The Performer

What is it like to be chosen from among thousands of aspirants for a place in world-famous Metropolitan Opera? Does prejudice work against male ballet dancers? What is the future for theatre in Canada? Will the time come when Canadian artists don't need to leave Canada to gain recognition?

Here are straight answers to provocative questions from Canadian artists whose names are famous from Salzburg to San Francisco.

In Part I you meet Teresa Stratas, winner of Metropolitan Opera auditions; in Austria, at the Salzburg Music Festival, Léopold Simoneau, acclaimed one of the finest lyric tenors of our day, and his talented wife, soprano Pierrette Alarie; at the Toronto studios of the National Ballet Company of Canada, the company's artistic director Celia Franca and the leading male dancer David Adams; and, three o'clock in the morning at Boston's Storyville Club, Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson.

In Part II Whittaker interviews John Drainie, well-known radio and television actor; Christopher Plummer, between-scenes of a Broadway play; Jean Gascon, director of Montreal's Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, and Frances Hyland, distinguished for her roles at Stratford, London and New York.