Luminato Festival 2023: Everything you need to know about Toronto’s eclectic art festival

The Luminato Festival, an international arts festival showcasing contemporary works across a wide range of mediums, has typically marked the beginning of Toronto’s jam-packed summer festival season.

Each June, hundreds of artists and thousands of spectators descend on the city for the two-week event.

This year’s festival, the 17th annual edition, is no exception, featuring an eclectic lineup of programming running across the city — from world premieres and street puppetry to public art installations and reimagined classics.

Here’s the Toronto Star’s guide to the 17th annual edition of the festival, which kicked off (June 7) and runs through June 18.

Check back regularly throughout the duration of the Luminato Festival for updates and reviews written by the Star’s performing arts critics, Joshua Chong, Michael Crabb, Karen Fricker and Glenn Sumi.

Treemonisha

Scott Joplin, the “King of Ragtime,” never lived to see “Treemonisha,” his sole surviving opera after his other works were lost. Though he wrote the work in 1911, it wasn’t staged until 1972, more than half a century after Joplin’s death. But the piece, which melds classical music with ragtime, folk, and gospel, has since become a seminal work in the American opera canon.

This Luminato production, in development since 2016, is believed to be the first time “Treemonisha” has received a fully-staged professional production on this side of the border. It features Joplin’s vocal score with a new story and libretto penned by playwright Leah-Simone Bowen and Emmy-nominated writer Cheryl L. Davis

Soulpepper artistic director Weyni Mengesha makes her opera directorial debut in this landmark new production, which runs until June 17 at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Performing Arts.

Nuit

Jean-Pierre Perreault, the late Canadian dancer and choreographer, conceived “Nuit” in 1986. The 80-minute dance piece features eight performers who interact in a “story without a plot,” exploring themes of the individual within the collective.

In the blazing contemporary work, set during a harsh night, the dancers use their bodies as percussive instruments, beating the ground and morphing into various shapes and forms.

This remount production runs for three performances only at the Fleck Dance Theatre, from June 8 to 10.

Aalaapi

“Aalaapi,” presented by Native Earth Performing Arts and Le Théâtre français de Toronto, is a live theatrical experience that’s part radio documentary and part play, combining the soundscape of the North with Inuktitut, French and English. The piece’s title means “choosing silence to hear something beautiful.”

The story follows two friends, Nancy and Ulivia, who share a cabin in the northern village of Nunavik. Painting a portrait of young women in northern communities, the work explores their daily lives and hopes.

“Aalaapi,” directed by Laurence Dauphinais, runs from June 8 to 10 for four performances at Daniels Spectrum’s Ada Slaight Hall.

Loss

Written by Ian Kamau and his father Roger McTair, “Loss” is a multimedia performance that explores grief in Afro-Caribbean communities. An intergenerational family story, the piece focuses on the mystery surrounding the death of Kamau’s paternal grandmother, Nora Elutha Rogers.

Using live music, video and storytelling of family memories, “Loss” produces an honest and healing immersive experience.

Developed in residency at The Theatre Centre, this world premiere production runs for six performances, from June 14 to 18, at the Harbourfront Centre Theatre.

Dragon’s Tale

In 2001, the world-renowned duo of Chinese-Canadian composer Chan Ka Nin and playwright Mark Brownell teamed up to create “Iron Road,” their smash-hit opera with Tapestry Opera. Some two decades later, the company and the pair are back together, this time working on “Dragon’s Tale,” a new opera celebrating the history of dragon boat racing.

The era-hopping work, set in present-day Toronto and ancient China, charts a story about freedom and the power of love, following the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan along with Chinese-Canadian Xiao Lian and her father.

Helmed by Tapestry Opera’s artistic director Michael Hidetoshi Mori, this world premiere production will be presented outdoors on Toronto’s waterfront at the Harbourfront Centre Concert Stage. It runs from June 15 to 18 for four performances.

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