Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Now in its third decade as Canada’s only professional performing arts company dedicated to music theatre in all its variety, Toronto Operetta Theatre announces the playbill for the 2017-2018 season. Direct from Vienna, Operettts opens the season with three performances at the St. Lawrence Centre on September 22, 23, and 24, 2017. Operettts, a madcap music comedy, features the zany antics of three tenors as they compete for stardom on the operetta stage. The best in Viennese operetta and a little bit more, starring tenor Thomas Sigwald and pianist Christian Koch from Vienna and Canadian tenors Michael Barrett and Adam Fisher. A hit at the Volksoper in Vienna and other centres in Germany and Austria, these performances mark the show’s North American Premiere. Presented in cooperation with Attila Glatz Concert Productions.
Next up on November 5, 2017 at 3 pm is Calixa Lavallée’s operetta, The Widow, starring Julie Nesrallah, host of CBC’s Tempo. TOT honours Canada’s Sesquicentennial with this new production of a Canadian operetta classic written by the composer of our national anthem. A Spanish diva, a philandering husband-to-be and a faked obituary all lead to a happy end amid melody and screwball comedy! Featuring Diego Catalá and Stefan Fehr, Gregory Finney with Michael Rose as Music Director.
Bernstein’s Candide is TOT’s Holiday production and runs from December 28 – January 7, 2018. First presented by TOT in 2008, the work is one of Leonard Bernstein’s most accomplished compositions. He himself called it an operetta and it premiered on Broadway in 1956. Vania Chan stars as Cunegonde will sing the bravura aria Glitter and be Gay while tenor Tonatiuh Abrego takes on the title role of the eternally hopeful Candide in the best of all possible worlds. Derek Bate conducts the cast and orchestra and Guillermo Silva-Marin is stage director.
The season closes with one of Jacques Offenbach’s most effervescent masterpieces, La Belle Hélène in this irreverent romp in ancient Greece. TOT’s new production runs from April 25 to April 29, 2018 and stars Beste Kalender, Adam Fisher and Stuart Graham with Peter Tiefenbach as conductor.
NEW THIS YEAR! ‘Saturday Cabarets at the Edward Jackman Centre’. Come to the Cabaret with host Elizabeth Beeler on November 18 and Doyle a la Carte on February 10 with host Henry Ingram.
Toronto Operetta Theatre is thankful for the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, the Jackman Foundation, the Dalglish Family Foundation, Bedolfe Foundation, Nancy’s Very Own Foundation and Classical 96.3 FM. Partners also include Huziak Graphic Design, EPOCH TIMES and MZ Media. All performances take place at the wheelchair accessible St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, situated in the downtown theatre district, close to public transit and municipal parking. For information, call the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts Box Office at 416-366-7723, 1–800-708-6754 or online at www.stlc.com
2017-08-10
Toronto: Toronto Operetta Theatre announces its 2017/18 season