Samuel Barber’s Vanessa is a Gothic romance set in winter in some unspecified part of northern Europe. Three generations of aristocratic women act on their differing ideas of love and honour as they encounter the unscrupulous Anatole, son of Vanessa’s former flame of...
I’d thought I was arriving early for a three o’clock Sunday matinee—but no, in frustrating fact I was fifteen minutes late for a two o’clock curtain. Mea culpa, and my distinct loss: the 150 minutes that remained of Washington National Opera’s Così fan tutte (20...
A six-year-old girl sits cross legged on the school gym floor, mesmerised by the man who is leading the orchestra. He chats enthusiastically about the music, and she can’t help but notice his smiling blue eyes and his curly hair. Fifty years later, that girl is now a...
The world premiere of Winnipeg, Manitoba-born, now UK-based composer/pianist Douglas Finch’s Take Care put a spotlight on the hidden world of dementia care, as witnessed through the prismatic lens of real-life caregivers. The 90-minute chamber opera presented April...
There’s no denying the popularity of Verdi’s Rigoletto. Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu has staged it 375 times, the second most frequently performed work in the theatre’s 175-year history. Fifteen further performances took place last Nov. 28-Dec. 19 in a revival of...
Canada's opera scene is back. There's something for everyone this month, whether you're looking to enjoy an opera classic (including multiple Traviatas!), a festive orchestral concert, or a casual in-person talk series. We've got you covered with all the happenings...
There was a shorter gap than usual between Edmonton Opera productions in this truncated season. Only two months ago, the company staged a solid three-night run of La bohème. On March 19, it opened a new production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, with sundry newcomers to...
In this next instalment of her encounters with opera people and their pets, Dawn Martens meets dogs with a keen sense of fashion and looking good, hears tales of heritage chickens that came to a violent end, and ponders the reason why otherwise music-loving animals...
Don Carlo, in Italian, not Don Carlos, in French—that’s how I, like nearly everyone who loves this noblest of operas, first made its acquaintance. This Schiller-inspired melding of romantic and political intrigues at the court of Spain’s Philip II remains my most...
The Royal Conservatory of Music Glenn Gould School spring opera was Handel’s Rinaldo or, perhaps more accurately, director Tom Diamond’s Rinaldo. It was a fairly radical and effective reworking of the original that provided on-stage roles for all the students of the...
AMPLIFY 1.0 from Toronto-based Amplified Opera was a series of three shows on aspects of “toxicity” in opera. There were three performances, with two of the three shows performed at each. The venue was Jeffrey Gibson’s installation I AM YOUR RELATIVE at the Museum of...
Shadow Catch premiered in December 2011, at Vancouver’s Firehall Arts Centre as part of the Vancouver Pro Musica’s Further East/Further West series. It was a fitting location for the work’s debut since the FAC is mere blocks from the much-historied Downtown East...