After work I went to attend a free concert at the new opera house, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts at Queen Street and University Avenue. If you’re in Toronto, check out the schedule here.
The concert (pdf) featured Joni Henson and Peter McGillivray with Liz Upchurch on piano in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, which is on the second floor of the Four Seasons Centre and practically invisible from the street, even with walls of glass.
The Amphitheatre was named after Bradshaw, who was the General Director of the Canadian Opera Company from 1998-2007 and passed away in August. He’d been with the CoC for 18 years and by all accounts on the company’s website, was well-loved. Joni Henson, soprano, was very emotional when she spoke about him.
I was impressed that the Canadian Opera Company would offer 100 free concerts to the public, considering how much funding the arts require to operate. Not to mention that they just built a new opera house. But, really, for opera to survive — much less flourish — in Canada, I suppose it takes giving free concerts and enticing the opera-curious (like me) to sample some of their offerings, to grow their membership and encourage people who might not otherwise direct their entertainment dollars to opera.
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[...] the dancing rats and I was only half-joking — the dancing rats were a major part of the show! I’ve seen performances in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre within the opera house, but this was my first bona fide attendance in the main R. Fraser Elliott [...]