For 10 days in June, the inaugural Luminato, Festival of Arts and Creativity puts the city in the spotlight

After four years in the making, Luminato, Toronto’s Festival of Arts and Creativity, is ready to make its debut across the city.

From June 1-10, it will offer a big lineup of free events, special celebrations, world premieres and international artistic collaborations across a range of disciplines including music, art, theatre, dance film and literature.

The festival will take place in public spaces and venues throughout the city including Harbourfront, the Distillery Historic District, BCE Place, Elgin Theatre, Factory Theatre, Royal Alexandra Theatre, Yorkville and Queen’s Park.

Highlights include: An Evening with Glenn Gould in recognition of the 75th anniversary of his birth and 25th anniversary of his death; Not the Messiah (He’s A Very Naughty Boy) by Eric Idle and John Du Prez and conducted by the TSO’s Peter Oundjian; Philip Glass’ Book of Longing; and the co-ordinated celebrations with the Royal Ontario Museum to open the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.

“It’s really grounded in a principle of collaboration. There’s something unique about the way the disciplines come together to create new artwork. It’s a grounding principle we’ve had all along with diversity really reflecting different cultures in the work and different cultures influencing each other and this notion of accessibility,” says Luminato CEO Janice Price, former president and CEO of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. She has held posts at New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and various Toronto organizations including Toronto Dance Theatre, Hummingbird Centre, Roy Thomson Hall and Stratford Festival.

She came on board the festival last year because she found the project “irresistible”.

The festival is a direct extension of the cultural renaissance that has taken hold of the city in the last few years with major investments at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum and the new Four Seasons Centre, among others.

“With so much emphasis on infrastructure, Luminato founders David Pecaut (Senior Partner, The Boston Consulting Group) and Tony Gagliano (Executive Chariman & CEO, St. Joseph Communications) thought now that you have the bricks and mortar what about the software? What are you going to do to animate these buildings?” she says. “In discussions with David and Tony, they talked about working with various companies, bringing in outside artists, being a part of the community and thinking internationally and I thought, they’re describing a performing arts centre without walls.

“The festival is going to feature broader disciplines of work than you normally see, and over time it could embrace fashion and food. As it is, it is more multi-disciplinary than any similar festival I’m familiar with in the world. It’s got film, design, theatre, performing arts and literature.”

The festival kicks off with the free, outdoor Muhtadi International Drumming Festival at Queen’s Park that features drummers from more than 20 cultures including Afrian, Asian, Caribbean and Celtic traditions.

Also free is the Summer of Love, taking Yorkville back to 1967 and its heyday of the Canadian folk art scene that saw the rise of artists such as Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot. In the village there will be folk singing performances, art installations and archival exhibitions.

Part of Luminato’s kick-off celebration is the outdoor evening celebration on June 2 to mark the opening of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal at the Royal Ontario Museum. The program will include free museum access all night long, as well as illuminations and a concert.

“There is a real commitment to doing things in the community and for the community. We’ve spent a lot of time on the notion of free and accessible programming of the highest quality. The kind of funding we have in place has given us the opportunity to do that,” says Price. Luminato is a non-profit charitable organization with funding from the public sector, corporations and individuals.

Other free events include Carnivalissima at Harbourfront, which will celebrate the carnival traditions of the world (Brazil, the Caribbean, European Lenten Winter Festivals, Latin America, South Asia and Louisiana’s Mardi Gras).

The Distillery Historic District is going to be a lively spot with its focus on youth. Each day will feature, in collaboration with the Young Centre For The Performing Arts, vocal and instrumental concerts, cabaret events, poetry readings, slam poetry competitions and dancing celebrating the cultural contributions to the city of three language cultures: Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The site will include giant multilingual scrabble boards and vast expanses of canvas on which artists and audiences alike can paint their town with images and words.

Situated at Harbourfront Centre, the Spiegeltentn’tavern will be the social hub of Luminato. Reminiscent of a 1920s European cabaret, the energetic Spiegeltent’ntavern will feature everything from burlesque showgirls and dancers to aerialists and acrobats. Each evening, the Spiegel Show will fill the tent with a colourful profusion of Nouveau-Variété-style entertainment. Spiegeltent’ntavern will be free during the day to all visitors, with an evening admission fee.

A highly anticipated ticketed event will be Opera Luna at Roy Thomson Hall, June 8, an evening featuring 16 of Canada’s greatest international opera stars including Peter Barrett, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Russell Braun, Robert Gleadow, Joni Henson, Joseph Kaiser, Richard Margison, Robert Pomakov, Adrianne Pieczonka and Sondra Radvanovsky under the direction of Danish-Italian conductor Giordano Bellincampi and accompanied by members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Canadian Opera Company Chorus. It will be taped for CBC TV and radio.

LUMINATO WILL FEATURE A NUMBER OF WORLD PREMIERES.

Book of Longing, Philip Glass’ original concert work inspired by Canadian poet, songwriter and novelist Leonard Cohen’s first collection of poems in more than 20 years at the Elgin Theatre, June 1-3.

On view during the festival at the Drabinsky Gallery on Scollard Street is the world premiere exhibition of works on paper and annotations by Leonard Cohen.

Drawn to Words features more than 30 pigment prints on paper selected from Cohen’s extensive private archive of drawings and sketches, stretching back over 40 years.

Not the Messiah (He’s a Very Naughty Boy) by Spamalot creators Eric Idle and John Du Prez is a light-hearted oratorio inspired by Monty Python’s Life of Brian and commissioned by Luminato and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, at Roy Thomson Hall, June 1-4.

Auroras/Testimony is an exhibition of video portraits by Turkish artist Kutlug Ataman and filmmaker Atom Egoyan, at Artcore, Distillery District, June 1-10.

An Evening With Glenn Gould is an original play with music about the last night of Gould’s life, written by Gould’s friend, Toronto filmmaker John McGreevy, and starring Ted Dykstra, at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, Distillery District, June 5-10.

Vida! is the David and Ed Mirvish & Peter Sever production of Lizt Alfonso’s Danza Cuba in Vida! Performed by Danza Cuba, Havana’s most popular dance company, and created by Cuban choreographer Lizt Alfonso, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, June 1-10.

Invectus is a multi-disciplinary rumination on the life and work of Canadian poet Irving Layton, written by Governor General’s Award-winning playwright, Jason Sherman, at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, June 5-10.

Luminato’s artistic committee is a powerhouse of recognizable arts names including the Canadian Opera Company’s Richard Bradshaw, the National Ballet’s Karen Kain, director and filmmaker Atom Egoyan, the TSO’s Peter Oundjian, Soulpepper’s Albert Schultz, Matthew Teitelbaum from the Art Gallery of Ontario, the ROM’s William Thorsell and the Toronto International Film Festival’s Piers Handling.

Price says they bring “a wealth of new ideas because they come across things in their respective fields that only they would know. We’re finding that although they all knew each other, no one had ever brought them into the same room together before and asked them what would they do to collaborate on inter-disciplinary projects between dance and theatre or visual arts and music. What’s really interesting to see is the energy that happens in the room coming from that level of creativity.”

THERE’S SO MUCH ON THE LUMINATO PROGRAM:

In its Canadian premiere, Shen Wei Dance Arts, with Chinese-born, U.S.-based choreographer Shen Wei, brings to the stage performances of Re and Rite of Spring, visually compelling “live paintings” that centre around the ideas of renewal, reflection and rebirth, Premier Dance Theatre, June 6-9.

Motus O Dance Theatre & Sampradya Dance Creations is a partnership between the two celebrated dance companies. Motus O Dance Theatre presents Petrouchka, where a wizard and his three marionettes – the handsome but cruel Strongman, the beautiful Ballerina and the unlikely hero Petrouchka – all live. Sampradya Dance Creations presents Kshetram a multi-media dance production integrated with a projected audio-visual design inspired by the living traditions of Indian culture, which are infused by the devotional poetry of saint poets, Lorraine Kimsa Theatre For Young People, June 6-7.

In Risk Everything acclaimed Polish director Grzegorz Jarzyna reinvents Toronto playwright George F. Walker’s gritty and compelling play into a live street performance, June 3-10.

In partnership with Factory Theatre, George F. Walker is featured through the production of his East End Plays: Better Living together in repertory with Escape From Happiness, as well as a special production of Tough! Written for three actors aged 17-19, this production of Tough! will use an ensemble of nine to 12 young actors of diverse cultural backgrounds, so that each role is played by at least three actors of different racial or ethnic identities during various sections of the play. The Walker Project will be directed by Ken Gass and for the two productions in repertory, will feature an all-star cast including Dora Award-winners Irene Poole and Clare Coulter, Factory Theatre, Factory Theatre Studio, June 1-10.

In partnership with Fergus-based Roseneath Theatre Company, Spirit Horse is a new adaptation of the internationally acclaimed play Tir Na N’Og (inspired by the film Into the West by Jim Sheriden). Moved to Canada by Ojibwa playwright Drew Hayden Taylor, in creative collaboration with playwright and director Greg Banks, Spirit Horse is a powerful adventure of two First Nations children whose lives are changed forever by the appearance of a Spirit Horse, Lorraine Kimsa Theatre For Young People, June 4-5.

Performed by Australia’s Urban Theatre Project, Back Home will be an unusual experience. Audiences will take a bus ride to an undisclosed downtown Toronto “backyard" for a gathering that reunites four friends, all from different cultural backgrounds, intended to celebrate old times. The audience bears witness to their volatile world as the night unravels in a litany of shattered dreams. This is a deeply emotional story about characters coming to terms with their past and facing up to their future. It will be performed in various urban backyards, June 4-10.

Toronto was introduced to World Music through the WOMAD festivals in the 1980s and ‘90s. Masters of World Music will commemorate this visionary programming and celebrate the many world cultures that now make Toronto their home. During four evenings, returning “masters” will grace the stage in a series of free concerts, Harbourfront Centre, June 4-7.

Visual arts programming includes The Robotic Chair, a collaboration of Max Dean, Raffaello D’Andrea and Matt Donovan. Characterized by his sleek and innovative construction, Robotic Chair systematically breaks apart and pulls itself together again in a mesmerizing repetition that leaves audiences free to interpret the significance of self-destruction and empowerment, location to be announced, June 1-10.

An exhibition of floating artworks entirely composed of large and unusual mobiles will be suspended from the ceilings of public spaces such as Union Station and BCE Place. Artist Max Streicher will present Quadriga, an installation of kinetic inflatable horses. Artist Xavier Veilhan will present The Big Mobile, an installation consisting of 25 PVC spheres occupying a total space of 440 square metres, June 1-10.

“There will also be a lighting installation – an incredible piece of art – that will light up the entire Harbourfront. You’ll be able to see it from 15 km away,” says Price.

Multimedia events include Norman, a fusion of live theatre and film. See an actor on-stage, integrate himself into Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren’s cinematic universe. Created by Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon and choreographer Peter Trosztmer, this one-man show, produced by Quebec’s 4D Arts in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada, is an homage to McLaren, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, June 1-3.

Constantinople is a fully produced, music-driven, multimedia theatre event. Conceived and composed by Canadian composer Christos Hatzis, it features the Juno-award winning Gryphon Trio (violin, cello, and piano), and singers Maryem Hassan Tollar and Patricia O’Callaghan. Constantinople explores the complex and sometimes contradictory nature of our modern existence including issues of cultural diversity, spirituality, conflict and co-existence, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, June 7-9.

The Passion of Winnie (Part One) is a new South African “digital opera” blending film images and live music. The work tells the story of South Africa’s journey to freedom through the tragic life of Winnie Mandela. The Warren Wilensky film projects a montage of moving images on to multiple screens while interacting with the live performers and orchestra. Bongani Ndodana-Breen’s music narrates a very personal story fusing elements of Xhosa culture, infectious Township Jive, Cape Jazz and anti-apartheid street chants, all put in an operatic context, Isabel Bader Theatre, June 8-9.

With its literary series, Luminato presents Well Read, in partnership with the International Readings at Harbourfront Centre, Well Read will profile a number of commissioned writings celebrating Luminato. Writers include Scotland’s Ian Rankin, Ireland’s Maeve Binchy and the United States’ Simon Winchester, Harbourfront, June 1-10.

The Book It reader’s festival will take place around the city at a number of venues including Harbourfront Centre, Fort York and various bookshops with an emphasis on bringing the newest and best writers to Toronto, June 8-10.

With its line-up of more than 90 events, Price says Luminato has long-term plans.

“We are committed to making this a festival that is for the city and the region. If we do it right, it will have an impact over time that will make it an international draw. But it needs to be authentic and grow out of its own community first.”

For tickets/info: luminato.com and ticketmaster.com