STRATFORD, Ontario — Settling in my seat for “Annie” at the Stratford Festival of Canada, I awaited with perennial pleasure the overture’s trumpet solo for “Tomorrow,” followed by the chirpy sounds of “It’s the Hard-Knock Life,” a masterful little combo that first argues for optimism at all times before empathizing with our daily grinds.

But it didn’t happen. Instead, the 1,800 people inside the sold-out Festival Theatre here rose to their feet and sang the music of Calixa Lavallée, not Charles Strouse: “O Canada, Our Home and Native Land.”

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