It's a big week for opera birthdays, readers! On January 25, 1817, Rossini's La Cenerentola premiered in Rome - and mezzos have been drilling their coloratura ever since. If you're a Canadian opera fan, you might remember back in 2018, when the Canadian Opera Company...
Jenna Simeonov
Brett Polegato: “The arts will have lost far more than it gains…”
This is the first in a new series of Q&As with the artists of Canada's opera scene. After our "Quarantine Questions" from the spring/summer of 2020, we're checking in once again with these artists as they share new perspectives on mid-pandemic opera. First up:...
Consider the Source: Santa Fe’s new digital series is an open book
The Santa Fe Opera has launched a new digital series, Consider the Source, that dives deep into the literary source material for some of opera's best-loved works. The Marriage of Figaro, Eugene Onegin, A Midsummer Night's Dream, even Bram Stoker's Dracula - for an...
Taking a bow: curtain calls for your voice type
Note: this article was originally published on Schmopera.com, and is being reprinted here with permission by the author. There was a funny little anecdotal post on r/opera, about the habits of basses during curtain calls. "I have noticed this in many performances,...
An open letter to a rude bunch of operagoers
This article was originally published on Schmopera.com in 2017. It is being reposted here with the author's permission. Dear "listeners", Though you indeed are whispering, everyone around you can still hear the conversation you insist on having during the show. You...
The play’s the thing: Opera in Concert’s new Cocteau-Poulenc double-bill
VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert is making an exciting debut into the digital world, with its upcoming double-bill of La voix humaine (The Human Voice), presented online from February 5-19, 2021. Poulenc's chamber opera is a popular choice in pandemic-era opera-making. It's...
Canadians at the Met: what’s on in January
This month, get Canadian about your Nightly Met Opera Streams! We're into weeks 45 and 46 - can you believe it? - respectively titled, "Leading Ladies: Opera's Greatest Heroines" and "The Antiheroes". Here at Opera Canada, we're on the ready for Canadians at the Met...
Faces in the crowd: opera’s supernumeraries
Note: this article was originally published in 2017 on Schmopera.com, and is being reprinted here with permission by the author. When we go to the opera, what we see onstage is the result of a complicated system of task delegation; some folks do the singing, others...
Happy Birthday, Mr. Rigoletto!
Canadian baritone Louis Quilico would have been 96 today. He had the kind of career that most baritones dream of, finding an organic fit in Verdi's operas: Germont in La traviata, Renato in Un ballo in maschera, Iago in Otello, Macbeth in Macbeth, and of course, the...
Collector’s item alert: our 60th anniversary issue
It's the understatement of the century to say that 2020 was...action-packed. Amid it all came an important piece of good news: Opera Canada magazine turned 60! It's an extraordinary thing for an opera-centric magazine to reach its sixth decade of publication, and...
City Opera Vancouver’s “The Human Voice” streamed in nightly webisodes
City Opera Vancouver presents its first online opera, with The Human Voice, an adaptation of the 1928 play by Cocteau and the 1958 opera by Poulenc. In this contemporary take on La voix humaine, a woman's one-sided telephone conversation with her lover changes gender...
Opera Canada wants your requests! Please!
Hi, Canadian opera lovers! Jenna here. You might know me from Opera Canada's social media channels, where I've been spending time over the last year or so as the magazine's Social Media Manager. Starting this month, you'll hear from me a lot more, as I'm taking on a...












