If the Monty Python crew described Le nozze di Figaro as “silly—very silly,” I could hardly disagree. It’s a situation-comedy romp if ever there was one, with the situations no more profound than your basic TV sitcom. But Lorenzo da Ponte’s ingeniously tangled plot,...
Curtains are finally rising again after a second prolonged COVID-19 shutdown. Orchestre classique de Montréal (OCM) has announced that it will mount an abridged, semi-staged adaptation of Bizet's Carmen, featuring mezzo‑soprano Julie Nesrallah in the title role and...
Toronto’s Opera Atelier returns to live performance Feb. 19/20 with All is Love, a 75-minute program that promises an intriguing musical and dramatic journey from Henry Purcell, George Frideric Handel and Jean-Philippe Rameau to Reynaldo Hahn and Claude Debussy. With...
Love is in the air in February, and after a pandemic- and cold-filled January, we couldn't need a return to live music more. Thankfully, there's an exciting - and romantic - lineup of operas coming your way this month. As always, we don't want you to miss a thing....
The George London Foundation Competition, one of opera's oldest and most prestigious competitions for Canadian and American opera singers, returns this February to mark its 50th anniversary. Usually a public event, this year's final round will be held in-person for...
It’s Chapter 6 of Lauren Margison‘s series, The Cardinal Diaries: A New Year & Uneasy Sense of Déjà Vu! If you missed the first four instalments, you can read them here: chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, chapter four, and chapter five. Below, our titular...
San Francisco Opera’s upcoming 2022/23 centennial season is a celebration of the company’s past and future, including world premieres, new commissions and co-productions. The season kicks off on Sept. 9 with a special centennial Opening Night Concert & Opera Ball,...
With its sumptuous melodies coupled to a tale of unrequited love culminating in a dramatic suicide on Christmas Eve, Massenet’s Werther has long been a precious jewel in the operatic repertoire. How à propos that OperaVision.eu began a six-month livestream of...
Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is available in more than 75 languages, so discovering there is a Latvian version should come as no surprise. What may be surprising is that there’s an opera based on this famous play by a Canadian composer and that this little-known...
Offenbach's La Vie Parisienne is perfect holiday fare, bubbly, joyful, and whimsical, especially when designed and directed by French fashion designer Christian Lacroix. We know that the famous couturier is a magician of colours, a lover of shimmering fabrics, a...
For live performance in Canada—and here I’m including Canadian opera, ballet, ‘straight’ theatre, orchestras—things were looking cautiously optimistic since the start of the fall season. Canadian opera companies like Vancouver Opera and Manitoba Opera put on shows at...
In our newest, exclusive Q&A series #BehindtheCurtain, we're going 'backstage' to ask Canadian opera artists to share their journey and what inspires them. In this installment, soprano Jonelle Sills shares what sparked her career in opera, and the mentors that...