Hamster Dancin' Around the World

The 16th century has never been hotter.

First it was Cate Blanchett playing Elizabeth I on the big screen. Then came Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Henry VIII on television.

Two Sunday ago, Opera in Concert presented Gaetano Donizetti's opera about Anne Boleyn at the Jane Mallett Theatre.

And for two nights, starting tomorrow, the Toronto Consort is presenting Elizabeth I in music and her own words at Trinity-St. Paul's Church, with the help of actor Karen Woolridge in full Elizabethan costume.

Few people know Tudor better than the Toronto Consort and its artistic director David Fallis. When the producers of the Showtime television series The Tudors (now being broadcast on CBC) needed source music for each episode, they turned to the Toronto Consort.

Fallis is thrilled with the television series, which is already in its second season south of the border. The Irish-Canadian co-production has meant substantial extra income for the members of the Consort, while also giving Fallis an excuse to delve even more deeply into a musical era that is close to his heart.

Elizabeth I, the daughter of Henry VIII by his second wife, Anne Boleyn (the first season of The Tudors is still showing Henry in love with first wife, Catherine of Aragon), reigned from 1558, right after she had turned 25, to her death in 1603.

This period left a rich legacy of theatre through playwrights Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, for example, and music - from composers such as William Byrd, Thomas Morley and John Dowland.

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