Paris Opera's production of The Marriage of Figaro by English director and video artist Netia Jones is a true gem and loses none of its brilliance as new singing stars take on the different roles. The cast I heard for the final and sold-out performance on December 28...
Toronto Operetta Theatre’s December 28 opening of Die Fledermaus was officially sold-out, the capacity audience enthusiastic about its hugely entertaining take on Johann Strauss II’s enduring farce. Gustav Mahler, an early admirer who gave the work considerable kudos...
There’s palpable energy within our industry as we approach the new year; a hunger to dive deeper into what the future of our art form looks like.
Our final Artist of the Week for 2022 is Canadian pianist and vocal coach, Bryan Wagorn. Wagorn regularly performs throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as soloist, chamber musician, and recital accompanist to the world’s leading singers and instrumentalists.
Juno Award-winning and Grammy-nominated Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins is recognized as one of the finest singer-actors of his generation, and he is using his voice to raise awareness for the global epidemic of gender-based violence. A number of notable appearances have been announced for his 2022-23 season, including the orchestral world premiere and Ontario tour of Songs for Murdered Sisters – conceived by Hopkins, and by composer Jake Heggie and author Margaret Atwood.
The celebrated Canadian composer/writer/teacher John Beckwith, O.C., died December 5, 2022 in Toronto at the age of 95. His long life of service to Canadian music began on March 9, 1927 in Victoria, BC, where he started piano lessons at age 6 and sang as a boy...
Pierre Audi's production of Tosca, which premiered in 2014, has become a staple of the Paris Opera repertoire; and rightly so, it's a classic beauty. Puccini made his lyric tragedy site and time specific, and Audi respects this. We are in Rome in 1800 during the...
Kingston-based Watershed Music Festival has announced the return of its New Works Showcase in 2023, calling for submissions from artists, ad hoc collectives and organizations. The first edition of the Showcase included excerpts from the new folk musical Ursa by Sam...
Grammy-award winning Canadian bass-baritone Gerald Finley has announced a number of exciting projects to come in 2022/23, most recently, singing Il Conte di Almaviva in Opéra National de Paris’ new production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro running until Dec 28. We had the chance to sit down with Finley and chat all things opera, from life lessons to craziest stage mishaps.
Handel's 1735 opera Alcina is one of the most popular baroque operas in the repertoire and is featured somewhere around Europe or England every year, either in a festival or an opera house. The last decade has seen: Katie Mitchel's darkly satirical, Shades of...
The recent hybrid CD/SACD release of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide on the London Symphony Orchestra’s own label is drawn from live semi-staged performances at the Barbican in London in December 2018. That production was, in turn, based on a 2004 production for the New...
Hamilton-born countertenor and activist Cameron Shahbazi is quickly gaining acclaim. If you’re in Frankfurt this week, don’t miss him in Oper Frankfurt’s charity concert for Iran, “Woman. Life. Freedom.”, singing alongside Ambur Braid, Lilian Farahani, Kristine Opolais, Giulia Semenzato and Anna Bonitatibus.