Casting has been announced for a biopic on the life of Ethel Stark (1910-2012), a Jewish conductor who founded the Montreal Women’s Symphony Orchestra in 1960.
The role of Stark will be played by the Israeli actor Shira Haas, star of Unorthodox and Shtisel.
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Fabulous actress.
I hope it is better than the last two I saw.
This looks like a very important story.
It is. If handled correctly it could even be a good film. The achievements of this woman are astonishing.
One keep hearing about the “death of classical music” but here is yet another new film about classical music. (Think “Maestro,” “Tar,” “Chevalier.”) Who would have thought?
But it is not working, perhaps because the movies are not good enough.
The MSWO was founded in 1940 and all done in 1965, largely because by then women were admitted to major orchestras. But in between, it had a series of remarkable accomplishments. It got to Carnegie Hall within 7 years of being founded, and because it was from Canada, the orchestra included the first black musician ever to play there. (Jackie Robinson had played with the Montreal Royals before going up to the majors; while he was segregated while in spring training in Florida, in Montreal he was the Tiger Woods of his day, a fan favourite who pulled in massive attendance by minor league standards).
She continued to be an international conductor and has received many honours in Canada, yet is not by any means a household name. Few classical musicians are — Glenn Gould and perhaps Angela Hewitt. In their lifetimes, Maureen Forrester and Jon Vickers, and Teresa Stratas. Before that you go back to Ernest Macmillan — a period when people everywhere knew about the arts, not least because they were featured widely in radio and television broadcasts.
Nowadays, despite the number of Canadian pianists highly regarded around the world, and other artists like James Ehnes, I doubt even a room full of well-educated, reasonably cultured people could name any of them.
I’d like to know who has announced this casting. Is it Canadian? or is it Netflix, or a US company, or an international one? No mean feat to get Shira Haas, one of surely the most interesting young actresses around: she has made a mark, but, looking at the BAFTAS recently, this is the company she should be in. She is not yet famous enough, though she is well on her way, to guarantee an audience for this film, and, alas, Stark is not enough of a name to make her career. But in the right hands, maybe the mix will work for both of them. It’s a story worth telling, and well, and they have a star-quality actress to lead it.
Shouldn’t it be called Maestra, or does that wander into dangerous pronoun territory these days?
The working title is Ethel’s Orchestra. I hope they manage to improve on that.