{"id":43427,"date":"2017-03-06T10:39:38","date_gmt":"2017-03-06T15:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=43427"},"modified":"2017-03-06T11:32:58","modified_gmt":"2017-03-06T16:32:58","slug":"in-memoriam-not-a-dry-eye-in-the-house-for-stuart-hamilton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/03\/06\/in-memoriam-not-a-dry-eye-in-the-house-for-stuart-hamilton\/","title":{"rendered":"IN MEMORIAM | Stuart Hamilton: Not A Dry Eye In The House"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Stuart
Friends and fans of opera coach and radio host Stuart Hamilton gathered on March 5 at Jane Mallett Theatre, to celebrate his life with performances of favourite music and readings from Stuart\u2019s own book, Opening Windows.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Stuart Hamilton: Celebration of A Life<\/h3>\n

To opera\/voice lovers in Canada, Stuart Hamilton (Sept. 28, 1929 \u2013 Jan. 1, 2017) was a Canadian icon. Pianist, vocal coach, fine musician, French opera fanatic, radio host, fabulous raconteur, accomplished author, recipient of Order of Canada, and an all-round colourful man-about-town, Stuart Hamilton for over 65 years inspired and trained many generations of singers. His love of Debussy \u2014 especially Pelleas et Melisande<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 was legendary. Many of us, whether as musical professionals or as audience members, were in one way or another touched by him.<\/p>\n

Not being a musician, my interaction with Stuart Hamilton was mostly as a journalist and audience member, having attended many recitals where he played for singers, as well as listening to him on radio. I also appeared as a panelist on several Saturday Afternoon at the Opera intermission quizzes when Stuart was host. Our paths also crossed a few times when we were fellow guests at private parties. Full of life and really a rollickingly funny guy, his imitation of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, which I was privy to witness once, had me in stitches. I heard Schwarzkopf near the end of her career when she came to my university to give a masterclass and a Liederabend<\/em>. Stuart\u2019s imitation of her vocal mannerisms was so spot-on that I think I dreamed about it several times. It was indescribable.<\/p>\n

And now he\u2019s gone. I heard the news of his passing very quickly from my many Facebook friends who are in the \u201cbusiness\u201d. His passing has left a void in our Canadian, particularly Toronto, musical community. At the Celebration of the Life and Legacy of Stuart Hamilton this afternoon, under the auspices of Opera in Concert, the Jane Mallett theatre was almost totally full, filled with his friends, colleagues, admirers, not to mention just music lovers whose lives Stuart touched in some way. I spotted many people I\u2019ve known over the years but not seen for some time, what with advancing age and the passage of time in general. It was a poignant, slightly sad, yet uplifting afternoon, one filled with laughter and the occasional tear, but mostly laughter.<\/p>\n

It was also a very long afternoon. Don\u2019t get me wrong \u2014 I loved every minute of it, and as a Wagnerite, I am used to long operas! As a journalist and an anthropologist by training in my previous life as an academic, I am used to being an observer. I timed the event \u2014 the celebration was 2 hours 23 minutes without an intermission. That makes it longer than the Prologue\/Act 1 of G<\/em>\u00f6tterdammerung,<\/em> which clocked in at a mere two hours at the recent COC run. It is the same length as Act 3 Die Meistersinger<\/em>, said to be the longest act of any opera in the standard repertoire. Given the rather mature audience demographic at this event, a few around me were desperately climbing over people to go out near the end, presumably due to the call of nature. \u00a0But hey you know what, it was worth it!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not every day that I write about a memorial celebration, so I\u2019m not going to wear my critic\u2019s hat. It would be inappropriate of me. I can honestly say every segment of the program was meaningful and touching. There were twenty-nine individuals listed in the program as appearing\/performing, plus twenty-two singers in the Opera in Concert Chorus. The afternoon opened with welcoming remarks from OIC Board Chair Gordon D. Baird. It was followed by some two dozen segments, presented with love and admiration by colleagues of Stuart\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Some were incredibly funny \u2014 I particularly liked the story on page-turning for Schwarzkopf, and the hilarious bit about his non-playing of the Chopin Prelude No. 3,<\/em> at a tempo that he couldn\u2019t handle. Richard Margison\u2019s reading of Stuart\u2019s experience in army training also broke everyone up. And what can you say about Guillermo Silva-Marin\u2019s reading of the bit about Stuart\u2019s life being transformed by Shirley Temple singing Good Ship Lollipop \u2014 well, you had to be there!\u00a0 I should point out that the material comes directly from Stuart Hamilton\u2019s recent autobiography, Opening Windows,<\/em> and from audio tapes of interviews Stuart had given.<\/p>\n

There were very enjoyable live performances as well. The fine OIC pianist Narmina Afandiyeva played the difficult Chopin Prelude No. 3<\/em> beautifully; and Nathalie Paulin sang affectingly \u201cApr\u00e8s un r\u00eave\u201d by Faur\u00e9. Colin Ainsworth and Brett Polegato teamed up for a terrific \u201cAu fond du temple saint\u201d from The Pearl Fishers<\/em>. Miriam Khalil, in luscious voice, joined Greg Dahl in a scene from Pelleas et Melisande<\/em>, Stuart\u2019s favourite opera. The most touching moment for me was at the very end, with Monica Whicher singing \u201cAn die Musik.\u201d For me and probably all other music lovers, this Schubert song sums up everything that makes music meaningful in our lives. I remember hearing Lois Marshall coming out of retirement to sing this at Roy Thomson Hall (!) \u2014 there was not a dry eye in the house.\u00a0 This afternoon, it was poignant to be sure, yet it was also uplifting. If there were tears, they were tears of gratitude and joy, celebrating a life well lived. I think that\u2019s what Stuart would have wanted.<\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friends and fans of opera coach and radio host Stuart Hamilton gathered to celebrate his life with performances of favourite music and readings from Stuart\u2019s own book, Opening Windows.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":43430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,14,41,43,63],"tags":[3162],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/03\/hamilton.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-bir","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43427"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43427"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43436,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43427\/revisions\/43436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43427"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=43427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}