In the article regarding the ‘Musicarchitettura Canada 1982’ event in Maclean’s magazine, Aviva Layton wrote: “Importing musicians, especially singers, to Italy may appear to be a classic case of shipping olive oil to Sicily, but the large number of Italian immigrants in Canada has forged strong family and economic links between the two countries. When those left in the old country became curious about the culture of the new country, they were pleasantly surprised.”
‘Musicarchitettura’ was born with the desire to bring together the young artistic culture of Canada with the long artistic tradition of Italy, with the desire to open a window between the two worlds, thanks to the strong ties between the two countries. A meeting that took place in the city of L’Aquila, the capital of Abruzzo, between August and September 1982. An event filled with the presence of young Canadian artists, with an added twist, a photographic exhibition to discover buildings designed in Canada specifically for the performing arts architecture.
Allow me to make a brief historical premise. The growth of performing arts architecture in Canada reflects the country’s unique historical experience and geographic characteristics. Canada is a large country, it covers as many as 6 time zones in total, it is 9.92 million square kilometers, it has about 39 million people (December 2021), which has been settled only comparatively recently.
Few of its performing arts buildings are more than one hundred years old.
Most of it has been built since the 1950s. The performing arts tradition itself is new. Most performing arts companies are based in living memory, and many organizations are less than 70 years old.
Canada’s musical tradition of the late 19th century was based on civil and military bands, and sacred choral music. Suffice it to say that the first Canadian opera company did not give its first performance until 1954, the same year that Canada’s first professional chorus was formed. The first Canadian orchestra was formed in 1902, but few orchestras became fully professional after 1950.
Rereading the 1982 article, Aviva Layton described me as: “Toronto architect Rocco Maragna, a major instigator of the architectural portion of the festival…” Mi piace la parola ‘instigator’.
I have been referred to three ways in my life so far, as a ‘firebrand‘ at Harvard, as an ‘instigator‘ by Aviva, as an ‘iconoclast‘ by Gordon Farquharson, but that’s another story….
I recall selecting photos of buildings for the exhibit with input from Brian Arnott to show a variety of relatively recent building designs for Canadian performance art, with a focus on the opera house form, which was developed to serve opera, ballet, choral and orchestral music, and some types of variety shows.
I am talking about photos of such complexes as: National Arts Centre, Place des Arts, Le Grand Theatre du Quebec, Hamilton Place and the Centre in the Square, all of which consist of 2000-3000-seat halls with full stages and control tower. Some of them also contain theater or studio theaters and large technical rehearsal rooms. The photo exhibit also included concert halls such as the Orpheum (a former cinema) and the University of Victoria facility, which has a concert platform but no control tower.
The theater form was most represented by structures such as the Shaw Festival Theatre, for which the architect was Ron Thom, with whom I worked, and the renovation projects of the Long People’s Theatre and the Fire Hall Theatre. Most of the renovations and reuse projects were intended to accommodate theatrical drama.
Although summers are relatively short in Canada, many cities have outdoor facilities, called summer stock: theaters that have concerts or musicals as major components of the program. The Forum at Ontario Place attracts 2,000-3,000 spectators each night from June to September for musical and variety shows. Here I went to see a performance by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman.
The photos of the buildings chosen for the exhibition in L’Aquila were intended to show architecturally the flowering of Canada’s cultural artistic development, which began in 1950. More than anything, the star of ‘Musicarchitecture‘ was the ‘cultural exchange’ that took place. While I and the group of fellow architects, fellow adventurers, sighed in front of the romantic castles, cathedrals, and palaces; our Italian colleagues looked with envious admiration at the photos that showed our performing arts buildings in a completely new light, in size, structure and concept.
On the other hand, the artists who flew with us were grateful to be able to perform in Europe. Among the Canadian talents in attendance: soprano Frances Ginzer; bass Christopher Cameron; the Ottawa Choral Society; the London Orchestra and four soloists; Danny Grossman’s Dance Company; the Lampoon Puppet theatre; the Oxford String Quartet; mime Claude St. Denis; mezzo-soprano Janice Taylor; pianists Robert Silverman and Gloria Saarinen; cellist Shauna Rolston; and National Ballet prima ballerina Veronica Tennant. Wonderful artists who were appreciated by Eagle audiences and who, through their performances, as Aviva Layton wrote: “In return, the major newspapers in Rome were doling out rave reviews to the Canadian musicians. “Canada, it seems, can deliver not only fish and chips, but truffles as well.”
My desire to continue to instigate the opening of that window, to increase the exchange, is alive to this day, and is one of the reasons why, finally, after so long, I decided to have my own space on the Web. Which was made possible thanks to my partner Nancy, whom I met in Italy, daughter of two worlds like me, and invaluable copywriter in telling you about me.
