Festival (Canadian TV series) season 9

Season nine plays and literature includes Peter Raby's adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas novel The Three Musketeers, a 1968 Stratford production. Melwyn Breen adapted The Journey of the Fifth Horse for television from Ronald Ribman's off-Broadway play, which in turn was partly based on Ivan Turgenev's novella The Diary of a Superfluous Man, a drama set in 19th century Russia. John Whiting's stage drama A Penny for a Song (1951) was adapted for television by Fletcher Markle. American playwright Frank D. Gilroy's That Summer, That Fall, which had been adapted for Broadway in 1967, is a version of the Hippolytus-Phaedra story. Charles Israel's drama Noises of Paradise is based on a story by Seymour Epstein. In a double bill, Harold Pinter's one-act The Basement aired with James Saunders' one-act Neighbours. Saunders' drama A Scent of Flowers (1966) also aired. Canadian plays included George Salverson's The Write-Off, Munroe Scott's drama Reddick, and Gratien Gélinas' play Yesterday the Children were Dancing. Music includes an hour of jazz piano by four distinguished pianist-composers, each with their individual styles; American Erroll Garner, American Bill Evans, English-American Marian McPartland, and Canadian Brian Browne. They perform their own compositions and jazz standards by Jerome Kern, Duke Ellington, et al., accompanied by their own accomplished/fellow musicians including Skip Beckwith, Archie Alleyne, Linc Milliman, James Kappes, Eddie Gómez, Arnold Wise, Charles "Ike" Isaacs, Jimmy Smith, and José Mangual Sr.. A "changing of the baton" occurs between Seiji Ozawa and Czechoslovak composer Karel Ančerl, who conducts the Toronto Symphony Orchestra performing tone poem No. 2 Vltava (The Moldau) from Má vlast by Bedřich Smetana, with concertmaster Gerard Kantarjian. Producer Franz Kraemer introduces a University of Toronto concert by Australian soprano Joan Sutherland singing arias by Bizet, Handel, Bononcini, Bellini, Rossini, and Delibes, accompanied by her husband, pianist Richard Bonynge. The French-CBC production of Carl Orff's 1937 secular cantata Carmina Burana is re-aired on the English-CBC network this season on Festival, with Pierre Hétu conducting a 70-piece orchestra, Marcel Laurencelle directing 60 chorus members, pianist/chorister Monik Grenier, dancers with choreography by George Skibine, and children playing nearly 300 roles. Featured are French-Canadian coloratura soprano Colette Boky, tenor René Lacourse, baritone Claude Létourneau, baritone Raymond Pincince, American ballerina Marjorie Tallchief, and Daniel Jackson. == Notable guest cast ==

Executive producer Robert Allen is the drama supervisor for Festival, in charge of selecting which plays are chosen, and in which order they air. For each script approved, fifty were rejected. As of mid-November 1968, twelve play productions had been chosen for season nine, out of which five are Canadian; The Write-Off, Yesterday the Children were Dancing, Reddick, The Noises of Paradise, and the last, Sister Balonika which had developed out of the Cariboo Country ==Episodes==

Notes: • "Traveller Without Luggage" from season two was rerun on . • Programs which pre-empted Festival include Bob Hope and Public Eye on , and Christmas specials on . • Special programming that aired in the Festival time-slot follows. • The 1966 BBC production of Benjamin Britten's opera Billy Budd, • "Edmonton Contest" on was a CBC-TV music special hosted by Brian Priestman, with five finalists of the National Performing Artists Competition, organized by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. • "Sir Ernest Laudamus" / "Enest MacMillan: A Musical Tribute" was a concert held on 20 November at Massey Hall with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, Festival Singers of Canada and Toronto Symphony Orchestra conducted by Elmer Iseler, and aired on . • Public Eye aired at 9 PM (1 hour) and a Music Special (10 PM) featuring Canada's National Youth Orchestra, with musicians 14-24 years-old, presented its first television concert, with Franz-Paul Decker conducting 108 musicians, on . • Three drama specials developed from the anthology series Cariboo Country, and aired on Festival, including Sister Balonika which was broadcast on . It was written by Paul St. Pierre, directed by Philip Keatley and filmed on-location in Richmond, and at Hollyburn Film Studios, West Vancouver. It starred Vi Powlan in the lead role as Sister Veronica Anne, whom her students called "Bolanika." Cast included, Christine Green, Merv Campone, Nan Sandy, Susan Ringwood, Lloyd Berry, Jimmy Edwards, Ivor Harries, Diane Wassman, and Robert Clothier. == References ==