Autumn Leaf at Artword Theatre

Back to Artword Productions 1999-2000

Autumn Leaf Performance presents SCHOENBERG Pierrot Lunaire & Transfigured Night

at Artword Theatre

Preview April 19 (all seats $15), opens April 20, runs April 22, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29 at 8pm
Conceived and directed by Thom Sokoloski
Conducted by Gary Kulesha
Featuring mezzo soprano Fides Krucker
and dancer Sara Porter
Production Design by Thom Sokoloski
Lighting Design by Steve Lucas
Costume Design by Heather MacCrimmon
$22.50,
$18 with World Stage Pass,
$15 for students and seniors
For tickets call (416) 504-PLAY (7529)
www.autumnleaf.com

Fresh from the company’s international debut with its newly commissioned opera Electric Flesh at the Musiques-en-scène Festival at Opéra de Lyon, Autumn Leaf Performance (ALP) returns with a rare double-bill of masterpieces from the most influential composer of the past century, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). This presentation of the chamber works Pierrot Lunaire (1912) and Transfigured Night (1899), represents a commitment by Autumn Leaf Performance to present the seminal works of the 20th century which have shaped contemporary opera.
These performances will also represent the debut of ALP’s new resident orchestra, The Autumn Leaf Chamber Ensemble. Conducted by Gary Kulesha, this group consists of Toronto’s cutting-edge musicians dedicated to exploring the interpretative challenges of the chamber opera form.
Pierrot Lunaire, set to a cycle of poems by Albert Giraud, is perhaps Schoenberg’s most outrageously modern and influential composition. This dark dive into sexual anarchy is a remount of the highly-acclaimed production originally conceived and staged by ALP’s Artistic Director Thom Sokoloski in Brussels (1995) with the contemporary ensemble I Fiamminghi, which also toured Holland. In this production, the unmotivated violence and blasphemy of Pierrot has been transformed into a tour-de-force of sexual fantasy, where one woman enacts her elated perversions. Mezzo soprano Fides Krucker returns to perform the twelve-foot tall mistress Pierrot, managing an erotic boudoir of musicians and one lonely child (dancer Sara Porter) on a stage completely covered by her gown.
The second half of the evening will feature an extraordinary work of dramatic music, Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night. This performance of the original sextet version by The Autumn Leaf Chamber Ensemble is a sweeping musical interpretation of Richard Dehmel’s passionate poem about a woman’s confession to her lover that she is carrying another man’s child. Director Thom Sokoloski conceives a haunting ceremony of love, betrayal and reconciliation between a young woman, dancer Sara Porter, and her dead lover in an open coffin.

www.autumnleaf.com

		Autumn Leaf Performance presents *SCHOENBERG Pierrot Lunaire & Transfigured Night* at Artword Theatre Preview April 19 (all seats $15), opens April 20, runs April 22, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29 at 8pm Conceived and directed by Thom Sokoloski Conducted by Gary Kulesha Featuring mezzo soprano Fides Krucker and dancer Sara Porter Production Design by Thom Sokoloski Lighting Design by Steve Lucas Costume Design by Heather MacCrimmon $22.50, $18 with World Stage Pass, $15 for students and seniors For tickets call (416) 504-PLAY (7529) www.autumnleaf.com
	Fresh from the company’s international debut with its newly commissioned opera Electric Flesh at the Musiques-en-scène Festival at Opéra de Lyon, Autumn Leaf Performance (ALP) returns with a rare double-bill of masterpieces from the most influential composer of the past century, Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951). This presentation of the chamber works Pierrot Lunaire (1912) and Transfigured Night (1899), represents a commitment by Autumn Leaf Performance to present the seminal works of the 20th century which have shaped contemporary opera. These performances will also represent the debut of ALP’s new resident orchestra, The Autumn Leaf Chamber Ensemble. Conducted by Gary Kulesha, this group consists of Toronto’s cutting-edge musicians dedicated to exploring the interpretative challenges of the chamber opera form. Pierrot Lunaire, set to a cycle of poems by Albert Giraud, is perhaps Schoenberg’s most outrageously modern and influential composition. This dark dive into sexual anarchy is a remount of the highly-acclaimed production originally conceived and staged by ALP’s Artistic Director Thom Sokoloski in Brussels (1995) with the contemporary ensemble I Fiamminghi, which also toured Holland. In this production, the unmotivated violence and blasphemy of Pierrot has been transformed into a tour-de-force of sexual fantasy, where one woman enacts her elated perversions. Mezzo soprano Fides Krucker returns to perform the twelve-foot tall mistress Pierrot, managing an erotic boudoir of musicians and one lonely child (dancer Sara Porter) on a stage completely covered by her gown. The second half of the evening will feature an extraordinary work of dramatic music, Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night. This performance of the original sextet version by The Autumn Leaf Chamber Ensemble is a sweeping musical interpretation of Richard Dehmel’s passionate poem about a woman’s confession to her lover that she is carrying another man’s child. Director Thom Sokoloski conceives a haunting ceremony of love, betrayal and reconciliation between a young woman, dancer Sara Porter, and her dead lover in an open coffin.


www.autumnleaf.com