Openings We're Tracking This Week, October 3-9, 2011

Raoul Bhaneja in Hamlet Solo

Nicolas Mignard's portrait of Molière

Hamlet (solo) has toured the country getting raves everywhere it has gone. The phrase "tour de force" is a tired cliché...except when it applies and with Raoul Bhaneja's soul-stirring performance, it certainly does. Playing in St. Albert, Alberta, at the Arden for one night only.

Perhaps the most accessible of his operas, Wagner's The Flying Dutchman opens at the Pacific Opera in Victoria. The music is magnificent - from the overture, to the Spinners Chorus (often mockingly called 40 Fat Frauleins) to a double chorus of sailors (living and ghostly) - all the elements are there. However, POV is taking the controversial step of presenting the piece with two intermissions. Purists will scream: it is usually performed as a long one-act (2h30) with no intermissions.

Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, in Montreal, starts the party of their 60th season with a play by - who else? - Molière: L'École des femmes. Molière has been the company's bread and butter from the start and they are bound to go all out on this production. All we need to hear: the brilliant Claude Accolas is designing lights.