Alpha 293—Barbara Hannigan’s performance brings a “compelling emotional arc— and the precision of her delivery is breathtaking.” —Wayne Gooding
Angie Bell
DON GIOVANNI—MOZART
Alpha 379—Robert Gleadow relishes “every note and nuance of Mozart’s great buffo role, and comes across as the performance’s dramatic anchor.” —Wayne Gooding
DER ROSENKAVALIER—R. STRAUSS
Cmajor: DVD 743308, Blu-ray 743404—With director Robert Carsen’s production of Der Rosenkavalier, we now witness “the swansong of the Austrian Empire in the late 19th century with all the lavishness and decadence of the period” —John Holland
PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE—DEBUSSY
London Symphony Orchestra 0790 “It’s a supple and subtle performance, and one of its strongest assets is the consistently high standard of the orchestral playing.” —Wayne Gooding
Review: Opera 5’s “simple and successful adaptation” brings new life to Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia
Opera 5’s new production of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (seen Jun. 13) proves that a small, intimate space is all that’s really needed to stage the romantic comedy. Directed by Jessica Derventzis, its few set pieces and simple costuming allow the performances...
Review: Catherine Daniel brings “smoky allure” to The Little Opera Company’s La Tragédie de Carmen
The Little Opera Company wrapped up its 2017/18 season with British theatre director Peter Brook’s radical adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen. His distilled version, La Tragédie de Carmen, pierces the heart of Prosper Mérimée’s original novella with the rapier acuity of a...
Review: In Paris Opera’s L’heure espagnole Michèle Losier shows off her “sharp comic timing”
Fourteen years after its first run at the Palais Garnier in 2004, French director Laurent Pelly's double bill: L'heure espagnole and Gianni Schicchi, has been unpacked, moved across town to the immense Bastille venue, and re-staged without a crease (seen May 30). It...
Review: Vancouver Opera’s Eugene Onegin—the audience went wild
Vancouver Opera’s production of Eugene Onegin, the mainstay of the 2018 Vancouver Opera Festival, is nothing if not a surfeit of vocal riches. Three of the four lead singers are Russian and making their VO debuts. All are perfectly cast—consummate actors and...
Review: Toronto Operetta Theatre’s season-ending Beautiful Helen a rip-roaring Grecian romp
Toronto Operetta Theatre ends its 17/18 season with the popular French operetta, La belle Hélène (The Beautiful Helen) by Jacques Offenbach. Now in its 33rd season, TOT shows are typically drawn from the standard repertoire, but with a surprise or two thrown in every...
Review: Pacific Opera Victoria’s Rinaldo the original operatic mashup!
The creators of recent mashups of history and science fiction or literature and fantasy, such as the regrettable film, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, may think they invented a genre. But Handel beat them to it by more than 300 years. Rinaldo, the composer’s first...
New production: Rolfe & Panych’s The Overcoat: A Musical Tailoring
In each issue of Opera Canada our 'New Production' feature highlights a significant new staging or newly composed work. For our spring 2018 issue, due in your mailbox and on newsstands the first week in May, we highlight the new opera by James Rolfe (music) and Morris...
Review: Edmonton Opera’s “theatrically ambitious and uncompromising” Don Giovanni
It took a while to understand why the Edmonton Opera season-ending production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni was set at a grim, derelict industrial address, where menace might certainly be imagined. However, Director Oriol Tomas's concept was the macho world of the...