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TORONTO,
STRATFORD & NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE
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OCTOBER
10 - 18, 2007
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Le
Nozze di Figaro plus optional Don Carlos in Toronto,
Saint Joan, Summer and Smoke, Mack and Mabel and The Circle at the Shaw Festival King Lear, The Merchant of Venice, An Ideal Husband and Oklahoma! at the Stratford Festival |
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There is arguably no more beautiful place on earth to witness the vibrant canvas of autumn colour than in Ontario. This tour brings you to two of the most charming towns in North America at the perfect time of year, as well as to Canada's cultural heart. Along the way, you will stay at the finest hotels in each city (or anywhere), enjoy exquisite meals in five of Canada's top restaurants, and witness performances at the best opera and theatre venues in the country from the very best seats in each house. This is a winning combination, and assures an unforgettable Autumn in Ontario. Toronto, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, is the largest of Canada's vibrant urban centres. It is the hub of the nation's commercial, financial, industrial, and cultural life, and is the capital of the Province of Ontario. People have lived here since shortly after the last ice age, although the urban community only dates to 1793 when British colonial officials founded the 'Town of York' on what then was the Upper Canadian frontier. That backwoods village grew to become the 'City of Toronto' in 1834, and through its subsequent evolution and expansion Toronto has emerged as one of the most liveable and multicultural urban places in the world today. And of course, it is home to the Canadian Opera Company, the largest producer of opera in Canada and one of the largest in North America. Under its General Director, Richard Bradshaw, the company enjoys an international reputation for artistic excellence and creative innovation, and now has a new home, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Niagara-on-the-Lake, often called the loveliest town in Ontario, has a long and distinguished history. Site of the old Neutral Indian village of Onghiara, it was settled at the close of the American Revolution by Loyalists coming to Upper Canada. In 1792, Newark - as it was named by Governor Simcoe, became the first capital of the newly-created colony of Upper Canada. American forces all but destroyed the town by fire during the war of 1812, but it was soon rebuilt and became an active commercial centre, with a busy shipping and ship-building industry, as well as many shops and warehouses. Today, over two hundred years after its founding, Niagara-on-the-Lake hums with a different kind of traffic. Its many attractions include historic sites - Fort George and the Historical Society Museum, the marina, a lovely heritage business district, golf courses, parks and beautiful farmland, agricultural markets and world famous Niagara wineries. And of course, the Shaw Festival with its three theatres is based here. The Shaw Festival was founded in 1962 by Niagara-area lawyer and playwright Brian Doherty. During the summer, Mr. Doherty organized eight weekend performances of Don Juan in Hell and Candida by Bernard Shaw under the title “Salute to Shaw”. For this event, the Assembly Room in the historic Court House on Queen Street was converted into a small theatre. Today the Festival produces 10 to 12 plays each season, with over 800 performances in 3 theatres, to audiences totalling about 300,000 people. That Stratford is the home of the largest classical repertory theatre in North America is ultimately attributable to the dream of one man, Stratford-born journalist Tom Patterson. In the early 1950s, seeing the economy of his home town endangered by the withdrawal of the railway industry that had sustained it for nearly 80 years, Patterson conceived the idea of a theatre festival devoted to the works of William Shakespeare. On October 31, 1952, work began on a concrete amphitheatre at the centre of which was to be a revolutionary thrust stage created by internationally renowned theatrical designer Tanya Moiseiwitsch. From that stage, on the night of July 13, 1953, actor Alec Guinness spoke the opening lines of Richard III: "Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this son of York." Those words marked the triumphant end of what had sometimes seemed a hopeless struggle against the odds to turn Patterson's dream into a reality and the beginning of an astonishing new chapter in Canadian theatre history. As celebrated novelist Robertson Davies opined, the founding of the Stratford Festival was an achievement of historic importance not only in Canada but wherever theatre is taken seriously, that is to say, in every civilized country in the world.
Wednesday, October 10...Departure
for Toronto Thursday,
October 11...Toronto Friday,
October 12...Toronto
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Niagara-on-the-Lake (optional opera in Toronto) Saturday,
October 13...Niagara-on-the-Lake Sunday,
October 14...Niagara-on-the-Lake Monday,
October 15...Niagara-on-the-Lake
— Stratford
Tuesday,
October 16...Stratford Wednesday,
October 17...Stratford Thursday,
October 18...Departures
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