The Children's Crusade
When: June, 2009 to June, 2009
Where: 153 Dufferin Street, Toronto
Tags: Choral, Opera, World Premiere
The Holy Child - photo by Steve Wilkie
Co-commissioned by
About "The Children's Crusade"
A world premiere Soundstreams and Luminato commission from R. Murray Schafer, "The Children's Crusade" is an opera for nearly 100 performers including the Canadian Children's Opera Company and the Toronto Consort.
This spectacular musical extravaganza is inspired by the actual events of the 13th century, when a crusade of love and peace was led by a rag-tag group of children from France.
Set in an industrial warehouse in the heart of Parkdale, the audience moves through the space with the cast and musicians, on an interractive journey of discovery.
Notes on Director Tim Albery's Vision:
A Muslim woman, a Jewish boy, a Christian child breaking bread together round the flames of a fire in a ruined city called Jerusalem.
This is the dream.
A child, lost at night in a storm, sitting wrapped in the coat of a dark stranger. The man offers the child food and wine and a mission to save the world.
This is the beginning.
In a cold, early dawn, children standing shivering on the shoreline. Slowly they walk into the waves that they know will part to lead them to the promised land.
This is the end.
Director Tim Albery returns to Toronto after the recent success of the Flying Dutchman at Covent Garden's Royal Opera House and War and Peace for the Canadian Opera Company.
Toronto resident Tim Albery's previous operatic credits include War and Peace, Götterdämmerung, Rodelinda and Peter Grimes for the Canadian Opera Company; Boris Godunov, War and Peace, Billy Budd, Peter Grimes, Lohengrin, and From the House of the Dead with English National Opera; A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Merry Widow with Metropolitan Opera; The Flying Dutchman and Chérubin with Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Additionally he has directed at Opera North, Santa Fe Opera, Scottish Opera, Minnesota Opera, Opera Zuid, Netherlands Opera and Bayerische Staatsoper. Theatre credits include Wallenstein and Macbeth with Royal Shakespeare Company, and Nathan the Wise with Soulpepper Theatre.
Reviews of current productions and interviews with director Tim Albery:
An audio file of an interview with Tim discussing the COC production of War and Peace
A review of the English National Opera War and Peace directed by Tim Albery from The Independant
An interview about the Covent Garden production of Flying Dutchman
Musical Director David Fallis
Conductor David Fallis is one of Canada's leading interpreters of operatic and choral/orchestral repertoire, especially that of the Baroque and Classical periods.
As Music Director for Opera Atelier he has helped bring that company onto stages around the world, and twice, he has led the Opera Atelier forces on tour to Seoul, South Korea conducting the Korean Symphony Orchestra and Camerata Antiqua Seoul, and in Japan, conducting DON GIOVANNI and LE NOZZE DI FIGARO. The 2008/2009 season sees Mr. Fallis conduct Opera Atelier's new production of Mozart's DIE ENTFUHRUNG AUS DEM SERAIL and Monteverdi's L'INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA.
He has led critically acclaimed productions for Houston Grand Opera (Monteverdi's L'INCORONAZIONE DI POPPEA and ORFEO), Cleveland Opera (Handel's GIULIO CESARE and POPPEA), Wolftrap Theater (POPPEA), and in the spring of 2004 he made his debut at Utah Opera in James Robinson's new production of Handel's GIULIO CESARE. He has led the Toronto Consort in opera-in-concert performances of Cavalli's LA CALISTO, Luigi Rossi's ORFEO and all three Monteverdi operas.
On the symphonic stage, Mr. Fallis has conducted Orchestra London (Mozart arias and Haydn symphonies), the Windsor Symphony (Handel's MESSIAH, C.P.E. Bach cello concertos), Symphony Nova Scotia (the Mozart REQUIEM), and he led Symphony New Brunswick in Handel's WATER MUSIC.
As Artistic Director of the Toronto Consort, a renowned chamber group specializing in the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Mr. Fallis has toured extensively in Europe and Canada and recorded for Marquis Classics, Dorian and SRI. The 2008/2009 season sees him lead the Toronto Consort in Monteverdi's VESPERS OF 1610, the Michael Praetorius CHRISTMAS VESPERS, and a world music collaboration entitled THE MARCO POLO PROJECT.
Mr. Fallis has also worked in film and television. He led the Toronto Consort in music for Atom Egoyan's THE SWEET HEREAFTER, and he is currently the Historical Music Producer for the acclaimed TV series THE TUDORS, featuring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Sam Neill and Peter O'Toole, produced for Showtime.
Formerly the conductor of the Toronto Chamber Choir, Fallis led the world premiere of Christos Hatzis' DE ANGELIS, as well as many performances of music by J. S. Bach, Handel, Mozart and Purcell. In another direction, Mr. Fallis guest conducted the Elmer Iseler Singers on tour in the U.S.A. in a programme of the Bach motets and led the famous choral ensemble in a performance of the MISSA FLAMENCA by the flamenco guitar master Paco Peña.
"The Children's Crusade" Creative Team
R. Murray Schafer - Music and Libretto
Tim Albery - Director
David Fallis - Musical Director
Hope Terry - Choreographer
Leslie Travers - Set & Costume Designer
Thomas C. Hase - Lighting Designer
Lawrence Cherney - Artistic Director, Soundstreams
Chris Lorway - VP Artistic Programming, Luminato
Visit our multi-media section for interviews with composer R. Murray Shafer on the creation of "The Children's Crusade."
Performance Schedule
Friday June 5th
Saturday June 6th
Monday June 8th - Thursday June 11th
153 Dufferin Street
(Parking available)
Tickets $40, on sale April 16th through www.luminato.com
About the Cast of "The Children's Crusade"
Click here for an interview with Jacob Abrahamse, the boy soprano appearing as The Holy Child in "The Children's Crusade".
Click here to learn more about Maryem Tollar who plays Ariana, a Muslim woman who shares a deep spiritual connection with The Holy Child.
Download the bio of Diego Matamoros who will appear in multiple roles in "The Children's Crusade" here.
A Truly Unique Performance Venue
Images of the unique performance space at 153 Dufferin...
"The Children's Crusade" Will Move the Audience
A Great Excerpt on Promenade Theatre by Andy Field from Guardian UK
Theatre that gets an audience on its feet can do incredible things when it really starts to engage with everything embedded in the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other.
I've known artists who use walking as a form of memory. In pieces such as Janet Cardiff's beautiful audio-walks through London or Mike Pearson's tour of his home town in Bubbling Tom, walking becomes part of the experience of remembering; retracing old paths and, in the sensation of the uneven ground beneath your feet, sharing a feeling with someone who's long since moved on.
Walking can also become a form of rebellion; a way of renegotiating your relationship with a place. There's so much quiet resistance bound up in walking; you can cut corners, go against the flow, change direction, cross where you're not supposed to. Walking is a way of telling your own story. Think of Lone Twin tracing a delicate spiral across the faceless urban landscape of the Barbican, Blast Theory transforming the city into a playground or a maze, or Wrights & Sights misguiding you into a totally different view of everything around you. In each case, the freedom given to the walker becomes a kind of miniature revolution; a new way of being in the world.
Of course, walking can become a communal activity, as well - even a political act. Theatre shows can become parades or protests, as with Welfare State International's lantern walk through the streets of Glasgow. The most basic of collective movements is transformed into a powerful statement or an unforgettable celebration.
Walking is the simplest of acts, yet buried in that gentle amble can be so much narrative, so much politics, so much theatre. With just a bit less frantic ushering and a bit more joy in the art of taking the long route round, who knows what incredible new experiences theatre-makers could conjure.
- Andy Field, Guardian UK
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