Stage Door News
Stage Door News
This Month on the Bloor St. Culture Corridor
May is Museum Month, and Bloor St. Culture Corridor museums have exceptional exhibitions on view. Photography exhibitions that are part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival can also be seen across the Corridor this month. The Talisker Players have announced that their May performances, A Mixture of Madness, will be the last concerts for the ensemble. Don't miss their final concerts after 17 years in the Annex! Special events, arts lectures, films, and 16.17 concert season finales are also part of an exceptional month on the Bloor St. Culture Corridor. Plus, with Mother's Day around the corner, there are many options for a fun and fulfilling day with family. Enjoy a sunny spring day exploring the Bloor St. Culture Corridor!
Tafelmusik
Mozart's transcendent Mass in C Minor, considered one of the composer's greatest choral works, closes Tafelmusik's 2016/17 season, May 4-7 at Koerner Hall, featuring sopranos Julia Doyle and Joanne Lunn. Ivars Taurins directs the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir in celebration of their 35th anniversary. The concert opens with Haydn's Symphony no. 98 directed by violinist and new Tafelmusik Music Director Designate Elisa Citterio. Learn more about the new Music Directorin in a Q&A one hour before each performance. Plus, see a free vocal masterclass with Joanne Lunn on Saturday, May 6. The Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Festival returns with four FREE concerts, kicking off on May 30 at Trinity-St. Paul's Centre with Delightfully Baroque. Experience an exquisite evening of music, featuring the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir, with soloist Peter Harvey, baritone, and directors Jeanne Lamon and Ivars Taurins. For more information visit tafelmusik.org.
Toronto Reference Library
Since Confederation in 1867, more than 17 million newcomers have made their home in Canada. The Toronto Reference Library presents Destination Canada, looking at experiences of migration, arrival and finding a place of belonging in Canada from early settlement to present day. Explore our diverse experiences through posters, photographs, written accounts and other materials from Toronto Public Library's Baldwin Collection of Canadiana and Chinese Canadian Archive. Why did they choose Canada? What challenges did they face in starting a new life? What does it mean to become "Canadian"? May 20-July 30, TD Gallery at Toronto Reference Library. For more information visit torontopubliclibrary.ca.
Royal Ontario Museum (The ROM)
Continuing at the ROM in May is Out of the Depths: The Blue Whale Story. This must-see exhibition features one of the largest, most complete blue whale skeletons ever displayed. Opening May 5, The Family Camera, explores the relationship between photography and the idea of family. On May 11, join ROM Mammologist Jacqueline Miller for The Renaissance of the Blue: The Odyssey of the ROM's Great Whale as she recounts the story of the Museum's recovery of the blue whale and the preparation of the its skeleton and heart, leading up to the mounting of this extraordinary exhibition. Art, Honour, and Ridicule: Asafo Flags from Southern Ghana continues this month and returning for an 11th season is #FNLROM presented by Ford Canada, offering Toronto's hottest DJs, live performances, and a chance to experience the Museum like never before. #FNLROM, 7-11:30, 19+ ticketed event. For more information visit rom.on.ca. Out of the Depths: The Blue Whale Story and The Family Camera are supported by Ontario150.
Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema features the annual Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival's screenings until May 7. Chasing Trane, the definitive documentary on legendary jazz musician John Coltrane with his own words spoken aloud by Denzel Washington, opens May 12. Discover the transformative power of nature and human ingenuity with Francis Cabot's extraordinary garden in The Gardener (opens May 18). Delve into the unsustainable housing market of Vancouver: No Fixed Address (opens May 19) and meet those struggling in the increasingly expensive city. Once a neighbour here in the Annex, inspiring writer and activist Jane Jacobs stands up to rapid urbanization in Citizen Jane: Battle for the City (opens May 26). Curious Minds is back with 3 new courses: Pop Canada: A Pop Cultural History of the Great White North (starts May 16), Bob Dylan: Words and Music (starts May 19) and By Design: Design Movements in the 19th and 20th Centuries (starts May 25). For more information visit hotdocscinema.ca.
Talisker Players
The Talisker Players present A Mixture of Madness, May 16 & 17, 8pm at Trinity St. Paul's Centre. "There is no wisdom without a mixture of madness," as Aristotle famously wrote. Soprano Ilana Zarankin and baritone Bruce Kelly join the instrumentalists of Talisker Players in an exploration of the fine line between revelation and insanity, featuring a selection of Henry Purcell's Mad Songs, a new commission from Alice Ho, and Peter Maxwell Davies' gripping Eight Songs for a Mad King. For more information and tickets call 416.978.8849 or visit taliskerplayers.ca.
Alliance Française Toronto
This May at Alliance Française Toronto, a performance by the group Georgian Bay on May 5 and on May 12 enjoy a special concert by the Esemble La Rêveuse, specializing in 17th and 18th century music. May 10-31, photography exhibit by Alexander Rousseau, Making An Offering, is part of the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival. Four lectures are at Alliance Française this month: Islamism: genealogy and the excesses of a political ideology on May 3, Staging Moliere's Don Juan in 2017 on May 4, Cinquante ans de "p'tits bonheurs" au Théâtre français de Toronto on May 24, and Lafayette and l'Hermione: Throughout the course of the American revolution on May 31. Movies this month include Don Giovanni, Saint Laurent, and The Betrayal. For more information visit alliance-francaise.ca.
The Toronto Consort
The Toronto Consort presents Helen of Troy by Francesco Cavalli, May 12, 13 & 14 at Trinity-St. Paul's Centre. The face that launched a thousand ships, and a thousand amorous adventures! Cross-dressing, disguises, and mixups - it's all part of the world's first great comic opera. Sung in Italian with English surtitles, featuring Kevin Skelton as Menelaus, Michele DeBoer as Elena, and Laura Pudwell as Hippolyte. For more information and tickets call 416.964.6337 or visit TorontoConsort.org.
Gardiner Museum
This month at the Gardiner Museum is the last chance to see the acclaimed special exhibition Janet Macpherson: A Canadian Bestiary, closing on May 22. Through four immersive multimedia installations, Macpherson revisits moments in Canadian history and questions commonly-held notion about the North, Canadian identity, and our relationship to landscape. Curious porcelain creatures - wrapped, bandaged or masked - stand in for the complexity of human experiences. May 1-31, the Gardiner is also displaying ARTIFACT by Deborah Samuel, a Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival featured exhibition. Samuel, whose fashion photography and portraits of celebrities like Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood, Rush, and Queen Noor, have appeared in GQ, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Spin, explores a narrative of transformation evoking the spirit of elements contained within clay itself. For more information visit gardinermuseum.com.
Japan Foundation, Toronto
For a limited time only, Japan Foundation, Toronto will be co-presenting a special exhibition of Gothic Lolita Fashion with the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, May 8-15 in the event hall. Complementing the exhibition Road of Light and Hope: National Treasures at Todai-ji Temple, Nara Photographs by Miro Ito (continues to June 28), the JFT is screening documentaries in the Tenpyo Art Screening Series that examine a number of related subjects such as the ancient music of Gagaku and the seasonal fire festivals in Nara. There will also be an artist talk by Miro Ito who will speak about her photographs on May 26. The Gallery and Library special opening hours are 11-4 on May 13, 14 & 27. All events are free. For more information visit jftor.org.
Bata Shoe Museum
May is Museum month and there is no better time to plan a visit to the Bata Shoe Museum! There are only two films left in the PayWhatYouCan Arctic Film Series so don't miss the May installment Qallunajatut (Urban Ink), May 11 at 6pm. On Mother's Day, May 14, bring the whole family to the museum for an afternoon that mom will love! Special children's arts and crafts and activities in the galleries - the perfect chance for little ones to make mom a special Mother's Day gift! On May 18 celebrate International Museum Day with PayWhatYouCan admission all day long. As a special bonus a new exhibition will be opening that day! Shining Stars: Celebrating Canada's Walk of Fame let's visitors get up close with the footwear of Canadian icons. For those interested in bespoke shoe-making, on May 14 & 28 watch Peter Feeney, shoemaker extraordinaire, make a pair of handmade shoes for BSM Director Emanuele Lepri. For more information or to buy tickets to the Mother's Day event visit batashoemuseum.ca.
Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre
The Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre proudly presents ReelAbilities Film Festival. Visit toronto.reelabilities.org to learn more about RAFFTO films and events. On May 1, 8 & 15, Art Historian Osnat Lippa hosts a Monday lecture series - Art Appreciation - Chagall: Colour, Music and Theatre. On Thursday, May 4 join film critic Shlomo Schwartzberg at Celebrating Yom Ha'atzmaut: The Exciting and Provocative Cinema of Israel. Enjoy The Deli Man Cometh - a two-part series with film screening on May 11 and talk with Zane Caplansky about his journey to deli-owner extraordinaire on May 18. On May 13 see Toronto-based classical crossover pianist and composer Teo Milea in his piano and flute concert A New Beginning in Toronto. The month is capped off by the fabulous annual Downtown Tikkun Leil Shavuot: All-Night Jewish Learning Festival on Tuesday, May 30 from dusk till dawn. For more information visit mnjcc.org.
The Royal Conservatory of Music
The Royal Conservatory of Music presents the 21C Music Festival, five days of newly-minted music during which audiences have an opportunity to experience fresh sounds and ideas from the greatest musical minds of today, May 24-28. This year's festival marks Canada 150 with an array of our country's most innovative and daring composers and musicians, with nine concerts and 31 premieres. Highlights include the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra conducted by Johannes Debus, the Canadian Art Song Project with an all-Canadian program and musicians, Cecilia String Quartet presenting four works commissioned to celebrate compositions by Canadian women, Montreal-based violinist Angèle Dubeau and her all-female string ensemble La Pietà, and the 30th anniversary of Bang on a Can All-Stars with a special "Bang on a Canada" concert. In partnership with Soundstreams, the festival closes with The Music of Unsuk Chin. For more information and tickets, please visit performance.rcmusic.ca.
Soundstreams
Soundstreams last concert of the season, The Music of Unsuk Chin is on Sunday, May 28, 3pm in Koerner Hall, as part of the 21C Music Festival (see above). The centerpiece of the concert is Cantatrix Sopranica, a humorous exploration of opera styles across history, sung by star sopranos Carla Huhtanen and Eve-Lyn de la Haye, and countertenor Scott Belluz. The concert will also feature a world premiere by Canadian composer Chris Paul Harman, re-imagining the 1930s jazz standard It's All Forgotten Now, best known for its appearance in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. For more information and tickets visit soundstreams.ca. Use promo code OPERA20 and get 20% off!
Museum of Estonians Abroad/VEMU
In May at the Museum of Estonians Abroad/VEMU the Metsaülikool/Forest University 50! anniversary exhibition opens, and will be on display throughout the summer. People of Estonian heritage have been going to reconnect with their roots at this total immersion cultural camp in the deep woods of Canada, in Muskoka every summer since 1967. On Wednesday, May 3 at 7pm, author, translator and librettist Leelo Tungal from Estonia will be giving a lecture on the topic of Our Fairytale Mother Language: 25 Years Since the Sten Roos Fairytale Competition, In Estonian. On Wednesday, May 10 at 7pm, Jüri Kivimäe, Professor of the Chair of Estonian Studies at the University of Toronto will be giving a lecture on the topic of The Meaning of the Lutheran Reformation in Estonian Culture, In Estonian. All events take place at Tartu College and there is no admission fee. Small donations are appreciated. For more information please visit vemu.ca.
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2017-05-01
Toronto: Events on the Bloor Street Culture Corridor in May 2017