2020 WINTER series

Elements of Nature:
​FIRE

​Tuesday afternoons 1:30 - 3:30 p.m.
January 7 -  February 11, 2020
QUALITY INN  (in the Guthrie Room)
1144 Ontario St., Stratford, Ontario
A series of films, live performances, and lectures

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January 7 & 14
THE MAID OF ORLEANS
Peter Tchaikovsky
     To open our series, we encounter fire as the vehicle for the martyrdom of Joan of Arc in Tchaikovsky's The Maid of Orleans (1881). It is the composer's closest approach to French Grand Opera, with its large scale cast and orchestra, and it presents a finely nuanced musical portrait of the fearless young woman who led the French army to victory in 1430.
​program sponsored by  Peter Fischer and Dorothy Knight

January 21
Brian Macdonald's
THE FIREBIRD
with Annette av Paul
Igor Stravinsky
    The Firebird is based on Russian folklore and was premiered in 1910 by the Ballet Russe in Paris. It is the story of a hero who works with the mythical Firebird to defeat an evil sorcerer and free a bevy of princesses, one of whom he marries. We will see original footage of Annette av Paul dancing the Princess, and then the 1991 production choreographed by Brian Macdonald. Annette, Brian’s muse and partner, will introduce the work.
program sponsored by  Marion Isherwood and Eleanor Kane

January 28
DIE WALKÜRE  act III
Richard Wagner
   In the final act of Die Walküre, the god Wotan creates a wall of fire to protect Brünnhilde from unworthy suitors – thus preparing the plot for the next opera in the Ring Cycle. This devastating drama involves complex relationships between brother and sister, husband and wife, father and daughter. We see the head-strong Brünnhilde and the tortured Wotan quarrel as she faces the wrath of her father.
program sponsored by
​Barbara Baxter
​Joanne McArthur

February 4 & 11
DON GIOVANNI
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
   Finally we experience the fires of Hell in the Glyndebourne Festival’s 2010 production of Don Giovanni (an opera first performed in Prague in 1787) starring Canadian baritone, Gerald Finley. Ultimately the legend of Don Juan is a morality play, because this total personification of unrepentant promiscuity is duly punished for his sins with pain and hellfire. Mozart’s music is breathtaking.
program sponsored by
Liz Hardeman and Karen Mychayluk-Wilson
Maxine Houghton and David Beattie

Series Sponsor:
The Law Office of Mary Anne Shaw
                   Wills & Estate Law
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Ticket Prices
Series: $50 *
Single sessions: $10 each
All tickets include light refreshments

*A series subscription offers a saving of $10.  And if you can't attend every session, why not invite someone who wouldn't normally attend to use your ticket?

Jeanne d'Arc

Canadian Opera Company photo credit Michael Cooper

Welsh National Opera photo credit Richard Hubert Smith