Critic’s Picks (October 14 – 20)
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.
Tuesday 15
Canadian Opera Company | Turandot 7:30 p.m. Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. W. $80-$290. Repeats Oct. 17, 19. Start times vary.
COC’s Turandot continues this week, in a Robert Wilson production that has drawn divided opinions. Refreshing for those who enjoy minimalism and the formalist approach, and problematic for those who can’t reconcile the staging with the story. Soprano Tamara Wilson in the title role. Russian tenor Sergey Skorokhodov (Calaf) makes his Company debut. American soprano Vanessa Vasquez is the alternate Liu in the Oct. 15 performance. All principal roles are double cast. Italian maestro Carlo Rizzi conducts. | Details
Against the Grain Theatre | La Boheme 8 p.m. Tranzac Club, 292 Brunswick Ave. $25-$40. Repeats 16, 18, 19, 20.
The show that started it all at Against the Grain Theatre, Puccini’s La bohème, returns to Toronto. Marcel D’entremont, tenor (Rodolfo); Jonelle Sills, soprano (Mimì); Clarence Frazer, baritone (Marcello); Danika Lorèn, soprano (Musetta); Andrew Aldridge, baritone (Schaunard); Giles Tomkins, bass-baritone (Colline); Greg Finney, baritone (Benoît/Alcindoro); Joel Ivany, stage director; David Eliakis, music director/piano. | Details
Wednesday 16
Tafelmusik | Baroque Roots 7 p.m. Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, 428 Bloor St. W. $20-$89. Repeats 17, 18, 19, 20. Start times vary.
Elissa Citterio leads the Tafelmuisk Baroque Orchestra in this concert exploring Vienna’s Baroque roots, 1600’s style. The program includes works by Farina, Bertali, Buonamente, Biber, Neri, Guido Morini, Fux, Muffat, and Vivaldi. | Details
Canadian Opera Company | Rusalka. 7:30 p.m. Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen St. W. $45-$350. Repeats Oct. 18, 20.
Antonin Dvořák’s highly dramatic and melodically inspired opera, Rusalka, continues this week, in a beautiful and naturalistic production by David McVicar. It stars soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role. Tenor Pavel Černoch is the Prince, bass Stefan Kocan is Vodnik, mezzo Elena Manistina is Jezibaba, and soprano Keri Alkema is the Foreign Princess. COC Music Director Johannes Debus conducts. | Details
Thursday 17
University of Toronto Faculty of Music | U of T Symphony Orchestra. MacMillan Theatre, Edward Johnson Building, 80 Queen’s Park. $30/$20(sr)/$10(st).
Conductor Uri Mayer leads the U of T Symphony Orchestra, with pianist Michelle Lin, a winner of the 2018-19 UTSO Concerto Competition, in MOZART Symphony No. 41, K. 551 in C major (Jupiter); RAVEL Rapsodie espagnole; KULESHA Non-Destructive Classical Music; and TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 23 in B-flat minor. Pre-show talk at 7 p.m. | Details
Music Toronto | Quartetto di Cremona 8 p.m. Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front St. E. $47.50-$52/$10(st).
Founded in Genoa in 2001, Quartetto di Cremona is considered one of the top string quartets in the world. Members are Cristiano Gualco, violin; Paolo Andreoli, violin; Simone Gramaglia, viola; and Giovanni Scaglione, cello. This is their Toronto debut, in a program of works by Boccherini, Verdi, Puccini, and Respighi. | Details
Show One Productions | Denis Matsuev 8 p.m. Koerner Hall, 273 Bloor St. W. Only stage tickets left at $100.
Star Russian pianist Denis Matsuev returns to Toronto for a recital. Program detail not available. | Details
Saturday 19
University of Toronto Faculty of Music | Acis and Galatea 2 p.m., Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Avenue, Toronto. $30/$20(sr)/$10(st). Repeats Oct. 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Tenor Isaiah Bell is the stage director and Larry Beckwith conducts musicians from Collegium Musicum and Schola Cantorum in Handel’s Acis and Galatea. | Details
Sunday 20
Royal Conservatory of Music | A Hungarian Trilogy. 2 p.m. Mazzoleni Hall, Royal Conservatory of Music, 273 Bloor St. W. $30.
Violinist Erika Raum, violist Barry Shiffman, and cellist Tom Wiebe join forces to perform works by three Hungarian composers: Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, and Ernő Dohnányi. | Details
Voicebox/Opera In Concert | L’enfant et les sortilèges & L’heure espagnole 2:30 p.m. Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front St. E. $20-$50.
Voicebox/OIC presents Ravel’s double bill, L’enfant et les sortilèges & L’heure espagnole, sung in English. | Details
Mooredale Concerts | Bennewitz Quartet. 3:15 p.m. Walter Hall, Edward Johnson Building, University of Toronto, 80 Queen’s Park. $30-$45.
The Czech chamber group Bennewitz Quartet performs Bach’s Art of the Fugue (selections), Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in A minor, Op. 13, and Beethoven’s String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132. | Details
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir | Singing Through Centuries: 125th Anniversary Gala Concert. 3:30 p.m. Koerner Hall, 273 Bloor St. W. $78/$67/$55/$35/$20(30 & under).
To celebrate its 125th Anniversary, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir is joined by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Interim Artistic Director David Fallis, in a program that spans three centuries of choral music: Gabriel Fauré: Requiem; Igor Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms; and Andrew Balfour: Mamihcimowin (The act of singing praises) (TMC commission). | Details
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