On Mon. Oct. 31, Opera Canada Publications held its 17th annual Opera Canada Awards, a.k.a. the 'Rubies'. Each year, this event honours three outstanding contributors to opera in Canada, or those who further the cause of Canadians working in opera abroad. The 2017...
Canada has produced few large-scale, ‘grand’ operas, and Edmonton Opera, just recently emerging from almost fatal financial difficulties, has previously staged just one main stage 21st century opera, John Estacio’s Filumena. Les Feluettes (Lilies), which centres on a...
To open its 17/18 farewell season on October 21, Toronto Masque Theatre presented a double bill of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Aeneas and Dido, a new work with music by James Rolfe and libretto by André Alexis. Specializing in the artistic fusion of music,...
Ten young professional singers have been selected to perform in Singing Stars: The Next Generation, Nov. 6 at Zoomer Hall, Toronto, presented by the International Resource Centre for Performing Artists, a service organisation for Canada’s musicians. The 10 singers are...
Smalltown Canada setting Donizetti’s rustic melodramma giocoso (comic opera) The Elixir of Love returned to the Canadian Opera Company on October 11 for the first time since 1999, in a new-to-Toronto production by American director James Robinson. The action has been...
Richard Strauss’s Arabella (1933) had its triumphant Canadian premiere last night, opening the Canadian Opera Company’s 17/18 season. It is one of those operas that comes saddled with a ‘reputation,' often viewed as less than top drawer Strauss; hindered by creaky...
Cincinnati Opera’s U.S. premiere production of Another Brick in the Wall has begun presales of single tickets. These tickets are only available through October 31, and are limited to three dates in the five performance run. The opera opens July 20th at Springer...
Opera Canada's 18th annual awards gala The Rubies is quickly approaching. On October 30, three honourees will be recognised for their contributions to Canadian opera, and among the recipients is accomplished director and librettist Michael Patrick Albano. As Associate...
Keith Warner's frenetic, conceptually driven production of Richard Strauss's Elektra (1909) reinforced a musically brilliant performance of this brutal, uncompromising opera centered on a mythic daughter's longing for revenge of the murder of her father, Agamemnon, by...
The world premiere of Missing, a new opera based on the tragedy of over 1,200 missing and murdered First Nations, Inuit and Métis women and girls in Canada, is fast approaching. The opera, produced by City Opera Vancouver and Pacific Opera Victoria will open November...
For the past 12 years, the annual ‘Meet the Young Artists’ recital that kicks off the Canadian Opera Company’s Free Concert Series has signalled the start of the opera season in Toronto. On September 26, the latest crop of uber-talented Canadian opera singers and...
Did you ever wonder what happens when three tenors share the concert stage? Operettts—the three ‘t’s standing for each tenor—offered a gleefully amusing answer in the form of a rivalry between three divos all on one stage, performing operetta’s greatest hits. This...