Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Toronto, April 16, 2012: Contes pour enfants pas sages: 8 cautionary entertainments is a project of eight works, styled “entertainments,” by west-coast composer Christopher Butterfield. Years in preparation and generously funded by the Julie Jiggs Foundation and Roger D. Moore, this setting of the darkly coloured children’s animal fables Contes pour enfants pas sages (1947) by Jacques Prévert (screen writer of Les Enfants du paradis) features acclaimed singers Anne Grimm and tenor Benjamin Butterfield, with Continuum’s ensemble and Choir 21, conducted by David Fallis. Mise-en-scène is by Laurence Lemieux, with projected images by west coast artist Sandra Meigs.
Each conte, or fable, is discrete but together they create a delightfully daft body of ironic social commentary: dromedaries go to lectures; an ostrich lures a boy from his negligent parents; antelopes wait in vain for a family member to return home for dinner; donkeys’ braying hospitality is betrayed by enslavement; an international incident arises when a young lion finds a visitor downright rude; a sea elephant has an existential crisis but knows he’s better than a king (who, after all, has to sit on his bum rather than on his belly); a horse calls his fellows to rebellion against their human masters – after all, they’re not cattle; and the most surreal of all, a giraffe opera in which Giraffe – nature itself – is harassed, hunted and killed off but gets its revenge. Christopher Butterfield was introduced to these works with the idea that the world needed a new Babar, a work that was simultaneously child-friendly and sophisticated. The result is this project.
Composer Christopher Butterfield has influenced a generation of composers through his teaching at the University of Victoria, where he is cross-appointed to the visual art department. One time choir boy at King’s College in Cambridge and member of the 80’s Toronto rock band KLO, in the coming months he'll be singing Socrate, by Erik Satie, and mentoring the Arraymusic Young Composers Workshop. His opera Zurich 1916 was written to a libretto by John Bentley Mays; he is currently translating Théâtre, a collection of three plays by Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes. Compositional work in progress includes a piece for solo percussion and ensemble, for Rick Sacks and Aventa Ensemble, and the never-ending piano trio Madame Wu said… He is on this year’s jury for the prestigious Dutch Gaudeamus International Composers Award, and was a mentor at the Young Composers Meeting in Apeldoorn NL. Of Contes, Butterfield writes, “Contes pour enfants pas sages was written just after the war by beloved French poet Jacques Prévert. Eight stories feature animals in various situations with humans and other creatures, some humorous, some absurd, some tragic. It's certain Prévert intended them for children, but they make you wonder at their purpose - Prévert seems to want his young readers to know that the world is a cruel and unpredictable place as early as possible. Even so, their whimsical nature allows one to remember them as charming, if a little dangerous.
Laurence Lemieux is co-artistic director and co-founder of Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie. While dancing for some of the dance world’s most prominent choreographers, she has developed a career as choreographer and artistic director and teacher. In her role as Contes director she deploys the human resources of the project on the stage, subtly underscoring and playing with text and music. A long-time collaborator with Christopher Butterfield, Laurence says, “his rigorous process and professionalism puts his collaborators (me for example) in a place where they need to come up with the good stuff. There is also an unknown about his work…something I never quite get, that thing that makes art relevant and alive.”
Baltimore-born Sandra Meigs studied at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and Dalhousie University. She has taught at the University of Victoria since 1993. Her work has been exhibited widely across Canada, the U.S.A. and in Europe. Of her part in Contes she writes: “the drawings [small, ink and watercolour on paper] are whimsical, sometimes comical and sometimes very sad. While spending a summer in Seattle, I went frequently to the Woodland Park Zoo to visit the animals. I tried to reckon with the human-animal interaction that Jacques Prévert described in his stories. The illustrations then just kind of happened on the pages while I listened to recordings of the existing Contes pieces. Illustrations of the brand new Contes are necessarily a more intuitive process.”
A specialist in early music and baroque repertoire, soprano Anne Grimm has performed extensively throughout Europe, North American and New Zealand. She has sung leading roles of much of the baroque repertoire, as well as new works by living composers. Tenor Benjamin Butterfield has worked with many of the world’s great conductors, orchestras and opera companies and has appeared in many of the world’s great halls. David Fallis is one of Canada's leading interpreters of operatic and choral/orchestral repertoire, especially that of the Baroque and Classical periods. He is artistic director of the Toronto Consort, and Music Director of Opera Atelier. With Soundstreams he founded Choir 21, a choir specializing in new music. The 12 voice strong Choir 21 performs in Contes.
Led by artistic directors Jennifer Waring and Ryan Scott, Continuum presents concerts featuring the core ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion, as well as unusual instrumental combinations. The organization has commissioned and premiered approximately 150 new works from emerging Canadian and international composers, and also established composers charting new territory. Increasingly the group engages in collaboration and interdisciplinary work.
Continuum is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, SOCAN Foundation, the Julie Jiggs Foundation, Roger D. Moore,
and many private donors.
Contes pour enfants pas sages: 8 cautionary entertainments
918 Bathurst Centre: 918 Bathurst Street, Toronto
May 27 & 29, 2012, 8pm
School matinees, May 28 and 29, 2pm (not open to the public)
Tickets ($30 adults / $15 students, seniors & arts workers) available at the door
For more information please visit www.continuummusic.org, email josh@continuummusic.org or call (416) 924-4945
Photo: Kathleen Turner in High. ©2012 The Talullualh Company, LLC.
2012-04-16
Toronto: Continuum presents multimedia performances of “Contes pour enfants pas sages” May 27 & 29