Luminato Festival – Week End Wrap No. 2

(Toronto) Tapestry’s Dark Star Requiem (World Premiere)
(Vienna) Michael Sturminger’s The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer (North American Premiere)

The opera at Luminato’s opening weekend was the new and the different. Tapestry’s Dark Star Requiem by composer Andrew Staniland and librettist Jill Battson portrayed the history of AIDS in a very poignant way. The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer starring American actor John Malkovich was creepy and compelling.

Filled with talent, Dark Star Requiem played the chorus off against the soloists in a stirring way, but diction was weak. The staging was beautifully conceived by director Tom Diamond and designers Beth Kates and Ben Chaisson. This moving opera oratorio deserves a shelf life.

In Viennese director Michael Sturminger’s fascinating The Infernal Comedy, Malkovich played Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger who is supposedly giving a reading to the audience. Sturminger cleverly included two sopranos performing appropriate arias by the likes of Gluck and Mozart to comment on Unterweger’s monologue.

The orchestra was the superb Vienna Academy who also gave a stunning concert on Saturday afternoon.

Luminato continues until Jun. 20.

>Luminato Festival
(Toronto) Tapestry’s Dark Star Requiem
Music by Andrew Staniland and libretto by Jill Battson
Director by Tom Diamond
Performed by Neema Bickersteth, soprano, Krisztina Szabó, mezzo-soprano, Peter McGillivray, baritone, Marcus Nance, bass-baritone, Elmer Iseler
Singers, Gryphon Trio, and Ryan Scott and Mark Duggan, percussion)
Koerner Hall, Jun. 11 and 12, 2010

(Vienna) Michael Sturminger’s The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer
Written and directed by Michael Sturminger
Music Concept by conductor Martin Haselböck
Performed by actor John Malkovich, sopranos Bernarda Bobro and Marie Arnet, and the Vienna Academy Orchestra