Renovated Rhymes

Renovated Rhymes offers an enchanting escape from the grown-up world

For Immediate Release – Toronto, October 21, 2015: Talisker Players kick off the 2015-16 concert season with humour, nonsense and poetry in Renovated Rhymes on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 26 and 27, 8PM at Trinity St. Paul's Centre – a concert for audiences who can see the lighter side of life. The programme features two of Canada's vocal treasures, tenor James McLennan and acclaimed baritone/ guitarist Doug MacNaughton.

Renovated Rhymes takes audiences into a strange and enchanting world that is far from ordinary adult day-to-day life. This programme offers a selection of playful texts by Edward Lear, Ogden Nash, Dennis Lee, John Hicks, and Lorna Crozier, all "renovated" by skillful composers for various combinations of strings, winds and piano.

In the title work of the programme, Elizabeth Raum imaginatively matches John V. Hicks' text on several traditional nursery rhymes to music. Renovated Rhymes features a wealth of onomatopoeic effects, including meowing, ticking clocks and bleating sheep. Raum revised this playful piece especially for performance by the Talisker Players.

Talisker Players offer audiences a fresh musical feast with Leslie Uyeda's The Sex Lives of Vegetables, based on Lorna Crozier's charming poems about ironically anthropomorphized vegetables. Governor General Award-winning poet Lorna Crozier was inspired to write these poems when she cut into the orange flesh of a baked yam. Crozier carefully examines the surprising life of beets, lettuce and radishes which Uyeda cleverly compliments with tenor, clarinet and piano.

Canadian composer Malcolm Forsyth transforms Edward Lear's The Dong With a Luminous Nose into a grand satirical melodrama. Lear is one of the best-known writers of nonsense verse in the English language. In this work, Forsyth was influenced by the grandiose recorded reading of the piece by English actor Stanley Holloway. Forsyth has incorporated many Holloway's inflections as well as his tune for the "Chorus of Jumblies."

Mátyás Seiber's The Owl and the Pussy-cat is performed by tenor James McLennan and baritone/guitarist Doug MacNaughton. This musical adaption of the classic nonsense poem by Edward Lear offers a dance-like melody with a variety of musical styles.

John Greer's Palm Court Songs of the Bubble Ring is based on several of Toronto poet Dennis Lee's popular children's rhymes. In his setting, Greer indulges in numerous references to classical and popular music – including swing and cakewalk variations on a Mozart theme, as well as a mad scherzo with foxtrot.

The programme also features excerpts from Donald Swann's light-hearted The Bestiary in arrangements by Talisker cellist Laura Jones. In the late 1960s, songs about animals were gathered and released as The Bestiary of Flanders and Swann. "The Warthog," "The Sloth," and "The Hippopotamus" are all charming waltzes which offer their title characters anthropomorphized happy endings.

Lastly, Robert Jordahl's Verses from Ogden Nash offers a somewhat reflective work outlining the four ages of man. Nash's subject matter ranges from the hazards of courtship to the compromises of old age. Jordahl's music starts with an insouciant tango, and ends with alternating agitation and calmness.

The Talisker Players are excited to feature two of Canada's acclaimed soloists as guest artists for this programme – tenor James McLennan and baritone/guitarist Doug MacNaughton.

Tenor James McLennan has distinguished himself on opera stages across the country as a performer of great range and diversity. He is acclaimed for his "freely expressive and carefully nuanced singing" (Toronto Star) and his "emotional intensity" (Opera News). He has won praise for compelling performances in opera, oratorio and recital, in repertoire ranging from Bach to the twenty-first century.

Baritone Doug MacNaughton is a Manitoba native who is equally at home in standard repertoire and contemporary music, in opera, oratorio, chamber music and musical theatre. Acclaimed as "a great singing actor", MacNaughton  began his career with the Edmonton Opera in 1982. His flair for physical comedy has made him especially sought-after for roles such as Papageno in The Magic Flute, Taddeo in L'Italiana in Algeri, and Elviro in Xerxes. In addition to his performing career, he is also a teacher of voice and guitar.

Talisker Players productions always blend both the sung and the spoken word. Acclaimed actor/director Ross Manson joins the musicians with readings from Fables for our Time by James Thurber.

Renovated Rhymes
James McLennan, tenor; Doug MacNaughton, baritone
Ross Manson, actor/reader
with members of Talisker Players
Tuesday, October 26 & Wednesday, October 27 at 8PM
Trinity St. Paul's Centre: 427 Bloor Street West
TICKET INFORMATION
Individual tickets: $35 / $25 (seniors) / $15 (students/un(der)employed)
Box office: 416-978-8849
words.music@taliskerplayers.ca
Information: 416-466-1800
www.taliskerplayers.ca

Talisker Players Chamber Music offers one of the most imaginative and exciting concert series in Toronto. In collaboration with some of Canada's finest young singers, Talisker Players present the rarely-heard repertoire for voice and chamber ensemble. Their unique programming includes readings that illuminate the music and delight audiences with a stimulating, theatrical concert experience. The music, engaging and varied, includes both celebrated works and unknown gems from all styles and periods, with a strong presence of Canadian compositions.

Talisker Players Upcoming Events
High Standards
: Sunday, January 10, 2016 at 3:30PM & Tuesday, January 12, 2014 at 8:00PM
Virginia Hatfield, soprano, James Levesque, baritone
Trinity St. Paul's Centre, 427 Bloor Street West

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Media Contact: Alexandra Glass, Media Manager | Tel: 226-792-4849 | Email: a.glass@taliskerplayers.ca

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