Niagara Symphony Orchestra set to kick off new season this weekend

It's nice to see things starting to get back to some semblance of what passes now for normal, what with the lifting of COVID restrictions over the past several months.  And with it, the return of live music, theatre and numerous summer festivals around Niagara.

I am a slow adopter at the moment, carefully choosing where I go still and often deciding based on the size of the crowd expected, as I for one don't believe we're anywhere out of the woods with this pandemic yet.  I find almost daily I am the only person around wearing a mask in public settings, or at least one of the few.

I don't mind really.  It's my choice, as is the choice not to for those who choose not to wear a mask.

I returned to live theatre this summer with three visits to the Shaw Festival in Niagara on the Lake, and in early October I will be returning to Stratford for my first live performance there in three years as well.

I have not, as of yet, ventured inside a venue for a live concert, although that step may happen this season as well.  I would like to return to concerts and events downtown at our FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre soon, and likely it will involve enjoying our very own Niagara Symphony Orchestra.

I have not been to a NSO concert since they left Brock Centre for the Arts several years ago in fact, so I am far overdue for a return visit.  It won't be this weekend as I have a lot on the go already, but many will  as the NSO kicks off their new season Sunday afternoon at 2:30 in their familiar home at the PAC, Partridge Hall.

Since September is regarded as Classical Music Month, what better month to begin the annual Masterworks series with the Orchestra at the PAC?  None better I would say.

As usual, there will be a couple of familiar classical warhorses of sorts to keep the people coming through the doors, augmented by a newer, contemporary Canadian work in order to introduce audiences to what's happening today in classical music.

The two standard bearers this concert will be a couple of challenging orchestral gems:  Igor Stravinsky's thrilling Firebird Suite, the 1919 version incidentally, and the big and expansive Fourth Symphony by Tchaikovsky.  Both will give the orchestra a workout along with their Music Director Bradley Thachuk as conductor.

The Canadian work is an interesting one with a local connection, and is in fact a Canadian Premiere and NSO co-commission:  Timothy Adams' Harriet: Journey to Freedom.  The work chronicles the heroic efforts of Harriet Tubman and her work with the Underground Railroad, bringing black slaves to freedom in Canada from the American South.

There is special poignancy with this new work as it will be narrated by local musician and entrepreneur Juliet Dunn.  I've known Juliet for many years now both as a singer and radio broadcaster, but most especially as Executive Director and co-creator of the TD Niagara Jazz Festival with her husband and partner Peter Shea.

It was announced last month Peter had lost a lengthy battle with cancer, and the news came as a complete shock to everyone inside and outside the music world.  Peter was a rare talent, still young and full of great ideas for the future, and you couldn't imagine a better matched couple than Peter and Juliet.

If I am not mistaken this will be her first real public performance since Peter's passing, and she will act as narrator for tomorrow afternoon's Canadian Premiere of Harriet: A Journey to Freedom.  I wish Juliet well and know as a performer she will get through this tomorrow in honour of her late husband Peter.

Single tickets are still available for all Niagara Symphony concerts this season, and packages for all series are also available as well.  For more ticket and concert information go to www.niagarasymphony.com.  You can purchase tickets for tomorrow's concert through the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre box office by calling 905-688-0722,  or toll free at 1-855-515-0722.  You can also order online at www.firstontariopac.ca.

Have a great weekend!

September 17th, 2022.

Just to Get Married worth a visit at Shaw this season

 My third and final show at this season's Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake is one I perhaps subconsciously chose knowing Sophie would have certainly chosen this one to see.  I don't think she would have been disappointed.

British playwright, actress, novelist, journalist and suffragist Cecily Hamilton's play Just to Get Married opened in August at the cozy Royal George Theatre, and it falls right in with the Shaw's mandate at one time to produce plays either written by or about G. B. Shaw's time period, which pretty much covers much of the last part of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.

This now-rarely produced play was last revived in 2017 by London's Finborough Theatre with the only other revival back in 1918 in London.  The first production was also in London in 1910.  So it's safe to say most contemporary audience members have not seen nor even likely heard of the play.  More's the pity, as it is a bit of a period gem, with a warning here about a rather unusual ending.

Hamilton injects the play with just enough humour to make the overall theme of women having to marry well in order to have a decent life palatable enough for audiences of her era to accept.  She gets the point across without sticking it to those in society who would feel a woman's place is not in the workforce with too much vitriol.

The main thrust of Hamilton's play is to expose the grim reality of women of the era who were expected to marry early and well, thus ensuring they would avoid the supposed embarrassment of "spinsterhood" and risk an unsure financial future.  Sadly this would have been the norm early in the last century as most work would be considered "too much" for the "delicate" ladies of the era.

Enter into this mindset the lead character in Just to Get Married, Georgiana Vicary, who at 29 is staring that spinsterhood straight ahead unless she can snag a man willing to marry her.  She has her heart set on a worthy candidate, exceedingly shy Adam Lankester, just back in England after doing so-called "man's work" in the New World.  If only Adam could find the courage to see the possibilities and propose marriage...

He does, of course, in a flurry of conversation during the latter half of the First Act, and Georgiana readily accepts.  But alas, it is not to be a marriage based on love.  She tells Adam as much when she exclaims in the Second Act "I accepted you just because there was no one else."  Ouch.  

To younger audience members today the mere thought of marrying without the benefit of love seems so, well, odd they could not conceive of such a thing.  Turns out neither can Georgiana.  In that Second Act she decides marrying Adam would basically mean she'd be living a lie, and why would she do that?  A marriage that is not of equals goes against her principles and as such, she garners plenty of support from the audience for saying so.

As much sympathy as she receives from the audience for being so honest and forthright with Adam, it is almost squandered in the final moments of the Second Act when, soaking wet at the train station waiting for a train to take her away from this misery, she runs into Adam and they have a talk.  The result is what can only be described as a "happy ending" to a play exposing the grim reality women faced from that era.  It won't sit well with many I suspect, and although it would not have been my choice of an ending I do realize the era in which Hamilton was writing the play and the audience she was writing for.  In that sense it is very much a period piece and you have to accept it for being so.

This production at the Shaw Festival does the play proud for the most part, with standout performances from most of the cast.  Unfortunately as has been the case with every play I have seen this season there have been substitutions to lead roles and although the understudies clearly make the part their own, I would have loved to have seen Kristi Frank portray Georgiana Vicary as planned, as she is one of the bright lights at the Shaw these days.

Not taking anything away from Katherine Gauthier mind you, who usually plays the role of Bertha Grayle when Frank plays Georgiana, and did an admirable job in the substitute role.  In her place as Bertha, Allison McCaughley does a fine job.

Adam Lankester is played with studied awkwardness by Kristopher Bowman, and he fits the mould of a sturdy, reliable man to have as a husband, should the woman wish it.  Problem is, this woman didn't initially.  Oh well...he proves in the end to be a worthy partner in spite of it all.

The rest of the cast, in spite of the requisite shuffling of the members all do well here, with Claire Jullien as Lady Catherine Grayle being particularly stately, and substitute Nathaniel Judah enjoyable as the put-upon Sir Theodore Grayle.

Direction is sure and taught from Severn Thompson and Ming Wong's costumes are spot-on for the time period.  I wasn't totally taken with the original music provided by Thomas Ryder Payne but perhaps that's just me.

Overall, Just to Get Married is an enjoyable escape at Shaw this season, just be advised the ending might perplex you a bit.  It runs at the Royal George Theatre until October 16th and rates a respectable 2 out of 4 stars.

For more information on the Shaw season go to www.shawfest.com.

Have a great holiday weekend!

September 3rd, 2022.