And the rest of this issue…
…….is devoted to the flowering of the arts in a city I once described as a “cultural wasteland.”
That was almost 60 years ago, but I stayed. And how glad I am !
Within ten years we had the Stratford Festival, less than two hours drive away and the beginnings of an opera company, both of which would resonate internationally. Foreign films were gradually breaking through the subtitle stigma and we were welcoming Fellini, Kurosawa and Bresson. And home grown theatre was offering us Canadian actors in local productions of even, at times, works by Canadian playwrights.
And my first 20 years in Canada were crowned with a visit to Expo ’67 one of the great defining moments in the shaping of modern Canada.
The rest is history.
This year we salute a veritable explosion of opportunities for lovers of music, theatre, film, dance, the visual arts and spectacle to enjoy a city that makes me, at least, proud I don’t have to go to New York to enjoy events of the kind we salute here.
Please don’t bug me with that tired old cliché “now we’re a world class city.” When it comes to what I’m going to tell you, we’re a “Toronto class city.”