Nikkei Canadian settler Teiya Kasahara 笠原 貞野 is in Toronto, preparing to sing the roles of Priestess and Jules in the Canadian Opera Company‘s production of Kye Marshall and Amanda Hale’s Pomegranate. We caught up with them to chat all things opera—sources of inspiration, early career beginnings, and more.
Join us, as Irish-Canadian mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta brings us on a tour of beautiful, romantic Paris. She’s in Paris, preparing to reprise the role of Dodo in Opéra Comique’s production of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Breaking the Waves. The show opens May 28, and runs to May 31.
American soprano Keri Alkema delighted Canadian audiences this month when she reprised the title role in the Canadian Opera Company‘s production of Puccini’s beloved Tosca. She sits down with us to reflect on her first singing lesson, her favourite opera house, opera roles she’d like to be singing in 10 years & more.
The Orpheus myth has played a prominent role in opera history, from Monteverdi’s Orfeo of 1607, the oldest opera still in the repertoire, right up to American composer Matthew Aucoin’s reworking of the myth in Eurydice, first staged in Los Angeles in 2020, then seen...
With more than three decades in the field, Robert Carsen is celebrated in Europe and America alike for his intelligently conceived and stunning productions, and— as his new Ariodante shows—he is also a master of the surprise ending. Is it purely serendipitous that the...
Canadian tenor Matthew Cairns has been in Toronto, Canada, singing the role of Macduff in the Canadian Opera Company’s new production of Verdi’s Macbeth from acclaimed Scottish director Sir David McVicar, which opened April 28 and has its final show on May 20. He shares his favourite spots in TO with us — from the stage of the Four Seasons Centre to a restaurant with breathtaking sunset views of the city.
Since its inception in 2015, the Southern Ontario Lyric Opera (SOLO), under the leadership of Artistic Director Sabatino Vacca, has been a welcome addition to the musical life of Burlington and beyond. This performance of La Traviata, staged in the acoustically...
American Baritone Quinn Kelsey is in Toronto debuting the title role in the Canadian Opera Company‘s brand new production of Verdi’s Macbeth. We caught up with Kelsey, one of the world’s most celebrated baritones, to chat all things opera – from silly stage mishaps to “bromances”, and everything in between.
Emilio de’ Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di Anima et di Corpo of 1600 is the first opera to come down to us and has some claim to being the earliest work in the genre. In 2021 it was given a fully staged production, directed by Robert Carsen, at the Theater an der...
German director Andreas Homoki's new staging of Carmen brings the world's most-performed opera back to its roots at the Opéra Comique, where it was premiered in 1897, using the actual backstage with Gustave Eiffel's seven iron doors and brick wall as the main backdrop...
Canadian soprano Lauren Margison has been in Mainz debuting the roles of Anna and Nedda in the company’s double-bill production of Puccini’s Le Villi and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. In this Opera Places, she gives us a tour of Mainz—the beautiful capital of the Rhineland-Palatinate region.
The late American musicologist Joseph Kerman famously dubbed Puccini’s Tosca “that shabby little shocker,” though his pithy characterization is actually the opening salvo of a critical assault on the composer’s final opera, Turandot. Kerman had already had his way...