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Zürich
1916 - 1998 Opera
Production
CHRISTOPHER
BUTTERFIELD, composer
As a composer, Christopher
Butterfield has been the recipient of many Canada Council and Ontario
Arts Council grants, as well as commissions from some of the major
Canadian contemporary music ensembles (Arraymusic, Vancouver New
Music, New Music Concerts, Continuum, Les CouÁous BÈnÈvoles, the
Burdocks, etc.). He has also written for dance, notably for Mascall
Dance (Vancouver), Canadian Children's Dance Theatre (Toronto), and
BenoÓt Lachambre (Montreal). In 1992 Butterfield's Jappements ý
la lune, a song cycle on poetry by Claude Gauvreau for
mezzo-soprano and ensemble, was selected to represent Canada at the
ISCM's World Music Days in Warsaw. A compact disc of the piece was
released on CBC Records in July, 1997.
Christopher Butterfield is also a
performer. In 1996/97 he toured with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane
Dance Company of New York to Boston (Emerson Majestic Theatre), New
York City (Joyce Theatre), Avignon (Summer Festival), Paris (Cirque
d'hiver), Ljubljana, and Amsterdam (Het Muziektheater) declaiming Kurt
Schwitters' Ursonata. In November 1996 he was both music director and
'Buffalo Bill' in the Bill Coleman/Boye Ladd dance epic The Return
of Buffalo Bill in Regina, Saskatchewan. In recent years he has
been active as a conductor of 20th century music; performances include
Pierre Boulez' Le Marteau sans maÓtre (1995), Alban Berg's Kammerkonzert
(1997), both broadcast by the CBC, and Edgard Varese's Ecuatorial
(1997).
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JOHN
BENTLEY MAYS, concept and libretto
John Bentley Mays, art critic,
writer, and lecturer on contemporary visual art and visual culture,
emigrated to Canada from his native Louisiana in 1969. In 1973, after
teaching at York University in Toronto, he began writing and has since
published some 5,000 works of literary and art criticism, essays on
culture, short fiction, and book reviews in Canadian and American
publications. Since 1980 Brentley Mays has been the art critic for the
Globe and Mail. Recent books include the number one Canadian
bestseller In the Jaws of the Black Dogs: A memoir of Depression
and most recently Power in the Blood: Land, Memory and a Southern
Family.
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OWEN
UNDERHILL, music director
Owen Underhill, conductor and
composer, lives in Vancouver where he is artistic director of the
Vancouver New Music Society, conductor of the Vancouver New Music
Ensemble, and director of the School for the Contemporary Arts at
Simon Fraser University.
Underhill is an active interpreter of
contemporary music, having conducted the premieres of compositions by
many Canadian composers including Christopher Butterfield, JosÈ
Evangelista, Melissa Hui, Rudolf Komorous, Alexina Louie, Linda Catlin
Smith and Paul Steenhuisen. Through his frequent performances with the
Vancouver New Music Ensemble and the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, he has
conducted works in collaboration with several prominent international
composers including Louis Andriessen, Gavin Bryars, Sofia Gubaidulina,
Giya Kancheli, Steve Reich, Toru Takemitsu, Kevin Volans and Judith
Weir. He has served as music director and conductor of several
Vancouver New Music opera productions including the premiere of No
No Miya by Rudolf Komorous, The Man who mistook his Wife for a
Hat by Michael Nyman, Kopernikus by Claude Vivier, and his
own opera The Star Catalogues. Underhill has also made
conducting appearances with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra, the
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra.
His recording with the Vancouver New Music Ensemble entitled Tree
Line was released by CBC records in 1997.
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KEITH TURNBULL,
stage director
Keith Turnbull began his association
with the theatre as a producer, designer and director at the
University of Western Ontario and Theatre London. He was also artistic
director of the Manitoba Theatre Centre, and of Second Stage, Neptune
Theatre. After directing James Reaney's acclaimed Donnelly Trilogy
at Tarragon Theatre, Mr. Turnbull founded the NDWT Co., and from 1975
to 1981 directed, adapted, wrote, produced and designed a variety of
productions many of which toured nationally. With NDWT he started a
native theatre company from which emerged many of Canada's most noted
native performers.
Mr. Turnbull has directed at Alberta
Theatre Projects, The Banff Centre, Green Thumb Theatre for Young
People, Manitoba Theatre Centre, National Arts Centre, Neptune
Theatre, Music Theatre Wales, One Yellow Rabbit, Tarragon Theatre,
Theatre Calgary, Toronto Arts Productions, Vancouver Opera and Young
People's Theatre. He has taught at the University of Manitoba,
National Theatre School, the University of Calgary, and The Banff
Centre.
For Banff 20th Century Opera and Song
he directed the world premiere of Quenten Doolittle's Boiler Room
Suite, the world premiere of a new orchestration and translation
of Mauricio Kagel's Oral Treason, Peter Maxwell Davies' Eight
Songs for a Mad King and Miss Donnithorne's Maggot, the
world premiere of Andrew Toovey's Ubu, the Canadian premiere of
Udo Zimmerman's White Rose, and the world premiere of John
Metcalf's Kafka's Chimp. This past summer he directed James
Reaney's drama The St. Nicholas Hotel, WM Donnelly Prop., The
Donnelly's Part I I for the Banff Arts Festival.
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BILL
COLEMAN, choreographer
Choreographer/dancer Bill Coleman has
performed with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane and Company, Terre O'Connor,
Dublin City Ballet, Wiesbaden Ballet, Toronto Dance Theatre, Holly
Small, and William Douglas Dance. In New York in 1988, he received the
Jerome Foundation's First Light Award (the only Canadian ever to do
so) for Baryshnikov: The Other Story. His other choreographic
works include: Zorro (nominated for a Dora Mavor Award); Shane;
The Iowa Sheep Buggery Trials; Glory Days, an
autobiographical work featuring performances by his parents, Joe and
Audrey, and his brother, Robbie; and Heartland. He has been
commissioned to create dances for Toronto Dance Theatre (Craig Dhu,
chosen by Now Magazine as one of its Top Ten performances of 1992),
Dancemakers (The Dance Belt: A Brief History of the Performing Arts),
and the Canadian Children's Dance Theatre, among others. Through a
company called Heartland Events, Coleman regularly collaborates with
diverse groups and communities in the creation of one-of-a-kind
theatrical events. These have included working with the Ojibway
community of Heron Bay, the International Trade Club of Toronto, and
Pedahbun Lodge Residential Addiction Treatment Centre. Most recently
Coleman created Welcome Back, Buffalo Bill, a three-act wild
west show with Vietnam veteran and pow wow dancer Boye Ladd; Flanders
Field, a dance for 64 people; and Monsters' Midway.
Coleman's work and life are featured in Laura Taler's award-winning
film, Heartland, which was recently presented at the Toronto
Moving Pictures Festival of Dance on Film and Video, and on BRAVO!
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DAVID
GAUCHER, set designer
Since 1987, David Gaucher has
participated in numerous productions in Montreal for the cinema and
the stage. In 1994 his extravagant set design for the irreverent and
memorable Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry won him a "prix du
public" for best scenic design and an invitation to the last
Prague Quadrennial. David works mostly with contemporary authors
notably Michel Tremblay, Brad Fraser and David Mamet. In 1996 he
designed the set of the world premiere of the opera Kafka's Chimp
for the Banff Arts Festival. He is well known in Montreal for pushing
the limits of existing theatrical and technical boundaries in an
innovative fashion. This past fall David designed La Vie est un
Songe by Pedro Calderon, christening the new home of ThÈâtre du
Nouveau Monde, for which he also designed Goldoni's La Serva
Amorosa to open the fall season. This past November he was art
director for Raymond Sainte-Jean's film version of Cabaret Neige
Noire which opened in the commercial cinemas. He has just
completed the critically acclaimed premiere production of La Salle
des Loisir by Raynald Robinson for ThÈâtre d'aujourd'hui.
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MARY
KERR, costume designer
Winnipeg born Mary Kerr is one of
Canada's most innovative theatre artists. Her set and costume designs
have graced the stages of the Paris, Canadian, Vancouver, and New
Zealand Operas; the Shaw and Stratford Festivals; the Royal Winnipeg
Ballet and the National Ballet; the Canadian Stage Company; Tarragon
Theatre; the Vancouver Playhouse; the Danny Grossman Dance Company (28
works!); as well as many films and productions for children including Smudge
and Sharon Lois and Bram videos. Her many memorable designs include
the world premiere of Nothing Sacred, If We are Women, The Three
Penny Opera, The Desert Song, Candide, The Big Top Ballet,The Stag
King, The Turn of the Screw and most recently Still the Night
for Alberta Theatre Projects. Ms. Kerr was the Production Designer for
the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth
Games and Expo'86. Mary is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of
the Arts, ADC, and the Film Directors Guild of Canada. She has been
the recipient of numerous industry awards, among them: 7 Dora's, 2
Sterling's and a Houston Film Festival 'Star'. Mary also represented
Canada at the Prague Quadrennial in 1983.
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STÉPHANE
MONGEAU, lighting designer
StÈphane Mongeau graduated from L'École
Nationale de ThËâtre du Canada in 1988. From 1990 to 1994 he was
production manager at the ThËâtre de Quat' Sous. He has been
lighting designer on over 40 productions including: Les lettre de
la religieuse Portugaise (directed by Dennys Arcand); Brad
Fraser's Poor Super Man and The ugly man (directed by
Fernand Rainville and Derek Goldby); and co-designed with Guy Simard The
Student Prince and La Fille du rÈgiment for Montreal
Opera. He was production manager for ThËâtre Ubu's Les MaÓtres
Anciens (Montreal, Ottawa, and Avignon in France) and for the
musical Demain matin, Montrèal m'attend. StÈphane was
executive producer for the plays Un Air de famille and Talk
Radio, both produced by Sortie 22 Inc. A member of Le Groupement
Forestier du ThËâtre, he designed the lights for Matroni et Moi
and Oreille, Tigre et Bruit, both written and directed by
Alexis Matin. This last season he designed the lights for Sex,
drugs and rock' n' roll (directed by Alexis Matin and Pierre
Lebeau), La salle des loisirs (directed by Claude Poissant),
and Les Contes urbains (directed by AndrÈ Brassard). He has
been teaching lighting design at L'École Nationale de ThËâtre since
1994 and is currently the technical director for Opera
international project with Robert Lepage's company Ex-Machina.
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Theatre: History:
Opera: Zurich 1916 - 1998 Production