Last chances

We at the Luminato Blog are starting to get a little sad. We know that the festival has fewer than 48 hours left to it, and we’re starting to get that “so long, farewell” song from The Sound of Music stuck in our heads.

But we don’t despair. We know there’s still plenty to do. But unlike Pulse Front and Speigeltent’ntavern, many of the Luminato shows are coming to an end this weekend.

Here’s a rundown of the ticketed shows it’s your last chance to see:

An Evening With Glenn Gould. Saturday at noon and 5:30 p.m.; Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

Vida! A Celebration of Life. Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 5 p.m.

Shen Wei Dance Arts. Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

The Walker Project: Better Living. Saturday at 4 p.m.; Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

The Walker Project: Escape from Happiness. Saturday at 8:30 p.m.

The Walker Project: Tough! Sunday at 1 p.m.

Back Home. Saturday at 7:15 p.m.; Sunday at 7:15 p.m.

Risk Everything. Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday at 4 p.m.

Constantinople. Saturday at 8 p.m.

The Passion of Winnie. Saturday at 8 p.m.

The Walker Project: Escape from Happiness. Saturday at 8:30 p.m.

The Walker Project: Tough! Sunday at 1 p.m.

Music at Carnivalissima

In our ongoing quest to overbook your weekend, the Luminato Blog presents the schedule for the Harbourfront Centre’s Toronto Star Stage at Carnivalissima this weekend:

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is one of the truly quintessential acts of our times. They’ve been the crown jewel of New Orleans music for 30 years and have thrilled audiences all over the world. (June 8, 9:30 p.m.)

COBA (Collective of Black Artists) performs Danse Belé a theatrical representation of the history of Caribbean Indigenous Folk dances from Trinidad and Tobago. They weave dance, spoken word, music, drumming, chants and period costumes to transport the audience through the life and times of plantation slaves. (June 9, 6:30 p.m.)

Olodum is a world-renowned cultural group of carnival ambassadors based in Bahia, Brazil. They have been performing since 1979 and are widely credited with developing the music style known as samba-reggae and for their active participation in Carnival each year. (June 9, 9:30 p.m.)

Machel Montano HD is the undisputed Soca King of Trinidad and Tobago who is edging his name among the elite in the music industry. Machel and his band HD have been the premier Soca band in the Caribbean for more than a decade and have established themselves as the leading draw at major events in New York City, Miami, Toronto, London and throughout the Caribbean. (June 10, 4:00 p.m.)

Carnivalissima: For All Ages

So, here’s what we imagine the situation to be: You’ve got kids. You want to have a good time at Luminato absorbing some art and culture, but the kids tend to get squirmy when you take them to see opera or modern dance recitals. You’d take them to Speigeltent’ntavern, but you know that nobody ever won Parent of the Year for taking their kids to a burlesque show. Where’s a family to go?

We at the Luminato Blog feel your pain, and we’ve got an easy answer: Carnivalissima. It’s a celebration of the diversity and creativity of Toronto’s vastly multicultural population, featuring concerts, art, film, fashion, dance, jazz, international crafts and cuisine… we’re getting out of breath just listing it all.

Here’s the full schedule:

Masquerade Ball: June 8, 8 p.m., Carnivalissima Tent
The Masquerade Ball will start with a call to dance by Maracatu Nunca Antes and continue with music by Jay Douglas and the All Stars and dance lessons by Miko Sobreira and Company. Performances in the Venetian tradition will occur featuring commedia del’arte by MetaPhysical Theatre. Amazing fashion competitions and two fashion shows created by Len D. Henry of Fashcam Productions take place.

Carnival: The Spirit and the Soul: All Weekend, Marilyn Brewer Community Space
An exciting new art exhibition curated by Theodoro Dragoneri will examine tradition based on more contemporary aspects of the uses of theatrical narrative and masking. This three-part exhibition will include masks, photography and mixed media from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas.

FireWalk: June 9, after dusk, Congo Square
When day turns to night, Carnivalissima ignites the Toronto waterfront with spectacles of swirling fire dancers, daring fire-eaters, majestic stilt performers, mythical giant puppets, and the glimmering lights of a thousand lanterns! Join in a dance procession of shadow and light and follow the sound of Samba, Steel Pan and Tassa Drums through Harbourfront Centre’s transformed boardwalk and streets.

Family Programming: June 9 & 10, Topsy Turvy Territory and Kid’s Hands-On Tent
A two-day carnival arts and crafts extravaganza will take place by the waterfront. Children of all ages, family and friends are invited to create dazzling carnival masks and costumes, bamboo and paper lanterns, and musical instruments from all over the world. Jump up and dance along to the beat of live steel-pan orchestras, chutney Soca, African drums, stilt-dancers, and hoop-dancers all performed by professional youth artists. Special dance workshops, mask theatre performances, aerial dance performances, and the aroma of live food demonstrations from the master chefs of Pier 4 Restaurant and Radisson Hotel will ignite the carnival spirit in kids and adults alike.

Carnivalissima happens entirely at the Harbourfront Centre.

The Luminato Express: Come on and take a free ride

Bless the good souls at the Toronto Transit Commission. They’re providing all of us art-lovers with free rides this weekend.

TTC will run two buses this weekend every half hour, between the Distillery District and the Harbourfront Centre, with a stop at Union Station in between.

So, you just checked out Carnivalissima and you’re ready to head to the Luminato Poetry Slam Semi-Finals at the Distillery? Hop on the Luminato Express at Queen’s Quay West. You just learned how to breakdance at the Distillery’s Breakdance Workshop and now you want to get your masque on at Carnivalissima’s opening Masquerade Ball? Head to the Mill Street Entrance of the Distillery and be on your way.

The buses will run tonight from 6 p.m. to midnight, Saturday, June 9 from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday, June 10 from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

And just like all of the events at Carnivalissima and Luminato at the Distillery, the buses are absolutely free of charge.

Constantinople (Not Istanbul)

History and the diversity of world cultures have perhaps given the city of Istanbul too many names: Byzantium. Tsarigrad. Stamboul. Second Rome. The City on Seven Hills. Such is the fate of an ancient and romantic city that has drawn to itself too many conquerors and would-be conquerors.

But in the main theater of the St. Lawrence Center for the Arts, dimmed but not darkened for ninety minutes at a time a few nights this week, the city is known only by the eponym given it by the first Holy Roman Emperor, Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus: Constantinople.

For a show that represents a city so primevally venerable, Christos Hatzis’ Constantinople is stunning in its adept use of varied and modern media. Like Norman, its predecessor on St. Lawrence’s main stage, the show projects images onto multiple screens; also like Norman, it’s unclear from where the images are projected, or why the projections don’t interfere with one another. But that’s where the similarity ends.

Essentially Constantinople is a concert; featuring most prominently are The Gryphon Trio, a piano and string ensemble; and the shows two vocalists, Maryem Hassan Tollar and Patricia O’Callaghan. But stopping at calling this show a concert would be like stopping at calling the Hagia Sophia a church. Constantinople is a travelogue, using every means at its disposal to present the city’s history and people and culture and architecture.

And that it does: As Tollar and O’Callaghan sing the Kyrie eleison and the Hallelujah (accompanied not only by The Gryphon Trio and a series of prerecorded scores and sounds), the audience sees images of the Hagia Sophia and the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, of the virgin Mary and the people lining the streets of the city. The word that floats in the air is haunting.

Constantinople ends in a crescendo, the vocalists singing an extended Hallelujah as the projection screens are raised and the stage is gradually undressed. By the end, the audience has found itself intimately acquainted with a mosaic of the Turkish people.

The show runs tonight and Saturday night at the St. Lawrence Center for the Arts. Buy tickets here.

Luna: One Night Only

Tonight marks the only performance of Luna, which features ten of Canada’s greatest opera talents together for one night, alongside conductor Giordano Bellincampi and members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

A new block of $75 tickets just became available. The show begins at Roy Thomson Hall at 8 p.m.

Check out the list of performers, and purchase tickets, here.

Speigeltent’ntavern: Only Three Nights Left!

Photo by Dave Scott

Speigeltent’ntavern, Toronto’s little slice of early-Twentieth-Century pop culture, only has three nights to go. That may not sound alarming unless you know how fast the tent fills up every night.

Head to the Harbourfront Centre for acrobats, vaudeville performers, and burlesque shows:

Thursday, June 7: 7 p.m.
Friday, June 8: 8 p.m.
Saturday, June 9: NO SHOW!
Sunday, June 10: 7 p.m.

TONIGHT: Fado Music at the Distillery

Earlier this week, the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in the Distillery District played host to a free performance of fado, the traditional music of Toronto’s Portuguese community. A three-piece band — featuring a guitar, a Portuguese guitar and an upright bass — accompanied two vocalists, who sang songs of love and loss, and of the joy of making music together. In the darkened Tank House Theater, for an hour, it was impossible not to imagine yourself on a sidewalk cafe in Lisbon.

Fado music is back tonight, with the fado duo “15″ will appear at the Young Centre at 9 p.m. Tickets are free.

Grab the camera. Leave the wallet.

This weekend Luminato is providing boatloads of free entertainment. And of course, plenty of photo opportunities. So make sure your camera’s memory card is as empty as your wallet, and head to either the Distillery District or Harbourfront Centre. Here are just a few of the things you’ll catch:

Canadian Idol Eva Avila getting a makeover. Head to the Distillery’s Fermenting Center at about 7 p.m. Friday night. Free makeovers will also be available to the public.

The Grand Masquerade Ball. Mysterious costumes. Mardi Gras beads. Tarot card readings. All at the Harbourfront Centre, starting at 8 p.m. Friday.

New Orleans is back, and it kicks. It would be enough for us to say that swamp-music master Buckwheat Zydeco is appearing at Harbourfront Centre Friday night. You’d say “Buckwheat Zydeco? Where do I get tickets to that?” (You don’t. It’s free.) But we’re feeling good, so we’ll let you know that The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is also going to be there. Put on your dancing pants — bands appear at 8 p.m. and 9:30, respectively.

Don’t forget — if you’re at either the Distillery or the Harbourfront, and you need to get to whichever of those places you’re not, take L’Art Boat — it runs back and forth between the two locations all day.

PODCAST: Pulse Front

Go ahead, indulge your inner moth: Walk toward the light.

The light — those flashing, swooping searchlights you see at the southern end of downtown Toronto — is Pulse Front, the world’s largest interactive light sculpture. When you get there, you might be surprised. This weekend, Harbourfront Centre (the place Pulse Front calls home) will also host Carnivalissima, a celebration of the many separate and distinct world cultures that have made second homes in Toronto.

Today’s Luminato Podcast documents the reactions of people to seeing their biorhythms projected onto the night sky.

Listen here.