Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Toronto, ON – This February, Luminato Festival in partnership with Analekta and CBCMusic.ca, will make their monumental 2015 production of R. Murray Schafer’s rarely performed oratorio Apocalypsis available to home listeners on CD and digital platforms. This is the first full recording of Apocalypsis ever made and Luminato’s first venture into bringing their adventurous programming into homes in Canada and around the world – fitting for the 10th anniversary year of the global multi-arts festival.
From June 26 to 28, 2015 at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, Luminato presented a music-theatrical masterwork of unprecedented scale - Apocalypsis - the epic musical voyage written by acclaimed Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer, in one of the largest performance events Canada has ever seen. 1,000 performers from across Ontario, including an eclectic cast of soloists, created an empire of sound and movement under the direction of Samoan choreographer, designer and director Lemi Ponifasio of MAU, with musical direction by Toronto conductor David Fallis (The Toronto Consort, Opera Atelier) and light by Helen Todd (MAU).
The final performance of Apocalypsis was live broadcast by CBC Radio 2, and recorded and mastered by Doug Doctor, CBCMusic.ca. The live program reached close to 300,000 Canadians over the course of the three-hour broadcast, engaging additional audiences online via CBCMusic.ca. Analekta, Canada’s largest and best-regarded classical music label, produced and rendered the album and will manage marketing, sales and worldwide distribution. On February 19, fans will be able to listen to the album at CBCMusic.ca as part of the platform’s First Play series.
"R. Murray Schafer is one of the greatest composers of contemporary music, not only in Canada but in the world and he is an icon in modern art,” said Analekta's president, François Mario Labbé. “When Jorn Weisbrodt of Luminato approached me to collaborate on this project, I was not only excited but also honoured. Apocalypsis is probably the Everest of Schafer’s creative career."
A staggering organizational and artistic accomplishment, the Luminato production was the first time Apocalypsis (a 1976 CBC commission) had been performed since its 1980 premiere. One of the highest grossing shows in the Festival’s 10 year history, the production garnered critical acclaim with sold out performances.
Media heralded the production as one of the major highlights of 2015, the Globe and Mail stating “it was a high-profile, big-time gamble. The gamble paid off.” The National Post called the production, “a work of cultural heroism” and Whole Note commented, following a dress rehearsal, “The music came to its close. The brilliant conductor David Fallis lowered his hands. A silent hush fell over everyone. Just for a moment. It was as if we all had to take a collective in-and-out breath to honour what had just transpired.”
Easily Schafer’s most ambitious work, Apocalypsis ranks in size and scale to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand, Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder or Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise. Initially imagined as a way to create a grassroots community of performers and offer an alternative to classical music’s dogma of highly trained musicians, Apocalypsis blends professional and amateur talents in its cast of 1,000 choir singers, musicians, conductors, actors, and dancers. Luminato Festival’s production featured solo performances from internationally renowned artists including multi-disciplinary artist Nina Arsenault, Tony Award-winner Brent Carver, dancer Denise Fujiwara, Polaris Prize-winner Tanya Tagaq, rising New Zealand opera star Kawiti Waetford, and the voice of performance artist Laurie Anderson. David Fallis conducted an company of 1,000 musicians and choirs from across the province.
“For Luminato, the three years spent working on this piece was an incredible journey, one that led from chaos to order, just as the piece does. Three years ago there was nothing: no cast, no set, no money; there was just an idea and the score; there was only a desert where now there is an empire of sound, a rich and sparkling oasis, built by 1,000 mostly nonprofessional musicians and performers and another 100 people behind the stage,” said Jorn Weisbrodt, Luminato’s Artistic Director. “Here life imitates art: the process of producing Apocalypsis was the essence of the piece itself. It created a community of performers from all over Ontario and the rest of the world, engaged in a ritual. In this recording, the performers invite the listener to share in this process. I am eternally grateful to them because they allow me once again to experience what they went through.”
Apocalypsis will be available on February 26, at Analekta.com, Atelier Grigorian, Archambault, Amazon.ca, iTunes, Spotify and select HMV locations across Canada. To read the full cast listing, program notes and CD booklet, click here. For more information, visit www.analekta.com or www.luminato.com/apocalypsis.
The recording of Apocalypsis was made possible through the generous support of Helen Burstyn, Wendy M. Cecil, The Michael & Sonja Koerner Charitable Foundation, Nancy Lockhart & The Murray Frum Foundation, Joan & Jerry Lozinski, Eleanor McCain, Margaret McCain, Joe Mimran & Kimberley Newport-Mimran, Julia Ouellette, Jim & Sandra Pitblado, Beth Robinson, Gretchen & Donald Ross, Colleen Sexsmith. Luminato Festival's Production of Apocalypsis was presented by BMO and supported by the Hal Jackman Foundation, Gretchen & Donald Ross, Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, in partnership with National Arts Centre and the Royal Conservatory of Music.
With special thanks to Canadian Actors’ Equity Association, ACTRA, Canadian Federation of Musicians, IATSE. Performance Rights courtesy of Arcana Editions.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter: @Luminato; @Analekta #Apocalypsis #Luminato10
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Instagram: @LuminatoFestival
Photo: CD cover art for Apocalypsis. ©2015 Bruce Zinger.
2016-02-19
Toronto: Luminato Festival partners with Analekta to release first-ever full recording of "Apocalypsis"