Classical music and opera events happening in and around Toronto for the week of November 19 – 25.

Critic’s Picks (Nov. 19 -25)

Ludwig van Toronto’s weekly Critic’s Picks are a curated list of some of the best concerts happening now through the end of the week. For a look at the full breadth of what’s available in and around Toronto, check out our curated concert listings here.

Monday 19

Against the Grain Theatre | Bound v.2. 8 p.m. The Great Hall – Long Boat Hall, 1087 Queen St. W. $35-$80. Repeats Nov. 20 & 21 8 p.m.

The ever-adventurous Against the Grain Theatre is presenting Bound: A Handel Mash-up, by composer Kevin Lau, the second workshop of a three-year project that explores the “current state of the displaced, dehumanized and mistreated, with texts and stories drawn from real-life news articles and world events” Sung in English with a libretto by Joel Ivany. Miriam Khalil, soprano; David Trudgen, countertenor; Andrew Haji, tenor; Justin Welsh, baritone; Topher Mokrzewski, conductor. Read an interview with the creative team behind Bound v.2. | More info here.

Wednesday 21

Tafelmusik | Sound the Trumpet! 7 p.m. Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, 427 Bloor St. W. Repeats Nov. 22, 23, 24, at 8 p.m., Nov. 25 at 3:30 p.m. $30-$78.

Celebrate the Holiday season with Tafelmusik’s Sound the Trumpet! — a concert featuring British trumpeter David Blackadder playing Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, plus works by Locatelli, Telemann, and others. Elisa Citterio, violin and director. | More info here.

National Ballet of Canada | The Dream & Being and Nothingness. 7:30 p.m. Four Seasons Centre, 145 Queen St. W. $40-$265. Repeats Nov. 22, 23, 24, 25 (Start times vary)

The National Ballet presents a mixed program that includes Frederick Ashton’s The Dream, based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and principal dancer/choreographer Guillaume Côté’s Being and Nothingness, inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre. Music by Mendelssohn and Philip Glass. | More info here.

Toronto Symphony Orchestra | Boléro. 8 p.m. Roy Thomson Hall, 60 Simcoe St. $40.75-$154.00. Repeats Nov. 23, 24.

Finnish conductor John Storgǻrds leads the TS forces in Ravel’s Boléro, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with pianist Kirill Gerstein. A third work on the program is John Adams’s jazzy City Noir. | More info here.

Thursday 22

University of Toronto Faculty of Music | U of T Opera: Street Scene. 7:30 p.m. MacMillan Theatre, Edward Johnson Building, 80 Queen’s Park. $40/$25(sr)/$10(st). Repeats 23, 24, 25 (2:30 p.m.)

U of T Opera presents Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, an “American” work by the expat composer in a style that melds traditional European opera with American musical theatre. The story depicts the lives of the inhabitants of a New York tenement. Michael Albano directs and Sandra Horst conducts. Opera Talk half an hour prior to the performance. | More info here.

Friday 23

Royal Conservatory of Music | Royal Conservatory Orchestra. 8 p.m. Koerner Hall, 273 Bloor St. W. $25-$60.

Bramwell Tovey conducts the RCM Orchestra in a program of Elgar, Mahler and Strauss, plus his own Field of Light. Hannah Craig is the cellist in the Elgar Cello Concert in E Minor, op. 85. | More info here.

Saturday 24

Show One Productions | From Bel Canto to Verismo. 8 p.m. Koerner Hall, 273 Bloor St. W. $55-$125.

The reigning Queen of Bel Canto, Canadian-American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in her only appearance in her adopted home town this season. She sings an All-Italian program of songs and arias from Early Baroque to Bel Canto to Verismo. Anthony Manoli is the collaborative pianist. Read about it in this interview. | More info here.

Sunday 25

Royal Conservatory of Music | ARC Ensemble 2 p.m. Mazzoleni Hall, Royal Conservatory of Music, 273 Bloor St. W. $30.

The ARC Ensemble (ARC stands for Artists of the Royal Conservatory) plays the recovered works by Czech composer Walter Kaufmann (1907-1984), works suppressed during the Nazis. Pre-concert talk by Simon Wynberg. | More info here.

VOICEBOX/Opera in Concert | Werther 2:30 p.m. Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front St. E. $21-$56.

Opera In Concert presents one of Massenet’s most Romantic and enduring works, Werther, with tenor Matt Chittick (Werther), soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian (Charlotte), baritone Brett Polegato (Albert), and soprano Holly Chaplin (Sophie). Narmina Afandiyeva is the music director and pianist. Sung in French with English surtitles. | More info here.

Royal Conservatory of Music | Gabriela Montero: Innocence and Experience. 3 p.m. Koerner Hall, 273 Bloor St. W. $35-$85.

Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero makes a welcome return to Toronto in this show called Innocence and Experience, playing works of Schumann, Shostakovich, Chick Corea, as well as her own composition Memories from Childhood. And no Montero concert is complete without her real-time improvisation of pieces on themes suggested by her audience. | More info here.

Toronto Symphony Orchestra | TSYO Fall Concert. 3 p.m. George Weston Recital Hall, Toronto Centre for the Arts, 5040 Yonge St. $31.25.

Conductor Simon Rivard leads the TSYO in a program featuring Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture, Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, and Bernstein’s Overture to Candide and Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Program here (PDF). | More info here.

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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).

CRITIC'S PICKS | 11 Concerts You Need To See In Toronto This Week (Nov. 19 – 25)