There’s a fistful of good reasons for seeing Champion. There’s the story, a real and strong one: the life of the sexually conflicted prizefighter Emile Griffith, haunted by his accidental killing of another boxer in the ring. There’s James Robinson’s direction, clear...
In his not-quite-fourteen years at The Metropolitan Opera, that compact bundle of music-directorial energy known as Yannick Nézet-Séguin has taken his measured time with Puccini: a decade passed before his first Turandot, in October 2019, and another two years elapsed...
Vancouver Opera has unveiled its 2023–2024 season, headlined by much-loved and reimagined classics, and casting that features some welcome returns and company debuts.
Canadian tenor Andrew Haji is in Calgary performing the role of Macduff in Calgary Opera's new Rachel Peake-directed production of Verdi's Macbeth which opened April 22 and has two performances left on April 26 and 28 (tickets here). The production also stars Italian...
Canadian soprano Sarah Dufresne, who joined Royal Opera House's prestigious Jette Parker Artists Programme this year after graduating from Opéra de Montréal's Atelier Lyrique program, is in London preparing to sing Tusnelda in ROH's production of Handel's...
The 2022-23 season of the Amici Chamber Ensemble drew to a glorious close with From Strauss to the Orient, a strikingly beautiful concert of works by Richard Strauss, Maurice Ravel, and a group of Lebanese songs (likely unfamiliar to most in the audience). For the...
Edmonton Opera wrapped its 59th season with four intimate performances of an apt sacred work on the cusp of the Christian Holy Week. Artistic director Joel Ivany programmed Pergolesi’s 1736 treatment of the 13th-century hymn Stabat Mater to cap off his first full...
With Pacific Opera Victoria’s latest mounting of Mozart’s Così fan tutti (seen April 12), the company continues its long run of gathering excellent individual voices and melding them into glorious ensembles. Vocally, this Così was superb and made a great case for...
Canadian tenor Jean-Philippe Lazure is in Winnipeg this week preparing to sing Ferrando in Manitoba Opera’s reimagined “Canuck-rendition” of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. We caught up with Lazure to reflect on the beginning of his operatic career, what it means to be brave with music & more.
Our Artist of the Week is Chinese mezzo-soprano Hongni Wu. This week, she’s in Victoria, BC preparing to make her Canadian debut as Dorabella in Pacific Opera Victoria‘s Così fan tutte. She sits down with us to reflect on her career as an opera singer — favourite opera houses, how she prepares to get into character and more.
Canadian baritone Iain MacNeil gives us a tour of scenic Frankfurt, sharing his favourite go-to spots and activities, from a “crispy honky tonk” bar in the heart of Alt-Sachsenhausen to harvesting wild Bärlauch.
New Music Edmonton (NME), founded in 1985, under a different name, by the Canadian composer Violet Archer, promotes contemporary composition in the broadest sense, and its mandate includes introducing Edmonton audiences to artists beyond the city’s local preserve. On...