Jonas Kaufmann really wants you to watch Faust this weekend. How can you say no to that face?
THE BIRDS TAKE UP THEIR CHARMING SONGS ONCE MORE
Special guest narrator: Bruce Hunter
Vivaldi – Four Seasons
Musical Improvisations – The Audience becomes the Storyteller
The holidays are a time to be together with those you love. Join with friends, family and community and participate in some music making with Via Salzburg. The Baroque sounds of Vivaldi prepare our ears as Via Salzburg and our audience create music together for the first time. Friday, December 9, 2011, 8pm. Rosedale United Church, 159 Roxborough Drive, Toronto.
BACK TO BACK – CONTINUUM MUSIC
Continuum Music co-presented with the Music Gallery and Toronto New Music Projects, Back to Back is a concert of works for small ensemble by experimentalist extraordinaire Vinko Globokar. This event, together with a New Music Concerts performance on December 11, creates a rare concentration of Globokar’s work that is not to be missed. The programme includes Dos à Dos, Terres brûlées, ensuite…, a brilliantly theatrical trio for piano, saxophone and percussion with electronics by Thomas Kessler, and a group improvisation led by Globokar on trombone. Performers –
Composer and trombone: Vinko Globokar (FR)
With: Thomas Kessler (electronics), Wallace Halladay (saxophone), Stephen Clarke (piano), Ryan Scott (percussion), David Schotzko (percussion). December 9, 2011, 8 pm. The Music Gallery, 197 John Street, Toronto, ON, CA, M5T 1X6
FAUST, BY GOUNOD – THE MET OPERA IN HD
Award-winning director Des McAnuff updates the story to the first half of the 20th century with a production that won praise in London last season. Jonas Kaufmann in the title role, René Pape as the devil, and Angela Gheorghiu as Marguerite, Gounod’s classic retelling of the Faust legend couldn’t be better served. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts on the heels of his Don Carlo success. Saturday, December 10, 2011. 12:55pm. Cineplex and Empire Movie Theaters across Canada.
THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS – TORONTO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Famed Pops Conductor Richard Hayman lends the Toronto Symphony Orchestra his original orchestration of this perennial holiday favourite, The Twelve Days of Christmas. You will not only experience a partridge in a pear tree and eight maids-a-milking, but the lords and ladies and swans and geese — all coming together! Sing along with the tune you know so well as it culminates in a massive melée of Christmas cheer.
Join us in the lobby at intermission for free art activities with the Avenue Road Arts School!
This concert is recommended for children ages 5-12.We regret we cannot allow children under 2 years of age into any TSO concert. Stuart Chafetz, conductor. Sun. Dec. 11, 2011 at 3:00pm. Roy Thomson Hall
SPANISH HARLEM ORCHESTRA: A SALSA CHRISTMAS
This Grammy-winning 13-piece ensemble, led by pianist Oscar Hernández, is a jazz festival fave, but this time it’s bringing some high-energy Latin flavour to traditional Christmas tunes. Dec. 9. $39–$78.50. Koerner Hall, Royal Conservatory of Music, 273 Bloor St. W., 416-408-0208.
DJ SKATE NIGHT (FREE!) – HARBOURFRONT CENTRE
Ice skates, music and hot chocolate are what you can expect this Saturday. Take a spin around the Harbourfront Centre’s lakeside rink to the sounds of Rihanna, Drake and Jully Black, thanks to DJs from Flow 93.5. Upcoming nights will focus on house, funk and reggae. Saturdays, Dec. 10 to Feb. 18 (except Christmas and New Year’s Eve). Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay W., 416-973-4000.
RED – CANADIAN STAGE
Under the watchful gaze of his young assistant and a threatening generation of new artists, celebrated 20th-century painter Mark Rothko struggles to create a masterpiece in the face of fame, fortune and commercialism. Director and Canadian Stage Associate Artist Kim Collier brings this stark and passionate 2010 Tony Award-winning play to life.
2 PIANOS 4 HANDS
The humourous story of two boys striving towards their dream of becoming concert pianists. To Jan. 5. Panasonic Theatre, 561 Yonge St.
MEMPHIS
The Tony Award–winning musical set in the 1950s about an idealistic white radio and a black club singer ready for her big break. To Dec. 24. Toronto Centre for the Arts, 5040 Yonge St., 416-733-9388.
THE NUTCRACKER – BALLET JORGEN
Created by choreographer Bengt Jörgen to Tchaikovsky’s well-loved score, this classic ballet takes audiences on a journey through winter landscapes filled with snowflakes, lumberjacks, Mounties and creatures of the woods. Dec. 14. Betty Oliphant Theatre, 404 Jarvis St., 416-978-8849.
A SPANISH CHRISTMAS
Flashing rhythms, irrepressible spirit, soulful sonorities – there’s nothing quite like the music of early baroque Spain and Latin America. And at Christmastime, the music seems to become even more ecstatic. Guitars, lutes, harp, bajón, voices, and, of course, wonderful percussion make this a Christmas fiesta like nothing else in the city. December 9, 10 & 11, 2011. Trinity St. Paul’s United Church.
ADAPTATION: A NEW TYPE OF BOOK CLUB
Directed by Spike Jonze. Starring Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton. Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman explores the difficult task of adapting a book for film in this comedy-drama, one of 2002’s most innovative films, directed by Spike Jonze. Battling writer’s block Kaufman, a character in the film played by Nicholas Cage, finally creates a dramatic adventure for an orchid thief and the book’s author, Susan Orlean, portrayed by Meryl Streep.Orlean’s 1998 non-fiction book, The Orchid Thief, tells the story of John Laroche, a group of Seminole Indians arrested for poaching rare orchids, and the extremes people go to gratify a passion.
As always, there will be free book giveaways and complimentary snacks after the screening. Tuesday, December 13, 6:45 p.m.
