New Python, Egoyan works planned for Toronto festival

New works by Spamalot creator Eric Idle and filmmaker Atom Egoyan will be on the bill during a new festival scheduled for Toronto next June.

The Toronto Festival of Arts, dubbed Luminato, is being planned as a 16-day showcase of arts and creativity with events at cultural venues around the city.

Some details of the $10-million event were released on Monday.

Idle and John du Prez are creating an oratorio with music and lyrics based on Monty Python's Life of Brian. The world premiere of Not the Messiah will be performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with a narrator, soloists and choir.

Grammy winner Idle described the new work as "funnier than Handel, though not as good."

Egoyan, director of Where the Truth Lies and The Sweet Hereafter, will be working with artist Kutlug Ataman on a multimedia installation at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

The Armenian filmmaker and the Turkish artist say they found "commonalities" in one another's work when they met last year.

Ontario's provincial government has pledged $2 million toward the event, being planned by the Toronto City Summit Alliance.

The city of Toronto also has been supportive of the new festival, but no money has yet come from Ottawa.

While Toronto is home to dozens of festivals throughout the year, this festival is seen as a larger event that will draw artists from Canada and around the world.

Music, theatre, dance, visual arts, film, design and literature will all be part of the Luminata festival, which coincides with the opening of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, a massive renovation at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Festival organizers have hired a high-profile chief executive with an international reputation to run the event.

Janice Price is former president of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia and former vice-president of market at the Lincoln Center in New York.

The festival will take place at the Young Centre, in the Distillery District, at Harbourfront and at dozens of other cultural institutions around the city.

It will close with an international carnival featuring parades and carnival acts from around the world.

Luminata is scheduled for June 1-10, 2007.