The eighth season of the Canadian television anthology series Festival broadcast on CBC Television from to . Thirteen new episodes aired this season, along with several non-CBC productions such as Giuseppe Verdi: Messa da Requiem (1967) by French film-maker Henri-Georges Clouzot, and Elizabeth the Queen by Hallmark Hall of Fame. The season finale is Trumpets of the Lord, a joint Canadian CBC and American NET production which aired first on Festival then on NET Playhouse two days later.
Synopsis
Plays and adaptations include John Hopkins' play The Dolly Scene, Sinclair Ross' atmospheric drama The Painted Door adapted by Alvin Goldman, William Hanley's play Slow Dance on the Killing Ground, and André Obey's Christmas play Les trois coups de minuit (1957), translated as Frost at Midnight by Warren Tute. Harold Pinter's 1963 short story Tea Party was adapted as a play for television in 1965, and presented on Festival this season. The Best of All Possible Worlds is Mavor Moore's musical adaptation of Voltaire's satirical novella Candide (1759).
Two films were produced this season. Waiting for Caroline written by George C. Robertson and Ron Kelly, is the first feature film co-produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the National Film Board of Canada, and débuted on Festival before its theater release. Timothy Findley's film The Paper People is the first television film produced entirely in-house by CBC Television without an outside coproducer."Paper People: a step up". The Globe and Mail, October 7, 1967.
Music this season includes American pianist Byron Janis playing Prokofiev with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) conducted by Seiji Ozawa, and selections by American coloratura soprano Reri Grist, pianist Anton Kuerti, and oboist Harold Gomberg of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. Ozawa and the TSO also present an East-West mix of traditional Japanese music and classical, featuring works by Tōru Takemitsu, György Ligeti, and Gustav Mahler. Music Director George Crum conducts as the National Ballet of Canada performs a newly choreographed version of Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake by Erik Bruhn. Dancers include Bruhn, Canadian ballerina Lois Smith, Joysanne Sidimus, Celia Franca, Vanessa Harwood, Lawrence Adams, and Veronica Tennant. At Massey Hall Toronto, Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich plays Dmitri Shostakovich's new Concerto No. 2, and the recently rediscovered Haydn C Major Cello Concerto No. 1. Rostropovich's wife, Bolshoi Opera soprano Galina Vishnevskaya sings songs by Tchaikovsky in Russian to Rostropovich's piano accompaniment, recorded at Expo '67, the World's Fair in Montreal.
Notable guest cast
Episodes Notes: Two Centennial Performance episodes pre-empted new Festival episodes on and , and the NFB Centennial film The Ernie Game aired on . Other programs that pre-empted Festival include, pro football on , The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968) on , The Music Man (1962) on , the BBC film "The Matador" on , the BBC documentary Soldiers of the Widow (1967) on , Mission: Impossible on , the 1967 Quentin Durgens, M.P. episode "The Road to Chaldaea" on , Intertel on , and Stanley Cup hockey on . Special programs that pre-empted Festival include, Film Makers and With Love, Sophia on , the 60-minute documentary The Secret Years of Eldorado about Canadian participation in the nuclear age on , the Newsmagazine episode "The Secrets War" on , live coverage of the Liberal Party Convention on , and live coverage of the Oscar Awards on . The week of , the American Hallmark Hall of Fame television film Elizabeth the Queen (1968) aired on Festival starring Judith Anderson, and Charlton Heston. For the week of , Festival had procured and aired Giuseppe Verdi: Messa da Requiem (1967). Directed by French film-maker Henri-Georges Clouzot, it is a performance of Verdi's Requiem Mass with Herbert von Karajan conducting the Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan. The soloists are soprano Leontyne Price, mezzo-soprano Fiorenza Cossotto, tenor Luciano Pavarotti, and basso Nicolai Ghiaurov.
References
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