The fifth season of the Canadian television anthology series Festival broadcast on CBC Television from to . Twenty-seven new episodes aired this season.
This season features classical music from Antonio Vivaldi's Harmonic Inspiration and Johann Sebastian Bach's harpsichord and string compositions, and Eugene Istomin, Isaac Stern, and Leonard Rose debut in North America as a , playing trios for piano, violin and cello by Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms. Also in his North American debut, Soviet master pianist Sviatoslav Richter plays Intermezzo No. 5 from Fantasies by Johannes Brahms, compositions by impressionist Maurice Ravel, and Sonata No. 2 by Sergei Prokofiev. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra performs Romantic era program music in Symphonie Fantastique (1830) by Hector Berlioz conducted by Seiji Ozawa of Japan. Later works include The Planets by Gustav Holst and a piano Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff with the CBC Montreal Orchestra. A full episode is devoted as a portrait of the career of jazz composer Duke Ellington and his orchestra, along with jazz vocalist Joya Sherrill.
For the fifth year running Festival produced a Gilbert and Sullivan comedic opera, and this season's choice is Iolanthe. The tragic opera Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi is performed. Operatic vocal performances include Giacomo Puccini's love duet from Madama Butterfly, an aria from Gianni Schicchi, and a scene from Tosca featuring Metropolitan Opera soprano Renata Tebaldi, and Canadian baritone Louis Quilico. Arias by George Frideric Handel and Gioachino Rossini are performed, along with Rossini's The Venetian Regatta, Paolo Tosti's song L'ultima canzone, and Pietro Mascagni's 1901 opera Le maschere. French soprano Mathé Altéry sings selections from Oscar Strauss, and from Franz Lehár's operetta The Count of Luxembourg, along with Broadway songs from Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical Carousel, and from Lerner and Loewe's musical My Fair Lady, and songs popular at the turn of the century. Canadian contralto Maureen Forrester sings Siete canciones populares Españolas by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, and Serenade by Franz Schubert with a choir of twelve women from the Festival Singers of Toronto. Ballets include Sylvia with music by Léo Delibes, Images of Love to music by Peter Tranchell, and Sergei Prokofiev's "drambalet" Romeo and Juliet, based on Shakespeare's play. "In Praise of Great Performers," the choreography of George Balanchine is performed by the New York City Ballet company in The Four Temperaments to music by Paul Hindemith, and Ivesiana to music by Charles Ives.
Plays this season include Henrik Ibsen's tragedy The Master Builder (1892), Bertolt Brecht's anti-war Mother Courage and Her Children (1939), Samuel Beckett's tragicomedy Waiting for Godot (1953), Ray Mathew's drama A Spring Song (1958), and Harold Pinter' menacing comedy The Birthday Party (1959). Contemporary plays include Clive Exton's The Close Prisoner, André Laurendeau's Two Terrible Women, James Hanley's, Say Nothing, and Charles E. Israel's Let Me Count the Ways. Episodes with two offerings include Max Frisch's The Furious Philipp Hotz, Ph.D. (1956) with Lewis John Carlino's Epiphany (1963), and two teleplays by William Hanley, Mrs. Daily Has a Lover and Today is Independence Day. Literary adaptations include Brian Moore's novel The Feast of Lupercal, and Isaac Bashevis Singer's novel The Magician of Lublin.
In addition to individuals cast this season, organizations include the CBC Festival Orchestra, the CBC Montreal Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Festival Singers of Toronto, the Harkness Ballet Company of New York, and the New York City Ballet company.
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