Institute for Canadian Music

We hope you enjoy our conversation with Métis poet, Gregory Scofield, about his book of poems, Louis: The Heretic Poems, and about the ways the historical figure of Riel has continued to be used in national narratives.

 

This week we sat down with three female leads of the Canadian Opera Company production of Louis Riel. Joanna Burt, Allyson McHardy, and Simone Osborne were kind enough to share their thoughts on the opera and the rehearsals so far! We hope you enjoy their reflections and thoughts on this work as much as we enjoyed our conversation with them!

Follow us on Twitter @RielOperaTalk and if you have any comments or questions, we would love to hear from you at LouisRielPodcast@gmail.com.

Check out other University of Toronto C150 events and projects at canada150.utoronto.ca/

 

This week’s episode features conversations with some of the cast for the upcoming Canadian Opera Company’s production of Louis Riel. We spoke with Russell Braun, Michael Colvin, and James Westman about their earlier encounters with Riel, the rehearsal process so far, and what they are looking forward to with the premiere just one week away! We hope you enjoy listening to this lively conversation!

Follow us on Twitter @RielOperaTalk and if you have any comments or questions, we would love to hear from you at LouisRielPodcast@gmail.com.

Check out other University of Toronto C150 events and projects at canada150.utoronto.ca/

 

The ICM is a proud co-sponsor of the symposium “Hearing Riel,” forthcoming on 21 April at Innis College Town Hall. Attendance is free, and is already oversold! However, the event will be viewable onscreen in the Innis lobby, and will also be webcast live, so you can listen to the conversation even without a ticket.

For all student and scholar attendees of the interdisciplinary “Hearing Riel pre-seminar” on Thursday, 20 April: let’s meet in the Trinity College Combination Room, from 2:00-4:00 p.m. Our guest scholars include Jean Teillet, Sherrill Grace, Colleen Renihan and Linda Hutcheon; we’re excited to involve Law, English, Music and Drama in a discussion about the many issues that arise in our present Canadian context surrounding the artistic representation and dramatic re-narration of legal histories and Indigenous peoples. SO, here are some optional readings by each author that attendees may peruse if they’d like to prepare for this exchange of ideas:

• Sherrill Grace, On the Art of Being Canadian (UBC Press 2009), Ch.3 “Inventing Iconic Figures,” 106-23 (excerpt)
• Linda and Michael Hutcheon, “Identity Crisis,” Opera Canada 57/4 (2017), Special Issue “Louis Riel at 50,” 18-24
• Colleen Renihan, “The Politics of Genre: Exposing Historical Tensions in Harry Somers’ Louis Riel,” in Opera Indigene, ed. Karantonis and Robinson (Ashgate 2011/Routledge 2016), 259-76
• Jean Teillet, “Exoneration for Louis Riel: Mercy, Justice, or Political Expediency?” Saskatchewan Law Review 67 (2004): 359-92

–bonus entries:
• Beverley McLachlin, “Louis Riel: Patriot Rebel,” Manitoba Law Journal 35/1 (2011), 1-13
• Janique DuBois’ 2005 Toronto Star article “Trudeau Can Make Louis Riel’s Dream A Reality“

This week’s episode features three Canadian musicologists – Profs. Colette Simonot of Brandon University, Colleen Renihan of Queen’s University and Sherry Lee of the University of Toronto- who offer their insights to Louis Riel the opera, in its past and present iterations. Our conversations touched on the 2005 McGill production, as well as the 2010 University of British Columbia production of Louis Riel, in addition to reflecting on what we hope to see in this year’s Canadian Opera Company revival of the opera.

Part one of the podcast features our conversations with Profs. Colette Simonot and Colleen Renihan, and part two is our conversation with Prof. Sherry Lee.

Tune in next week to hear our conversation with Peter Hinton, the director of the COC’s production of Louis Riel.

Follow us on Twitter @RielOperaTalk and if you have any comments or questions, we would love to hear from you at LouisRielPodcast@gmail.com.

This week’s episode features three Canadian musicologists – Profs. Colette Simonot of Brandon University, Colleen Renihan of Queen’s University and Sherry Lee of the University of Toronto- who offer their insights to Louis Riel the opera, in its past and present iterations. Our conversations touched on the 2005 McGill production, as well as the 2010 University of British Columbia production of Louis Riel, in addition to reflecting on what we hope to see in this year’s Canadian Opera Company revival of the opera.

Part one of the podcast features our conversations with Profs. Colette Simonot and Colleen Renihan, and part two is our conversation with Prof. Sherry Lee.

Tune in next week to hear our conversation with Peter Hinton, the director of the COC’s production of Louis Riel.

Follow us on Twitter @RielOperaTalk and if you have any comments or questions, we would love to hear from you at LouisRielPodcast@gmail.com.

Check out other University of Toronto C150 events and projects at canada150.utoronto.ca/

 

Correction: Prof. Simonot has since informed me that she misremembered when discussing the McGill production of Louis Riel and wishes to clarify that Mavor Moore was not in attendance then.

This week’s episode features conversations with Prof. John Beckwith, a Canadian composer, scholar and educator who is also a member of the Order of Canada, and Prof. Robin Elliott, the Jean A. Chalmers Chair of Canadian Music at the University of Toronto. They share their encounters with Louis Riel and help position the opera in a broader trajectory of Canadian music history.

Next week, we will be speaking with three opera scholars – Profs. Colleen Renihan, Colette Simonot, and Sherry Lee- on the opera and issues of representation, with particular focus on the character of Riel.

Follow us on Twitter @RielOperaTalk and if you have any comments or questions, we would love to hear from you at LouisRielPodcast@gmail.com.

Check out other University of Toronto C150 events and projects at canada150.utoronto.ca/

This week’s episode features four perspectives from the 1967 production of Louis Riel. First, we spoke with Mary Morrison, a professor of voice at the University of Toronto who premiered the role of Sara Riel. Prof. Morrison was immersed in Toronto’s contemporary music scene in 1967, and helps us position Riel among other compositions of that year.
Next, we had a wonderful conversation with Victor Feldbrill, the renowned Canadian conductor who has long been an advocate for Canadian music. Mr. Feldbrill was the conductor for the 1967 performances, the 1969 television broadcast, as well as the 1976 performance of Riel in Washington. He shared numerous stories of working with the composer and librettist, as well as rehearsals with the cast.
Finally, we were fortunate enough to speak with Marie Day and Murray Laufer, who created the costume and stage designs for the 1967 production. Marie’s sketches are featured on our twitter and SoundCloud imagery this week.

Victor Feldbrill’s interview begins at 16:25, and our conversation with Marie Day and Murray Laufer begins at 51:00.

Next week, we are speaking with Prof. Robin Elliott and Prof. John Beckwith on Louis Riel‘s position in the broader context of Canadian music history.

Follow us on Twitter @RielOperaTalk and if you have any comments or questions, we would love to hear from you at LouisRielPodcast@gmail.com.

Check out other University of Toronto C150 events and projects at canada150.utoronto.ca/

This week’s episode features Adam Gaudry, a Métis scholar at the University of Alberta. Our conversation covered Louis Riel’s political role among the Métis, his legacy in the Manitoba Treaty, and the ways he has been invoked in nationalizing projects and narratives since his death.

Next week’s episode will feature conversations with cast and crew members from the original 1967 production of Louis Riel!

Follow us on Twitter @RielOperaTalk and if you have any comments or questions, we would love to hear from you at LouisRielPodcast@gmail.com.

Check out other University of Toronto C15o events and projects at http://canada150.utoronto.ca/

Welcome to our first official episode of Riel Opera Talk! We are your hosts, Taryn and Sarah (UToronto)! This week we briefly introduce Louis Riel the man and the opera based on his life, and preview the format of future episodes by interviewing ourselves.

Next week’s episode will feature a conversation with Métis scholar Adam Gaudry (UAlberta) and will explore the historic figure of Riel’s use in nationalizing projects.

Episodes will be released weekly on Wednesdays here and on SoundCloud. Follow us on Twitter @RielOperaTalk and if you have any comments or questions, we would love to hear from you at LouisRielPodcast@gmail.com.

Check out other University of Toronto C15o events and projects at http://canada150.utoronto.ca/