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.
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Canadian Art Song Project Announces the 2022-23 Art Song Mentorship Program for Composers
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 Carmen Mezzo Carolyn Sproule “a stand-out” in the title role
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...
The Metropolitan Opera Medea “Sondra Radvanovsky, giving one of the most fully immersive performances I’ve ever seen on an opera stage”
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...
The Voice of Black Opera Competition Semifinalists Announced
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...
Artist of the Week 11 Qs for Adam Luther
Our Artist of the Week is sought-after, Newfoundland-born tenor Adam Luther—alumnus of the Canadian Opera Company's Ensemble Studio. Next week, Luther opens Pacific Opera Victoria's Carmen singing Don José alongside Carolyn Sproule in the title role, Jorell Williams...
Canadian Opera Company The Flying Dutchman A “gripping performance” to open the season
After almost three years in virtual drydock, the Canadian Opera Company launched its 2022/23 season October 7 with a gripping performance of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman. This is the company’s third revival of the production it commissioned in 1996 from American...
Opéra Comique Lakmé “Sabine Devieilhe and Frédéric Antoun triumph”
Eight years after their débuts in Leo Delibes's Lakmé, Sabine Devieilhe and Frédéric Antoun triumph once again as the ill-fated lovers in this orientalist Romeo and Juliette story. Set in British India in the 19th century, Nilakantha, a Brahmin priest, is stoking...
ALBUM: Robert le Diable Palazetto Bru Zane “a milestone in the history of opera that should be heard by anyone with an interest in the development of the genre”
The latest release in the CD/book series from the Palazetto Bru Zane is Meyerbeer’s 1831 grand opera Robert le Diable.
Canadian Opera Company Names Cecilia Livingston As Its New Composer-in-Residence
The Canadian Opera Company has announced that Canadian compsoer Cecilia Livingston will be the company’s new Composer-in-Residence.
Artist of the Week 17 Qs for Jana Miller
Nova Scotia-born, Berlin-based Canadian soprano Jana Miller has received numerous awards, studied under influential teachers including Marie Daveluy and Sanford Sylvan, and is an alumnus of McGill's prestigious Schulich School of Music. This week, she returns to the...
San Francisco Opera Eugene Onegin “Few opera productions live as long and travel as widely as this one has”
When Tchaikovsky based his lushly Romantic, quite personal, opera on Alexander Pushkin's then already classic novel in verse, he bravely cut both against the grain of its iconic author's scintillating, ironic manner (inspired by the English poet Lord Byron) and...