Production details
Description
Igor Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat (1918) retells the Faust legend, in which the heroine sells her soul to the Devil in exchange for the promise of wisdom and good fortune. Toronto Summer Music partnered with Loose Tea Music Theatre to create a staged show with actors, a dancer, projections and lighting at Koerner Hall.
Creative Team
- Alaina Viau, Director
- Jennifer Nichols, Choreographer
- Noah Feaver, Lighting Designer
- Maureen Russell, Costume Designer
- Dahlia Katz, Photographer
Performers
- Derek Boyes, Narrator, Devil
- Suzanne Roberts Smith, The Soldier
- Jennifer Nichols, Dancer
- Jonathan Crow, Violin
- Miles Jaques, Clarinet
- Gordon Wolfe, Trombone
- Jeffrey Beecher, Bass
- Andrew McCandless, Trumpet
- Charles Settle, Percussion
- Michael Sweeney, Bassoon
Production Videos & Photos
Press & Reviews
“The unexpected gender of soldier (female) is a welcome choice from Viau, one that made the work feel very new to me.”
Barczablog“...a compelling, contemporized telling of the story.”
Ludwig van Toronto“Kudos to stage director Alaina Viau for piecing it together seamlessly and with a good dose of humour. (In a fleeting moment, we witnessed what was probably the most tasteful yet fully evocative depiction of oral sex I’ve ever seen.)”
Ludwig van Toronto“By casting a woman in the title role in Stravinsky’s kind-of staged L’Histoire du soldat, Alaina Viau effectively rescued this rather thin story from the fate of being but a curious Russian folkloric riff on Faustian bargaining.”
Definitely the OperaOn Stravinsky’s Soldier: “We Have To Safeguard The Things That Matter In Life”
The Opera Queen
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