Perfect Propriety
A wry look at the manners and mores of life in the urban age.
Tuesday and Wednesday, February 26 and 27, 2008 at 8PM
Trinity St. Paul's Centre
For Immediate Release - Toronto, January 31, 2008: Toronto’s Talisker Players offer a sure cure for the February blues with Perfect Propriety. This light-hearted – and slightly sardonic – production combines the wit of Dorothy Parker, the humour of Ogden Nash and the wisdom of Miss Manners with the sensuous melodies of Kurt Weill and the edgy rhythms of Omar Daniel. Soprano Melanie Conly, mezzo-soprano Vilma Vitols and baritone Doug MacNaughton join the musicians of Talisker Players at Trinity St. Paul’s Centre on Tuesday, February 26 and Wednesday, February 27.
Perfect Propriety naturally features the wickedly funny verse of Dorothy Parker, on the subject of relations between men and women. The title piece of the evening is a setting of eight of her short, aphoristic poems by the witty American composer Seymour Barab for mezzo-soprano with oboe, clarinet, bassoon and piano. And fellow American Lee Hoiby's Two Women, aptly subtitled 'Scenes for soprano, clarinet and piano', tells amusing stories of unsuccessful romantic encounters. The programme also includes the Canadian premiere of Omar Daniel's You Are Where You Are. This rather unusual song cycle for baritone and piano quintet is set to fragments of cell-phone conversations devised by Booker Prize-winning novelist Yann Martel, which wittily depict moments in an average day of an average urban man.
Two other Canadians are represented: Stephen Chatman’s Dandy Man, for soprano and flute, is a tiny theatrical set-piece about a flirtatious encounter. And Jean Coulthard’s Tarantella, a setting of a poem by Hilaire Belloc for baritone and piano quintet, is a reminiscence about lost love that manages to be both cynical and wistful.
The evening would not be complete without the music of Kurt Weill - specifically, four songs from One Touch of Venus, the Broadway show he wrote with libretto by Ogden Nash – including 'Speak Low' and 'I'm a Stranger Here Myself'. They will be performed in new arrangements by Laura Jones, for mezzo-soprano with string quartet and clarinet.
As always, this Talisker Players production includes the spoken word. The evening’s readings, taken from the advice columns of the inimitable Miss Manners, and will be given by the well-known actor Deborah Tennant.
Talisker Players welcome three of Canada's most gifted singers. Praised for her "passion and charm" (Now Magazine) and for her "sweet voice delivery" (Toronto Star), soprano Melanie Conly has performed across Canada and the United States in a diverse repertoire of opera, oratorio, new music, recital and musical theatre.
Hailed as a singer with a “gorgeous voice that is both rich and agile”, Vilma Indra Vitols has a repertoire encompassing opera, oratorio, cabaret and new music.
Acclaimed as "a great singing actor", Doug MacNaughton< is equally at home in standard repertoire and contemporary music. His career can be said to reflect
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Media Contact: Francine Labelle/flINK
416-654-4406
labellefrancine@rogers.com
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