When La Traviata was first performed in Venice in 1853 it was a major disappointment. This was the age of Wagner and Verdi and big operatic drama. Verdi had disregarded the moral and artistic convention of his time, as well as the expectations of his audience; instead...
This summer, in its 17th season, Halifax Summer Opera Festival brought enthusiastic young singers to town again to produce two double-cast fully staged operas: Serse (1738) by G.F. Handel and La Jolie Parfumeuse (1873) by Jacques Offenbach, the latter apparently a...
This 90-minute performance of song was an intense interpretation of a real woman’s story. Mona Parsons, the only Canadian woman to be imprisoned by the German army in World War II, was a Nova Scotian who married a Dutch businessman and moved with him to Holland. The...
Over the years to 2019 Halifax Summer Opera Festival evolved into an exciting annual August celebration with three double-cast fully staged operas. The global pandemic, sadly, put that tradition on hold until this year, with the production of one single rarely...
Attending a live in-concert opera for the first time in almost two years was thrilling. The first post-pandemic production of opera in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, was made even more memorable by the fact that it was performed at the Lunenburg Opera House, built in 1908...
Please note: Information in this Nova Scotia report was accurate as of publishing in our Fall 2020 issue released in September 2020. The small province of Nova Scotia has long had at least three established, active companies to satisfy its opera cravings at any given...
Among the many cultural summer happenings occurring simultaneously in the province of Nova Scotia, the 15th annual Halifax Summer Opera Festival (HSOF) distinctly held its own. In the true spirit of a festival, it hosted events in several venues across the city...