The Water speaks. Let love pull you under.
The Happenstancers, Toronto’s innovative chamber music ensemble, will present their next concert under the title The Two Deaths of Ophelia. The concert takes place June 19, and will feature the music of composers Linda Catlin Smith, Ann Southam, and Thomas Adès, and the world premieres of new works by Ryan Chase and Toronto composer Luis Ramirez.
Ophelia is one of Shakespeare’s iconic tragic heroines, and often used as a kind of metaphor for what is considered feminine. The Two Deaths Of Ophelia reimagines her character in a sonic portrait that works through the themes of love and desire, madness and death.
The sound world created by the music of the five composers mimics the nature of water — strong yet erratic, sensuous and compelling.
Incorporating two world premieres, the concert unfolds in a kind of double-bill.
The Two Deaths Of Ophelia
“We’re playing with concepts this June,” says conductor Simon Rivard in a statement. “String quartet, tragedy, song cycle, melodrama — both classical music and theatre employ standardized forms, using familiar archetypes to carry audiences to unfamiliar and unexpected places. Can the same story be told twice? Can it remain the same? What if the narrator is changed?”
The world premieres frame the dual approach.
- Torontonian Luis Ramirez has created a new work for three strings and three winds. It’s based on imagining the very moment when Ophelia is suspended in time just as she’s plunging into the water of the stream.
- Ryan Chase‘s Now Wonder Nyce and Straunge begins with three texts by Geoffrey Chaucer, and sets them to surrealistic music to be sung by soprano Reilly Nelson.
“With these projects we explore layers of ideas within the chamber music concert — another familiar structure! — but on the surface this concert is also just an opportunity for our ensemble to engage with powerful and iconic music,” says Happenstancer artistic director Brad Cherwin, “works that we might not have the opportunity to perform otherwise.”
Also on the bill is Claude Vivier’s monumental Bouchara, performed by soprano Danika Lorèn. Vivier wrote the work, which he subtitled “chanson d’amour”, in 1981 for a mixed chamber ensemble of woodwinds, percussion, strings, and voice.
“Vivier’s otherworldly musical language has become a symbol of greatness in the Canadian classical canon, and has influenced countless composers since,” says Lorèn. “Bouchara is one of Vivier’s most spiritual and moving chamber works; a true gem in our country’s rich history of classical innovators.”
Program in full:
- Linda Catlin Smith: Stare at the River
- Linda Catlin Smith: The River (Canadian premiere)
- Shawn Jaeger: Love Is (Canadian premiere)
- Ann Southam: Rivers (selections)
- Wolfgang Rihm: Ophelia Sings
- Oliver Knussen: Ophelia Dances
- Charles Wuorinen: Bearbeitungen über das Glogauer Liederbuch
- Thomas Adès: Arcadiana (selections)
- Luis Ramirez: new work, title TBD (world premiere)
- Ryan Chase: Now Wonder Nyce and Straunge (world premiere)
- Krzysztof Penderecki: Abschied
- Claude Vivier: Bouchara
- Virginia Woolf: Recitations, from selected letters
Personnel
- Simon Rivard, conductor
- Reilly Nelson, Ophelia One
- Danika Lorèn, First Ophelia
- Jesse Blumberg, Hamlet One
- Dion Mazerolle, First Hamlet
Musicians:
- Strings: Luri Lee, violin; Sienna Cho, violin; Hee-Soo Yoon, violin and viola; Hezekiah Leung, viola; Peter Eom, cello; Travis Harrison, double bass; Lenny Ranallo, guitar
- Keyboards: Joonghun Cho; Wesley Shen
- Winds: Chris James, flutes; Aleh Remezau, oboes; Brad Cherwin, clarinets and artistic director; Nicolas Richard, bassoon; Ryan Garbett, horn; Declan Scott, trumpet
- Percussion: Nikki Huang; Thomas Li
- Billy Wong, lighting
- Fish Yu, electronics/sound
- Hoi Tong Keung, production manager
Find more details about the June 19 concert, and tickets, [HERE].
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