Overview of Past Symposia
Previous Listings from 2001 - 2009
Opera Exchange 2010-11 Season
Saturday October 16, 2010 – 9:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Walter Hall, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto
Death in Venice Gets New Life in Toronto
9:30-10:30 --- Stephen Ralls and Stueart Bedford “Personal Reflections on the Premiere”
10:30-11:15 --- Lloyd Whitesell, Schulich School of Music, McGill University
"Notes of Unbelonging"
11:15-11:45 --- coffee break
11:45-1:00 --- Linda Hutcheon, Michael Hutcheon, Kimberly Canton, Amelia DeFalco, Katherine Larson, and Helmut Reichenbächer, with Lawrence Williford (tenor)
“Britten’s Last Years and Late Style”
Sunday February 13, 2011 – 10:00 – 1:00
Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Nixon in China: Giving Voice to Our Own History
10:00-10:30 --- William Germano, The Cooper Union, New York "Opera as News: Nixon in China and the Contemporary Operatic Subject"
10:30-11:00 --- Louis W. Pauly, Munk School of Global Affairs
“Political Resonances of Nixon in China”
11:00-11:15 --- break
11:15-12:00 --- Robert Fink, Department of Musicology, University of California at Los Angeles
"Rhythm and Representation: The Musical Style(s) of Nixon in China"
Concluding with backstage tour of COC
*Note change of location
Saturday May 14, 2011 – 9:00 – 11:00
Walter Hall, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto
Ariadne auf Naxos from A to Z
9:00-9:30 --- Alison Keith, Department of Classics, University of Toronto
"Classical Ariadnes"
9:30-10:15 --- Bryan Gilliam, Francis Hall Fox Professor in Humanities, Duke University
“Ariadne auf Naxos from A to Z: Ariadne, Zerbinetta, and Transformation”
10:15-11:00 --- COC Panel
Opera Exchange 2009-10 Season
Walter Hall, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto
80 Queen's Park (Museum subway)
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Stravinsky/Lepage: A Magical Meeting of Minds
9:30 Lepage on directing [short video clip from interview]
9:45-10:45 Richard Taruskin, Department of Music, University of California, Berkeley, on
Stravinsky’s Shorts
10:45-11:15 Coffee Break
11:15-12:15 Perspectives on Lepage: Solo Work / Collaborative Creation / Opera
Jane Koustas, Theatre Studies, Brock University
Lepage and Opera
Bruce Barton, Centre for the Study of Drama, University of Toronto
Solo Lepage
Pia Kleber, Comparative Literature and Drama, University of Toronto
Lepage and Collaboration
12:15-1:00 COC Creative Team Panel
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Shakespeare’s Othello and Verdi’s Otello: Staging Jealousy
9:30-10:00 Alexander Leggatt, Department of English, University of
Toronto (Emeritus) on Boito’s libretto
10:00-10:30 Jill Levenson, Department of English, University of Toronto, on
the Society of Women in Shakespeare's Othello and Verdi's Otello
10:30-11:00 Lisa Ramshaw, Forensic Psychiatry, University of Toronto, on
pathological jealousy in Ot(h)ello
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-12:30 Roger Parker, Department of Music, King’s College, London, on
Otello: Verdi's Official Farewell to Italian Opera
12:30-2:00 Lunch Break
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Staging Der Fliegende Holländer for our Times?
9:30-10:00 Grace Kehler, English Department, McMaster University, on Senta and other Wagnerian Heroines
10:00-11:00 Stephen McClatchie, Department of Music and V-P Research, Mount Alison University, on the Wandering Jew and Anti-Semitism in the Dutchman
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-12:30 Clemens Risi, Free University, Berlin, on directorial and interpretive approaches to Der fliegende Holländer
12:30-2:00 Lunch
2:00-2:45 Performance by COC understudies
2:45-3:45 COC Creative Team Panel
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Opera Exchange 2008-9 – “Telling Stories through Opera”
Walter Hall, Faculty of Music
A multidiscipline symposium series presented in partnership with:
- The Jackman Humanities Institute
- The Munk School of Global Affairs
- The Faculty of Music
- The Canadian Opera Company
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Monster Opera: Prokofiev’s War and Peace
9:30-10:00: Donna Tussing Orwin, University of Toronto, on how Tolstoy came to write
the greatest novel of war—ever
10:00-11:00: Caryl Emerson, Princeton University, on music in Tolstoy and setting Tolstoy to music, with opera as the worst possible case (pitfalls, potentials)
11:00-11:30: Coffee
11:30-12:30: Simon Morrison, Princeton University, on why Prokofiev wrote five versions of this novel and why four of them were censored
12:20-2:00: Break for lunch
2:00-3:00: Sandra Horst, Chorus Director, Canadian Opera Company, on the role of the collective voice of the Russian people in the opera
3:00-4:00: Panel with the creative team of the Canadian Opera Company production
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Love and Liberation: Beethoven’s Fidelio
9:30-10:00: Ramin Jahanbegloo, Massey College Scholar-at-Risk, on the revolutionary and philosophical roots of the opera and its relevance today
10:00-11:00: Stephen Rumph, University of Washington, on music and politics, and the
triumph of light over darkness
11:00-11:30: Coffee
11:30-12:30: Caryl Clark, University of Toronto, on love and tenderness in a bleak story,
with musical excerpts performed by members of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble
12:20-2:00: Break for lunch
2:00-3:00: Panel of the morning participants and other specialists—and the audience—
addressing a film excerpt from the opera
3:00-4:00: Panel with the creative team of the Canadian Opera Company production.
Saturday, May 9, 2009 (half-day event)
'Antique Fables and Fairy Toys': Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream
9:30-10:15: Lawrence Wiliford, tenor, and Katherine Larson, University of Toronto at Scarborough, on Shakespeare’s romantic comedy and the adaptation’s libretto and musical setting
10:15-11:00: Stephen Ralls and Bruce Ubukata, Aldeburgh Connection and former teachers at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies at Aldeburgh, UK, on this opera in the context of Britten’s life and work
11:00-11:30: Coffee
11:30-12:00: Panel of graduate students from Sherry Lee’s seminar on Britten
12:00-1:00: Michael Albano, stage director of Opera Diploma Program, University of
Toronto, will lead a performance-based workshop of opera excerpts
Saturday, October 27, 2007 – 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Verdi’s Don Carlo
“Who (what) is the real Don Carlos?”
10:00-11:00 Roger Parker, King’s College London, on Verdi’s Don Carlos as the last grand opera
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-12:00 Hans Schulte, McMaster University, on Schiller and the source of the story
12:-2:00 free for lunch
2:00-2:30 T.J.A. Le Goff, York University, on the history of Spain and France in the age of Philip II
2:30-3:00 Joseph Ziegler, Soulpepper Theatre, on performing the play, Don Carlos
3:00-4:00 Panel
Saturday, February 9, 2008 – 9:30 am to 4:00 pm
Janáček’s From the House of the Dead
“‘To be or not to be’: From the House of the (living) Dead”
9:30-10:00 Veronika Ambros, University of Toronto, on the theatrical and operatic world of Janáček’s Prague
10:00-10:30 Donna Orwin, University of Toronto, on Dostoevsky’s From the House of the Dead as source of the story
10:30-11:00 Alison Smith, University of Toronto, on the historical background of the story
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-12:30 Michael Beckerman, New York University, on Janáček’s House of the Living
12:30-2:00 Free for lunch
2:00-3:00 Astrid Janson, University of Toronto and designer of the production, on designing From the House of the Dead
3:00-4:00 Panel
Saturday, May 10, 2008 – 9:30 am – 1:00 pm
Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande
“Letting down your hair with Pelléas and Mélisande”
9:30-10:00 Leslie Barcza, University of Toronto, on the symbolist movement
10:00-11:00 Katherine Bergeron, Brown University, on the ending of the opera
11:00-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-12:00 Arthur Wenk, author of Claude Debussy and the Poets, on the text and music of the opera
12:00-1:00 Panel
Ring Cycle Opera Exchange – three events
Cycle I: Putting the Ring on Stage
Saturday September 16, 2006 – 10:00am-4:00pm
Imperial Oil Theatre, Joey and Tobey Tanenbaum Opera Centre
227 Front Street East, Toronto10:00 Father Owen Lee, U of Toronto: “Rounding the Ring”
10:20 Stephen McClatchie, U of Regina: “Mahler’s Wagner”
11:00 break
11:15 Barry Millington, Wagner scholar, U.K.: “’Faithful, all too faithful’: the concept
of fidelity to the original in the stage history of the Ring”12:15 lunch
2:00 David Levin, U of Chicago: “Four Directors/One Work: Tracking Wagnerian
Dramaturgy into the 21st Century”2:30: Linda and Michael Hutcheon, U of Toronto: “Directors and Audiences: Whose
Ring? “3:00 panel discussion about acting and characterization with members of the COC creative team and performers
Cycle II: Putting the Ring in Context
Saturday September 23, 2006 – 10:00am-4:00pmImperial Oil Theatre, Joey and Tobey Tanenbaum Opera Centre
227 Front Street East, Toronto10:00 Father Owen Lee, U of Toronto: “Rounding the Ring”
10:20 Marc Weiner, Indiana U: “Metaphor”
11:00 break
11:15 Michael Steinberg, Brown U: “The Ring and the World”
12:15 lunch
2:00 Sander Gilman, Emory U: “Why Bizet remains a Greater Composer than
Wagner: Nietzsche, Wagner, and the ‘Deathly Insult’"3:00 panel discussion with members of the COC creative team and members of the orchestra musicians
Cycle III: Putting the Ring on ‘Record’
Saturday September 30, 2006 – 10:00am-4:00pmHilton Hotel, 145 Richmond Street West, Toronto
10:00 Father Owen Lee, U of Toronto: “Rounding the Ring”
10:20 William Germano, consultant, NYC: “Wagner in Pieces”
11:00 break
11:15 Jean-Jacques Nattiez, U of Montreal: “Chéreau’s Ring: The Production on Stage
and on Screen “12:15 lunch
2:00 Wayne Gooding, editor Opera in Canada: “Barking and Bel Canto: An Audio
History of What Counts as Good Style for Bad Behaviour in the Ring”3:00 panel discussion with members of the COC cast and creative team, with special guest John Allison (editor of Opera magazine)
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Saturday, February 3, 2007, 9:30-4:00
Northrop Frye Hall, Victoria University"The Lady's Not for Spurning: Passion and Mayhem in the Russian Provinces”
9:30 Christina Kramer, Chair, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures,
University of Toronto9:40 Robert Chandler, translator, U.K., on Nicolai Leskov, the author of the source
story10:10 Donna Orwin, University of Toronto, on the representation of love in the opera
and story10:40 coffee break
11:00 Sarah Young, University of Toronto, on the treatment of prison life in the opera
11: 30 Irene Makaryk, University of Ottawa, on Shakespeare adaptations in Russia
12:15 lunch
2:00 Simon Morrison (Princeton) on music and politics
3:00 Panel: Chaired by Sterling Beckwith with artists
Saturday, May 5, 2007 9:30-1:00
Bader Theatre, Victoria UniversityElektra: Heroine or Hysteric?
9:30 Welcome: John Noyes, Chair, German, University of Toronto
9:40 Marija Euchner, University of Toronto, on the librettist, the composer, and the
reception of Elektra10:10 Jill Scott, Queen's University, on Elektra and revenge
10:40 coffee break
11:00 Linda Hutcheon and Michael Hutcheon, University of Toronto, on Elektra’s
Dionysian dancing11:30 Sherry Lee, University of Toronto, on psychological and musical extremes: Strauss and the avant-garde"
12:00 Panel
Opera Exchange 2005-06
Rodelinda and Carmen: Girls’ Night Out!
Saturday, October 22, 2005
10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Walter Hall, Edward Johnson Building
Faculty of Music, University of Toronto
80 Queen’s Park
Morning Session: Handel’s Rodelinda
10:30 a.m. Brian Corman , University of Toronto
on Handel's theatre
11:00 a.m. Suzanne Aspden , University of Southampton
on c reating the ideal woman
12:00 p.m. Lunch Break
Afternoon Session: Bizet’s Carmen
1:30 p.m. Susan McClary , UCLA on the scripted voice of Carmen
2:30 p.m. Linda Hutcheon , University of Toronto
on Carmen adaptations in many media
3:00 p.m. Break
3:30 p.m. Panel discussion with members of both the COC’s creative teams with Rick Phillips, moderator
Götterdämmerung : Return of the Ring
Co-sponsored by the Joint Initiative for German and European Studies
Saturday, February 4, 2006
9:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Isabel Bader Theatre , Victoria University
93 Charles Street West
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9:30 a.m. Andy Orchard , University of Toronto
on flogging the dead Norse
10:00 a.m. Iain Scott , opera commentator
on Siegfried’s second night with Brünnhilde
10:30 a.m. Coffee Break
11:00 a.m.Panel discussion with Tim Albery (director) and Richard Bradshaw on the COC production with Rick Phillips, moderator
12:00 p.m. Lunch Break
1:30 p.m. Stephen McClatchie , University of Regina
on G ö tterd ä mmerung , F ü hrerd ä mmerung
2:00 p.m. John Deathridge , King’s College London
on the riddles of the end
Wozzeck : Opera for a Modern Age
Saturday, April 1, 2006
1:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Isabel Bader Theatre , Victoria University
93 Charles Street West
1:30 p.m. Modris Eksteins , University of Toronto
on www.warwozzeckweimar
2:00 p.m. William Germano , Publishing Director, Routledge, New York City
on a soldier’s tale
2:30 p.m. Coffee Break
3:00 p.m. Janet Schmalfeldt , Tufts University on Berg’s Büchner, or the Wozzeck family
4:00 p.m. Panel discussion with members of the COC’s creative team with Rick Phillips, moderator
Plus:
7:30 p.m. Woyzeck (2001) by Robert Wilson and Tom Waits. (approx. 2 hours)
Filmed version of their stage musical adaptation of Büchner's original play Woyzeck, the source text for Wozzeck.
Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse, University College, 79a St George St.
Papers from all three symposia appear in The University of Toronto Quarterly (Summer 2006). click here to view
Opera Exchange 2004-05
The 2004-2005 Opera Exchange: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Opera continued the partnership between the Munk School of Global Affairs and the Canadian Opera Company, and added a new partner. As a result of our expanding audience, we moved to a new venue-the Isabel Bader Theatre at Victoria University. All symposia in 2004/2005 were be held at the fully-equipped 500-seat theater located at 93 Charles Street West across from the Museum subway.
The first event, "No Balm in this Gilead: The Handmaid's Tale," focused on the recent operatic reworking of Margaret Atwood's futuristic novel by librettist Paul Bentley and Danish composer Poul Ruders. Scheduled from 9:30-4:00 on Saturday October 2, 2004, the symposium featured a number of prominent scholars from our university: Canadian Literature specialist Rosemary Sullivan (English) surveyd Atwood's oeuvre; Shirley Newman (English) situated the novel in the context of 1980s feminist and gender politics; Wayne Sumner (Philosophy) addressed the politics of reproduction; Canadian music specialist Robin Elliott looked at the place of music in the life and work of Margaret Atwood; and Eric Domville and Helmut Reichenbächer (both formerly from the English Department) examined the operatic adaptation. A smaller seminar on dystopian governments in today's world was also held on Friday October 1 from 3:30-5:30 in Rm.108N, MCIS.
The second symposium, "The Forging of a Hero: Siegfried," scheduled for Saturday January 29, 2005, 9:30-5:00, focused on the third work in Wagner's Ring cycle, which the COC is unveiled in a new production by director François Girard and designer Michael Levine. The symposium began with an examination of Siegfried through the ages-dragon-slayer, darling and dupe!-by Andrew Orchard (University of Toronto). William Germano (Routledge, New York), looked at Siegfried and his Volsung siblings. Keynote speaker Marc Weiner (Indiana University) explored Wagner's response to the Jewish Question through the character of Mime. Scott Irvine, a tuba player in the COC orchestra, joined Caryl Clark (University of Toronto) for some perspectives on playing and analyzing Wagner's score. Wayne Gooding (Editor of Opera Canada) surveyed past approaches to (and the terrors of!) staging Siegfried. The afternoon concluded with a panel discussion featuring the director, the designer, and COC conductor Richard Bradshaw. Again, a smaller seminar for symposium participants and members of the UofT community was held on Friday January 28 from 3:00-5:00 in Rm.108N, MCIS.
The final symposium was a half-day event entitled "Sicilians, Saracens, Singers: Tancredi," scheduled for Saturday April 2, 2005 from 1:30-5:00. This event, held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the New York State-St. Lawrence Chapter of the American Musicology Society at the University of Toronto, featured two well-known musicologists: Ralph Locke (Eastman School of Music), and keynote speaker Philip Gossett (Universities of Chicago and Rome). Professor Locke looked at the history of Voltaire's play, from which the opera is adapted, and explored how attitudes of the day might affect how we listen to the opera. Professor Gossett, editor of Rossini's Tancredi, explored the many versions in which the opera circulated, followed by a performance of selected excerpts not heard in the COC production by members of the Opera Division, Faculty of Music. Guest conductor Will Crutchfield joined members of the COC creative team on the closing panel.
Papers from all three symposia appear in The University of Toronto Quarterly (Summer 2005). click here to view
2003/04 symposia: The Opera Exchange, in partnership with the Canadian Opera Company
"Peter Grimes: The Loner vs. the Town," October 4, 2003
"Falstaff: The Maestro Takes on the Bard," January 31, 2004
"Die Walküre: Why Wagner?" April 17, 2004
2002/03 Symposia - funded by Chancellor Henry N.R Jackman
"Oedipus Rex: Plagues and Politics," October 5, 2002
"Apprenticing with a Sorceress: Handel's Alcina," November 15, 2002
"Taptoo!," March 8, 2003
Papers from the two symposia are published in the University to Toronto Quarterly 72/4 (Fall 2003). ---Currently Unavailable
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Papers on Taptoo!, which examines the history and challenges of defending a distinctive Canadian polity, are archived on TSpace, accessible through this web site.
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2002 Symposia:
"Transformations of Salome," January 19 This inaugural conference of the Humanities Initiative linked traditional humanities-based investigations of a single, iconic German work with those of cultural policy decision-making and the global issues being investigated at MCIS (including what it means to wear the veil, and to remove it!).
"Iron Road: Intersecting Dreams and Dialogues," March 1 (with the Centre for Asian Studies). Iron Road, an opera about the building of the railroad in western Canada in the late 19th C, extended the traditional boundaries of interdisciplinarity by promoting cross-cultural interpretation and explorations of immigration policy and public-policy decision-making within the Canadian context.
"The Many Faces of Boris Godunov," April 6 (with the Centre for Russian and East European Studies)
