Black and Blue Matters is a satirical, interactive hip-hop musical written by Omari Newton and directed by Diane Roberts. The new installation performance premieres in Montreal before arriving at the National Arts Centre in March, 2022.Giordanno Bruno/Supplied
Emerging from the live-performance lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Arts Centre will reopen its doors with a concert by its orchestra that will begin solemnly but conclude with the festive, triumphant finale of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.
“Get out among the people,” Tchaikovsky wrote to his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck, to whom the composer had dedicated that work in F minor. “Look what a good time they have simply surrendering themselves to joy.”
Like the rest of the performing-arts centres across the country, the Ottawa-based NAC has been unable to present performances in front of live audiences since the COVID-19 outbreak hit North America in the spring of 2020. The NAC’s just-announced 2021-22 season includes programming in classical music, dance, theatre and popular music. Venues will be limited in capacity in accordance with provincial health guidelines.
The reopening concert by the National Arts Centre Orchestra set for Sept. 10 was programmed to portray a tonal shift from darkness to light. Principal trumpet Karen Donnelly composed a hymn for solo trumpet that leads into Trevor Weston’s choral song Ashes, which was commissioned for the Choir of Trinity Wall Street after the fall of the World Trade Center towers in New York. Its performance will mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
The opening concert at Southam Hall is to be followed three days later by the previously announced Zones Théâtrales, a biennial festival of Franco-Canadian theatre.
Another early-season highlight is Multitudes, a theatrical concert residency by 11-time Juno Award winner Feist from Oct. 12 to 17, with new songs inspired by the pandemic. The production, conceived in collaboration with American lighting and production designer Rob Sinclair (who has worked with such artists as Adele, David Byrne, Lorde and Peter Gabriel), received its world premiere earlier this month at Hamburg’s Kampnagel Festival.
Orchestral highlights include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. Elsewhere, artist-in-residence James Ehnes is spotlighted in a program of violin showpieces by Saint-Saëns, Sarasate and others. French pianist Hélène Grimaud makes her return to Southam Hall to perform Schumann’s Piano Concerto. The majority of NACO’s season of concerts will be livestreamed for audiences at home.
On the theatre side, the upcoming season marks the NAC’s first programming under its new shared curation model. As announced last year, the Black Theatre Workshop, the oldest Black theatre company in Canada, will curate half of English Theatre programming.
Black and Blue Matters is a satirical, interactive hip-hop musical written by Omari Newton and directed by Diane Roberts. The new installation performance premieres in Montreal before arriving at the NAC in March, 2022.
Other highlights include Michael Frayn’s award-winning Copenhagen (a fictional exchange of ideas on war, science and morality between a German physicist and a Danish counterpart during the Second World War) and Calpurnia (a 2018 satirical comedy that riffs on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird). From Canadian playwright Audrey Dwyer, Calpurnia is a co-production with the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre and the Black Theatre Workshop.
The NAC Indigenous Theatre, which had its inaugural season interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, kicks off its return with two productions in partnership with Zones Théâtrales. Jocelyn Sioui’s Mononk Jules is inspired by the life of the playwright’s great-uncle, Indigenous activist Jules Sioui. Émilie Monnet’s Okinum (which means “dam” in Anishinaabemowin) reflects on the notion of inner barriers and the power of culture and language.
In December, the Indigenous Theatre hosts a one-night celebration to honour the 70th birthday of Tomson Highway, the acclaimed Indigenous Canadian playwright, novelist and children’s author.
In December, the Indigenous Theatre hosts a one-night celebration to honour the 70th birthday of Tomson Highway, the acclaimed Indigenous Canadian playwright, novelist and children’s author.Supplied
The NAC French Theatre’s upcoming season will be the final one conceived by Brigitte Haentjens, the theatre’s artistic director since 2012. To signal the company’s transitionary phase, the schedule begins with 2042, an event created by incoming director Mani Soleymanlou. Some 20 artists from the Ottawa-Gatineau region were asked to imagine what things will look like in the in the year 2042.
The season in dance features 14 companies, with five presentations postponed from last season brought back. Included are performances from Alan Lucien Oyen’s Winter Guests (from Norway), José Navas’s Compagnie Flak, and dancers Guillaume Côté, Dimitris Papaioannou (from Greece) and Anne Plamondon.
The NAC is staggering its programming announcements. Winter performances will be made public later in the fall. Tickets for fall performances and a select number of 2022 shows are now on sale.
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