“Press releases and announcements” are presented verbatim without comment.
Venues, Dates & Cast announced for Ken Gass’s
Inaugural CANADIAN REP THEATRE season
TORONTO (JULY 9, 2013) Artistic Director Ken Gass today announced venues, casting and dates for three Canadian Rep Theatre productions that will comprise its 2013/14 inaugural season. The playbill features new works by three of Canada’s leading playwrights: the English-language premiere of PACAMAMBO by Wajdi Mouawad (translated by Shelley Tepperman); the world premiere of WATCHING GLORY DIE by Judith Thompson; and the Canadian premiere of DEAD METAPHOR by George F. Walker.
The season will run from January to June, 2014 in three venues in Toronto and one in Vancouver, including a co-venture with Mirvish Productions for the Off-Mirvish Season.
Ken Gass states, “I am incredibly honoured to present these extraordinary works from three of Canada’s most iconic playwrights for my inaugural season. These vital and important artists represent the emphasis of strong and brave Canadian creative voices that will clearly fuel Canadian Rep Theatre’s future.”
The 2014 Winter/Spring schedule at a glance:
PACAMAMBO – The Citadel (Toronto) Jan 17 – Feb 2
WATCHING GLORY DIE – The CULTCH (Vancouver) Apr 24 – May 3
WATCHING GLORY DIE – Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs (Toronto) May 15 – 31
DEAD METAPHOR – Panasonic Theatre (Off-Mirvish Season, Toronto) May 24 – Jun 15
In January of 2014, Canadian Rep Theatre presents the English-language premiere of Wajdi Mouawad’s Pacamambo, translated by Shelley Tepperman and directed by Ken Gass. Pacamambo will showcase at the intimate 72-seat venue, The Citadel at 304 Parliament St. (near Dundas) previewing January 17-19, opening January 21 and running until February 2. Starring Karen Robinson, Kyra Harper and others TBA. Set design by Marian Wihak; lighting by Rebecca Picherack; original music & sound by Wayne Kelso.
Premiered in 2000, Pacamambo is a remarkable achievement. Conceived as a play for children about death, the work is lyrical, emotionally powerful, and hugely life-affirming. It tells the story of Julie, who disappeared for three weeks and was discovered in her grandmother’s apartment storage locker with her dog, Growl, and the perfume-laden body of her grandmother. Gass states, “I have been passionate about this work for years and am thrilled to finally produce it. Pacamambo is a magical theatrical experience for audiences from 9 to 90.”
In April/May 2014, Canadian Rep Theatre proudly presents the world premiere of Judith Thompson’s tour-de-force solo play, Watching Glory Die, performed by Judith Thompson and directed by Ken Gass. Lighting design by Andre du Toit (other designers TBA), Watching Glory Die will have its premiere performance at Vancouver’s venerable The CULTCH on April 24, 2014 (preview on April 23) and run until May 3. The production will then open at the Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs in Toronto on May 15 and run until May 31.
Though deliberately fictional, Watching Glory Die takes a bold dramatic leap from recent news stories-the treatment of chronically disturbed young women in our prison system-to forge the kind of visceral lyricism that is the hallmark of Judith Thompson at her most powerful. Gass adds, “This riveting yet deeply compassionate portrait of three women-a prisoner, a mother and a guard-inextricably linked by shared helplessness in the face of tragedy-yields a disturbing but unforgettable theatrical experience. Not to be missed.”
In May/June 2014, the Canadian premiere of George F. Walker’s Dead Metaphor, a Canadian Rep Theatre production co-produced with Mirvish Productions, will open as part of the Off-Mirvish Season at the Panasonic Theatre. Directed by George F. Walker, Dead Metaphor will star Nancy Beatty, Jerry Franken, Michael Healey, Haley McGee, Noah Reid and Julie Stewart. Set and Costume design by Shawn Kerwin, Lighting Design by Rebecca Picherack, original music and sound design by Lesley Barber. First performed at the prestigious A.C.T. (American Conservatory Theater) in San Francisco, Dead Metaphor will preview May 24-25, open on May 27 and run until June 15,2014.
“HilariousŠ. Dead Metaphor brings [Walker] to San Francisco in stunning form.” Huffington Post
“Dead Metaphor is dead serious, but it’s still seriously funny.” San Francisco Examiner
Dean is a young ex-sniper, just back from Afghanistan, struggling to find work. His family is disintegrating before his eyes; his wife is ready to divorce him a second time, yet players on both ends of the political spectrum find Dean’s special talents oddly appealing. Gass states, “This startling dark comedy is destined to become a Walker classic, a play that sits dangerously, eerily and hilariously on the razor edge between desperation and disaster.”
Stay tuned for further announcements of the fall Canadian Rep Reading Series and special events such as a public workshop of excerpts from a major new opera, SAVITRI & SAM (music by John Mills-Cockell, libretto Ken Gass) in September, 2013 at The Citadel.
Canadian Rep Theatre mandate: The long-term vision is to build Canadian Rep Theatre into a permanent ensemble focusing on innovative approaches to established works from the contemporary Canadian canon, along with challenging new plays that resonate with the diverse face of Canada in the 21st century.
Let your friends suggest what to go see. You’ll end up in places you might never have found otherwise.
Led by my friend, tonight I went to see Stop Kiss, Diana Son’s play at the 2013 Toronto Fringe Festival, directed by Shaun Benson, from gun shy theatre. I’m far more familiar with the travails of gay men in western culture than the female equivalent. But knowing the play’s trajectory I was immediately implicated, watching a beautiful naked woman dancing onstage, knowing that the chief problem in this story comes from the male response to that beauty.
Melissa Hood (left) and Kate Ziegler (right) as Callie and Sara in Stop Kiss by Diana Son. Photo by Shaun Benson.
Without giving it all away, let me simply quote from the director’s note, when Benson says he’s not happy to be directing this play:
“A play about two women falling in love and being beaten into a coma for it ought to be so obscure and irrelevant that only pedants and perverts know of its existence”.
I don’t know this work or the playwright, but was impressed by the natural ear Son shows for dialogue. This is not a display of ego from a writer, indeed the writing is so subtle you could lose track, she makes it seem so effortless, so understated. The one tiny affectation –if you can call it that—came in moments when exchanges of incomplete phrases between characters brought the absurd minimalism of Pinter to mind. In those pauses we were suspended not by some authorial tour de force (those moments when Pinter shows off his craft), but the gravity of the situation and the pure passion of the characters.
The dialogue alludes briefly to the TV series Law & Order, a metaphor that seems to underlie the play’s structure, looping back and forth in time before and after the catastrophic events. Much of the first half of Stop Kiss uses attempts by the police to make sense of a crime, while supplying us with plot exposition. The further we get into the play, the less it’s about forensics, and the more it probes feelings & consequences.
There’s so much to celebrate in this production, from the tightly written play-script, given an air-tight reading in performances that are all dead on –due to astute casting—and wonderful chemistry between the principals. Melissa Hood’s Callie is a difficult role to portray, because we’ve all met women like her, easy to underestimate; the further we get in the play, the deeper Hood takes us into Callie, quite an astonishing portrayal. Kate Ziegler is a wonderful contrast to Hood, the articulate teacher, disabled by the attack.
There’s one aspect I’m struggling with, as I try to decide whether I saw something that’s in Son’s script or possibly Benson’s directorial invention; I wonder who deserves the credit. As we move back and forth in the action, the scenes are set through the wonderfully artificial device of having the characters come in and out in character at that instant, which means for example, that Sara is helped in and out for those scenes where she is in a coma, then five seconds later in the next scene–from a few days before the assault—she’s suddenly the vibrant woman she was before the attack. The meta-drama of those set-ups was at times every bit as gripping as the play itself, problematizing not just what we’re seeing, but our understanding of consciousness itself. I found the suspense and the surprise overwhelming at times.
Stop Kiss is a fabulous piece of work, and notwithstanding the brutality at its core, an affirmation of love & humanity. I recommend it without reservation.
Stop Kiss continues at the Toronto Fringe until July 14th.
“Press releases and announcements” are presented verbatim without comment.
2013-14 season unveiled
Highlights include Swedish Folk Baroque, Ensemble Lucidarium from Italy,
and Cavalli’s opera Giasone
“As led by its Artistic Director, David Fallis, the Toronto Consort lavishes luminous clarity, lightness and vitality on the music.”
—Gramophone Magazine
Toronto, July 4, 2013 … Under the artistic leadership of David Fallis, the Toronto Consort has announced its 2013-14 season, consisting of an array of unusual and beautiful early music concert programs that speak to contemporary audiences. The line-up includes Swedish Folk Baroque; special guests from Italy, Ensemble Lucidarium in a program called La Istoria de Purim; biennial Christmas favourite Navidad; Carnival Revels; and Francesco Cavalli’s opera-in-concert Giasone. 2013-14 subscriptions are available through the box office at (416) 964-6337. Individual concert tickets go on sale in early September. For more information, visit www.torontoconsort.org or the Consort’s Facebook page.
Founded in 1972, The Toronto Consort was one of the city’s first professional period music ensembles specializing in the music of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and early Baroque — roughly 1200 to 1675. Over the past four decades, the Toronto Consort has continued to expand listeners’ appreciation through inventive programming that breathes life into period music. The ensemble has become internationally recognized for its excellence in live and recorded period music, and has collaborated on a number of film and television projects including Atom Egoyan’s The Sweet Hereafter and two Showtime series, The Tudors and The Borgias.
This summer, the Toronto Consort’s home venue of Trinity-St. Paul’s is receiving an ambitious overhaul. Phase One of the renovations will be completed in late September 2013 and include acoustical improvements, the installation of a permanent stage, and more comfortable seating. The two-phase, $3 million project is being undertaken in partnership with long-time collaborators Trinity-St. Paul’s United Church and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir, which is spearheading the initiative.
2013-14 SEASON AT A GLANCE
Swedish Folk Baroque
October 18 & 19, 2013
The Consort launches its 2013-14 season in the newly revitalized Trinity-St. Paul’s with an unforgettable journey into the world of early and traditional Swedish music. Consort member Katherine Hill, who recently spent a year in Sweden studying traditional music, guides this smörgäsbord of rarely-heard songs, ballads, chorales, dance tunes and herding music. The Swedish court of the 16th century welcomed artists from Italy, Poland, England, France and beyond. The resulting confluence of styles and traditions resonated in both court and countryside throughout the baroque period and into the 19th century, in hauntingly beautiful and exuberantly toe-tapping ways. Hill will perform on the nyckelharpa, a traditional Swedish keyed fiddle.
Ensemble Lucidarium presents La Istoria de Purim
November 22 and 23, 2013
Ensemble Lucidarium is the world’s leading ensemble bringing early Jewish music to life. A hit at last year’s Ashkenaz Festival, they return to Toronto with La Istoria de Purim – Music and Poetry of the Jews in Renaissance Italy. Lucidarium’s joyful improvisation and energetic music-making has brought both popular and critical acclaim to the ensemble. The award-winning program La Istoria de Purim is a celebration of the musical and poetic legacy of the Jewish communities of Renaissance Italy. A vast and entertaining repertoire with material in Italian, Hebrew and Yiddish, the centrepiece of the evening is a set of early Italian Purim songs. “Pure energy on period instruments.”
Navidad: Christmas Music from Latin America and Spain
December 13, 14 & 15, 2013
The Toronto Consort celebrates Christmas with a Latin flavor with Navidad. “Terrific” is how Gramophone magazine described the program, which the Consort recorded and released in 2012 on the Marquis label. Navidad is a fiesta of early music from the Spanish-speaking nations on both sides of the Atlantic, and features harp, guitars, percussion, winds, keyboards and voices. From the solemnity of motets by Francisco Guerrero, to the intricate cross-rhythms of villancicos and dance tunes from Latin America, this is Christmas celebration at its most exuberant.
Carnival Revels
February 28 and March 1, 2014
From Epiphany to Mardi Gras, the streets of Renaissance Europe resounded with the sounds and songs of Carnival. The long nights were chased away with disguises, revelry and feasting, all laced with wonderful music-making. The Toronto Consort takes audiences to Italy, Spain, England and France for music both outrageous and intoxicating.
Giasone
by Francesco Cavalli
April 4, 5 & 6, 2014
The Toronto Consort has enjoyed great success with an ongoing series presenting masterworks of early opera in concert, including those of Francesco Cavalli. This season, the Consort presents the most popular opera of the 17th century, Cavalli’s comic masterpiece Giasone, telling the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece with some decidedly irreverent plot twists. Sung in Italian, Giasone features mezzo-soprano Laura Pudwell in the title role, with Kevin Skelton as Aegeus, and Michelle DeBoer as Medea, and full continuo, strings and winds.
Friday and Saturday evening concerts begin at 8:00 pm and Sunday matinee concerts begin at 3:30 pm. All concerts take place at Trinity St. Paul’s Centre, 427 Bloor Street West
Full subscriptions are available now and prices range from $97 to $227; Regular individual concert tickets go on sale in early September, 2013 and regular prices range from $23 to $61.
Club Consort tickets: $10 for those age 30 and under with valid photo ID.
The Toronto Consort gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and the Toronto Arts Council.
“Press releases and announcements” are presented verbatim without comment.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 8, 2013
Toronto Summer Music announces INSIDER EVENTS at 2013 Festival
TORONTO…New at this year’s Toronto Summer Music Festival are behind-the-scenes Festival Insider Events, including film screenings, Musicians Up-Close interviews, guest lectures, masterclasses and open rehearsals. Beginning July 16, Festival Insiders Events run Tuesdays to Fridays starting at 1:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the door for $20 per day ($15 for 65+, $10 for under 35) or in advance purchase a Festival Insiders Pass for $75 ($55 for 65+, $35 for under 35) at www.torontosummermusic.com . Festival Insider Events take place at various downtown locations including Innis Town Hall, Rotman School of Management, Koerner Hall, Walter Hall, and the Geiger-Torel Room in the Edward Johnson Building (80 Queen’s Park).
TUESDAY, JULY 16
1:30 p.m. – Festival Welcome by Artistic Director Douglas McNabney & Festival Insider co-host Rick Phillips (Walter Hall)
1:30 p.m. – Musicians-Up-Close: Paul Coletti hosted by Douglas McNabney (Geiger-Torel Room)
2:30 p.m. – Lecture: “The Rite of Spring’s 100th Anniversary” by Rick Phillips & Michael Crabb, Dance Critic, Toronto Star (Geiger-Torel Room)
4:00 p.m. – Open Rehearsal: The Rite of Spring, Anagnoson & Kinton (Walter Hall)
TUESDAY, JULY 23
1:30 p.m. – Lecture: “The Ravel & Debussy String Quartets” by Rick Phillips (Geiger-Torel Room)
2:30 p.m. – Masterclass: Julius Drake (Walter Hall)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 24
1:30 p.m. – Musicians-Up-Close: Pacifica String Quartet hosted by Douglas McNabney (Geiger-Torel Room)
2:30 p.m. – Film Screening: Un Coeur en Hiver (Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue)
THURSDAY, JULY 25
1:30 p.m. – Lecture: “What is Impressionism?” by Rick Phillips (Geiger-Torel Room)
2:30 p.m. – Masterclass: André Laplante (Walter Hall)
FRIDAY, JULY 26
1:30 p.m. – Lecture: “La Belle et la Bête: Wagner and Wagnerism in La Belle Époque” by Robin Elliot (Geiger-Torel Room)
2:30 p.m. – Lecture and Demonstration: “French melodies of La Belle Époque” with Rick Phillips and Michael McMahon (Geiger-Torel Room)
4:00 p.m. – Open Rehearsal: Mozart Clarinet Quintet, Pacifica Quartet and Alexander Fiterstein (Walter Hall)
TUESDAY, JULY 30
1:30 p.m. – Musicians-Up-Close: Cédric Tiberghien hosted by Douglas McNabney (Geiger-Torel Room)
2:30 p.m. – Lecture: “Minimalism in Music: From Satie to Radiohead” by Douglas McNabney (Geiger-Torel Room)
4:00 p.m. – Open Rehearsal: Hahn Piano Quintet, Jonathan Crow, Martin Beaver, Steven Dann, Marc Coppey, and Ian Brown (Walter Hall)
WEDNESDAY, JULY 31
1:30 p.m. – Musicians-Up-Close: Steven Dann hosted by Douglas McNabney (Geiger-Torel Room)
2:30PM – Film Screening: Tous les matins du monde (Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Avenue)
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1
1:30 p.m. – Musicians-Up-Close: Jonathan Crow hosted by Rick Phillips (Geiger-Torel Room)
2:30 p.m. – Masterclass: Ian Brown (Walter Hall)
FRIDAY, AUGUST 2
1:30 p.m. – Festival Wrap-Up with Douglas McNabney & Rick Phillips (Geiger-Torel Room)
2:30 p.m. – An Insider’s Tour of Koerner Hall hosted by Douglas McNabney (Koerner Hall)
4:00 p.m. – Open Rehearsal: Brahms Piano Quartet (Walter Hall)
Now in its eighth year of bringing outstanding classical music experiences to the city in the summer, Toronto Summer Music Festival (July 16-August 3) features renowned Canadian and international artists performing in 12 mainstage concerts at Koerner Hall and Walter Hall, plus masterclasses, lectures, interviews, workshops, and free outreach concerts. The theme of the 2013 Festival, Paris La Belle Époque, celebrates the unrivalled cultural phenomenon that swept turn of the century Paris and showcases great musical works by French composers performed by renowned artists including France’s distinguished Trio Pennetier Pasquier Pidoux, pianist Cédric Tiberghien,Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Brentano String Quartet, Juno award-winning Gryphon Trio, and bass-baritone Philippe Sly. For information on all 2013 Festival activities call 416-408-0208 or visit www.torontosummermusic.com .
Born and raised in Toronto, violist Douglas McNabney is one of Canada’s most distinguished chamber musicians. He has enjoyed an international performing career with appearances in Holland, Belgium, France, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Germany, Ireland, Great Britain, Switzerland, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, as well as performances throughout Canada and the U.S.A. He has recorded for, among others, BRT (Brussels), Radio Bremen, RTE (Dublin), Finnish Broadcasting (Helsinki), Sudwestdeutscher Rundfunk (Karlsruhe), Norwegian Radio (Oslo), Radio Sweden (Stockholm), NPR (USA), and the CBC. His recording on the Oxingale label of the Mozart Divertimento with Jonathan Crow and Matt Haimovitz was nominated for a Juno in 2007 and his Dorian recording of Mahler with the Smithsonian Chamber Players was nominated for a Grammy in 2008. He has recorded for Dorian, Amberola, Marquis, Oxingale, and CBC Enterprises labels.
As one of Canada’s most active chamber musicians, he has appeared as guest artist with the leading chamber music groups and societies across Canada. His chamber music partners include Canadians Marc-André Hamelin, Louis Lortie, André Laplante, Anton Kuerti, James Ehnes and internationally renowned soloists Menachem Pressler, Steven Isserlis, Jamie Buswell, William Preucil, Miriam Fried, among many others. He has performed with the SuperNova Quartet, the Crow-Haimovitz-McNabney Trio, the Orfordto.org/”; Quartet, the Penderecki Quartet, the Alcan Quartet, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, the St Lawrence Quartet, Sante Fe Pro Musica, Millennium, the Gryphon Trio, the Allegri String Quartet, le Quatuor Artur Leblanc, Amici, New Music Concerts (Toronto), the Toronto Chamber Players, Amadeus Ensemble, Scotia Chamber Players, the Acadia Chamber Players, the Winnipeg Chamber Music Society, Musica Camerata de Montréal, and Les Chambristes de Montréal. He has appeared in most of the major festivals in Canada including le Festival international du Domaine Forget, le Festival international de Lanaudière, Orford; International Festival, Galway International Festival (Ireland), Music at Speedside, Festival du Bic, the Scotia Festival, Kammermusikfest Kloster Kamp, Linfort (Germany), Festival of the Sound, the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, BargeMusic, (New York), Festival Canada, Music at Blair Atholl (Scotland), Festival de musique de chambre de Montréal, le Club musical de Québec, and many others.
Also renowned as an arts administrator, Douglas McNabney was Artistic Director of the Domaine Forget Music Festival and Academy from 2001 until 2005. He was Chair of the Department of Performance of McGill University from 2004 to 2008 during a period of extensive renewal and growth of the Faculty. In 2009, Douglas McNabney was responsible for the artistic direction of the Haydn 2009 project at the Museum of Fine Arts in Montreal where the complete cycle of all 68 String Quartets was performed in one week. The event featured guest quartets from across North America and Europe and renowned Haydn scholars in conference with a total public attendance in excess of 6,000 entries.
Douglas McNabney is currently Professor of Chamber Music at the Schulich School of Music of McGill. He also pursues a busy schedule of appearances as soloist and guest artist in festivals and with chamber music societies and ensembles across Canada and Europe. He was appointed Artistic Director of Toronto Summer Music in August 2010.
As we approach the opening of the 2013 Toronto Summer Music Festival on July 16th I ask McNabney 10 questions: five about himself and five more about the TSM.
1) Are you more like your father or your mother?
Violist – teacher – administrator Doulas McNabney
Neither…. (Although my wife might have a different opinion!) I was very much the black sheep of the family, and although our family was a large one, there was no background in music or the arts and no role models. If pressed, I would say I have my father’s sensitivity and my mother’s stubbornness, in equal measure.
I think I am not alone among musicians who wonder where the consuming passion for their art comes from. It defines us and sets us apart, on occasion, even from our families. Unless it is a family of musicians – like my wife’s! Both of her parents are musicians and they have four children, all musicians who married other musicians. And now my two children are musicians! My daughter is a harpsichordist, like her mother, and grandmother before her. Third generation of harpsichordists… It’s like the Bach family – but, sign of the times, all women!
My son is a wonderful double bass player. As a family, when we have occasion to all play together, (it is rare – not a lot of repertoire for harpsichord, viola and double bass!) – we are no longer parent and child, we are three musicians. Music is what knits my family together.
2) What is the best thing or worst thing about being Artistic Director of an annual music festival?
After struggling all year with the logistics and the constant preoccupation of funding to bring the artists, the music and the public together, the best part is unquestionably witnessing the moment of the creative act – a performance. Watching and listening to a musician, whether seasoned pro or young artist, discover on the spur of the moment, a new sound, turn of phrase, timing or significance to the unfolding of the music, is a thrill. And it’s equally satisfying to see the audience appreciate that moment. The lives of the artists and the audience are immeasurable enriched by the experience. As musicians, we all live for those moments; as audience we’re touched by a grace that takes us out of our more ordinary lives…. That’s a bit heavy, but true!
3) Who do you like to listen to or watch?
I hardly watch tv. When I have the chance, I will try to watch a good film (which excludes most Hollywood fare!)
The act of listening to music is not something I can do casually. I’m drawn in and cannot do or think about anything else when there’s music being played. So I don’t listen to music when I sit back and relax. I hope this doesn’t shock people – but I prefer silence! When I’m too tired to do anything productive, I’ll watch Mad Men on itunes. It’s a sixties thing, a world I grew up in and there’s something very subversive about it that appeals to me. I feel like layers of significance to all kinds of inexplicable things of my childhood are being revealed.
4) What ability or skill do you wish you had, that you don’t have?
Sometimes I wish I was a better singer. But then, maybe I would not have become a string player? I think I’ve reached the stage in life where I feel there’s nothing to be gained nor lost by pretending to be anything other than what I am, deficiencies included!
5) When you’re just relaxing and not working what is your favourite thing to do?
I would say my other passion in life, apart from family, food, and fine wine, is architecture. I like to study buildings and read about the people who designed them. I also like to design and build things myself. I’m finishing a summer house at the moment that I designed from the ground up. I like the sense of completion in construction and renovation. Once a room is painted, it’s done, finished. I never get that sense of completion in my professional life. There’s always more music to practise, another festival season to plan, etc. It’s endless. Which is also a good thing of course, because there’s always an excellent reason to get up in the morning and get going!
Douglas McNabney (photo: Bo Huang)
~~~~~~~
Five more concerning Douglas McNabney’s ongoing commitment to Toronto Summer Music Festival as their Artistic Director
1) Please talk about how you reconcile the disparate aspects of your life: as a performer, a teacher and academic, and as an administrator & impresario.
It’s interesting. I feel all the various roles I’m fortunate to play are complementary, not incompatible. Being a teacher helps me reflect upon what I do as a performer. Being an academic at a university like McGill has made me a more efficient administrator, etc. And the various tasks require a different energy. After a day full of rehearsing and practicing, I can turn to writing or reading and email feeling quite fresh. I could never do another 4 or 5 hours of rehearsing, but easily manage to do that in administrative tasks. And vice-versa.
2) what do you love about programming a Festival such as TSM?
Programming the TSM Festival is a tremendously satisfying challenge to meet every year. I can draw upon years of experience from every facet of my career. A degree in Musicology from U of Toronto, my performing career as a chamber musician, my administrative career at McGill and 10 years in the Artistic Direction at Domaine Forget in Charlevoix, QC, – every one of those roles and that collective experience informs my choices. I have also had the good fortune to meet and perform with some incredibly gifted colleagues. Bringing these musicians to Toronto for the first time and sharing their particular genius with the public is very rewarding.
I also love following the trail of an idea through the research it inspires and discovery of repertoire that I’ve never come across. There is so much great music out there and programming repertoire that is new to me is one of the most gratifying aspects of planning a season.
I am by nature very curious. I’m always looking for ‘why did this happen?’, ‘where did this come from?’ and ‘what was the inspiration behind this?’ No artist works in a vacuum! There is a context – historical, social, political, and cultural – for every great work of art. Discovering connections and threads of commonality in works of art is, to me, endlessly fascinating. I try to encourage our public to share that sense of discovery and I hope the programming inspires a curiosity to find connections of their own.
3) Do you have a favourite program in the Festival?
Apart from the obvious answer that a parent can have no favourite children, I am particularly proud that we were able to manage to produce the concert with Katia and Marielle Labèque on August 1st entitled The Minimalist Dream House project.
Katia et Marielle Labèque (photo by Brigitte Lacombe): click on photo and then click “The Labèques’ Minimalist Dream House” for more information
This is perhaps the most daring programming we have ever presented at TSM. The MDH project is a retrospective of Minimalism in music– a style many love to hate but that had undeniable impact on music of the last half of the 20th century. It is a unique, intelligent and multi-genre presentation that traces minimalism in music from its origins in the music of Satie, through Cage, Glass and Reich to Arvo Pärt. The program will be a marathon in three parts. The first features the Labèque sisters performing Satie, Glass, Cage and Pärt. They are fabulous performers. In the second and third parts of the program, they will be joined by their band from Paris and will trace the influence of minimalism even through popular genres including rock music. Yes, the music of Radiohead and Sonic Youth with a rock band onstage backing up the Labèque sisters will be part of this year’s TSM Festival! I hope our traditional audience will forgive me – but I am a long-time fan of Radiohead. Having their music as part of the TSM Festival represents a personal triumph of sorts…
(One of many Radiohead transcriptions for piano one can find on youtube)
4) How do you relate to the world of classical music as a modern man?
I suspect I relate to classical music the way people always have and always will! I refuse to despair that it is a dying art. To paraphrase Charles Rosen, the death of classical music is perhaps one of its longest continuing traditions! There are chamber music festivals springing up in every corner of the continent. There are clearly difficulties and we are in a period of transition and upheaval, especially for the corporate/business model of ‘delivering the product’(!) And yet, despite the omnipresence of music everywhere in our lives today (elevators, Loblaws, and hospital corridors), people still crave the intimacy and connection to a performer that only comes from live performance.
Not long ago I came across an amazing anecdote (not yet verified!), that of the 25 billion songs downloaded from the itunes store as of February 2013, 15% were classical. I believe people intuitively can recognize a great work of art and can distinguish between a performance of great quality and something that is fake or false, regardless of genre. Classical music will never have mass appeal (it never did!) but great works of art will continue to be presented to an appreciative audience. We have to ensure the ‘opportunity of exposure’ is offered to those susceptible to forming the audience of tomorrow.
Bruno Giuranna
5) Is there anyone out there who you particularly admire, and who has influenced you?
My teachers and coaches are the formative influences. From the very first violin lesson at age 16! They only encouraged me to pursue my dream – although in retrospect, they probably had their doubts! Then there are the musicians that I met in masterclasses: Bruno Giuranna in Sienna and England, William Primrose for successive summers in Banff; the great conductors I played under when I was Principal Viola of the Quebec Symphony. It is no secret, the musicians I engage for the TSM Festival, many of them good friends and colleagues, are the musicians I admire the most. Come join us at the 2013 festival, and you’ll see why!
~~~~~~~
Toronto Summer Music runs July 16th until August 3rd. For further information click here.
Think the title’s long? that’s not even the full title. It’s Love is a Poverty You Can Sell 2: Kisses for a Pfennig, the latest production from Soup Can Theatre. When I saw it I figured yes this is a labour of love, a project that the company enjoys. It’s a bit awkward sounding, as though taken from a lyric translated from German.
LIAPYCS2 is currently running at the Toronto Fringe Festival, at “Bite”, the lower part of Moskito + Bite, a versatile new space on College at Bathurst, and a fascinating addition to a vibrant neighbourhood (beside Sneaky Dee’s near Kensington Market).
Now I wish I had seen the original. I wonder if it was as good as this show (the sequel)?
I find myself wondering about the process of creation, the assembly of the materials. Directed & choreographed by Sarah Thorpe, conducted by Pratik Gandhi, the program says the show was “curated” by Thorpe, Gandhi & Justin Haigh, as if in recognition of the delicacy of this process, We’ve seen other shows in the Toronto area that flirt with a cabaret sensibility in various ways. Some aim for being true to the original period, where their authenticity is understood according to the Weimar model. But to be truly authentic the performance needs to speak directly to the audience, to be intelligible and urgent. It can’t be a museum piece (speaking of curation).
That’s what Soup Can Theatre achieved in this combination of old (a few songs by Weill and Hollander in translation) & more recent (Sondheim, Nilsson, & a song from Urinetown). The universals of the Weimar cabarets –their sexual & political edginess, their dark themes—don’t fade away.
The show has a very raw, unfinished quality to it. While there are trained singers & dancers onstage, the presentation is in your face, sometimes subtle & intimate.
Christian Jeffries in Love is a Poverty You Can Sell 2 (Photo Courtesy of Lauren Vandenbrook –www.lvimagery.net)
I was especially impressed by Christian Jeffries in his two appearances, a contrasting pair if ever there was one. Whereas his first song is over-the-top funny, as he is mercilessly upstaged by his backup dancing troupe, the second (“Lili Marlene” ) literally brought me to tears, the subtlest performance of the night.
From what I’ve surmised online (google being a poor substitute for seeing Soup Can’s previous cabaret) this is a longer & more elaborate show than the last one. Sometimes we’re in dark territory, as in “Don’t be the Bunny” or “Coin Operated Boy”, while other moments are more soulful & lyrical such as Weill’s “”Youkali” or Hollander’s “Falling in Love Again”. Pratik Gandhi leads an ensemble of 14 (if I counted right), at times raucous in their enthusiasm but never covering the singers.
Soup Can Theatre’s Love is a Poverty You Can Sell 2 continues at Bite on College St until July 14th as part of the 25th Fringe Festival.
I remember taking Psych 100 long ago as an undergrad. Many of our lessons required us to read articles from publications such as Scientific American. I recall one such article concerning eidetic memory, a phenomenon popularly known as “photographic memory”. The subject was presented with great seriousness although I couldn’t really connect with the topic.
Years later the subject came back to mind, when I was thinking about how we experience music.
There are at least two phenomena that come to mind surrounding what we hear and how our minds retain what we’ve heard.
FIRST the bad one. When a tune sticks in our head no matter what we do, it’s called an ear worm. While we may resent the musical invasion, in a real sense it’s a triumph for the composer. Many of the subjects in the symphonies of Beethoven or Mozart are just like that. Watch this clip, and wait for the punch-line, roughly two minutes into the clip: the third piece of music that might be by Salieri.
If you were writing a Broadway musical, you couldn’t do any better than to have patrons walking out of the theatre humming music from your show. If I could write a song that people felt compelled to sing, that they couldn’t get out of their heads, surely that would be an objective to shoot for. A jingle writer seeking to promote a product would hope that their song would stick in your head. The best example I can think of that is Barry Manilow’s “you deserve a break today”. This version is already 2nd generation, because the tune is embedded in a musical number, only rearing its powerful head in the final seconds of this ad.
I recall a pedagogical version of the ear-worm, a tune on PBS called “Conjunction Junction” from Schoolhouse Rock. By creating a tune that stays with the listener grammar lessons are taught.
And SPEAKING of pedagogy, it’s cool that we’re looking at how the mind works. Do we know why some songs stick in our heads? Presumably it’s something about the song that makes us sing it over and over. When I think about Mozart, Manilow and Schoolhouse Rock, they all have an organic flow, making the tunes seem inevitable. I wonder if there’s a threshold of complexity involved. Notice that we’re talking about simplicity rather than complexity. I am trying to recall dissonant & complex examples of compositional gems, dubious as to whether an ear worm is ever atonal.
It may seem like a radical thought, to speak of great music in the same terms as ear-worms, but when you think of it, some classical compositions are great precisely because they stick in your head. And while we may resent a jingle that sticks in our head, it’s another matter entirely if it’s a passage from a symphony or opera.
I was chatting with a friend about one of my favourite movies. Max Reinhardt’s A Midsummernight’s Dream from 1935 is simultaneously very new and very old. While its black & white appearance hardly suggests anything cutting edge, its use of Sprechstimme is very original. I believe it’s the first film making references to the iconography of the Third Reich, so early in its anti-fascism that nobody –except the European refugees such as Korngold & Reinhardt who participated in the film—understood the references.
July 1st is Olivia De Havilland’s 97th birthday. Believe it or not, of the three members of the film who are still alive she is second oldest. Mickey Rooney, who will have his 93rd birthday September 23, is merely the third oldest. Nini Theilade just had her 98th on June 15th.
Here’s a post about the film from a couple of years ago.
The 1935 Warner Brothers A Midsummernight’s Dream (AMSD) directed by Max Reinhardt, is one of my favourite films. This week I will once again get the pleasure of including it in my film music course.
If wishes were horses beggars would ride. Ambition is another kind of wish, particularly when encapsulated in PR. AMSD never seems to live up to the hype of the eight minute promotional film short (see immediately below: click on it to see it on youtube), because its chief ambition was not about box office success but prestige for Warner Brothers, who believed they had an image problem as purveyors of gangster pictures.
Talk about a strange and eclectic mix. Reinhardt aims high, with his powerfully symbolic style, including two long and contrasting set-pieces. Each one features long extended musical passages from Felix Mendelssohn’s incidental music for the play, arranged by Erich Wolfgang Korngold (his first…
I’m enjoying The Birth of an Opera, a fascinating book by Michael Rose.
My jaw dropped at the simplicity of the concept of the work, and now I’m thoroughly hooked by the smoothness of Rose’s execution.
Rose combines two very different flavours into an intoxicating cocktail.
As with Opera as Drama, or Literature as Opera, to name the first two examples of the type that come to mind, The Birth of an Opera takes us through the history of opera via a series of fifteen case studies of great works
As with Harper’sIndex or books such as Debussy Remembered (I am sure there are many other such books), clearly derivative of Lewis Lapham’s de facto approach to journalism, the case studies in The Birth of an Opera create their stories from contemporary testimony
It’s very hard to put down. Each of these case studies –from L’Incoronazione di Poppea to Wozzeck—has the urgency of an episode of CSI, minus the police or the body count.
When it’s Fidelio we’re reading Beethoven, the opera’s librettist Sonnliethner, the Viennese court librettist Treitschke, plus comments from reviewers at performances. For Les Troyens we’re reading Rose + Berlioz, which isn’t as bad as it sounds, considering how well Berlioz could write. For Tristan und Isolde we’re again mostly immersed in the words of the composer, but also Liszt and Robert von Hornstein, one of Wagner’s friends.
The book is constructed in a manner to remind me of opera. Rose writes connective tissue that is like recitative between arias, to allow us to flow from one nugget to the next. This hybrid discourse combining historical documents with Rose’s prose are as artificial as the operas themselves.
It’s the most exciting book about opera that I’ve encountered in a very long time.
A couple of weeks ago I was asked to play keyboard (organ + piano) at a wedding. I said yes enthusiastically, even though I haven’t done this in quite awhile. While I play the organ at my church from time to time, I last played a wedding in the 20th century. On top of that I haven’t played much of late. Although I found a nice groove in the winter through hours spent at the keyboard, I was aware that I’d not played so much of late.
For awhile all I did was think, and it was a question of repertoire. The bride would settle what I’d play at the wedding (a pleasant question that I enjoyed answering with her), but meanwhile, what was I to play to wake up my fingers, and calm my brain? I went AWOL from Blogville, pondering that deep life question “what shall I play”. It may not be obvious, but I don’t spend a lot of time thinking. Lately I was wasting away in Blogville precisely because thinking is in some respects the opposite of blogging. This is not a place where I think a great deal. When I am in a writing groove, the paragraphs come out of me without much thought. Clearly that is not where I am now, although I’m trying to get back there.
But I did play a lot the past couple of weeks. Just as the blogging is often instinctive, following natural paths of association, so too with the rep choices. A friend posted a snapshot of the front page of the Diabelli Variations. Good. I pulled them out and played them.
I’d been reading Stewart Goodyear’s fascinating commentaries on Facebook, on the Beethoven Sonatas, as he prepared to play the Sonatathon: the sequel to last year’s Marathon. Yes, that was the obvious choice. I went logically from the Diabelli, in C and written after sonata 32, op 111 (finishing in C), knowing that I’d be riding a big arc through the 32 sonatas, right back to C major, via three of my favourite sonatas, each an assault on C:
Op 2 #3
Op 53, aka “The Waldstein”
Op 111
I asked Goodyear to name his favourite sonata –a tough question considering the Shakespearean depths of the 32 sonatas–and he gave a forthright answer, identifying the sonata Op 28. Am I a sneak in answering my own question with a trick answer? But i’d say my favourite sonata is the sonata in C. THE sonata in C? That is, Op 2 #3, the Waldstein, and Op 111, because i see them as one long elaborated exploration of the key of C. I’d even strain credibility further by tossing the Diabelli variations into the mix, because of the parallels & similarities between the last pages of the four works.
I feel that Beethoven revisited keys with the earlier works still in his head. It was already something I’d thought, but it’s much clearer thanks to Mr Goodyear, who encourages me to see the sonatas as parts of organic groups by making me feel okay about playing hours of Beethoven in a sitting. All three of these sonatas end with tinkly trilling effects you don’t hear in any other sonata, sounds that also turn up in the last of the Diabelli variations. These are among Beethoven’s most utopian pieces. I know we think of the 5th Symphony in this context –HELLO I just remember what key that one ends in… so perhaps we can admit the symphony to this discussion—but I am not thinking of political revolution, as we find in Fidelio (again redolent with passages in C) or Egmont. I mean a kind of psychological utopia of peace and tranquility. Both the Waldstein & Op 111 seem to divide in the most radical way of any of the sonatas.
Waldstein: tense opening, tiny transitional movement (one page long) followed by serene tinkling finale
Op 111: tense opening in C minor, followed by a magisterial set of variations, almost like a valedictory
It’s now the night before the wedding. I happily navigated through the 32 sonatas, including days when I played for more than an hour straight. I am thinking a lot about the therapeutic power of music, especially when we’re playing rather than listening. In the Bible we read how Saul called upon David to play for him when he was depressed; too bad the Israelite king never learned how to play or sing for himself. When i think of the longevity of conductors, i have to say that’s the best medicine. I’m thinking about music & spirit, the ministry of music. It’s a truism that conductors live a long time, sustained by the joy that’s all around them, the joy that the music generates. Music is an essential part of a wedding, not because of tradition, but because music is part of celebration. I found my way back to the church (went regularly as a child, stopped in my teens), led by music.
It’s a wonderful privilege to be at the centre of a celebration, whether it’s a funeral, a wedding, a baptism, a party or just a concert. I’m thinking not so much about the brain on music—Levitin’s book prominent in my thoughts—as the spirit on music.
Performance is redemptive in its employment of our brains, drawn in without leaving us stranded high and dry inside our heads, because our bodies are needed too. I found that when I sat down, the first sonata I’d undertake would be the most indifferent, the weakest no matter where I started. I’d get fresher, clearer, bolder, the more sonatas I played in a sitting. Last Friday night I went from a bleary-eyed Op 28 –Goodyear’s favourite—through the three Op 31 sonatas, the two delicate little Op 49 sonatas (used by Goodyear to begin his marathon), finishing with total clarity on the Waldstein. Somebody should wire a brain while playing to see what’s happening. Levitin studies how we receive music, but maybe the experience of playing needs to be examined further. I felt way better at the end than at the beginning. The exultation one feels in any of these C major pieces is clearer than an orgasm, but at times every bit as intense as sex. Here for example, is a page that I’d call the most satisfying page of Beethoven i can think of, and forgive me if we’re cheating, because we don’t listen to the hour of variations that has to come first.
I’m ready to play, at the wedding… Why do I drift away, why don’t i play every day? It’s as important as breathing.
barczablog 