It has been a busy week or so in the arts world, so I thought I would collect some of the more notable items for this weekend's column to clear my desk for other newsworthy items now that the autumn season is fast approaching.
I read with great disappointment a week or so ago about the passing of the former Canadian Opera Company general director Lotfi Mansouri, who guided the company from 1976 to 1988. Mansouri was the COC's third general director and as noted in the release the company sent out following his passing, "played a significant role in launching the COC's international reputation for artistic excellence and creative innovation...growing the company into the largest producer of opera in Canada and one of the largest in North America".
During his tenure, Mansouri implemented a longer performance season and championed more adventurous repertoire and productions. There was more advance planning of productions undertaken both financially and artistically, now essential elements of the COC's operations to this day. But perhaps his most lasting achievement for today's opera goers is the fact the company pioneered and introduced the creation of SURTITLES, unveiled at the company's 1983 production of Elektra. This was the very first time any opera house in the world had projected a simultaneous translation of the opera for the audience; it was revolutionary at the time but now is accepted practice in all major opera houses worldwide.
His biggest disappointment, I suspect, was failing to secure a dedicated opera house for Toronto, which I believe led to his departure in 1988 to become general director of San Francisco Opera. The new opera house came into being later on, of course, and is considered one of the finest in the world now. But at the time, Mansouri knew productions for the foreseeable future would continue to be mounted at the inferior O'Keefe Centre in Toronto (now the Sony Centre).
I met Lotfi once during the 80s for a radio interview at the O'Keefe Centre and found him to be gracious, disarmingly frank and totally committed to what he was trying to achieve with the COC within the confines of an inferior performance space. He knew his stuff and gained the respect of everyone who knew or worked with him, myself included.
Lotfi Mansouri touched a lot of lives both inside and outside of the opera world, and this giant of a man will be greatly missed.
The COC recently announced tickets to the 2013/14 season were on sale, with the big attraction being Puccini's La Boheme, billed as "The Greatest Love Story Ever Sung". Other productions this season include Britten's Peter Grimes, Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte, Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera, Handel's Hercules, Donizetti's Roberto Devereux and Massenet's Don Quichotte. As you can see, some interesting operas coming up this season including some not often seen or heard.
Tickets to the new season are available by calling the box office at 416-363-8231 or going to www.coc.ca.
Another arts leader will also be greatly missed, this time in Hamilton. It was announced by the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra yesterday their Music Director James Sommerville will be leaving the HPO at the end of the 2013-14 season. Somerville came to the HPO with great fanfare seven years ago after an extensive search, and during his tenure grew the HPO artistically, attracting world-class players to important core positions within the orchestra.
I was still attending and selling recordings at the HPO concerts when Sommerville arrived, and I had a chance to experience his creative talents first-hand while in the audience, and his work was always first-rate. I found the orchestra played not only up to their potential but exceeded it, with a more clearly-defined sound than they displayed in previous seasons.
According to the release issued yesterday by the HPO, he "introduced the Young Performers' Competition in 2009 and has been instrumental in the development of What Next, the HPO's annual new music festival." He also underwrote commissions by young composers including Jeremy Flower and Kati Agocs that have been presented by the HPO.
A good example of the new direction of the HPO under Sommerville's leadership is the fact this afternoon at 4 pm, the HPO Brass and award-winning beatboxer Hachey the MouthPEACE will be appearing at this year's Supercrawl, with the HPO Brass performing classic quintet repertoire as well as joining forces with Hachey on some new interpretations of familiar works in pop music.
The HPO season will get underway next Saturday, September 21st with maestro Sommerville leading the orchestra in a concert entitled Great Romantics, featuring internationally-acclaimed Canadian pianist Jon Kimura Parker. Opening night will feature Brahms' Symphony No. 3, my personal favourite of the Brahms symphonies, as well as Parker's talents on Rachmaninoff's ever-popular Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Rounding out the programme will be contemporary Canadian composer Kati Agocs' Shenanigan, making its reprise after its world premiere by the HPO in 2011.
Tickets to Opening Night and indeed the entire HPO season can be had by calling the box office at 905-526-7756 or going to www.hpo.org.
Enjoy celebrating the arts this autumn!
September 14th, 2013.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment