Hey Winnipeg! The weekend is almost here! Have you started making plans yet? Opera, literature, chamber music and more make up this week's Classic 107 Arts & Entertainment Calendar.

 If you are an opera fan, you need to head down to the Manitoba Legislative Building on Broadway this Friday (Sept 19) and Saturday (Sept 20) night.

The Manitoba Underground Opera will be presenting its production of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte. The concert will feature singers from all over Canada including Elizabeth Humphries, Susanne Reimer, Conrad Siebert and Jordan Collalto. Directing the production is Jacqueline Loewen and Brendan McKeen is the conductor. The show takes place in the foyer of the Manitoba Leg and because of that seating is very limited. Due to building policies tickets will not be sold at the door. You must buy them online. Showtime is 7:00 Friday night and Saturday night.

Watch a scene from a 2006 production at Glyndebourne in England starring Anke Vondung as Dorabella and Miah Persson as Fiordiligi.

 

 

Friday night (Sept 19) will also see the kick off of Thin Air, Winnipeg’s International Writers Festival. 9 days of, in the words of Charlene Diehl, Director of the festival, “ . . .writers of every age and style with tendrils that reach around the globe. The youngest are still in their teens, the oldest are almost 80. They are novelists & poets, scientists & advocates, storytellers & spoken word artists. They will bring us reports from far way places and glimpses of our own home, in English 7 French and in words and pictures.”

Friday night the opening gala will feature Canadian born New-Zealand author Eleanor Catton. Her novel The Luminaries won both the governor General’s Award and the Man booker Prize. Catton will read from the novel and then have an on-stage conversation with Festival director Charlene Diehl. The gala begins at 7:30 PM at Franco Manitoban Cultural Centre on Provencher. Tickets are $10 in advance and at the door. For more information on all the events and activities happening at the festival, click HERE.

 

 

Saturday night (Sept 20), Winnipeg’s International Recital & Chamber Music Concert Series, Virtuosi launches its brand new season with a concert called The Sonorous Cello. The husband and wife duo of cellist Jeremy Findlay and pianist Elena Braslavsky will be performing Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No 2 in G minor, J Gemrot Variations on a theme of Dvorak and Barnes lamentations of Jeremiah Chopin cello sonata in G minor. Showtime is 8:00 Pm Saturday night in the Eckardt Grammatté Hall at the University of Winnipeg on Portage Ave.

Watch Jeremy and Elena perform Dvorak's Slavonic Dance Op. 46 No 2.

 

 

For tickets call the Virtuosi box office at 204.786.9000 or email virtuosi.concerts@gmail.com.  Tune in to Música Clásica Saturday morning (Sept 20) when host Claudia Garcia de la Huerta will  welcome Jeremy Findlay and his wife, Russian pianist Elena Braslavsky live in studio. That’s in the last hour of the show between 11:00 AM and noon.

 

This weekend is the big opening weekend for the The Canadian Museum for Human Rights. And there are a ton of events happening both Saturday (Sept 20) and Sunday (Sept 21).  RightsFest will be on at the Forks from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Saturday and Sunday. More than 2 dozen performances, activities and events will taking place on multiple stage in and around the Forks.. Sunday afternoon in particular is going to be awesome with performances by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, who’ll be performing music by Beethoven, Dvorak and Sibelius. Manitoba Opera will be doing excerpts from Verdi’s Nabucco, Puccini’s Tosca and Gunod’s Romeo & Juliette and finally, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet will be performing an excerpt from their upcoming original ballet Going Home Star - Truth & Reconciliation. This all happens on the RightsFest Mainstage starting at 12:20 PM Sunday afternoon. For a full schedule go HERE.

Saturday night (Sept 20) is the Canadian Concert for Human Rights which starts at 6:30 PM. Performers include Bruce Cockburn, Ashley MacIssac, Shad, Buffy Sainte-Marie and more. The concert is absolutely free but you can also watch it on TV on City TV, OMNI and APTN starting at 7:00 PM

 

On Sunday (Sept 21) season openers continue with the Winnipeg Chamber Music Society.  Led by the wonderful pianist David Moroz, the ensmble is made up of Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra members Gwen Hoebig, Karl Stobbe, Daniel Scholz & Yuri Hooker. Launching its 28th season, the quintet will kick off with an evening of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Pärt. To be exact, Beethoven’s Trio in E flat Major Op 1, no 1 , Mendelssohn’s Quartet in E minor, op. 44 no 2 and Fratres for string quartet by Arvo Pärt. Here is a version for strings and percussion performed by the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra - Kristjan Järvi conducting. Recorded  at the Danish Radio Concert Hall, Copenhagen, January 20, 2011.

 

 

The Gala opening concert is Sunday night, 8:00 PM at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for students. For reservations call 204.949.3999 or in person at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra Box Office at the Centennial Concert Hall.

 

You can hear the Classic 107 Arts & Entertainment Calendar every Thursday, Friday & Saturday twice a day with Claudia Garcia de la Huerta. In the morning Thursdays and Fridays on Morning Light with host Michael Wolch at 7:45 AM and in the afternoon on The Diamond Lane with host Sarah Jo Kirsch between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM. On Saturday it's Música Clásica with Claudia Garcia de la Huerta at 11:15 AM and then one more time in the afternoon at 4:15 PM with Paul von Wichert and Saturday Afternoon Classics.