The best stage performances coming this fall

A Diva on a Mission

Soprano Renée Fleming has sold out opera houses and concert halls across the globe, has been nominated for 19 Grammys, and got nerd pulses racing when she sang in Sindarin for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. On November 1, she lands at Koerner Hall for a gala evening featuring songs from her 2021 album, Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, a collaboration with another classical music superstar, Montreal conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Her performance, accompanied by the Royal Conservatory Orchestra, is set against National Geographic films produced especially for Fleming. Here, she talks about her wide-ranging musical influences and how to address the climate crisis through song.

Related: Best of Fall—A sneak peek at the season’s buzziest debuts on stage, screen and page

Your album uses music to explore humanity’s impact on the natural world. Essentially, it’s about the climate crisis. What made you want to tackle such a thorny topic? I came up with this idea when I was home during the pandemic. I’ve always been in love with the environment and with animals, and throughout Covid I found a tremendous amount of solace in being outside. Yannick and I knew we wanted to make a recording together, and I’ve always found it interesting that the song literature I perform from the late 19th century consistently sees the human condition through the lens of nature. So we had beautiful songs from French, German and other composers, and we commissioned some new ones too. And then the album won a Grammy. I thought it would be ­wonderful to tour a version of it where the tracks are combined with films. I have always been drawn to cinematography, especially when the landscape is part of the storytelling.

The concert’s offerings range from Handel to Björk. Given your storied career and varied musical tastes, how did you whittle down your set list? I chose songs that all had something to do with this notion of music and nature. It was an opportunity to use pieces I had recorded, like the Björk song “All Is Full of Love,” and certainly the piece from The Lord of the Rings. But I had to leave a lot on the cutting room floor. It was a constant balance because I didn’t want the imagery to be a literal expression of every line. I wanted to leave room for imagination.

You’ve contributed transcendent vocals on a number of soundtracks, including Oscar winners The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and The Shape of Water. On the flip side, how does film enhance your music? I think we’re very visual when it comes to music. There are all these ways that people started creating content to go with music. There was MTV, and now, of course, music videos are ubiquitous on YouTube. People love the storytelling aspect of putting music and images together. For this particular project, the addition of film is also about beauty and relishing the incredible biodiversity of the planet. People have come up to me and said, “You’re so brave for doing this,” which I think is absolutely insane. It just seems so clear that the climate crisis is an important issue that we face, and we’re not doing enough.

A Play About Petty Oligarchs, Succession Wars, and Fathers and Sons

Who’s afraid of Edward Rogers? Not Michael Healey. The star playwright has been on a hyper-specific hot streak since his hit 2019 play, The Master Plan, which dove into the tech-bro arrogance that killed Google’s smart-city waterfront plan. For his next trick, the play Rogers v. Rogers, he’s adapting Globe and Mail reporter Alexandra Posadzki’s book, which dramatizes the family feud that saw Edward Rogers wrench the company from his mother and sisters. Meanwhile, a crusading bureaucrat fights to stymie Edward’s ambition to merge Rogers with Shaw Mobile. The twist? It’s also a one-man play, with beloved comic actor Tom Rooney playing all the parts. Here, Healey talks about his fascination with the Rogers dynasty.

You once had a theatre pull your play about Stephen Harper for fear of a lawsuit. Now you’re taking on the Rogers family. Got a good lawyer? The Crow’s Theatre board is stacked with people who understand the value of art as an act of public engagement. Besides, we’re well in the realm of satire and fair comment here. Sure, if we get a cease-and-desist letter, we’ll have to decide how to manage it. But, my god, if the Rogers family wants to make this the most interesting play in the country, by all means they can go ahead!

Did you notice your phone or internet service acting up when word got out you were working on this? I switched from Rogers to a different carrier when I got the gig, but it was still awful. The abuse that Canadian consumers put up with is astounding. Part of my goal is to wake everyone up to the possibility of true competition in telecoms, which would improve things.

What are the chances you spot Ed Rogers in the audience on opening night? If he shows up hoping for journalism, he’s going to be disappointed. This is a piece of art. I’m using the facts to tell larger truths about competition policy and about fathers and sons. When Ted Rogers started thinking about retiring, he said over and over that neither Edward Rogers nor his sister Melinda were capable of taking over. By choosing to go for it anyway, Edward set himself up for a real extended psycho­drama. I’m exploiting his circumstance to talk about why it’s hard to have a famous dad.

What would you say to Ed Rogers if you did meet him? If I’m meeting him before the show, I’d say, “Please come. I’d be fascinated to hear what you think.” If it’s after, I’d say, “Thanks for coming—but, really, you would have enjoyed yourself more if you had just gone for dinner instead.”

More on Stage

Bright Star
Mirvish, CAA Theatre

The brainchild of comedian Steve Martin and singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, this bluegrass musical first hit Broadway in 2016 and has been racking up awards ever since. This production features an all-­Canadian cast of multi-hyphenates who act, sing, and play banjos, mandolins, accordions and more to whisk audiences away to 1940s North Carolina, where steely literary editor Alice Murphy unravels a tragic mystery from her past. September 30 to October 26

Procession
The National Ballet of Canada

The National Ballet is taking some big steps forward, literally and metaphorically. Its latest production is its first with buzzy modern choreography power couple Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber. The two use the ever-advancing motion of a procession as their theme in this hyped co-production with the Royal Danish Ballet. November 1 to 8

Comeuppance
Soulpepper

A nostalgic double-whammy, this Canadian premiere of Branden Jacobs Jenkins’s 2023 play stars Drake-era Degrassi actor Mazin Elsadig as an elder millennial reuniting with old high school friends. As the group talks, they confront the horrors of aging—much like we do when remembering that Degrassi Junior High is almost 40. October 30 to November 23

Masterworks: Mozart & R. Strauss
Toronto Symphony Orchestra

The only Canadian to ever win the prestigious Chopin Competition, Bruce Liu has gone from rising star to rock star in the four short years since his victory. On the docket for the young pianist’s performance: Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23 and Richard Strauss’s “Der Rosenkavalier.” October 16 to 18

Orfeo ed Euridice
Canadian Opera Company

Move over, Hadestown—Gluck is back. Robert Carsen’s version of the German composer’s 1762 opera took Toronto by storm in 2011. The story of Orfeo and his doomed love Euridice is now being re-mounted under director Christophe Gayral and stars British countertenor Iestyn Davies opposite Canada’s own Anna-Sophie Neher. October 9 to 25