Luminato Festival

Since the very beginning in 2011, Juno-award winning pianist Serouj Kradjian has been involved in Hell’s Fury: The Hollywood Songbook. Read our blog to learn about his creative process, his favourite Luminato memory, and why he believes the life of Hanns Eisler feels so current and poignant today.

King Arthur’s Night is taking the world by storm! Since the world-premiere at Luminato two years ago, they’ve been invited to Vancouver, Ottawa, and Hong Kong. And just next week they’ll be in earbuds around the world! Revisit this phenomenal production over and over when the cast album drops on February 22, 2019! 🎹💿🎼

Get your copy at www.vedahille.com Veda Hille.

#TBT to Luminato 2012's staging of La Belle et la Bête: A Contemporary Retelling by Montreal's Lemieux Pilon 4D Art, a multimedia fairy tale experience merging theatre, film, dance, poetry, visual arts, music and sound.

Isn't this weather snow much fun?? ❄️☃️❄️ It really makes us look forward to MASQUERADE, a melancholy Commedia dell’Arte set in mysterious, snowy Saint Petersburg and presented next June 9-10 by Luminato & Show One Productions Presents.

It’s #MusicMonday!

ON THIS DAY in 1950 the German Democratic Republic (DDR) adopts as its national anthem Auferstanden aus Ruinen (Risen from Ruins), with music by Hanns Eisler, the Austrian composer whose work will be explored in Hell’s Fury: The Hollywood Songbook at Luminato.

February 6, 1948. At a hearing of the US Immigration and Naturalization Service in New York, German-born Austrian composer Hanns Eisler is ordered out the country.

FEBRUARY 1, 1692. It was a harsh winter in the Colony of Massachusetts. The household of Reverend Samuel Parris, minister of Salem Village, continued to be afflicted by his daughter Betty’s strange behaviour. The whole family prayed for her well being....

Today is the 82nd birthday of Philip Glass! In 2012, we proudly we proudly presented a restaging of of Philip Glass & Bob Wilson’s EINSTEIN ON THE BEACH, returning this seminal achievement to the stage after two decades. 

January 27 marks the death anniversary of Scottish-Canadian filmmaker Norman McLaren. Best known for his animation films made for the National Film Board of Canada, his work continues to inspire millions around the world. In 2007, we presented Norman, a tribute multimedia dance piece interpreted by performer and choreographer Peter Trosztmer. 

Hanns Eisler: Life and Art in Exile

Based on Hanns Eisler’s song cycle, Hell’s Fury: The Hollywood Songbook, a new work of musical theatre presented in 2019 by Luminato, explores the exciting and controversial life of German composer Hanns Eisler. In the next weeks, we will examine the historical context surrounding Hanns Eisler’s life in exile.

The Salem Witch Trials Timeline

Obeah Opera, part of the Luminato 2019 line up, tells the story of the Salem witch trials from the spellbinding perspective of the first woman accused, the young Caribbean slave Tituba. For the next few weeks, we’ll map out a series of important events in 1692 that led to the Salem witch trials.

LUMINATO 2019 presents HELL’S FURY: The Hollywood Songbook

A music theatre production that portrays a day in the life of Hanns Eisler, one of Europe’s most gifted mid-century composers, from his arrival in Hollywood to his death in East Germany, using the songs of Hollywood Songbook to weave the story together. Featuring world-renowned baritone Russell Brain and Juno Award-winning pianist and composer Serouj Kradjian, the show will be presented June 19-23, 2019 at the Harbourfront Centre Theatre and it’s presented in partnership with Soundstreams.

LUMINATO 2019 presents MASQUERADE

A tragi-farce based on the writings of Mikhail Lermontov, one of Russia’s most important 19th century poets, Masquerade is produced by one of Moscow’s oldest theatre companies and uncovers the real moralities of modern society behind the masks that everyone wears. 

MASQUERADE will be presented June 9-10, 2019 at the John W.H. Bassett Theatre in Toronto.

LUMINATO 2019 presents THE FULL LIGHT OF DAY

From award-winning artists Daniel Brooks and Kim Collier comes a provocative film theatre hybrid about an aging matriarch who must contend with her family’s corrupt legacy before she dies.

The Full Light of Day will be presented June 12-16, 2019 at the Berkeley Street Theatre in downtown Toronto. 

Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools is a multimedia performance, concert, dialogue, and symbolic convergence between the North and the South of Canada. Inuk artist Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and queer theatre-maker Evalyn Parry, accompanied by cellist Cris Derksen, map new territory together in a work that gives voice and body to the lived histories, culture, and climate we have inherited, challenges the audience to confront their lack of knowledge, and then asks how we reckon with these sharp tools.