Stage Door News
Stage Door News
CANDIDE by Leonard Bernstein will be presented in a full production at the St. Lawrence Centre, opening on Dec. 28 with subsequent performances on Dec 30, 31 (mat at 3 pm), 2017 & Jan. 5, 6 and 7 (mat at 3 pm), 2018. “CANDIDE is an undoubted operetta masterpiece for the modern age,” said TOT’s General Director Guillermo Silva-Marin. “Bernstein’s brilliant tunes and the unwavering idealism of Candide in a world gone mad, make this work both timely and timeless.”
Leading a diverse cast of talented young Canadians is debuting tenor Tonatiuh Abrego in the title role. He is smitten with Cunegonde, sung by Vania Chan, whose comic timing and vocal bravura were cheered in last season’s PIRATES OF PENZANCE. The saucy and well-seasoned Old Lady will be TOT favourite, Elizabeth Beeler. Dr. Pangloss, the loving couple’s cynically naïve professor will be Nicholas Borg, last season’s roistering Pirate King. Rounding out the cast will be Patrick Bowman making his TOT Debut as Maximilian, Cian Horrobin as the Argentine Governor and Mikhail Shemet at Cacambo. Derek Bate – recently in Québec City for Opéra de Québec’s RIGOLETTO - returns to conduct the TOT orchestra, cast and chorus with Silva-Marin as stage director.
CANDIDE premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theater in 1956 and since then has been increasingly heard on opera stages from New York’s Lincoln Center to Scotland to Paris and La Scala in Milan. Staged by Canada’s Robert Carson, the La Scala production was almost shut down by the censors, though saved at the last moment by a public outcry. The work is based on Voltaire’s scathing satire of the same name and concerns the travels to self-knowledge of our hero and his beloved, but somewhat more worldly-wise, fiancée Cunegonde. Audiences the world over look forward to “Glitter and Be Gay”, “I am easily Assimilated”, the stirring finale “Make our Garden Grow” and especially the operetta’s overture, one of Bernstein’s most oft-heard works.
TOT’s budget-priced FAMILY NIGHT OUT offers discounts of up to 50% for children and youth under 16 years of age and there are special discounts available for groups of 20 or more.
Toronto Operetta Theatre is grateful for the support of the Jackman Foundation, the Bedolfe Foundation, the Dalglish Family Foundation, the Canada Council, Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council. Media sponsorship by Classical 96.3 FM and EPOCH Times.
All performances at the wheelchair accessible St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East – Box Office (416) 366-7723 or 1-800-708-6754 and online sales at www.stlc.com.
For information, call TOT at (416) 922-2912 or visit us at www.torontooperetta.com
Photo: Carla Huhtanen and James McLennan in the TOT’s Candide. ©2007
2017-11-21
Toronto: Toronto Operetta Theatre presents Bernstein's "Candide" December 28, 2017, to January 7, 2018