(Canscene) — For Torontonians, a long-awaited festival celebrating a diversity of arts disciplines ranging from opera to cabaret, from theatre to carnival is taking shape and comes to us next June 1 – 10. It promises to be a multilayered, multicultural event featuring a variety of exhibits and performances, many of which are free to the public.

This spectacular installation by Xavier Veilhan will be one of the many outstanding features of Luminato.

As it deserves, it carries is own title — Luminato, a word its organizers hope will become an annual fixture attracting Torontonians and visitors alike to a number of exhibits, performances and special events. Among the Canadian and international talents to be featured, as of March 1, are film, stage and opera director Atom Egoyan, composer Philip Glass, poet Leonard Cohen, playwright George F. Walker, theatre impresarios David Mirvish and Albert Schultz, the amazing Cuban dance ensemble Vida and China’s Chen Wei Dance Arts and some of Canada’s greatest operatic stars including Richard Margison and Isabel Bayrakdarian.

Some of the focal points of Luminato will be the Distillery, Roy Thomson Hall and Harbourfront where at the latter location the official festival hub will be the spiegeltent’ntavern, a unique venue reminiscent of a 1920s European cabaret. It will be free during the day to all visitors through the festival’s run, and evening performances will be given at the moderately priced Spiegel show.

During the closing weekend, a free event, Carnivalissima will feature Toronto’s best carnivals such as Caribana and the Brazilian Ball, together with the spirit ot international carnivals including New Orleans’ Mardi Gras, Bolivia’s la Diablada and Jamaica’s Jiunkano

The Government of Ontario, the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation, the City of Toronto, Tourism Toronto, Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation and the Canada Council for the Arts are named as government partners, and corporate sponsors include The Globe and Mail, National Bank Financial, Toronto Star and Toronto Life.

For updating, Luminato’s website is http://www.luminato.ca/
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This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 6:03 am and is filed under Canscene News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.