Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Against the Grain Theatre (AtG), the indie opera collective that was recently called the city’s “most inventive company” by Toronto Life, celebrates its fifth birthday this year with a season of two daring new productions and a return to The Banff Centre.
After workshopping #UncleJohn last summer in Banff, Alberta, AtG brings its Mozart “transladaptation” home to Toronto audiences this December. A modern interpretation of Don Giovanni with a new English libretto by AtG artistic director Joel Ivany, #UncleJohn will be presented in The Black Box Theatre at 1087 Queen St. West’s famed vintage rock venue, The Great Hall. The exciting young Canadian cast features baritone Cameron McPhail as the philandering Uncle John; bass-baritone Neil Craighead as his trusty wingman Leporello; soprano Miriam Khalil as a spurned but conflicted Elvira and soprano Betty Allison as the bereaved Anna. Tenor Sean Clark is the hapless parking enforcement officer Ottavio; bass John Avey appears as Commander Michael Bridge; and baritone Aaron Durand and soprano Sharleen Joynt are Masetto and Zerlina, the engaged couple whose impending wedding is getting complicated by Uncle John’s drama.
The creative team behind AtG’s 2013 Dora Award-winning Figaro’s Wedding is reunited under Ivany’s direction, with lighting design by Jason Hand and set and costume design by Patrick Du Wors. The acclaimed Cecelia Quartet provides accompaniment in a new piano quintet arrangement. Five performances of #UncleJohn run from Dec. 11 to 19, 2014, with general admission priced at $40 and available now at www.againstthegraintheatre.com.
AtG’s birthday season continues in May, 2015 with Death and Desire, a performance of Franz Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin and Olivier Messiaen’s Harawi. Staged by Ivany with AtG music director Christopher “Topher” Mokrzewski at the piano, the innovative production offers an intimate and intriguing encounter with art song that leaves convention on the sidewalk and steams up the windows inside. More information about dates, venue, soloists and tickets will be announced at a later date.
A special preview of Death and Desire will be offered on May 21, 2015 at 12 p.m. as part of the Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Details about the series may be found at www.coc.ca.
The celebration year is capped off with AtG’s return to The Banff Centre, following the success of last summer’s groundbreaking pilot program entitled Open Space: Opera in the 21st Century, an initiative of The Banff Centre, Against the Grain Theatre and the Canadian Opera Company. The three organizations reunite in partnership to offer the one-of-a-kind, immersive, performance-based training program that takes opera off the stage and into the community. A brand new AtG “transladaptation” of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, re-titled A Little Too Cozy, will be at the heart of the program. Once again directed and translated by Ivany with musical direction by Mokrzewski, the production completes the three-part Mozart series that AtG began with Figaro’s Wedding and continued with #UncleJohn. The program also undertakes a workshop of James Rolfe and Anna Chatterton's new opera, Donna, an English-language re-imagining of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, commissioned by the Canadian Opera Company.
Open Space: Opera in the 21st Century runs at The Banff Centre from June 22 to July 26, 2015 under the leadership of Ivany and Mokrzewski. Esteemed guest faculty members include Canadian Opera Company general director Alexander Neef, Canadian baritone Russell Braun, vocal coach Michael McMahon and playwright Daniel MacIvor, among others. Applications for the program will be accepted until Oct. 30, 2014. For more information about Open Space: Opera in the 21st Century, or to apply, please visit www.banffcentre.ca.
AtG: Five Years in Review
In December of 2010, Toronto’s opera scene received a jolt of energy with the formation of Against the Grain Theatre (AtG), a visionary young start-up founded by a group of friends who worked in the opera “biz”. Inspired by a goal of reinvigorating the art form by presenting classical repertoire in unconventional spaces and innovative ways, AtG staged its first performance to a sold-out audience of 50 people, and with that the company was off and running.
Since that first season, AtG has packed every single one of its productions with standing room-only crowds, winning a consistent level of critical acclaim that has even surprised its own members. Maclean’s has referred to us as “the most successful of the indies,” and the Calgary Herald called us "one of the most important opera companies in Canada." Our 2013 production of Figaro’s Wedding received seven Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations, winning the award for Best New Musical/Opera. The arts community has embraced the AtG gang, and—equally importantly—so has a much wider, more diverse audience of people who may have never considered attending an opera.
In addition to its fearless leaders, the AtG collective comprises Caitlin Coull, Miriam Khalil, Nina Draganić, Cecily Carver, Allison Bent and Nikki Tremblay. The company’s success is thanks in no small part to an army of dedicated volunteers who have breathed life into every AtG venture to date.
For more information, please visit the AtG gang at www.againstthegraintheatre.com, on Twitter @AtGTheatre and on Facebook at facebook.com/AtGTheatre.
Photo: John Avery and Cameron McPhail in #UncleJohn at tThe Banff Centre. ©2014 Brent Calis.
2014-12-06
Toronto: Against the Grain Theatre brings opera "#UncleJohn" to Toronto December 11-19