20th ANNIVERSARY PRESS RELEASE

2014 marks the 20th anniversary of continuous programming by Music & Opera Appreciation Inc.

On Tuesday OCTOBER 14 2014 from 1pm-3pm, Music & Opera ends its twentieth consecutive season with a series of

opera and music related educational programs. In the first two programs on October 14 and 21 we offer a production

of Mozart’s famous opera Don Giovanni directed by Peter Sellars. There are two driving passions in Don Giovanni:

Anna’s relentless quest for revenge and Giovanni’s relentless quest for pleasure. Low comedy plays an important part in

Giovanni but the question is how to strike a balance between farcical and ludicrous on one hand and the starkly serious

and tragic on the other. The central focus of the plot is Giovanni’s downfall which makes the basic framework tragic and

no amount of comic relief can change that.

On Saturday OCTOBER 25th 7.30PM at CENTRAL UNITED CHURCH, STRATFORD, MOA presents a Gala Concert

featuring Daniel Taylor, (countertenor), Suzie LeBlanc (soprano), Martha Henry (actor) and the baroque orchestra of

the Theatre of Early Music. These artists all of whom have performed internationally will present excerpts from the

operas of Handel and from Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea.

As part of the celebrations for this anniversary year we are presenting Daniel Taylor

who is one of the most sought-after countertenors in the world and has made more than 100 recordings. He is now

recognized as "Canada’s superstar countertenor" and "Canada’s most prolific recording artist" (CBC Radio). Daniel's

latest recording was the new recital disc "Come Again, Sweet Love" on Sony. His recent conducting debuts included his

appearance with the Kammerchor Stuttgart as well as being the first guest conductor in the history of The Tallis

Scholars. The University of Toronto recently appointed Daniel Taylor to the position of Head of Early Music and

Professor of Voice in the Faculty of Music.

Suzie LeBlanc is an Internationally renowned Acadian soprano, who has established an extraordinary career

specializing in Baroque and Classical repertoire and exploring and recording a substantial amount of unpublished

material while living in Europe. Her contribution to Acadian culture has produced CDs La Mer Jolie and Tout passe and

the documentary Suzie LeBlanc: A Musical Quest, directed by Donald Winkler. Her performances of Early Music have

earned her honorary doctorates from King’s College University in Halifax and Mount Allison University in New-

Brunswick. Suzie LeBlanc is artistic director of Le Nouvel Opéra, which is ensemble-in-residence at the Montreal

Conservatory and she is co-artisic director of the Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Festival in Nova Scotia.

Martha Henry is one of Canada's most sought after actors and has long been associated with the Stratford Festival and

with Canadian regional theatres. This was Martha’s 40th season at the Stratford Festival where she directed Mother

Courage and her Children and performed Lady Bountiful in The Beaux' Stratagem. In 2007 Martha was appointed

Director of the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre at the Festival. Her many honors, include the Toronto

Drama Bench Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Theatre (1989), the Governor General’s Award for

Lifetime Achievement in the Performing Arts (1996), Order of Canada (Officer 1981, promoted to Companion 1990)

and the Order of Ontario (1994). She has received honorary degrees from the University of Toronto, York University,

University of Guelph, Lawrence University (Wisconsin), University of Windsor and the University of Western Ontario.

The Orchestra of the Theatre of Early Music is an ensemble of some of the world’s finest musicians, sharing a

particular passion for early music. The orchestra of the TEM appears in some thirty concerts every year, recently

having performed on stages in France, Argentina, Brazil, England and China. . They have released a dozen CDs so far

and their best-selling debut disc on the Sony label entitled The Voice of Bach was praised in Gramophone Magazine

as “serious music-making of the highest order”. The disc received five stars from both BBC Music Magazine and

Classic Music CD, was featured on BBC’s “Desert Island Discs” and received worldwide acclaim with reviews from

the London Times & Guardian, the Globe and Mail, the New York Times and La Scena Musicale

Music & Opera is delighted to bring so many eminent artists to one stage. We feel that this extraordinary concert

will be a feast for the ears and the perfect celebration of our 20 years of bringing music and opera to this

community. Tickets for this concert are $45 for adults or $20 for students and can be purchased at Ticketwindow

519-957-2640 / 1-877-700-3130 or by sending a stamped self addressed envelope to Music & Opera Appreciation,

Box 2528, St. Marys N4X 1A3.

On October 28 we present a single program about the Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg. Here is the question!

When does sound lose its relevance? The answer may lie in the following. As one travels down the road from a

mountain, the mountain shape recedes, becoming eventually a dot: but the viewer knows that it is still a mountain. But

when a dot is placed on the canvas and the painter calls that shape “Mountain” the public becomes confused. In music

the ear understands and knows the “right” version, but it also registers a deliberate unease created by the dislocation of

the “right” version for some other version. Why is this? These are some of the questions that Schoenberg raised and I

hope to address in this program about the man who invented the twelve tone system of writing music.

On November 4 we present Alban Berg’s masterpiece Wozzeck. Berg saw Buchner’s play when it was performed in

Vienna, one year before the outbreak of the First World War. The degradation of Buchner’s poor soldier at the hands of

“organized society” was to become a common experience to millions of human beings. Wozzeck is the first real tragedy

of low life. Berg’s Wozzeck repudiates the assumption implicit in Greek, Elizabethan and neo classic drama that tragic

suffering is the domain of those in high places.

The season ends with Leonard Bernstein’s greatest failure, the musical comedy cum operetta cum opera; Candide,

based on the book of the same name by Voltaire. Candide will occupy two programs November 11 & 18. Candide is

synonymous with optimism. Pure and unbelievably naïve, Candide follows the philosophy taught to him by Pangloss,

that ‘this is the best of all possible worlds’. This piece of music theatre is used to show the absolute lunacy of complete

optimism. At points in the story Candide calls into doubt the credibility of Pangloss’s philosophy , but he is sure to

return to it when even the slightest bid of hope rears its head. This undenying optimism, no matter how foolish it is,

provides for main character Candide, that ephemeral quality which is lost to the other characters - HAPPINESS.

The final program of my tenure at MOA will be on November 25 2014 with Confessions of an Operatic Mute, written

and performed by an old friend Briane Nasimok. Briane began his career appearing with the Canadian Opera Company

in non-singing roles. He later toured North America between 1973 and 1976 in as the Other Servant in Cosi Fan Tutte,

and the Head Waiter in La Boheme, performing 376 times without singing. Later, he performed the non-singing role

Ambrogio in The Barber of Seville at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto before his retirement.

Briane was the second feature act at Yuk Yuks Komedy Kabaret and appeared on A&E's "Evening at the Improv".

Nasimok was the founder and artistic director of the Grafton Street Dinner Theatre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is

currently the Executive Producer of the Canadian Comedy Awards Festival and the President of the Board of Smile

Theatre Company. In 2012 he received a "Gilda's Award" for his ten years of contribution to the "It's Always Something"

annual fundraiser which we wrote and produced.

With the exception of the final program on November 25 which begins at 2.30 pm, all other programs begin at 1.00 p.m.

and usually end at 3.00 p.m. But as an extra feature you may also arrive at 12.30pm (1/2 hour earlier, have a coffee and

view programming related to the operas being presented). These programs take place at the Festival Inn in Stratford

and a series ticket for the series of six afternoon programs is $50, which includes refreshments. Tickets may be

purchased in advance by calling 226 271 7298 or at the door. Single tickets are $10.