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THE SCOOP | Luminato to Stage the Largest Performance In Toronto’s History: R. Murray Schafer's Apocalypsis

By Michael Vincent on March 5, 2015

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1000 performers, 1 epic experience

Pablo Picasso once said, “every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” Canadian composer and prolific author. R. Murray Schafer took that to heart.

This June, the Luminato Festival will present Apocalypsis: an epic sized oratorio written by R. Murray Schafer about the end of the world and its new beginning.

Under the direction of Lemi Ponifasio (director of MAU), with musical direction by conductor David Fallis (The Toronto Consort, Opera Atelier), Apocalypsis will feature a 1000 member cast, forming the largest staged performance Toronto, perhaps Canada, has ever seen.

The behemoth oratorio was originally commissioned by the CBC and premiered in December 1980, at Centennial Hall in London, Ontario. But due to the abnormally high production costs associated with the two part work, it had fallen silent for over thirty-five years.

“The first time I listened to an excerpt of Apocalypsis I was absolutely moved. I had goosebumps all over, and I knew in that moment that we had to find a way to bring this piece back to life – this is exactly the kind of work Luminato Festival was founded to do,” said Jorn Weisbrodt, Luminato Festival’s Artistic Director.

The piece is written in the grand style Schafer has become famous for: ambitious instrumental writing, pre-recorded media, and voice, each meticulously detailed in a score coloured with ornate visual representations.

It’s plot first centres on the destruction of the universe, but then rises from the ashes towards a new beginning.

We are at a point where we need a new vision as a human race and that is what Schafer’s piece talks about,” Weisbrodt said. “Apocalypsis is going to be huge. It is the largest project we have ever done – it might even be the largest project ever staged in Canada, but what I love about it is that it starts with each and every one of the performers. It is about building a community and creating a common experience, an act of cleansing and transformation. I think everyone will change going through this piece, the audience, the performers, the Festival – everyone who is touched by it.”

Conductor David Fallis will conduct close to 20 other conductors on stage, leading musicians and performers from across Ontario.

Performers include: The Cecilia Quartet, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Orpheus Choir of Toronto, Exultate Chamber Singers, St. James Cathedral Choir, Musica Reflecta, Hamilton Children’s Choir, Pax Christi Chorale Tallis Choir of Toronto, Ottawa Bach Choir,  Hannaford Youth Guelph Chamber Choir, Regent Park School of Music, Toronto Chamber Choir, and many more. The production will be supported by the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto Faculty of Music.

Luminato Festival is offering 10 fellowships for string quartets interested in participate. The fellowship includes a range of master classes, rehearsals, performances and an honorarium. For details on how to apply for a String Quartet Fellowship, see here.

It will be performed on June 26-28 at the Sony Centre on the closing of Luminato’s ninth season.

For more on the production see here:

Michael Vincent
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