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Pitching Opera: Innovating New Music Theater at Banff and Stratford, 1970–1990

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2020

COLLEEN RENIHAN
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Abstract

The Banff Summer Festival of the Arts and the Stratford Summer Music Festival have been unrecognized sites of operatic innovation in Canada. Indeed, the flourishing of what might be termed “new music theater” in Canada is imbricated with the history of these two festivals. Archival research reveals that the inventive, often revolutionary, approaches to music theater honed at Stratford and Banff from 1970–1990 ultimately defined the course of Canadian new music theatre in the decades that followed. Founded in 1953 as a Shakespeare festival, the Stratford Festival eventually became renowned for its (nearly exclusive) focus on musical theater. At Banff, discussions about generic innovation occurred regularly, producing what I suggest was one of the foremost centers in the world for innovation in music theater. Charting the development of opera in Canada through conversations that took part at the Banff and Stratford festivals during the period 1970–1990 reveals the unique possibilities that the peripheral positioning of these festivals—aesthetically, critically, and geographically—offered to the development, dissemination, and innovation of so-called new music theater in Canada.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 14 , Special Issue 1: Music Festivals , February 2020 , pp. 33 - 50
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Music 2020

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Michael Bawtree for his generosity, Liza Giffen and Christine Schindler at the Stratford Festival Archives, and Lianne Caron, Andrew Hennan, and John Yolkowski at the Banff Centre's Paul D. Fleck Archives. Thank you also to Andrew Mall and my fellow panelists in the Festivals and Musical Life Seminar at SAM 2017 in Montreal, PQ, Canada. Finally, my warmest thanks to the editor and to the two anonymous reviewers for the journal, who provided invaluable feedback on earlier drafts.

References

References

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Knowles, Richard Paul. “From Nationalist to Multinational: The Stratford Festival, Free Trade, and the Discourses of Intercultural Tourism.” Theatre Journal 47, no. 1 (March 1995): 19–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Nelson, James. “Candide—A Light, Tuneful Diversion from Stage Plays.” The Stratford Beacon Herald, June 9, 1978.Google Scholar
Orr, Buxton. “A Music-Theatre Training Programme.” Composer (Spring 1987): 15–17.Google Scholar
Pitman, Walter. Louis Applebaum: A Passion for Culture. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Portman, Jamie. Stratford: The First Thirty Years. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1985.Google Scholar
Sutcliffe, Tom. Believing in Opera. London: Faber and Faber, 1996.Google Scholar
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Vickers, Justin. “An Empire Built on Shingle: Britten, the English Opera Group, and the Aldeburgh Festival.” In Benjamin Britten Studies: Essays on an Inexplicit Art, edited by Stroeher, Vicki P. and Vickers, Justin, 89–177. New York: Boydell, 2017.Google Scholar
Westley, Meg. “The Third Stage at Stratford: A New Era?” The Queen's Quarterly 97, no. 4 (1990): 640.Google Scholar
Williams, Bernard. On Opera. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Music Theatre and Opera Collection, TA 3. Paul D. Fleck Library and Archives. The Banff Centre. Banff, Alberta, Canada.Google Scholar
Stratford Festival Archives. Stratford, Ontario, Canada.Google Scholar
Applebaum, Louis. “Stratford's Second Music Festival.” The 1956 Souvenir Program. Stratford: Stratford Festival Publication, 1956.Google Scholar
Bawtree, Michael. The New Singing Theatre: A Charter for the Music Theatre Movement. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Bawtree, Michael. The Best Fooling: Adventures in Canadian Theatre. Cirencester, Gloucestershire: Mereo Books, 2017.Google Scholar
Betts, Jim. “Why Canadians Can't Write Musicals.” The Brock Review 12, no. 2 (2012): 12–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeLong, Kenneth. “Banff.” Opera Canada 25, no. 2, ed. 99 (Summer 1984): 15–17.Google Scholar
Desi, Thomas and Salzman, Eric. The New Music Theatre: Seeing the Voice, Hearing the Body. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Edmonstone, Wayne E.Nathan Cohen: The Making of a Critic. Toronto: Lester & Orpen, 1977.Google Scholar
Frey, Bruno. “The Economics of Music Festivals.” Journal of Cultural Economics 18, no. 1 (March 1994): 29–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guthrie, Tyrone, Davies, Robertson, and Macdonald, Grant. Renown at Stratford: A Record of the Shakespeare Festival in Canada. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, 1953.Google Scholar
Ingraham, Mary. “Something to Sing About: A Preliminary List of Canadian Staged and Dramatic Music Since 1867.” Intersections 28, no. 1 (July 2007): 14–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knowles, Richard Paul. “From Nationalist to Multinational: The Stratford Festival, Free Trade, and the Discourses of Intercultural Tourism.” Theatre Journal 47, no. 1 (March 1995): 19–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kraglund, John. “Only One Word Limits Appeal of This Orpheus.” The Globe and Mail, July 11, 1959.Google Scholar
Kraglund, John. “Fool and Magician Meet in Purgatory.” The Globe and Mail, July 31, 1975.Google Scholar
Lascelles, Henry Hubert, Harewood, Earl of. Opera in Canada: A Report. Commissioned by the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council. Toronto, 1972.Google Scholar
Leighton, David and Leighton, Peggy. Artists, Builders and Dreamers: 50 Years at the Banff School. Toronto: McLelland and Stewart: 1982.Google Scholar
Lindenberger, Herbert. Opera the Extravagant. New York: Cornell University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Littler, William. “Review.” The Toronto Star, July 24, 1976.Google Scholar
Metcalf, Sasha. “Funding ‘Opera for the 80s and Beyond’: The Role of Impresarios in Creating a New American Repertoire.” American Music 35, no. 1 (Spring 2017): 7–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, James. “Candide—A Light, Tuneful Diversion from Stage Plays.” The Stratford Beacon Herald, June 9, 1978.Google Scholar
Orr, Buxton. “A Music-Theatre Training Programme.” Composer (Spring 1987): 15–17.Google Scholar
Pitman, Walter. Louis Applebaum: A Passion for Culture. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Portman, Jamie. Stratford: The First Thirty Years. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1985.Google Scholar
Sutcliffe, Tom. Believing in Opera. London: Faber and Faber, 1996.Google Scholar
Thompson, M. J.The Banff Centre: Mountain Campus. Canmore, AB: Altitude Publishing, 1993.Google Scholar
Vickers, Justin. “An Empire Built on Shingle: Britten, the English Opera Group, and the Aldeburgh Festival.” In Benjamin Britten Studies: Essays on an Inexplicit Art, edited by Stroeher, Vicki P. and Vickers, Justin, 89–177. New York: Boydell, 2017.Google Scholar
Westley, Meg. “The Third Stage at Stratford: A New Era?” The Queen's Quarterly 97, no. 4 (1990): 640.Google Scholar
Williams, Bernard. On Opera. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.Google Scholar