French soprano Sandrine Piau is the toast of Europe for her spectacular singing of 18th century opera. As Tafelmusik unveiled its 2012-13 season this morning comes the happy news that she will make her Toronto concert début with the period-performance orchestra on Jan. 31, 2013, in a program of arias from the operas of George Frideric Handel and Antonio Vivaldi.
There’s much more news than that, including these highlights:
- Actor R.H. Thompson has prepared and will host a programme centred on Baroque-era London for its premiere on Jan. 17, 2013 (the orchestra will then tour it across Ontario);
- The Vesuvius Ensemble, which includes members of Tafelmusik, makes its Toronto début with an Italian baroque programme on Oct. 11;
- The orchestra welcomes a new guest conductor to town, Gottfried von der Goltz, director of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, in a Mozart and Handel bill on Nov. 7;
- The orchestra and Tafelmusik Chamber Choir, under director Ivars Taurins, return with Messiah, of course, but also present a French Baroque Christmas programme earlier in December, adding some variety to the music of the season.
- Tafelmusik opens its season at Koerner Hall with three of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg concertos on Sept. 21.
The orchestra is adding more cities to its touring schedule next season, including the Los Angeles premiere of House of Dreams, which gets its Toronto premiere tonight at Trinity-St. Paul’s Church.
They are also hard at work preparing and reissuing recordings on new in-house music label, Tafelmusik Media.
There are more details on the full season, including all the artists, programmes and dates, coming shortly to the Tafelmusik website.
In case you need a sample of Sandrine Piau’s powerful artistry, here she is singing “Dalla gioia e dall’amore” from Vivaldi’s opera, La fida ninfa. The conductor is Jean-Christophe Spinosi, leading his Ensemble Matheus in a 2008 recording of the opera (on the Naïve label). The conversation lasts barely more than 30 seconds:
John Terauds