Last week in Toronto, the annual Luminato Art Festival packed the city with installations, dance, theater, and musical performances, including contributions by two of Canada's most lauded expats: Rufus Wainwright and designer Mark Fast. The former staged the North American debut of his opera, Prima Donna, in addition to two performances of his piano focused album, All Days are Nights: Songs for Lulu. With previous runs in Manchester and London (both of which received tepid reviews), the opera, under the direction of Toronto-based director Tim Albery, was a hit this time around: "The opera has been so well received [in Toronto], it's been great. In London they basically told me to go home and make an opera that nobody wanted to see," said the singer during his Thursday concert.

Prima Donna tells the story of the once celebrated opera singer, Régine Saint Laurent, played by soprano Janice Kelly, as she attempts to make her return to the stage after a mysterious six-year absence. It's Bastille Day in Paris 1970, and Régine is set to be interviewed by the country's top journalist about her return. It becomes painfully obvious that her efforts will be a dismal failure, as we watch her wooed by the bold young journalist who finagles a tryst with the famed icon, only to reveal that he is engaged. Wainwright's proclivity for tragic heroines is on full display in Régine, who is a dead ringer for many of the damned ladies he has visited over the years: Maria Callas, Norma Desmond, Judy Garland or even Edie Beale.

The London-based Winnipeg born designer Mark Fast, who's garnered praise for his approach to plus-sized models and his web like knits, was also in town to debut his installation, The Ascension to Beauty, a larger-than-life interpretation of the iconic Lancôme rose. Ensconced in one of the financial district's main hubs, the glass-ceilinged Brookfield Place, Ascension mirrored the designer's penchant for knitwear, connecting an exaggerated version of one of his designs with sprawling ropes which looked as though they were flung to the ceiling and downward. "The space reminds me of being under a knitting machine, it looks a lot like my knits, very holey," said Fast during the piece's launch event. "It's supposed to be like a message of hope and emotion," a message that was indeed reflected in the vertical proportions. A relative newcomer to the world of international showcases, Fast was in awe of his festival mate, Wainwright: "I saw his opera in London and it was amazing! When those characters build it up together, it's the most beautiful sound."