The tribute was entitled, Shakespeare: If music be ..., a project of Andrew Burashko, the Toronto-based piano soloist and cultural impresario whose mission has been to demonstrate that classical music need not be elitist, stuffy, nor boring.

On the basis of what I experienced on Friday evening, I'd have to say he's succeeded grandly, once again.

Above all, he succeeded because of his acute programming sense — in this case, his good sense to know which artists have interesting things to say about Mr. William Shakespeare, and then put their music, their words, their acting, their dance, right onto the stage.

Here are my impressions of the thirteen separate performances that made up this rich and full and very satisfying Shakespeare/Burashko Programme.

"Words About Shakespeare"
An initial outpouring of words from world famous writers served as prologue to the evening's appreciation of the Bard's supreme creativity and supreme humanity. The writings were read by the evening's four actors, Tom McCamus, Chick Reid, Marc Bendavid, and Cara Ricketts. Tom McCamus read Jorge Luis Borges' dreamy observation that even God, the Grand Writer, had an opinion about Shakespeare, and the cast then read from Herman Melville, Virgina Woolf, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Flaubert, Iris Murdoch, and Cioran, finishing with Marc Bendavid reading a last tribute to Shakespeare, complete with pregnant pause: "I believe he was a genius" ... Mel Gibson."

Of course, this got a laugh from the audience (at the expense of Mr. Gibson who's played Hamlet in film), and it surely made the audience feel superior because, after all, it was worshipping at the feet of the venerable Shakespeare, and not at the feet of the apparently less legitimate goddess, Pellicula.

No matter.

The quotation from Mel Gibson cleared the air and opened the door to an exquisite suite of songs for singer and piano, with text selected from Shakespeare's sonnets and plays.

"Songs from Shakespeare"
(Erich Korngold 1897-1957)
Desdemona's Song / Hey Robin / Come Away, Death / For the Rain, it Raineth Every Day / O Mistress Mine / Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind / Under the Greenwood Tree / Adieu Good Man Devil
Monica Whicher — Soprano
Andrew Burashko — Piano

More celebrated writers opined about Shakespeare — the man — via the agency of the actors McCamus and Reid. From out of Harold Pinter's string of terse, provocative phrases about Shakespeare I, for one, remember, "he stews in his own juices."

"Romeo and Juliet" Prologue
(William Shakespeare 1574-1616)
Tom McCamus — Actor

When Tom McCamus narrated the timeless story of "Two households, both alike in dignity" (the Montagues and the Capulets); and he spoke about the subsequent death of their children, Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet (the "star-cross'd lovers" who "take their life"), he was giving more than a performance. He was providing important context for the three superb performances that would follow.

"Romeo & Juliet" March of the Montagues and Capulets
(Sergei Prokofiev 1891-1953)
Andrew Burashko — Piano

Burashko played Sergei Prokofiev's music — its colour, rich dissonance, and hip-trudging rhythms — with all the appropriate pomp and fanfare required to introduce the feuding "Two households" of Verona to an audience.

"And More Words About Shakespeare" from
Voltaire, Henry Miller, Charles Darwin and Lord Byron
Cara Ricketts and Marc Bendavid — Actors

From the quietly impressed Voltaire, to the largely unimpressed Charles Darwin, opinions of Shakespeare vary greatly. We're made to understand that he's either a brilliant man, or he's an ordinary man.

Beatrice and Benedict scenes from
"Much Ado About Nothing"
with Tom McCamus and Chick Reid — Actors

Beneath the casual remarks and verbal jousting of a long time married man and woman, there can exist true love and affection. But seemingly, this love and affection lies deeply buried. Who really knows? Appearances are (ouch) deceiving.

Interspaced with Music by (Erich Korngold 1897-1957)
"Much Ado About Nothing, Op. 11"
The Maiden in the Bridal Chamber / Dogberry and Verges /
Intermezzo — Garden Scene / Masquerade
Andrew Burashko — Piano
Marie Bédard — Violin

In contrast with the earlier "Songs from Shakespeare", these Korngold selections left me somewhat cold. I felt a compositional disconnect between the piano and the lead voice of the violin. Active, loopy, jump-cutting, the violin rhapsodized away on its own. Now, while the piano played harmonic progressions, they seemed to belong to a different piece. The separate parts were fine. They just didn't sound in concert.

Ophelia's Mad Scene, "Hamlet", Act IV, Scene V
Cara Ricketts — Actor

In one of the most famous scenes in Shakespeare's canon — that of Ophelia going mad — Cara Ricketts played it as a firmly outspoken young woman who's a little on the rebellious side, so at one point her 'up yours' gesture — her actor's 'choice' — seemed right. And as her emotions progressed from muted to a slightly declamatory mood — with no paroxysms, and no sudden shifts along the way — we saw a relatively firm-minded young woman exit the stage. Not a personality that had collapsed in on itself.

Andrew Burashko – piano
Monica Whicher – soprano
Marie Bérard – violin

Actors
Tom McCamus | Chick Reid | Cara Ricketts | Marc Bendavid

Dancers
Piotr Stanczyk | Rebekah Rimsay

Choreographer / Dancer
Peggy Baker

David Ferry — Director of the Shakespeare performances
André duToit — Stage Manager/Lighting