale. Their spirited and melodic
sound is built around acoustic
instrumentation and strong vocal
harmonies, while their repertoire
Churchill. “It is dream-like, in a lot
of ways. This has already exceeded
any expectation we ever had.”
The Once has quickly adapted to
life on the road. “We were kind of
confused, fearful bumbling fools
three years ago,” adds Churchill
with a twinkle in his eye, “Now
we are a well-oiled machine. We
are well suited to this lifestyle.
We are becoming really good at
knife-fighting and bar brawls. We
haven’t been in any yet, but we’re
training for them. We’ll be ready
for every situation.”
their first taste of the symphony.
We’re seeking to expand that relationship into more events every
summer.”
American rock phenomenon
The Black Keys return (with The
Shins) on August 4, while English
band Florence and The Machine
play on August 2.
For the younger pop crowd,
there’s chart-topping boy-band
One Direction (May 29 and 31),
LMFAO with Far East Movement,
The Quest Crew, Sidney Samson
and more (July 4), plus Big Time
Rush and Cody Simpson (September 13).
ell into their third decade as a band, Toronto
roots-rock veterans
Skydiggers keep things fresh
by mixing up their working
methods.
For their brand-new album
Northern Shore, guitarist/vocalist Josh Finlayson says the band
used a number of different
processes; for example, recording in the studio at his home,
as well as at The Woodshed,
Blue Rodeo’s studio, and The
Bathouse, The Tragically Hip’s
studio.
“After you’ve been doing it
for a while, you’re almost making records in reaction to the
way you made the last one,”
explains vocalist Andy Maize.
“This time, we weren’t shackled by any preconceived idea
of how we were going to make
this record.”
The resulting 15-song collection, the band’s eighth studio
album, encapsulates the many
facets of the Skydiggers sound.
Principal songwriters Finlayson and Maize are joined by
bassist (and original member)
Ron Macey, drummer Noel
Webb and keyboardist Michael
Johnston.
Northern Shore also features
key figures in the band’s history. Founding member Peter
Cash reappears on the song
Barely Made it Through. Two
songs by his brother Andrew
Cash (a singer-songwriter
recently turned NDP MP) are
covered on the album.
One of the themes of the
recording was community, says
Maize. “Skydiggers is almost
like a collective.”
Coming up with material is clearly no problem for
the band. An extra 10 songs
recorded during the Northern
Shore sessions are included in a
deluxe four-disc edition of the
album that’s available online.
Skydiggers plays Hamilton on
June 5, Guelph on June 6, and
Toronto on June 8 and 9.
www.molsonamphitheatre.netevents
www.skydiggers.com
www.theonce.ca
TOUR DATES
April 21: Folk Under the Clock,
Peterborough, Ont.
Musicians Phil Churchill, Geraldine Hollett and Andrew Dale blend sweet
harmonies and instrumental talents as The Once. PHOTO: RENITA FILLATRE
“We didn’t even plan
to be a band. The three
of us were working
as actors at a summer
theatre festival.”
mixes fresh interpretations of
traditional material with original
compositions. A tender cover of
the Queen hit You’re My Best Friend
shows they are far from folk purists.
They do not take their speedy
career ascent for granted. “It’s
been so completely unanticipated and entirely blessed,” says
Phil Churchill,
multi-instrumentalist
April 22: Stonecroft Folk Club,
Ingersoll, Ont.
April 27: Neat Coffee Shop,
Burnstown, Ont.
April 28: Sharbot Lake Country
Inn, Sharbot Lake, Ont.
July 6-7: Mariposa Folk Festival,
Orillia, Ont.
August 7-11: Goderich Folk
Festival, Goderich,Ont.
MOLSON AMPHITHEATRE
From symphony to pop, outdoor stage set to rock
t’s business as usual for
concertgoers at Toronto’s
premier outdoor summer concert venue, the Molson
Amphitheatre.
“We are up and running, in spite
of the closure of Ontario Place as
a theme park,” says Live Nation
promoter Jason Grant, adding
that there are advantages to the
closure, like more parking spots
for patrons and opportunities
to program multi-stage events
as well as use other parts of the
Ontario Place site.
One example will be the
increased use of the new Echo
Beach venue, which will feature
an impressive and eclectic lineup,
E
V
A
S
!
%
5
1
including Childish Gambino, Sigur
Ros and The Sam Roberts Band.
The 2012 Amphitheatre season
again features top artists in a
wide range of musical genres. “We
strive every year to have the programming reflect the diversity of
interests in the Toronto market,”
explains Grant. “The market has
been incredibly supportive of all
these superstars in each genre
over the years.”
Lovers of hard rock and heavy
metal have plenty of choices this
summer, including The Scorpions
on July 2, as well as Iron Maiden
and Alice Cooper on July 13. A
double bill of KISS and Mötley
Crüe rocks out on September 13.
Hot country act Lady Antebellum appears on June 16, with
Darius Rucker opening. American
rock legends The Beach Boys celebrate their 50th anniversary with
a June 19 show. Amphitheatre
regular The Dave Matthews Band
is in on June 2.
Grant singles out Sarah
McLachlan’s concert on June 22
as a season highlight. She will
be accompanied by the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra. “That is the
first official collaboration between
our company, the Amphitheatre
and the TSO in many years,” he
says. “We’re bringing them back
to the site of the old Ontario Place
Forum, where many people got
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May 8 – June 3, 2012
Toronto Centre for the Arts
July 3 – 22, 2012
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
July 10 – 29, 2012
Toronto Centre for the Arts
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MISS
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SINGLE
ONE!
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Showtime
LUMINATO HIGHLIGHTS
Kate McGarrigle Tribute
The folksinger’s life and work
are celebrated by her sisters
Anna and Jane, children Rufus and Martha Wainwright,
as well as friends, including
Emmylou Harris, Bruce Cockburn, Mary Margaret O’Hara,
Jane Siberry, Peggy Seeger
and members of Broken
Social Scene.
Playing Cards 1: SPADES
The first of four parts in
Robert Lepage’s latest project,
which uses a deck of cards
as its framework, this work
explores the theme of war
and unfolds in Las Vegas at
the onset of the U.S. invasion
of Iraq.
Einstein on the Beach
This five-hour Robert WilsonPhilip Glass opera has been
called one of the greatest
artistic triumphs of the 20th
century, yet for two decades
remained unproduced.
Making its North American
première at Luminato, the
production features choreography by Lucinda Childs.
La Belle et la Bête, a contemporary, adult version of Beauty and the Beast. PHOTO: YVES RENAUD
LUMINATO
Arts festival gets new flavours
n its sixth incarnation,
Luminato covers all the
creative disciplines, even
magic and food, which are not
usually regarded as part of the
high canon, says new artistic
director Jorn Weisbrodt.
Much of the lineup for the June
8 to 17 festival of art and creativity had already been planned by
his predecessor, Chris Lorway,
when Weisbrodt arrived. But he
is putting his imprint on some
events.
“What is really important for
me is to look at the different
disciplines as an orchestra and
to try and mix them up,” he says.
“With an orchestra, you can’t put
the players into different rooms
and expect a great sound. You
have to put them together in one
big room.”
With that in mind, Weisbrodt
has expanded one of Luminato’s
events, like the Beethoven
Marathon, which features
Stewart Goodyear playing all 32
Beethoven sonatas in one day. He
has commissioned an Indonesian performance artist to create
a visual presence on the stage
and a German artist to produce a
32-piece installation based on the
sonatas.
This year’s four big productions are all from directors who
have created their own theatrical
language and made a quantum
leap in their art forms, says
Weisbrodt.
From Robert Lepage comes
Playing Cards 1: SPADES, set in
Las Vegas on the brink of the
U.S. invasion of Iraq. As in his
other works, Lepage conceived
the script and developed the
play with his team of actors, says
Weisbrodt.
From Robert Wilson and Philip
Glass comes the 1976 opera Einstein on the Beach, which Weisbrodt calls one of the all-time
masterpieces of contemporary
opera.
From Montreal’s Michel
Lemieux and Victor Pilon comes
La Belle et la Bête, a contemporary, adult version of Beauty and
the Beast. “It’s done by a company
that has developed an exclusive
holographic 3D-like technique,”
Weisbrodt says. “You don’t need
glasses for this.”
And from Ohad Naharin’s
Batsheva Dance Company comes
Sadeh 21. Naharin was comissioned by Luminato and the
Tel Aviv Festival to create this
full-length piece. Weisbrodt calls
it “dance at its purest and most
beautiful.”
Aside from these productions,
Luminato has programmed free
and ticketed events designed to
appeal to Toronto’s mosaic of
cultures. More than ever will take
place at David Pecaut Square,
which serves as Luminato’s hub,
and which has been re-imagined
this year as “Windscape” by a
team from the esteemed Toronto
firm Diamond Schmitt Architects.
Among Luminato’s many other
highlights are a tribute to Kate
McGarrigle, and The Encampment, an installation of 200 Aframe tents at Fort York containing art marking the bicentennial
of the War of 1812. Popular music
performers range from Loreena
McKennitt to avant-garde hiphop artists Deltron 3030 and Italian hip-hop star Jovanotti.
La Belle et la Bête
An original multimedia
production by Lemieux Pilon
4D Art, this is an adult version of Beauty and the Beast.
The Montreal company uses
virtual reality to allow the actors to interact with projected
scenery and other forms of
themselves in 3D.
FESTIVAL OF SOUND
Classical concerts
by the lake
n 1979, renowned pianist
Anton Kuerti purchased a
summer home near Parry
Sound. That first summer, he
organized three concerts by Canadian musicians. The response
was so overwhelming that he
proposed an annual concert
series.
Over the next 32 seasons, the
Festival of the Sound grew to
showcase musicians of national
and international acclaim.
From July 18 to August 12,
artistic director James Campbell
has assembled a star-studded
programme including The Choir
of Trinity College Cambridge,
Gryphon Trio, Borodin String
Quartet, Penderecki String Quartet, baritone Russell Braun and
mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabö.
The three-week festival also
features a jazz weekend, August
4 to 6, honouring Canadian jazz
legends Peter Appleyard and
Phil Nimmons.
“This year we celebrate our
10th festival in the Charles W.
Stockey Centre for the Performing Arts,” enthuses Campbell.
“Twenty-five days of glorious
music-making designed to showcase the incredible acoustics and
warm ambiance of a world-class
concert hall.”
Sadeh 21
Tel Aviv’s acclaimed Batsheva
Dance Company presents a
new, full-length work choreographed by artistic director
Ohad Naharin.
PHOTO: GADI DAGON
www.luminato.com
Gryphon Trio. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
Choose 5 concerts for
as little as $26/ticket!
2012 Highlights
James Ehnes Plays Brahms
September 20 & 22
Anne-Sophie Mutter Returns
October 3 & 4
Some Enchanted Evening: The
Music of Rodgers & Hammerstein
October 9 & 10
What Makes it Great©?:
Mozart Jupiter Symphony
October 25
La vida breve: A Spanish Opera
November 1 & 3
Beethoven Triple Concerto
November 14 & 15
Davis Conducts Schumann & Strauss
November 29 & December 1
A Merry TSO Christmas
December 11 & 12
Season Presenting Sponsor
2013 Highlights
Mozart Symphony 40
January 16 & 17
Mahler Symphony 6
January 23 & 24
Beethoven Symphony 9
February 13, 15, & 16
James Bond: The Music
April 2 & 3
Brahms German Requiem
May 22, 23, & 25
West Side Story with Orchestra
May 28 & 29
Joshua Bell & Edgar Meyer
June 5, 6, & 8
Prokofiev Piano Concerto 2
June 12 & 13
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exchanges and discounts at local restaurants.
Plus, order a package and you can buy your
tickets to see Maxim Vengerov, Barenaked
Ladies with Orchestra, and Messiah now
while there are still great seats!
For full details and
even more concerts:
tso.ca/cyo
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Showtime
BOUCHARDANSE
L’Histoire D’Amour explores love and other complications
Padraic Moyles in Riverdance.
PHOTO: JACK HARTIN
SONY CENTRE
One more
chance to see
Riverdance
iverdance last played
Toronto in 2009 on what
was billed as a farewell
tour. Now local fans will have
one more last chance to see the
hit dance show. It’s coming to
the Sony Centre for four performances on April 19 to 21.
Riverdance is back because
of its enduring popularity, says
principal dancer Padraic Moyles,
who has been with the show
on and off since 1997. But this is
“the last hurrah,” he warns. The
current North American tour
wraps up in June, The next stops
are in India, China, South Africa
and possibly South America, he
says.
Audiences love the show –
which started as a seven-minute
TV segment in 1994 – because of
its powerful music, the rhythm
of dancing feet and the spectacular costumes, he says.
“I was lucky enough to meet
someone I love on tour,” says
Moyles. He’s referring to his
wife, Niamh O’Connor, the only
original Riverdance dancer in the
show.
www.sonycentre.ca
oing it alone is scary. And
the first time is definitely
the scariest. But Sylvie
Bouchard, artistic director of
BoucharDanse, has more than
the requisite experience and brio
to carry off L’Histoire D’Amour,
the first major production of her
eponymous company.
Originally from Montréal,
Bouchard moved to Toronto to
study at the School of the Toronto
Dance Theatre. She danced with
all the city’s major contemporary dance companies past and
present – Toronto Dance Theatre,
Kaeja d’Dance, Dancemakers,
Danny Grossman Company. And
from 1997 to 2008 she co-directed
CORPUS with former artistic partner David Danzon. Doing all that,
along with running Dusk Dances –
the beloved festival that presents
dance in public parks – and
planning her next move has kept
Bouchard busy, to say the least.
Comprised of six vignettes,
L’Histoire D’Amour is more than
a work of love. Created by guest
choreographers Susie Burpee and
Denise Fujiwara from Toronto and
Louis-Martin Charest from Mon-
tréal these emotion-driven pieces
are performed by Bouchard and
the lissom Brendan Wyatt.
“Each choreographer’s task,”
explains Bouchard “was to illustrate, through movement and images, socially prescribed expressions of affection from particular
time periods. The goal was not to
recreate the era itself, but rather
to use the underlying narratives as
a diving board to discover original
ways to represent trends of love
throughout history.”
With costumes and set design
by Cheryl Lalonde, video projections by Ayelen Liberona and
text performed by actor Christian
Laurin, L’Histoire D’Amour promises to be an unmissable evening
of contemporary dance. Bouchard
says, “For me, the attraction was
to be an interpreter and to bring
the vision of each choreographer
to life.”
BoucharDanse’s L’Histoire
D’Amour presented by DanceWorks runs May 3 to 5 at the
Enwave Theatre, Harbourfront
Centre.
Performers Sylvie Bouchard and Brendan Wyatt in an Histoire d'amour
vignette choreographed by Denise Fujiwara. PHOTO: JOSEPH MICHAEL PHOTOGRAPHY
tickets.harbourfrontcentre.com
TORONTO DANCE THEATRE
Old friends revisited in Christopher House’s Rivers
n 1979, his first year
dancing with Toronto
Dance Theatre, Christopher House performed in several
pieces by TDT’s co-founders:
Seastill by Patricia Beatty; Boat,
River Moon by David Earle, and
L’Assassin Menacé by Peter Randazzo. What these pieces shared
in common was music by Canadian composer Ann Southam.
Southam, originally from Winnipeg, died in November 2010.
She began composing in the
Romantic style but in the 1970s
shifted towards the atonal minimalism of American composers
Terry Riley and Steve Reich.
“Ann and I actually became
friends through our mutual
admiration of Reich’s music,”
recalls House. “She gave me
cassette tapes of two of her early
‘pattern’ pieces for piano: Glass
Christina Petrowska-Quilico and
Ann Southam. PHOTO: ANDRÉ LEDUC
Houses #5 and Fast Rivers # 8. I
found them both very inspiring.”
Indeed Glass Houses became
the inspiration for House’s 1983
work of the same title that established him as a choreographer
of note internationally. “At the
time I chose Glass Houses because
I loved the rhythms, the kinetic
melodies and the unpredictable
way in which [Ann] organized
the material.”
Now, almost 30 years later,
House has returned to Rivers —
the second composition Southam shared with him. It is his first
new work created to an existing
score in more than a decade.
House invited renowned Canadian pianist Christina PetrowskaQuilico to collaborate with him
on Rivers. It was Petrowska-Quilico whom the composer herself
entrusted to record Glass Houses
and Rivers between 1979 and
1981, and again in 2004.
“[Ann] wanted this feeling
of looking at water, of stillness,
of life beneath the surface,”
Petrowska-Quilico explains.
“From the first day of rehearsal
with Christopher there has been
palpable electricity between the
dancers and the score.”
“[Ann] clearly loved composing in the same way that she
was passionate about so many
things in life,” says House. “Rivers
proposes composition as a joyful
act – the joy in creating a living,
breathing work of art.”
Toronto Dance Theatre’s Rivers,
choreographed by Christopher
House, runs April 25 to -28 at the
Fleck Dance Theatre, Harbourfront Centre.
tickets.harbourfrontcentre.com
“The Temple of Tone”
- Globe and Mail
Andre Watts
Gil Shaham plays Bach
Wed., Apr. 18, 2012 8pm Koerner Hall
“Mr. Watts has big sound, big technique
and natural musicality.” (The New York
Times) “Whenever André Watts is in town,
it’s a special occasion - and a reminder of
the depth and artistry that this pianist can
bring.” (Cincinnati Enquirer) The piano
superstar performs for the first time at
Koerner Hall.
Sat., Apr. 21, 2012 8pm Koerner Hall
“A virtuoso and a player of deeply intense
sincerity” (The New York Times) Combining
flawless technique with inimitable warmth
and a generosity of spirit, award-winning
violinist Gil Shaham performs an all-Bach
solo recital on the 1699 “Countess
Polignac” Stradivarius.
Hilario Durán Latin Big
Band with special guest
Paquito D'Rivera
Saturday, May 5, 2012 8pm Koerner Hall
Sax master Paquito D’Rivera joins pianist
Hilario Durán and his big band of 20 stellar
Latin jazz artists.
Emanuel Ax
Sun., May 13, 2012 3pm Koerner Hall
Called “a poet of the piano,” Ax performs
Variations by Copland, Haydn, and Beethoven,
along with Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes.
“One of Ax's great strengths as a performer,
in fact, is his ability to blend tenderness
and muscle in a single amalgam.”
(San Francisco Chronicle)
Australian Chamber
Orchestra with
Dawn Upshaw
Itzhak Perlman with
The Perlman
Music Program
Sun., Apr. 22, 2012 3pm Koerner Hall
Soprano Dawn Upshaw, “one of the most
consequential performers of our time,”
(Los Angeles Times) will perform the Canadian
premiere of Maria Schneider’s Winter Morning
Walks, and works by Webern, Crumb, and
Schönberg with the incomparable Australian
Chamber Orchestra.
Sun., Apr. 29, 2012 3pm Koerner Hall
As part of his week-long Toronto residency,
superstar violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman
comes to Koerner Hall with some of his
students to perform Mozart: Viola Quintet
in G Minor; Shostakovich: Prelude and
Scherzo for String Octet; and Mendelssohn:
String Octet in E-flat Major.
Christian Gerhaher
with András Schiff
Wed., May 16, 2012 8pm Koerner Hall
“A baritone with a rich tone and a seemingly
infallible ear for dramatic phrasing”
(New York Times) and an iconic pianist
performs Beethoven, Haydn, and Schumann’s
Dichterliebe.
Simon Shaheen
Friday, June 1, 2012 8pm Koerner Hall
Virtuoso oud and violin player Shaheen
deftly leaps from traditional Arabic sounds
to jazz and Western classical styles with
soaring technique, melodic ingenuity, and
unparalleled grace.
TICKETS ON SALE NOW! RCMUSIC.CA 416.408.0208
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Showtime
TD TORONTO JAZZ FESTIVAL
BEACHES JAZZ FESTIVAL
Jazz festival gets a new sound
Two weekends
of free music
keep Beaches
hopping
azz fans will hear many
old favourites at the 26th
annual TD Toronto Jazz
Festival this summer. But as it
looks to the next quarter-century,
the festival will include sounds
from a new wave of artists taking
the genre in different directions.
“There’s going to be music for
everyone who likes jazz,” says
Josh Grossman, artistic director of Toronto Downtown Jazz,
which presents the annual festival. However, this year’s event,
which runs from June 22 to July 1,
will appeal to those looking for a
fusion of various types of music,
he says. “As the competition for
the entertainment dollar gets
more heated, it’s important that
we stay interesting and relevant.”
With more than 500,000
people in attendance, this is the
summer’s largest music festival.
Some 1,500 musicians will perform 350-plus concerts in more
than 40 locations.
The lineup includes the celebrated pianist Peter Appleyard,
guitarist George Benson and singer-songwriter Natalie Cole, while
presenting up-and-coming artists
and educational programming
to “push the music forward” and
foster the next generation of jazz
musicians says Grossman, 35, a
trumpet player and band leader
in his third year working with the
festival.
Newer artists include Esperanza Spalding, Gretchen Parlato,
Trombone Shorty and Becca
Stevens, he says, who incorporate
hip-hop, R&B, funk, soul and
with the times.”
Those among the TD Toronto
Jazz Festival audience will find
that The Robert Glasper Experiment gets its name honestly.
“Literally 60 to 70 per cent of
what you’re hearing on stage is
being made up at that time,” he
says, the songs varying with each
performance. “We never know
how they’re going to start, or how
they’re going to end.”
he Beaches International Jazz Festival has
long been one of the
best-attended events of the
Toronto summer. The alwaysfree event has expanded to
two weekends of music, and
runs this year from July 20
to 29.
The title of the festival,
now in its 24th year, no
longer accurately describes
the music it presents, says
long-time artistic director
Bill King. “There is a lesser
jazz component now,” he
explains. “It is an outdoor
concert, and you need music
that connects with people to
keep it fun.”
Other genres represented
include blues, Latin, New
Orleans, R&B and world music, and the crowd-pleasing
formula has worked just fine.
The festival core is two
days of shows at the bandshell in Kew Gardens on July
28 and 29. Confirmed artists
include U.S. soul/blues star
Johnny Rawls, fast-rising locals The Heavyweights Brass
Band, and instrumental R&B
combo The Bill King Trio.
www.torontojazz.com
www.beachesjazz.com
The city’s largest music festival, the TD Toronto Jazz Festival attracts over 500,000 people annually to more than
40 venues, clubs and stages all across the Greater Toronto Area. This year’s festival includes performances by
pianist Peter Appleyard and recording artists George Benson and Natalie Cole. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
rock into their music. The Robert
Glasper Experiment, with guestartist Bilal, will present a “really
exciting cool fusion of sounds,”
he adds.
Glasper, 34, is a jazz pianist
who’s been performing for 10
years, but says he’s considered
new in the field because “people
keep finding me…. I keep embarking on newer things.”
His mix of jazz and hip-hop
gives younger fans “something
they can grab onto, something
they can relate to,” Glasper says.
“A lot of jazz is unrelatable to
younger audiences, the same
way hip-hop is unrelatable to a
70-year-old.”
Artists since the 1930s have
been “pushing jazz,” he says.
“Jazz always changes.” For
example, jazz trumpeter Miles
Davis “changed all the time,”
introducing sounds like funk
into his repertoire, Glasper notes.
“He knew that to keep the music
alive, you have to be relevant
BILL KING
Musical renaissance man explores Gloryland
t 65, Toronto music
veteran Bill King is more
prolific than ever. Back in
October, he released Five Aces, an
all-instrumental R&B album he
recorded with bandmates Collin
Barrett (bass) and Mark Kelso
(drums). It was greeted with positive reviews and strong airplay
in Canada and the U.S. That
response is being duplicated with
King’s brand-new album Gloryland (Tales From the Old South).
Gloryland is an artistically
adventurous solo piano album,
comprising 12 original compositions described by King as “tone
poems that trace the music,
sounds, history and landscape of
the Old South.”
King’s compositions on
Gloryland draw from folk, blues,
“I’m delighted that
our exceptional 2012-13
NAC Orchestra season
includes a performance
and education
tour to spectacular
Northern Canada.”
Veteran Toronto pianist-composer Bill King plays the Royal Cinema on
May 12. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
HAPPENS
HERE
– Pinchas Zukerman,
Music Director,
NAC Orchestra
Photo: Kenn Taylor
“NAC Presents,
in partnership with
BMO Financial Group,
highlights Canada’s most
distinctive artists on the
national stage like nobody
else can — showcasing the
richness of our emerging
and established talents. ”
– Simone Deneau,
Producer, NAC Presents/
Variety/Community
Programming
boogie-woogie, country and
gospel elements, a style he terms
“Americana.”
He will perform his new material in concert at the Royal Cinema
on May 12. “We’ll keep it intimate,”
he says. “It will be an interesting
evening.”
The show also celebrates the
50th anniversary of when King
starting playing professionally.
“National is about
a perspective;
inclusive, distinct
and diverse. Our
2012-13 playbill
celebrates the
theatrical creativity
of Canadian women.”
– Peter Hinton,
Artistic Director,
English Theatre
Photo: Tony Hauser
“Northern Scene is a
one-of-a-kind festival
celebrating the artists
whose traditional and
contemporary voices
so profoundly shape
Canada’s identity”
Photo: Dwayne Brown
“NAC Dance continues
to support artistic
creation through
co-productions, such as
Kidd Pivot | Crystal Pite’s
The Tempest Replica,
set for its Canadian
premier at the
National Arts Centre.”
– Heather Moore,
Producer and
Executive Director,
Northern Scene
Photo: Tony Hauser
« Nous sommes
heureux de coproduire
avec le TNO, en
première canadienne,
la version française
du dernier texte
de l’écrivain cri
Tomson Highway. »
Photo: Brigitte Bouvier
– Cathy Levy,
Producer, Dance
See what we
are bringing to
the national stage
this coming season
nac-cna.ca
“Unique to the NAC,
Celebrity Chefs of
Canada showcases
the passion of
Canada’s most
talented chefs
as they help redefine
‘Canadian cuisine’.”
– Brigitte Haentjens,
Directrice artistique,
Théâtre français
Photo: Angelo Barsetti
Photo:
Photoluxstudio.com Christian Lalonde
– Michael Blackie,
Executive Chef
OTTAWA

Special - The Globe and Mail

Transcription

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