When I was a young child, I was fascinated with my parents' 1960 Reader’s Digest Treasury of Great Operettas boxed LP set. I would faithfully listen to the 9 records, while pouring over the accompanying book, The Golden Age of Operetta, with its synopses and beautiful...
On October 15, Southern Ontario Lyric Opera (SOLO) opened their 2023/24 season with Madama Butterfly at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre. I am not surprised that this particular masterpiece by Puccini is one of the most performed operas worldwide. The sold-out...
On August 17 and 19, at the Northern Lights Performing Arts Pavilion in Haliburton, Ontario, patrons of Highlands Opera Studio witnessed a remarkable artistic creation. Regeneration, a multi-textured work designed and directed by Valerie Kuinka, was inspired by the...
On July 13 and 14, Brott Opera presented La traviata in the 470 seat Peller Hall at Ancaster Memorial Arts Centre. Director of Development for Brott music, Jacqui Templeton Muir, mentioned in her opening remarks that it was the Peller Hall’s “baptism by opera”, the...
I wondered what I was in for when I read the front of the opera program: “A Modern opera about social equity, Vodou, and Zombies.” But as soon as the first act began, I knew that I had entered a fascinating world created by a gifted composer, an eloquent librettist,...
Highlands Opera Studio’s return to a full season with masterclasses, concerts, community events, and operas, culminated with a fully staged version of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. In order to showcase the artists in Valerie Kuinka’s and Richard Margison’s unique...
One of Highlands Opera Studio’s mandates is the creation, development, and presentation of new Canadian operatic works, including telling stories of people who have been historically silenced and marginalised. This summer, Highlands Opera teamed up with Toronto’s...
In our next instalment of Dawn Marten's series "Best in Show", we meet a baritone’s long lineup of feathers and fur and two opera-loving dogs that drop everything to listen—they even like to sing along. If you have missed previous chapters of the series, you can read...
In the third instalment of Best in Show: Opera Pets, we meet a yodeling Chisenji, a pair of rambunctious Siberian Huskies and a gentle Tabby who can still defend her turf. If you missed the first or second chapters of "Best in Show: Canada's Opera Pets", you can read...
A six-year-old girl sits cross legged on the school gym floor, mesmerised by the man who is leading the orchestra. He chats enthusiastically about the music, and she can’t help but notice his smiling blue eyes and his curly hair. Fifty years later, that girl is now a...
In this next instalment of her encounters with opera people and their pets, Dawn Martens meets dogs with a keen sense of fashion and looking good, hears tales of heritage chickens that came to a violent end, and ponders the reason why otherwise music-loving animals...
Mozart owned a horse, dogs and a flock of birds, including a starling that reputedly could sing a line from one of the composer’s piano concertos. Verdi shared his rural estate in Sant’Agata with dogs, peacocks, cats, parrots, pheasants and chickens; and the...