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Saidah Baba Talibah and Nicole Brooks; at b current’s Wychwood Barns studio. Photo Credit - SN BIANCA
Until the last few years, musical theatre buffs in Toronto and the GTA had to rely on commercial theatres to satisfy their tastes, looking to companies like Mirvish Productions to keep them up-to-date with Broadway and West End hits. Today, things have changed to the point where musical theatre regularly appears in the city’s not-for-profit (NFP) theatres in forms new and old. And performers who cut their teeth in shows produced by Mirvish, Dancap and (the now-defunct) Livent Corp. are achieving marquee status with new and different audiences.
In october 1995, in the second ever issue of this magazine (then known as Pulse), we ran as a cover image, not a photograph but a kind of abecedarius — a stylized alphabetical list consisting for the most part of presenters, performers or composers featured in the issue’s concert listings. The Penderecki Quartet came to our rescue for both P and Q. For Z we resorted to jazZ(where were you that month, Winona?), which was a bit lame. And Awas asproblematic as Z, but for the opposite reason — too many candidates rather than too few.
Bruce Ubukata and Stephen Ralls' The Aldeburgh Connection (http://www. aldeburghconnection.org) turns 30 February 19 2012. The WholeNote's David Perlman spoke with them late January 2012.
December 28, 2011 WholeNote publisher David Perlman chats with mezzo Wallis Giunta in Toronto, among other things about her current four day Toronto working holiday (Attila Glatz Productions opera spectacular "Bravissimo" at Roy Thomson Hall New Year's Eve), about life in the Lindemann program at the Met, and about where Rufus Wainwright fits in to her upcoming March 1 Music Toronto recital.
Photo Credit David Perlman
Like an Old Tale: An East Scarborough Retelling of The Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare, (to give it its full title) is the latest chapter in Jumblies Theatre’s decade-long journey “to expand where art happens and who gets to be part of it.” Under the artistic direction of Ruth Howard, Jumblies undertakes multi-year residencies in a community, uncovering its stories and creating opportunities for the people of the community in question to turn those stories into art. “Every Jumblies community residency culminates with a large-scale production, one that melds original music, visual arts, dance, puppetry and projections into a vast theatrical realm.”
The idea that music and theatre often combine in forms other than “musical comedy” was on my mind when I entered the rehearsal hall of the St. Lawrence Centre to talk with
Richard Greenblatt and Ted Dykstra
, the co-writers and performers of Two Pianos Four Hands (2P4H), arguably the most successful play in the history of Canadian theatre. Opening on November 2 for a limited run at Toronto’s Panasonic Theatre, before it moves to Ottawa’s National Arts Centre in January, the production marks the show’s 15th year, a remarkable milestone that has seen various incarnations of the piece accumulate close to 4,000 performances in 175 cities (worldwide) and play to upwards of two million people.
Though small in size, 2P4H covers a lot of ground as it traces the lives of two boys, Ted and Richard, in their quest for stardom as concert pianists. Working fervently towards their dream, the boys suffer pushy parents, eccentric teachers, repetitive practice, stage fright, nerve-wracking competitions and, finally, their own limitations. After 15 years of tinkling the ivories, they apprehend the gap between the very good and the great, only to arrive at the humbling conclusion that stardom lies beyond their reach.
Photo Credit PHILIP LITEVSKY
When we contacted Christina Petrowska Quilico early this past summer, she was, no surprise, busy on more than one front. For one thing, she was busy writing program notes for her 26th CD. The CD features two piano concerti written for her, by Heather Schmidt (Piano Concerto No.2) and by George Fiala (Concerto Cantata for piano, opera chorus and chimes). “I gave the world premieres for both pieces” she explained. “And I am stuck on finding a good title so that was what I was working on right now.”
“For another thing,” she said, “I am looking forward to taking one of my daughters to see Alice in Wonderland with the National Ballet of Canada. My daughters and I love the ballet and we have all taken lessons.”
