The Artist of the Week is French-Canadian bass-baritone Philippe Sly. He will be the bass soloist in Tafelmusik‘s annual performance of Handel’s Messiah. (tickets and info here).
Philippe was the first prize winner of the Concours Musical International de Montréal, a grand prize winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was awarded Concert of the Year in Romantic, Post-Romantic and Impressionist Music at the 16th annual ceremony of the Gala des prix Opus. After a busy holiday season singing Messiah with both Tafelmusik and the Victoria Symphony, you can find him performing with the Canadian Opera Company, Wiener Stattsoper, Opéra de Lausanne and Bayerische Staatsoper in 2025.
This week, Philippe shares the performance that inspired him to sing, his favourite city to sing in and an unexpected staging of a Bach classic. Read on to find out more.
When was your first singing lesson (and with whom)?
When I was eight years old, with Sylvie Chapdelaine in Ottawa.
What/who inspired you to sing?
Colm Wilkinson as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables.
Drink of choice?
Pinot Noir.
Heels or flats?
In or out of the bedroom?
Favourite city that you’ve worked in?
Vienna, all the way.
Favourite place?
My veranda.
If you weren’t a singer/instrumentalist/
I’d be a baker.
Top 3 favourite composers?
Handel, Beethoven, Bach.
Top 3 favourite operas?
Pelleas, Don Giovanni, Salome.
What’s your favourite opera house?
Wiener Staatsoper
Which opera role do you want to be singing right now?
Golaud!
Which opera role do you want to be singing in 10 years?
Le Roi Philippe.
Who is a singer you admire that is currently working?
Russell Braun.
Who is a singer you admired from the past?
Tito Schipa.
What’s the strangest/funniest thing that has happened to you on stage?
Extracting my real blood in a St. Matthew Passion in Hamburg.
What’s your favourite orchestral instrument?
French Horn, played as loud as possible!
Why?
Chills!
What’s your favourite thing about singing with an orchestra?
Being carried by the wave of sound!
What’s something most people don’t know about opera life?
That we have an opera family everywhere.
Which role do you wish you could sing, but is not in your voice type?
Salome!
Tent or hotel?
Depends on the location.
What are you afraid of?
Fear itself, it is the mind-killer.
LEARN MORE ABOUT PHILIPPE SLY
VISIT HIS WEBSITE
© Wiener Staatsoper / Sofia Vargaiová
As Hamm in Fin de partie at Wiener Staatsoper
© Wiener Staatsoper / Sofia Vargaiová
As Hamm in Fin de partie at Wiener Staatsoper
© Wiener Staatsoper / Sofia Vargaiová
As Hamm in Fin de partie at Wiener Staatsoper
Messiah
Tafelmusik
December 20-21
CONDUCTOR: Ivars Taurins
Tafelmusik Chamber Choir
Tafelmusik Orchestra
SOPRANO: Myriam Leblanc
ALTO: Krisztina Szabó
TENOR: Jacob Perry
BASS: Philippe Sly
It just wouldn’t be the holiday season without Tafelmusik’s Messiah! Performed in the style and spirit of Handel’s own productions, Tafelmusik’s Messiah “radiates brilliance and energy, along with an emotional depth that fully enhances the work’s expression” (AllMusic). Messiah’s core message of good will, hope, and humanity resounds as eloquently today as its premiere in 1742.
Adding sheen to our annual ritual is a glittering cast of soloists, including soprano Myriam Leblanc, “perhaps the most beautiful voice to come out of Quebec in the past 10 years” (Samedi et rien d’autre); mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó, the “master of nuance and expressivity” (Toronto Star); tenor Jacob Perry, who “delivers the kind of deeply felt solo that gives audiences goosebumps” (Stir.ca); and bass-baritone Philippe Sly, noted for his “expansive tonal grace, interpretive thoughtfulness or communicative fervour.” (SFGate)
Ivars Taurins directs the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir in their trademark performances of this enduring and uplifting work in the splendid acoustics of Koerner Hall.
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Máiri Demings is Opera Canada’s digital content specialist. She’s also a mezzo-soprano who has sung with Tapestry Opera, performs regularly with VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert and Toronto Operetta Theatre, and is one half of duo mezzopiano with pianist Zain Solinski.
