It seems like the global pandemic can’t keep a determined company down. Opera Atelier has announced a new production titled All Is Love just in time for Valentine’s Day, along with a summer performance at the Trasimeno Music Festival in Italy.
All Is Love is a fully staged production, described as “celebrating love in all its splendour”. It features a cast of international performers, led by soprano Measha Brueggergosman-Lee, Opera Atelier’s Artist In Residence.
Composer/Violinist Edwin Huizinga will also be featured, along with Tafelmusik, under the baton of Opera Atelier Music Director David Fallis. Repertoire will include the title piece, All Is Love, a mashup of Henry Purcell and Renaldo Hahn created specifically for Measha Brueggergosman-Lee by Christopher Bagan. The 75-minute performance will culminate in the opening scene of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande.
Other repertoire includes compositions by J.P. Rameau, M.A. Charpentier, and Renaldo Hahn, with additional excerpts by Henry Purcell, Matthew Locke, and G.F. Handel.
“All Is Love explores the different ways love and desire impact our lives and relationships,” says Marshall Pynkoski, Founding Co-Artistic Director in a media release. “The character of Love, as portrayed by Artist of Atelier Ballet Eric Da Silva, will literally appear on stage — propelling the action and emotions of all of the performers.”
Performance details
- Stage direction by Founding Co-Artistic Director Marshall Pynkoski C.M.
- Performers include the full corps of Artists of Atelier Ballet, featuring dancer Eric César De Mello Da Silva, formerly of the Royal Danish Ballet
- Choreography by Founding Co-Artistic Director Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg C.M., and additional solo contemporary choreography created and performed by Artist of Atelier Ballet Tyler Gledhill
In addition to soprano Measha Brueggergosman-Lee, vocalists include: tenor Colin Ainsworth, soprano Mireille Asselin, soprano Meghan Lindsay, mezzo-soprano Danielle MacMillan, soprano Cynthia Smithers, bass-baritone Douglas Williams, and French tenor Rémy Mathieu. Mathieu will be making his Opera Atelier debut in the performance. Previously, he starred in Pynkoski and Lajeunesse Zingg’s production of Grétry’s Richard Coeur-de-Lion at the Royal Opera House Versailles.
“Opera Atelier’s artistic team have long wished to explore the links between French Baroque composers such as Lully and Rameau, and their late 19th / early 20th century compatriots,” says Lajeunesse Zingg, Opera Atelier Founding Co-Artistic Director. “All Is Love showcases the latest repertoire ever explored by Tafelmusik or Opera Atelier, and broadens our perceptions of the very definition of ‘period performance.’”
Opera Atelier and Angela Hewitt in Italy
On July 6, 2022, the company, along with renowned Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt, will make their debut at the Trasimeno Music Festival in Perugia, Italy. Lajeunesse Zingg will choreograph and dance along with Artists of Atelier Ballet to Hewitt’s performance, as Canadian soprano Mireille Asselin sings Purcell’s music.
Hewitt requested the addition of dance and vocalist in order to explore the connections between the three performing arts.
“It will be wonderful to explore the connection between dance and music in the Baroque Keyboard Suites, which have played such an important part in my career,” explains Hewitt in a release. “For the audience to see these dances performed live, and choreographed by an expert in Baroque dance, will be an event unique in the history of the Trasimeno Music Festival. The inclusion of Canadian Soprano Mireille Asselin will allow us to also explore how dance rhythms are exploited in the vocal music of the Baroque era. This program will be a unique opportunity to experience the interpretation of Baroque dance suites between three distinct performance disciplines.”
Important…
…Opera Atelier will present All Is Love on February 19 at 8 p.m. and February 20 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets and information here. In the event of extended pandemic restrictions precluding an in-person audience, Opera Atelier will offer audiences a livestreamed performance, and ticket prices will be adjusted and/or refunded accordingly.
Pynkoski adds in a release, “We want All Is Love to lighten the atmosphere we are currently living in. We intend to welcome our audience back to the theatre with an atmosphere of celebration. It is our hope that All Is Love acts as a new beginning for Opera Atelier’s artists and audiences alike.”
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