Rufus Wainwright, K'naan and Einstein included in Luminato line up

A windsock ballet on David Pecaut Square, appearances by K'naan and Rufus Wainwright, and a five-hour opera where the audience can come and go at will. The line up for Luminato 2012 has been announced and, once again, it’s interesting.   

The annual arts festival, which kicks off on June 8, will see performances spread throughout the city but it will be centred on David Pecaut Square. And that’s where you'll find one of the biggest art exhibits. Named Windscape, the installation (by Toronto architectural firm Diamond and Schmidtt) will feature a 100-metre-long, six-metre-high band of ribbon enveloping the entire square. At its centre will be a series of fans and orange windsocks, which are meant to embody sight, sound and movement. Every half hour throughout the festival a windsock ballet, choreographed by a different up-and-coming Canadian choreographer, will be performed. “The installation is our version of the Bellagio fountain,” said Luminato Artistic Director, Jorn Weisbrodt at today's announcement.

Here’s a few other things that caught our eye in the program: 

Einstein on the Beach, An Opera in Four Acts was created by Robert Wilson and Philip Glass nearly four decades ago. Einstein’s appearance at Luminato will mark it’s first North American performance outside New York. The five-hour opera blends music, poetry and abstract dance and has no intermissions. Luckily, you're allowed to get up and go to the washroom whenever you feel the need.

La Belle et la Bête: A Contemporary Retelling, created and directed by Montreal duo Michel Lemieux and Victor Pilon, is a modern take on the story of Beauty and the Beast. And it is very modern indeed: the actors will interact with projected images to create a 3-D experience, sans glasses.

Expect emotional performances at Love Over and Over, a concert where Rufus and Martha Wainwright will pay tribute to their mother, Canadian fok singer Kate McGarrigle, who died in 2010. Other performers expected to appear include Emmylou Harris, Bruce Cockburn and Peggy Seeger.

There will be a free concert by singer K'naan in David Picault Square.

And Luminato will also be marking the bicentennial of the War of 1812 in its own way: by pitching 200 tents in the grounds of Fort York. Each tent will contain an artwork referencing the war’s civilian toll, and the organizers promise “spontaneous muscial performances and multilingual storytelling around picnic tables.”

Luminato, June 8-17. Tickets go on sale April 14.
 

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