Opera Atelier’s production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas which opened last night at the Elgin Theatre is essentially a remount of their 2016 production though shorn of the prologue created for that version. This cuts the piece to the normal 65 minutes or so and allows...
Following live auditions across the country, seven of Canada’s most promising new opera singers have been selected to compete in the Canadian Opera Company’s Centre Stage: Ensemble Studio Competition on November 3, 2022 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
This 90-minute performance of song was an intense interpretation of a real woman’s story. Mona Parsons, the only Canadian woman to be imprisoned by the German army in World War II, was a Nova Scotian who married a Dutch businessman and moved with him to Holland. The...
Association for Opera in Canada (AOC) has been awarded $434,000 in training funds from the Ministry of Canadian Heritage of the Government of Canada, through the Canada Performing Arts Workers Resilience Fund (CPAWRF). This funding will create two streams of...
In his 1888 polemic, The Case Against Wagner: A Musician’s Problem, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche cites Bizet’s Carmen as the perfect opera: “With it” he writes, “one bids farewell to the damp north and to all the fog of the Wagnerian ideal.” Beyond its...
Danish baritone Johan Reuter is recognized as one of the foremost bass-baritones performing today. His voice has taken him to many of the world's most prestigious opera houses, including The Metropolitan Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and Teatro...
Even before hearing Rose Naggar-Tremblay’s sumptuous voice, I was reading her blog, fascinated by her intelligence, authenticity, and outstanding writing talent. Clearly, such an artist had a lot to offer to the lyrical stage. During the last few months, she had many...
Over the past few months I have contacted people in and out of the opera business to try to ascertain how Opera Canada can better serve our readership, Canadian artists, and our homegrown opera companies.
The Canadian Art Song Project (CASP) is pleased to announce the second Chung Wai Chow and John Wright Art Song Mentorship Program for Composers to support emerging and early-career composers, as well as mid-career composers new to solo vocal writing, in the creation...
Pacific Opera Victoria’s Carmen finally opened on October 12, 2022, after multiple COVID-caused postponements. It was well worth the wait. First mention has to go to the chorus, which did such an extraordinary job they came close to eclipsing the rest of the...
Is Luigi Cherubini’s Medea—or Médée, to cite the opéra-comique original of 1797—a prima-donna vehicle, reliant on the right fiery voice and temperament for ignition, or a masterwork with distinct merits of its own? Over the years I’ve leaned heavily toward the former...
Twelve singers from Commonwealth countries around the world are on their way to Birmingham in England next month to compete in The Voice of Black Opera competition. Semifinals are on 24 and 25 November, when five singers will be chosen to advance to the Final at...