Edmonton Opera opened its 60th anniversary season on October 19, a Thursday, rather than its traditional Saturday night, with Bizet’s Carmen. The company last did Carmen in 2016, and they enlisted the same director, Maria Lamont, for this three-show production. This...
Bill Rankin
Edmonton Opera
Edmonton Opera Stabat Mater “musically powerful”
Edmonton Opera wrapped its 59th season with four intimate performances of an apt sacred work on the cusp of the Christian Holy Week. Artistic director Joel Ivany programmed Pergolesi’s 1736 treatment of the 13th-century hymn Stabat Mater to cap off his first full...
New Music Edmonton Le Désert Mauve Quebec Multidisciplinary Artist Symon Henry’s New Experimental Opera
New Music Edmonton (NME), founded in 1985, under a different name, by the Canadian composer Violet Archer, promotes contemporary composition in the broadest sense, and its mandate includes introducing Edmonton audiences to artists beyond the city’s local preserve. On...
Edmonton Opera Orphée+ Edmonton Audiences Applaud Ivany’s “expansive approach to programming”
Edmonton Opera’s Artistic Director, Joel Ivany, founder of Toronto’s innovative opera company Against the Grain (AtG), has brought one of his successful experiments in melding old opera with modern production options and narrative flexibility to his prairie audience,...
Edmonton Opera Tosca Slack, Pomeroy, and Barrett “were uniformly strong, both musically and dramatically”
Edmonton Opera opened its three-show season on October 22 with a compelling production of Puccini’s Tosca. It will be the only traditional take on a canonic work in Artistic Director Joel Ivany’s first crack at designing an Edmonton Opera season. Productions of Cosi...
Nuova Opera and Music Theatre Festival’s The Coronation of Poppea “Especially strong was Alla Salakhova in the role of Drusilla”
Edmonton, AB—NUOVA Opera and Music Theatre Festival’s second opera was Monteverdi’s last opera, The Coronation of Poppea, first performed in 1643. The festival’s founder, Kim Mattice Wanat, directed the production. She made every effort to bring a period flavour to...
Nuova Opera and Music Theatre Festival’s The Consul “Presented with a professional flair”
Edmonton’s Nuova Opera and Music Theatre Festival is back in full force, offering early-career singers and developing repetiteurs professional mentoring, and more importantly, in the singers’ case, opportunities to perform for live audiences. This summer Kim Mattice...
LA TRAVIATACalgary Opera sets La traviata in the Roaring ’20s
Calgary Opera’s second production in its 2022 COVID-comeback season drew a large, largely unmasked crowd to the Jubilee Auditorium for its opening Apr. 2. This La traviata was a reprise of a concept staged in Edmonton in the fall of 2018, including the same adaptable...
Edmonton Opera mounts Mozart’s Così fan tutte in short order
There was a shorter gap than usual between Edmonton Opera productions in this truncated season. Only two months ago, the company staged a solid three-night run of La bohème. On March 19, it opened a new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, with sundry newcomers to...
Allan Monk, Rubies 2021: The Wayne Gretzky of Opera
The Opera Canada Awards—‘The Rubies’ makes a return to ‘live’ on November 15, 2021. Click here for more details to secure your ticket to this wonderful celebration of Canadian opera talent. Long before anyone talked about finding a work/life balance, Canadian baritone...
In Memoriam: Bob McPhee 1956-2021
Bob McPhee, who died of cancer on Mar. 13th in Calgary at age 65, was a builder of institutions, but in making big things happen in Alberta over his 25-year career as an arts leader, his eye was always on how his work could empower others, and bring benefits to his...
Edmonton Opera goes live with drive-in opera
Edmonton Opera, like many companies, has tried to stay in touch with its supporters during the pandemic by offering various virtual performances, but it has also drawn a smattering of its audience to its Jubilee Auditorium venue for some live concerts. Well, at least...












