Atom Egoyan, Peter Sellars to direct COC operas in 2014

Canadian film and stage director Atom Egoyan will helm a new production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte as part of the 2013-14 season of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto.

He is one of several big names in the ambitious season announced Wednesday by the COC's general director Alexander Neef.

Renowned Canadian tenor Ben Heppner returns to the COC stage in Peter Grimes, Canadian diva Adrianne Pieczonka is to sing in Un ballo in maschera and Peter Sellars returns to direct Hercules.

The Opera Australia production of Peter Grimes is shown in 2009. Ben Heppner is to sing the title role in the COC production. (Branco Gaica/COC)

COC premieres

The COC season includes three premieres — George Frideric Handel's Hercules, Gaetano Donizetti's Roberto Devereux and Jules Massenet's Don Quichotte.

Sellars, currently directing Tristan und Isolde as part of the 2013 season, plans a modern take on the Greek myth of Hercules that reflects on horrors of war and the complications faced by veterans returning home.

This is the same minimalist production of Hercules Sellars created for the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2011, with the same star-studded cast, including American bass-baritone Eric Owens as Hercules, British mezzo-soprano Alice Coote as his wife Dejanira, American countertenor David Daniels as his aide Lichas and American tenor Richard Croft as son Hyllus. Owens is making his COC debut.

The English-language version of Handel's opera was hailed for impressive performances by Owens and Coote and for proving that Handel was ahead of his time for showing the long-term effects of war on veterans.

Atom Egoyan directs

Egoyan, who directed Salome in 2013, will explore themes of love, temptation and deceit in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's comedy Cosi fan tutte.

His production will play up the theme of a School for Lovers and progress stylistically through time from the 18th century to present day.

He will be working with the COC Opera Chorus, with soprano Layla Claire in her COC debut as Fiordiligi and Ensemble Studio graduate mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta as her sister Dorabella. American tenor Paul Appleby, bass-baritone Robert Gleadow and Canadian soprano Tracy Dahl, returning to the COC stage after a 19-year absence, also star.

More details of the 2013-14 season:

• La Bohème, in a new COC co-production with Houston Grand Opera and San Francisco Opera.
• Peter Grimes,starring acclaimed Canadian tenor Ben Heppner in the title role, with COC music director Johannes Debus making his Benjamin Britten debut.
• Un ballo in maschera, starring Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka and tenor Dimitri Pittas, both making role debuts.
• Roberto Devereux with American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, lyric tenor Guiseppe Filianoti and Canadian baritone Russell Braun.
• Don Quichotte with Italian Ferruccio Furlanetto and Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova making their COC debuts.

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Foo Fighters to induct Rush into Rock Hall of Fame

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and drummer Taylor Hawkins will help induct Canadian power trio Rush into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this spring.

The Cleveland-based Rock Hall revealed the partial slate of performers and presenters expected to usher in its latest class of musicians on April 18, at a ceremony at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

The Foo Fighters members were chosen to honour Rush, a band they consider one of their key influences.

The Toronto group, eligible for induction since 1998, had repeatedly been overlooked as organizers announced each year's inductees. They made the final cut for 2013 after the public was permitted to vote for the first time.

The details of the induction ceremony released so far:

• John Mayer will give the induction speech for blues guitarist Albert King, while Mayer and Gary Clark Jr. will perform one of King's songs.
• Don Henley will induct Randy Newman.
• Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Hudson will perform in tribute to disco queen Donna Summer.

No details were available about the induction of Canadian-American rock outfit Heart or New York rap pioneers Public Enemy.

With files from The Associated Press

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Canadian Tire money-financed album debuts

Toronto folksinger Corin Raymond is unveiling a uniquely homegrown project this week: his two-disc album of Canadian-penned songs, funded by Canadian Tire money.

Almost exactly a year after recording their live performance at Toronto's Tranzac Club, Raymond and his band The Sundowners are releasing Paper Nickels, the 20-song album and 144-page booklet he describes as a "coffee-table CD."

In the year since his so-called "caper" began making headlines (even drawing the attention of the Wall Street Journal's foreign currency reporter), Raymond has received Canadian Tire money — which the retailer introduced in the 1950s — from across the country.

Corin Raymond described his project as something 'poetic' that resonated with many people, who sent personal stories, pictures and artwork to him along with donations of Canadian Tire money. (Mark Drolet)

The colourful, small-denomination bills were often accompanied by fan mail: letters, pictures and inspirational artwork in which senders shared their personal stories about Canadian Tire money, reactions to his 2011 song Don't Spend It Honey about the Canuck "cash" (which sparked the unusual crowd-sourced funding campaign) and messages of support.

"The whole year has just been kind of this slow avalanche of love," Raymond told CBC News.

"People just got more excited about it …. If you're lucky enough to ignite people's imagination and fire up their hearts, these incredible acts of community can just suddenly happen."

The more than 25 kilos of Canadian Tire bills he's amassed amount to almost $6,200.

Raymond says he remains about $1,100 short of the bill for Rogue Music Lab, the Toronto studio that has accepted Canadian Tire money at par for 20 years and where Paper Nickels was recorded and mixed. However, he feels confident that he and his band will gather the remainder in the next few weeks (any excess will be earmarked for future recordings).

"I have a feeling people are going to be giving me Canadian Tire money for the rest of my life, whether I want them to or not," he said.

Today, many struggling independent artists rely on crowd-sourced funding or other non-traditional methods to produce their albums, but Raymond feels his caper offered something special and poetic that resonated with many Canadians.

"Without the caper, I'd just be a guy you never heard of singing songs you don't know," he acknowledged.

However, "all that Canadian Tire money represents the sort of leftovers of daily and forgotten life because each one of those bills represents a time when someone went down to get a bicycle pump or a garden hose," he said.

"Though alchemy, all those little moments got translated into a record, which is a series of translations of songs, which are already translations of little moments."

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N.S. police seize hoard of rare books, art from man's house

Police in Nova Scotia are combing through hundreds of rare books, one-of-a-kind documents and artwork from a suburban home in Halifax that they believe are stolen goods.

Mounties say they've found almost 1,000 artifacts and antiques at the home of John Mark Tillmann in Fall River. They suspect he amassed the collection over two decades.

The 51-year-old has been charged with four counts of possession of stolen property. On Wednesday, police officers loaded boxes of artifacts into a rented U-Haul trailer.

RCMP Cpl. Scott MacRae said Tillmann's collection was set up like a private museum.

Police remove boxes of stolen items from this Fall River home located on Miller Lake. (CBC)

"[There's] old documents, there's antiques, there's things like a medieval suit of amour, old carvings, paintings," he said. "One painting was … from the Nova Scotia legislature."

The artifacts include an 1819 painting and a first edition of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.

Theresa Kuhn, Tillmann's former partner and the mother of their toddler, said in an interview with CBC News that she became suspicious about items in his home and tipped off police in May 2012.

Kuhn said coming forward has taken a huge toll on her: "I have suffered, and my family has suffered tremendously. I have risked a lot. It's beyond words."

Investigators say they believe much of what they found in the home was stolen, but they remain a long way from understanding his involvement in acquiring them.

Uttering threats

Police have also seized items from businesses and collectors to whom Tillman is connected. Officers said they are also working with the FBI.

Last November, Tillmann was charged with 14 counts of assault and uttering threats against Kuhn and her dog.

He posted the $15,000 cash bail to spring himself from jail. Just one month earlier, he was unable to repay an auto body shop in Upper Sackville after defrauding the owner of $1,900 for repairs on his BMW, court documents allege.

He claimed he was unable to work and needed more time to settle his fine, blaming a justice worker for his financial hardship.

Tillmann is due in provincial court Thursday to face the charges.

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Stolen treasure hoard discovered in N.S. home

Nova Scotia police say they have recovered hundreds of allegedly stolen items from a Fall River home that include rare first editions of books, one-of-a-kind documents and art taken from multiple collections.

A traffic stop last summer led police to search John Mark Tillmann's Fall River home, where they found more that 800 allegedly stolen artifacts that police estimate may be valued at more than $1 million.

Police pulled Tillmann over last summer for breaching the conditions of his house arrest. During that stop they found a few unusual items in the 51-year-old man's vehicle, including a letter written in 1758 by British military leader Gen. James Wolfe.

Wolfe was one of the British leaders who led an attack on the French during the Siege of Louisbourg in the 18th century, effectively ending the French colonial era in Atlantic Canada.

'We believe such items as books, documents, paintings, antiques were stolen from private collectors around Atlantic Canada ... it's a vast undertaking.'— Cpl. Scott MacRae

After months of investigating the letter, police finally tracked it to Dalhousie University. Once they confirmed it was a stolen antiquity, police obtained a search warrant for Tillmann's house and arrested him following the search.

Police began their search early Friday morning and continued their search on Tuesday, cataloging hundreds of items — anything that looked to be an antique or rare object.

One item of note seized appears to be a rare edition of Charles Darwin's pivotal scientific work, On the Origin of Species.

Police said they have tracked the owners of many artifacts already, and have confirmed theft or fraud.

RCMP Cpl. Scott MacRae said local police are working with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to track down leads on where some of the artifacts may have come from.

"We believe that items such as books, documents, paintings, antiques were stolen from private collectors around Atlantic Canada, also from local universities, museums and even the legislature," said MacRae.

A watercolour of N.S. Province House painted by John Woolford in 1819 was discovered. The painting is similar to this painting in the same series. (CBC)

"We believe we have a painting from the Nova Scotia legislature so as one can see, it's a vast undertaking."

On Monday, Tillmann was charged with being in possession of four rare antiquities taken from universities in Halifax, from the archives and from the Nova Scotia legislature.

Dalhousie Archivist Michael Moosberger told CBC News he estimates the Wolfe letter that began the investigation is worth nearly $18,000.

He said with the amount of items in the archives, it's possible for items to go missing. He said if all the boxes of material in the archives was lined up, it would stretch seven kilometers from end to end.

"Somebody could take a letter out and we might never be aware it went missing," he said.

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Did or didn't she? Beyoncé questioned on lip-sync

There's no question Beyoncé's rendition of the national anthem was a roaring success. The mystery: was it live or lip-synced?

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Marine Band told news outlets that Beyoncé had lip-synced at President Barack Obama's inauguration. Master Sgt. Kristin duBois said the band was notified at the last minute that Beyoncé would use a pre-recorded voice track.

But by late afternoon, the marine corps backed off that statement.

Marine corps spokesman Capt. Gregory Wolf said that because there was no opportunity for Beyoncé to rehearse with the Marine Band, it was determined that a live performance by the band was ill advised. Instead they used a pre-recorded track for the band's portion of the song.

"Regarding Ms. Knowles-Carter's vocal performance," Wolf's statement continued, "no one in the Marine Band is in a position to assess whether it was live or pre-recorded."

A representative for Beyoncé did not respond to requests for comment.

DuBois declined to answer further questions. Earlier in the day, she told the New York Times that the rest of the inaugural performance was live and they did not know why a recorded track was used for the national anthem.

"It's not because Beyoncé can't sing. We all know Beyoncé can sing. We all know the Marine Band can play," she said.

Kelly Clarkson's representative said she sang live to perform My Country, `Tis of Thee.

Inaugural organizers did not respond to requests for comment.

All inaugural music is pre-recorded in case weather conditions or other circumstances could interrupt the program.

The use of a recording is typical in big events. In 2009, cellist Yo-Yo Ma was questioned about "hand-syncing" for Obama's first inauguration. Ma said instruments weren't functioning properly in 7 C weather.

Even in good conditions, producing good sound can be a challenge in a large open space.

Some artists choose to lip-sync. Whitney Houston's memorable performance of the national anthem in 1991 at the Super Bowl was sung to a track.

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Imprisoned Pussy Riot members say they have no regrets

The imprisoned members of the Pussy Riot feminist punk band say they feel no regrets about the irreverent "punk prayer" against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's main cathedral that landed them behind bars for two years.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina offered a vivid, but stoic, description of their harsh prison conditions in interviews published Wednesday in the independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper. They said they don't expect clemency from authorities.

Tolokonnikova, who works at a sewing machine like most female prisoners in Russia's prison colonies, was quoted by the paper as saying she has had her fingers punctured by the needle but has picked up speed and experience and can now meet her quota of making lining for 320 jackets a day.

Like other prisoners, she bathes once a week and uses cold water to wash the rest of the week.

"I am not paying much attention to living conditions," she said in an interview filmed last month. "I'm ascetic, and living conditions matter little for me."

Tolokonnikova said she meditates to prevent her spirit from being dulled by the monotonous labour. She added that the main thing she misses at her prison colony is the ability to read freely; prison conditions leave little room for reading the Bible and philosophy books.

'It was an ironic, cheerful and bold act, a political outcry'—Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Pussy Riot

Three members of Pussy Riot were found guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred in August after they raucously prayed to the Virgin Mary for the deliverance from Putin at Christ the Savior Cathedral. One of them, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was later released on appeal, but Tolokonnikova and Alekhina were sent to prison colonies last fall.

Tolokonnikova argued that their protest wasn't aimed at religion. "It was an ironic, cheerful and bold act, a political outcry, so to speak," she said, adding that the Russian state media interpretation of it as a blasphemous action was deliberately wrong.

She said she wants to go to a prison church to talk to its priest and attend the service, although she added she has no intention of being baptized just yet.

She said that she had been warned about likely harassment by other prisoners who felt insulted by the band's act, but there was nothing like that at her prison colony in Mordovia, a province in western Russia about 350 kilometres southeast of Moscow.

"They never asked whether I'm religious or anti-religious," she said.

Nothing to say to Putin

Tolokonnikova said that she has grown tired of the stunt in the cathedral that made the band members global celebrities and drawn protests around the world against Russia's intolerance of dissent.

"It's just impossible to think about your work for so long, you would want to switch to other works and forget about the previous one," she said.

Asked whether she wants to say something to Putin, she answered bluntly: "No, honestly speaking, for me he doesn't exist. He is just a blank spot for me."

Earlier this month, Alekhina, who is serving her sentence at another prison colony in the Ural Mountains Perm region, had an appeal rejected by a local court. Serving her sentence in a different colony, Alekhina complained of systematic violation of human rights by the prison administration. She said she was transferred into a solitary cell for 90 days in November after receiving threats from fellow inmates that she suspects were instigated by prison authorities.

"They told me that I would be done with if I stay in that unit," she said.

She said she doesn't mind a solitary cell because it offers good condition for reading, unlike the crowded barracks where it's hard to concentrate.

Alekhina, a vegetarian, said she was cooking her own food from fresh products provided by supporters.

"I will survive, nothing will happen to me," she said, adding that if she faces any pressure she would go on a hunger strike and then be sent back to a solitary cell.

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Aladdin musical Broadway-bound after Toronto debut

A stage musical of the animated film Aladdin is riding a magic carpet to Broadway and the president of Disney Theatrical Productions promises it will be "a full-length, big song musical with big dance numbers."

Thomas Schumacher said in an interview that the final two-act Aladdin will build on the 1992 film blockbuster with new songs by Alan Menken, additional characters and, appropriately, some magic tricks.

"If I look around Broadway right now, what I want to see is big production numbers. I want to see lush environments. I want surprise," Schumacher said. "You want a lot of humour, which we will do. And you want heart."

Aladdin will be directed and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Casey Nicholaw, whose previous hits include The Book of Mormon and Canadian-born The Drowsy Chaperone. Bob Crowley, who has a Tony for Mary Poppins, will design the sets, and Chad Beguelin has written the story and some lyrics.

The musical will first be staged at Toronto's Ed Mirvish Theatre this November for nine weeks with an eye to bringing it to Broadway's New Amsterdam Theatre in 2014. Mary Poppins, which is currently in the 1,797-seat New Amsterdam Theatre, ends its six-year run in March.

Animated film a worldwide hit

The animated version of Aladdin starred Robin Williams as the voice of the big blue genie and earned $500 million worldwide. The film score was created by Menken and Howard Ashman, with additional lyrics provided by Tim Rice after Ashman's death. Menken won the 1992 Oscar for best original musical score and the film's hit song, A Whole New World, won a Grammy and Oscar.

'When you buy a ticket and sit down in a theatre, you want the live experience, not a film recreated'—Thomas Schumacher, Disney Theatrical Productions

Finding out how to make the genie come to life onstage was one of the biggest obstacles facing its creators. The answer for Disney was to take him from a shape-shifting blue spirit to a Cab Calloway-styled vaudevillian.

"I do feel pretty confident in what we've done with the genie," said Schumacher. "When you buy a ticket and sit down in a theatre, you want the live experience, not a film recreated."

He also explained why Disney decided to close Mary Poppins even though it has been among the top 10 grossing shows for the past six years and top five for attendance: Its profitability wasn't going to last too much longer.

"I could tell that Mary Poppins was coming to a place where it wasn't going to be self-sufficient," Schumacher said. "I can't keep it alive artificially."

Projections showed ticket sales gradually softening and the lavish show facing at least a few months in the red; the show would be in real trouble by the end of 2013. "There's a little bit of science, and a little bit of art, and a little bit of plain old experience that you have to use to figure that out," he said.

Disney has some 10 projects in development, including musicals made from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Dumbo, Father of the Bride and Freaky Friday, and a play adaptation of Shakespeare in Love. On top of that, Disney has recently created a new version of The Little Mermaid for Moscow and a Spanish-language Mary Poppins for Mexico.

"Sometimes it's reinventing the shows we have, sometimes it's taking the version we have and putting it into a new language and new culture, and sometimes it's making a new show," Schumacher said.

Disney Theatrical Productions hope that Aladdin will grant its wish and join its five big hits from seven attempts since 1994 — a profitable list that includes The Lion King and the more recent Newsies. That's way above the 3-in-10 average recoupment of most Broadway shows.

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7 takes on Pride and Prejudice

Back to accessibility links

Vote for your favourite Mr. Darcy and Miss Bennet

CBC News

Last Updated: Jan. 21, 2013

Jane Austen's 1813 novel of manners Pride and Prejudice revolves around clever and headstrong Elizabeth Bennet and the proud and aloof Fitzwilliam Darcy in Georgian England. The couple have a series of miscommunications before they eventually (spoiler alert) find love. The book, initially published in three hardcover volumes and priced at 18 shillings, was an immediate success.

Since then, the story has been the inspiration for various films ranging from the classic to the modern to the Bollywood spectacle. Read more about each version and then vote for your favourite interpretation.

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Anil Kapoor makes Toronto stop for career chat

Despite a busy schedule of film and TV productions, prominent Indian actor Anil Kapoor made the "instinctive decision" to squeeze in a quick jaunt to Toronto to participate in a retrospective discussion of his career.

The Toronto International Film Festival group hosted the Indian actor and producer at its Lightbox headquarters Monday evening as part of its In Conversation series.

In the past 30 years, Kapoor has risen through the ranks of Indian cinema to become one of its most recognizable stars. More recently, he has also crossed over to major Western productions, from the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire to TV action thriller 24.

After shooting several films here as well as hosting live shows recorded in Canada, Kapoor says he feels appreciated by Canadian viewers. He was also the frontman for the 2011 International Indian Film Academy Awards in Toronto, its first ever North American host city.

"The audience, the people over here are really nice, warm and cinema-friendly," he told CBC News on Monday afternoon.

Actor to revisit career, discuss new work

The TIFF discussion will likely include an element of "going down memory lane," according to Kapoor.

A versatile actor who has starred in a wide variety of genres — from family dramas and romance to comedies and thrillers — Kapoor says he's been lucky to work with incredible talents throughout his career, from his early casting opposite Indian acting great Dilip Kumar in 1984's Mashaal to global superstar Tom Cruise in 2011's Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

"All the directors, the people I've worked with... have contributed to the turning points of my career," he said.

Kapoor talked to CBC's Alice Hopton about always focusing his gaze ahead, what advice he'd give to film students and becoming the Jack Bauer of India.

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