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Fall 2008-2009 Season Opener: Don Giovanni
:: Don Giovanni
is comic drama in its most perfect form. Every page of Mozart's score seethes with music of passion, wit and elegance in this wry portrait of literature's most famous womanizer, his victims and nemeses.
Oct. 5, 8, 11, 15, 18, 20, 23, 28, 312008 Four Seasons Centre For The Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. W. (At University Ave.) | Tickets: $60 – $275 (specially priced $20
tickets for young people under the age of 30) Phone: 416 363-8231 or online by
clicking here Box office open from 11 AM - 7 PM
Free Concert Series
:: The insanely popular Free Concert Series returns for it's second season at the 3rd floor Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, which allows for breath-taking views through floor to
ceiling glass windows of University Avenue as a backdrop. Includes concerts, performances and presentations by young artists, Canadian and international opera stars and COC staff. This is an exciting
opportunity for Torontonians to experience the artistic excellence and cultural diversity of the city in the beautiful new Four Seasons Centre For The Performing Arts.
All concerts are free to the public. "Brown bag" lunches are welcome for the noon performances.
For a complete listing of concert dates and performances for Sept. 2008 please click here
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Opera at The Fr!nge
::
Opera has finally arrived at this year's FR!NGE in the form of an ambitious, contemporary production of G.F. Handel's erotic pastoral,
Acis and Galatea. Toronto's Classical Music Consort performs the 1718 tale of love shattered by murderous jealousy on period instruments, along with an international cast of singers, through a web of surreal video
projections designed by director Patrick Young. The exciting step of bringing opera to the FR!NGE is a fitting coda to the CMC's first full season. This enterprising young company, founded and lead by
artistic director Ashiq Aziz, is establishing the foundations of an accomplished repertoire while aiming to attract a new generation to the resonance and relevance of classical music. Acis and Galatea
is unique at this year's festival, not only for its captivating music, vocal performances, and visual style, but as a daring conceptual hybrid of the baroque with the unsettlingly modern. The story of
Acis and Galatea is recorded in Ovid's Metamorphoses, though Handel's libretto was written by the poets Alexander Pope, John Gay, and John Hughes. Galatea, a beautiful, immortal wood nymph, falls in love with
the young shepherd Acis. But the Cyclops Polyphemus has also fallen in love with Galatea. When she scorns the giant's advances, his lust is transformed into a vengeful rage, and he kills his mortal rival, Acis. A
mournful Galatea then pleads with the gods of Olympus, who metamorphose Acis into a mountain stream, immortalizing the spirit of her ill-fated lover.
July 3, 6, 8, 10, 12
Factory Theatre, Mainspace, 125 Bathurst Street (South of Queen, at Adelaide) | Tickets: $10 Phone: 416 966-1062
Toronto Summer Music Festival: Suzie LeBlanc & Daniel Taylor
:: Internationally renowned sopranoSuzie LeBlanc and countertenor
Daniel Taylor will appear at theToronto Summer Music Festivalin a performance entitledIn the Fire of Conflict
, which highlights repertoire from Venice's Baroque and Classical periods. In the Fire of Conflict
features musical selections by composers who were based in-or passed through-Venice during the 17th and 18th Centuries, including Cavalli's La Calisto, the haunting final duet from Monteverdi's
L'Incoronazione di Poppea, and rarely performed Italian instrumental music. Beyond these, the concert will include works by Handel, whose music, particularly his love duets, often reached the pinnacle of dramatic
expression. Handel's duets will be brought to passionate life by the fiery pair of LeBlanc and Taylor, reunited by the Toronto Summer Music Festival and supported by the brilliant new early music ensemble Theatre of
Early Music. This concert replaces the Ensemble Clément Janequin, which was scheduled to perform in a concert entitled Parisian Chansons of the Renaissance. Unforeseen circumstances have led the
Parisian vocal group to forego its presence at the 2008 Festival. Tickets purchased for Ensemble Clément Janequin will be honoured for entry to the new concert or may be refunded at the point of purchase.
For more information on the Toronto summer Music Festival, please click here
Sat. July 26
@ 8:00 PM MacMillan Theatre, U of T Faculty of Music | Tickets: $27 - $37, Festival Pass $175 - $250 Phone: 416 597-7840 or order online by clicking here
Fall 2008 - 2009 Season Opener: The Abduction From The Seraglio
:: The tale of the adorable antics of the Spanish nobleman Belmonte and his servant
Pedrillo as they plot to rescue their girlfriends from the harem of Pasha Selim. Commissioned by Austrian Emperor Joseph II, the opera was an instant success upon its 1782 premiere in Vienna. Opera Atelier's resident
designer Gerard Gauci has created a spectacular new production which evokes the exoticism that enthralled 18th-century Europe at the time of the opera's premiere.
Nov. 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, and Nov. 15, 2008
Elgin Theatre, 189 Yonge St. (at Queen St.) | Subscriptions for Opera Atelier's 2008/09 season are on sale now and may be purchased by calling 416 703-3767 ext. 28. For more
information, please click here
Concert and Events-at-a-glance calendar click here
