Canadian Stage have already shown a willingness to venture into different disciplines, bringing great artists such as Crystal Pite and Robert Lepage to Toronto to broaden the experience of the CanStage audience under Matthew Jocelyn’s leadership.

Soundstreams and Canadian Stage have announced a collaboration for next season.  Julie is  Belgian composer Philippe Boesmans’ operatic adaptation of August Strindberg’s naturalist play Miss Julie.   The libretto is adapted by Luc Bondy.

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I just watched a DVD of the 2005 La Monnaie production.  It’s 74 minutes long, which is remarkable considering that when i googled the length of the original, i found a production claiming that Strindberg’s play is 75 minutes long.  Operas are normally much longer, sung text usually taking lots more time than the same words spoken.  Boesmans’ score moves along at an astonishing clip, and requiring performances of remarkable intensity: because this powerhouse story that’s being told also requires singing as well.

I’ll talk about the DVD another time.  But I’m happy to say that this is a worthy project, one of the finest scores i’ve heard in a long time.

Almost exactly a year from now –on November 19th 2015– the Toronto production will open, Directed by Matthew Jocelyn, with Music Direction by Les Dala in the 850 seat Bluma Appel Theatre.