Critic’s Picks (Nov. 13-19)

Classical music and opera events happening in and around Toronto for the week of Nov. 13 to 19. (Emily D’Angelo / Photo: Michael Cooper)

Ludwig van Toronto’s weekly Critic’s Picks are a fully curated list of some of the best concerts happening now through the end of the week. This is not to say we are the provocateurs of taste, but simply seek to provide a good weekly summary. For a look at the full breadth of what’s available in and around Toronto, check out our curated concert listings here.

Wednesday 15

Tafelmusik | Close Encounters…in Paris. 11 a.m. Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Ave. $45 Repeats Nov. 18 2 p.m. Temerty Theatre at the Telus Centre, 273 Bloor St. W.

This Tafelmusik chamber concert features Genevieve Gilardeau and Patricia Ahern (violin), Felix Deak (viola da gamba), and Charlotte Nediger (harpsichord), playing a program of works by Couperin, Rameau, and Marais. This concert takes place in an informal space with introductions by the musicians. | Listing

Toronto Symphony Orchestra | Oundjian Conducts Vaughan Williams. 8 p.m. Roy Thomson Hall. Repeats Nov. 16 2 p.m. $40.75-$154

TSO Music Director Peter Oundjian conducts an All Vaughan Williams program that includes several of the composer’s iconic works – Fantasia on Greensleeves, Serenade to Music (with soprano Carla Huhtanen, mezzo Emily D’Angelo, tenor Lawrence Wiliford, baritone Tyler Duncan), and The Wasps Overture. Louis Lortie is the soloist in Piano Concerto in C. | Listing

Thursday 16

Music Toronto | Carducci String Quartet. 8 p.m. St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front St. E. $55-$50/$10(st)

The originally scheduled Škampa Quartet has cancelled “due to medical and person reasons.” In its place is the Carducci String Quartet (Matthew Denton, violin; Michelle Fleming, violin; Eoin Schmidt-Martin, viola; Emma Denton, cello), in their Toronto debut. On the program are works by Beethoven, Shostakovich, and Debussy. | Listing

Friday 17

Royal Conservatory of Music/Glenn Gould School | Hansel and Gretel. 7:30 p.m., Mazzoleni Hall, 273 Bloor St. W. Repeats Nov. 18. $15

Students from the Glenn Gould School, the professional arm of RCM, in the annual fall opera, this time it’s the perennial classic by Engelbert Humperdinck, Hansel and Gretel. Pianist Peter Tiefenbach is the Music Director; Brent Krysa the stage director. | Listing

Heliconian Club | Glitter and be Gay. 7:30 p.m. The Toronto Heliconian Club, 35 Hazelton Ave. $25

A varied program of the new and the old, featuring soprano Allison Arends, mezzos Maria Soulis and Paula Arciniega; contralto Jacqueline Gélineau, and pianists Evelina Soulis and Suzanne Yeo. They perform works by Monica Pearce, Dorothy de Val, and Colin Eatock. Arends also sings “Glitter and Be Gay” from Bernstein’s Candide. | Listing

Toronto Consort | Renaissance Splendours. 8 p.m. Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, 427 Bloor St. W. Repeats Nov. 18 8 p.m. $15-$69

Music from the courts of Renaissance Europe, in a program of songs, dances, fantasias and madrigals, with dancers from the School of Atelier Ballet, in works choreographed by Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg of Opera Atelier. Pre-concert Q&A with David Fallis and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg. | Listing

Saturday 18

Met Live in HD | The Exterminating Angel. 12:55 p.m. Select Cineplex locations. $28

The American premiere of Thomas Ades’s third opera, The Exterminating Angel, inspired by the Luis Buñuel 1962 film of the same name. It premiered in the 2016 Salzburg Festival, and at Covent Garden last April. The Met premiere features a huge ensemble cast including soprano Audrey Luna, mezzo Alice Coote, soprano Amanda Echalaz, and two Canadian tenors – Joseph Kaiser and Frederic Antoun. Composer Thomas Ades leads the Met Orchestra. Sung in English. Check the website to find a Cineplex cinema near you.

Toronto Masque Theatre | Ensemble Masques in The Musical Theatre of Telemann. 8 p.m. St. Thomas’s Anglican Church, 383 Huron St. Pre-concert chat at 7:15 p.m. moderated by Larry Beckwith. $30

The Toronto Masque Theatre, in its final season, presents Ensemble Masques (violinists Sophie Gent and Tuomo Suni; violist Kathleen Kajioka; cellis Mélisande Corriveau, bass Benoit Vanden Bemden, and harpsichordist Olivier Fortin) in The Musical Theatre of Telemann. | Listing

Toronto Symphony Orchestra | Angela Hewitt. 8 p.m. Roy Thomson Hall. Repeats Nov. 19 3 p.m. at George Weston Recital Hall. $54.90-$161.25 (RTH); $104.90-$119.95 (GWH)

Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt is both soloist and leader in J.S. Bach’s Keyboard Concertos No. 3 and 7, as well as Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9 and No. 20. | Listing

Sunday 19

Esprit Orchestra | Emergence. 8 p.m. Koerner Hall. 7:15 p.m. Pre-concert chat. $20-$60.

Alex Pauk conducts the Esprit Orchestra in works by Daniel Bjarnason, Marc-Andre Dalbavie, Douglas Schmidt, and Ana Sokolovic. Véronique Mathieu is violin soloist. | Listing

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Joseph So

Joseph So is Professor Emeritus at Trent University and Associate Editor of Opera Canada.He is also a long-time contributor to La Scena Musicale and Opera (London, UK). His interest in music journalism focuses on voice, opera as well as symphonic and piano repertoires. He appears regularly as a panel member of the Big COC Podcast.He has co-edited a book, Opera in a Multicultural World: Coloniality, Culture, Performance, published by Routledge (Taylor & Francis Group).

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