🎠The Winnipeg Fringe is back—and it’s bolder, weirder, and more wonderful than ever.
Running July 17–28, the 2025 Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival takes over the Exchange District with more than 150 productions, including local favourites, touring troupes, comedy acts, one-person epics, dance, drag, improv, musicals, puppetry—and probably at least one Shakespeare adaptation with sock puppets. That’s the joy of the Fringe: anything goes!
The festival is one of the largest in North America, drawing tens of thousands of visitors and transforming downtown Winnipeg into a buzzing hub of creativity, spontaneity, and theatrical magic. With shows popping up in venues both traditional and unconventional (hello, rooftop performances!), it’s a feast for the imagination.
To get into the spirit, we’re dedicating our 9 a.m. hour on Classic 107 this morning to incidental music—that is, music written to accompany plays. It's the perfect prelude to a week of storytelling, drama, and delight.
🎶 9 a.m. Incidental Music Hour Playlist – July 12, 2025
9:00 – Beethoven – Egmont Overture
Montreal Symphony Orchestra | Kent Nagano, conductor
Written for Goethe’s tragedy Egmont, this overture is full of defiance, passion, and heroism. Think: Beethoven’s musical rallying cry against oppression.
9:08 – Mendelssohn – Wedding March from A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Robert Prosseda & Alessandra Ammara, piano four hands
This fairy-tale favourite from Mendelssohn’s music for Shakespeare’s magical comedy conjures up woodland weddings, fairy trickery, and romantic chaos.
9:12 – Schubert – Overture to Rosamunde
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra | Kurt Masur, conductor
Schubert wrote this music for a now-obscure play about a mysterious princess. The overture lives on as one of his most elegant orchestral works.
9:24 – Johan Halvorsen – Final Movements from Fossgrimen Suite
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra | Neeme Järvi, conductor
A musical take on a Norwegian legend where a young fiddler learns his craft from a water sprite. Dark, dramatic, and full of folklore.
9:31 – Grieg – Anitra’s Dance & In the Hall of the Mountain King from Peer Gynt
Quatuor Fandango
Two highlights from Ibsen’s surreal tale of a dreamer and wanderer. One piece sways seductively, the other spirals into madness.
9:38 – Lars-Erik Larsson – A Winter’s Tale Suite
CBC Vancouver Orchestra | Mario Bernardi, conductor
This 20th-century Swedish take on Shakespeare’s wintry romance is lush, lyrical, and loaded with atmosphere—even without stage action.
9:48 – Prokofiev – Mazurka & Polonaise from Eugene Onegin (arr. piano four hands)
Martha Argerich & Sergei Babayan, piano
A nod to Pushkin’s classic novel-turned-opera, these dance movements are as refined as a Russian salon—and just as emotionally charged.
9:51 – Bizet – Menuet & Farandole from L’Arlésienne Suite
Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Based on a French play about love and heartbreak in Provence, these selections blend elegance with joyful dance rhythms to close our theatrical hour on a high note.
Whether you’re planning your Fringe schedule or just enjoying the theatrical vibes from the comfort of home, this hour of music sets the stage for a festival filled with surprises.
🎠Explore this year’s Fringe lineup:
👉 Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival – Official Website