Boy George, David Byrne, Emmylou Harris join Luminato arts festival lineup

vancouversun.com, theprovince.com, cbc.ca
April 8, 2014
By Cassandra Szklarski

David Byrne, Boy George, Daniel Lanois, Isabella Rossellini and Emmylou Harris are among the artists expected to take part in this year's Luminato Festival.

Lanois will be the focus of an all-star salute at the 10-day arts showcase, which celebrates theatre, dance, music, literature, visual arts and magic in June.

"Sleeping in the Devil's Bed: The Music of Daniel Lanois" is set to feature Harris as well as Mary Margaret O'Hara, Anna McGarrigle, Martha Wainwright, Bill Frisell, Kevin Drew and the Handsome Family.

Meanwhile, Rufus Wainwright helms the musical show "If I Loved You: Gentlemen Prefer Broadway — An Evening Of Love Duets."

That show features male singers putting a new spin on dozens of love songs traditionally performed by a man and a woman, or by a man singing about a woman. Performers include Byrne, Boy George, Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig, Josh Groban, counter tenor Brennan Hall, Glen Hansard, Steven Page and Andrew Rannells.

And Rossellini is set to appear at the Canadian premiere of "Green Porno, Live on Stage," based on her short "Green Porno" films produced for the Sundance Channel. In it, Rossellini dons fur, skin and scales costumes to explore the quirks of sexuality of several species.

Festival artistic director Jorn Weisbrodt revealed the lineup Tuesday, touting a culture-filled marathon of "joy, wonder and inspiration."

Other attractions will include the Canadian premiere of "River of Fundament," a six-hour film by artist Matthew Barney and composer Jonathan Bepler.

Loosely based on Norman Mailer's 1983 novel "Ancient Evenings," the work combines narrative cinema with documentary footage of performance, sculpture and opera with actors Paul Giamatti, Elaine Stritch, Aimee Mullins, Ellen Burstyn and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Meanwhile, Barney's avant-garde 2002 five-film opus "The Cremaster Cycle" will be presented in its seven-hour entirety at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Organizers are also touting an exhibit by Beijing-born, Canadian-raised artist Terence Koh, partly inspired by a passage from Margaret Atwood's novel "Cat's Eye."

Two new works will be installed on the grounds of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ont. Luminato says this would mark Koh's first solo show in Canada since his student days.

Also returning this year is TimesTalks Luminato, a series of live on-stage interview in collaboration with The New York Times. It's set for each Sunday of the festival.

Participants include Byrne — the former Talking Heads frontman who is expected to discuss technology in the music business and a long career that has included solo albums, filmmaking, theatre, visual arts and choreography — as well as Lanois, Rossellini and singer Rufus Wainwright.

Also on deck:

-the world premiere of "Kid Koala's Nufonia Must Fall Live," a multidisciplinary adaptation of Canadian DJ Kid Koala's first graphic novel "Nufonia Must Fall" featuring real-time filming, live music, multiple cameras, miniature stages and puppetry.

-the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch Dance Company, set to perform in Toronto for the first time in 30 years. The modern dance group will perform "Kontakthof" (Courtyard of Contact), considered to be Bausch's crowning achievement.

-the Canadian premiere of "Stones In Her Mouth," from theatre artist Lemi Ponifasio and his New Zealand-based company MAU. It brings together ten Maori women who chant, sing, dance and "unite in protest and rage while also conveying resilience and the ability to adapt."

The Luminato Festival runs June 6 to 15.