Pianist Adam Sherkin presents a program of latest music that features a distinctive preview of the Canadian Opera Firm’s new manufacturing in a free lunchtime live performance. It’s a part of the COC’s Free Live performance sequence, and takes place on the Richard Bradshaw amphitheatre on January 23.
La Reine-garçon is without doubt one of the most extremely anticipated new productions on the Canadian Opera Firm lately. It will likely be the primary COC/Opéra de Montréal co-production, and will get its Toronto premiere later this month.
Adam Sherkin and his Piano Lunaire commissioned La Reine-garçon’s composer Julien Bilodeau to jot down six paraphrases for piano from the opera, which Sherkin will tour this winter.
“By way of these three paraphrases, the listener shall be transported on a condensed journey that recounts the highlights of the opera whereas having the ability to recognize a mode of pianistic writing that’s each virtuoso and poetic,” says Bilodeau in a press release.
Composer Julien Bilodeau
Julien Bilodeau first studied music on the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, adopted by 4 years on the Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique (IRCAM) et au Centre de création musicale Iannis Xenakis (CCMIX) in Paris, after which additional research on the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfort, Germany.
In 2006, he gained the Canada Council for the Arts Robert Flemming prize for rising composers. Julien’s earlier orchestral works had been influenced by European music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
His works for orchestra have been carried out by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Orchestre métropolitain du Grand Montréal, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, amongst others. He’s written commissions for the OSM and l’Orchestre de la Francophonie, and his work has been carried out by l’Ensemble Moderne and l’Orchestre des Amériques de New York, amongst others.
In 2017, he composed his first opera, One other Brick within the Wall: The Opera, adapting the music from the Pink Floyd album of the identical identify. Since Then, Bilodeau has devoted his practise to composing operas.
La Reine-garçon: Queen Christina of Sweden
Christina was Queen of Sweden from 1632 till 1654. However, earlier than that, she was a toddler who was introduced up as a boy by her father, Gustavus Adolphus , who died when she was solely seven. She inherited the throne on his loss of life, however wouldn’t rule in her personal proper till the age of 18.
Queen Christina is credited with establishing a college and selling studying. She additionally turned identified for her outsized spending habits, occasional sporting of masculine apparel, and her shut relationship to the performing arts communities of her time.
In the long run, she abdicated the throne due to her conversion to Cathlolicism, coupled together with her refused to marry — the latter resolution formed little doubt indirectly by her childhood. She settled in Rome, and have become one of many few girls buried within the Vatican Grottoes.
The opera’s story takes place in Uppsala Citadel in 1649 as Queen Christina brings René Descartes to her kingdom to assist her navigate the numerous forces that affect her. She’s caught up between a way of responsibility to the throne, and its necessity of manufacturing an inheritor, and her love for an additional lady, the conflict of female and masculine values in her world, and religion vs information.
The COC manufacturing stars sopranos Kirsten MacKinnon and Kirsten LeBlanc because the Swedish queen.
The unique music was composed by Julien Bilodeau, with French libretto by Michel Marc Bouchard.
The Live performance
The free live performance takes place at midday on the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre on January 23.
The composer may even be current and part of the presentation on January 23. The live performance program additionally consists of Bilodeau’s 4 Spring études (revised 2024), two études by György Ligeti, and Thomas Adès’ Blanca Variations (2015), together with Sherkin’s personal set of Variations on Punch’s Resolve( after Harrison Birtwistle’s “Punch & Judy”).
Should you’re a member (or have a good friend who can deliver you as a visitor), Sherkin may even carry out this system on Feb 5 on the Toronto Arts & Letters Membership.
Adam Sherkin shall be recording The Six Paraphrases subsequent summer season, with a view to releasing them in late fall 2025.
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.
