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Listings to get the most out of the city: where to dine, what to see, where to shop, and more.
Walking tours are a great way to see the city this spring (photo by Sanjay Parekh)
Now that the weather appears to be warming, it’s a great time to get out and explore the city on foot. Whatever your pleasure, there’s likely a gregarious Torontonian offering a walking tour to your taste. Below, we present our favourites providers of five types of tours. (more…)
ON NOW Matters of science have long struck an artistic chord. A great example: the way that specimens under a microscope can look like colourful, hyper-detailed paintings. The Ontario Science Centre stimulates your synapses with its Spark! The Heart of Art and Science exhibition, which examines the unseen beauty of cells and molecular processes—from mice embryos to cancer cells—through artistically rendered images and 3D animated videos. Visitors can also create their own visuals as part of the DIY Body Project, an interactive textile installation where rearranged body parts generate anatomical masterpieces. Free with general admission; call 416-696-1000 or click here for more information.
photo by Karl Forster
MAY 9 TO 26 The Canadian Opera Company brings its 2011-12 season to a dramatic close with Handel’s Semele, the story of a mortal woman who falls in love with the god Jupiter, but in doing so enrages his cunning and powerful wife, Juno. Director Zhang Huan weaves Greco-Roman and Eastern mythology in this visually stunning production featuring ornate and vibrant costumes and grandiose set design, the centrepiece of which is a real, 450-year-old Ming Dynasty temple. Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, $12 to $318; call 416-363-8231 or visit here for showtimes and tickets.
Deborah Samuel's Barred Owl I
TO JULY 2 Science and art converge at the Royal Ontario Museum, which this month offers an intimate look at life and death courtesy of Deborah Samuel. For her Contact Festival feature exhibition, entitled Elegy, the photographic artist scanned the skeletons of birds reptiles and other animals to create poetically minimal, x-ray-like images. Reminiscent of photos in an anatomy textbook, Samuel’s works seem to offer an objective, unmediated look at their subjects. And yet, the pieces transcend simple documentation, inviting the viewer to contemplate each specimen’s fate, and the fragility of our own existence.
photo by Larry Nagler
MAY 8 TO 13 A story of human frailty and the promise of redemption unfolds with devastating power as two-time Golden Globe winner Kathleen Turner steps onto the stage in High. In a critically acclaimed performance, Turner embodies Sister Jamison Connelly, who sponsors a teenage drug addict’s long and treacherous road to recovery. But in taking on the dual roles of rehab counselor and a woman of religious conviction, the nun finds her own faith sorely tested. Royal Alexandra Theatre, $50 to $150; call 416-872-1212 or visit here for showtimes and tickets.
MAY 8 TO JUNE 3 A tale of love amidst a turf war between two New York City gangs, the Broadway smash West Side Story needs little introduction. It’s been more than 50 years since its first performance and the classic take on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet by Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim continues to mesmerize audiences with its dynamic dance numbers and timeless tunes, including the scintillating “America.” Toronto Centre for the Arts, Tuesday to Saturday 7:30 pm, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 2 pm, $62 to $180; call 416-644-3665 or click here to buy.
Bryan Lee O'Malley (photo by Laura Taylor)
MAY 5 & 6 Enthusiasts of illustrated storytelling assemble for a celebration of comics, graphic novels and their creators at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. Showcasing Canadian and international talent, the event promotes the literary and artistic merits of the increasingly mainstream medium with a large exhibition area featuring publishers, authors and artists, plus talks, panel discussions, workshops, gallery shows and book signings. Special guests include Toronto’s Bryan Lee O’Malley (creator of the Scott Pilgrim series), DJ and graphic novelist Kid Koala, and manga artist Konami Kanata. Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge St. Free admission; call 416-533-9168 or click here for more information.
Friday: Kurt Browning and friends skate into the Air Canada Centre
Friday, May 3
Prepare for a night of great music, stunning choreography and superstar skaters as Stars on Ice comes to the Air Canada Centre. Directed by four-time world champion Kurt Browning, this year’s extravaganza of fancy footwork shines the spotlight on such big names as Olympic medalists Joannie Rochette and ice-dance duo Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
Loosen up your laughing muscles for one of the most acclaimed comedians of the 20th century, as Jerry Seinfeld takes the stage at the Sony Centre as part of his Just for Laughs tour. The tour has proven so popular that the sitcom star and observational humorist is playing four shows over a two-night stint.
Experience works by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso—from his enormous personal collection—at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The multi-disciplined master sold hundreds of paintings in his lifetime, but kept thousands more for himself; nearly 150 of these drawings, paintings and sculptures are on display now. (more…)
Hall, by Lynne Cohen (photo courtesy of Olga Korper Gallery)
MAY 3 TO JUNE 30 Lynne Cohen has made a career out of finding and photographing domestic and institutional spaces. But the results are not exactly the stuff of home decor magazines. For four decades, the Montreal-based artist’s images of living rooms, lobbies, hallways, laboratories and more, free of the presence of actual people, have framed, according to Canadian Art, “an off-hours view of daily life loaded with sterile silences and subtle eccentricities.” Collected for her Scotiabank Photography Award showcase at the Design Exchange, these large-scale works shine oddly uncanny light on the environments in which we stage our public and private affairs.
An image from Philippe Chancel's Arirang series (photo courtesy of Erick Franck Fine Art)
APRIL 27 TO JUNE 3 The Scotiabank Contact Photography Festival returns to display the work of more than 1,000 image-makers. These days, nearly everyone can instantly shoot and disseminate photos; it’s fitting that this year’s event explores the concept of “public”—not only how images capture the places and spaces in which we act, but also how they expose issues of common interest and influence social perspective. Over 200 venues participate in the showcase, but its must-see primary exhibitions are at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art , where the festival theme is explored by the likes of Philippe Chancel, whose Arirang series, depicts a gathering in North Korea.
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Stay, Dine, Do
