10 years after it was first commissioned by Heritage Opera in 2008, Mansfield Park finds itself at the University of British Columbia where the UBC Opera Ensemble is set to give virtual performances on Feb. 6 and 7, 2021. David Agler conducts performances that will...
Announcing their first edition of a new program, Amplified Opera has been named the Disruptor-in-Residence for the January 2021 Canadian Opera Company (COC) Academy. The new program is a two-year residency that offers resources and support for emerging opera companies...
I can't believe that it's 2021, one week after the U.S. swore in its first woman and first person of colour Vice-President, and yet here I am reviewing an opera where a white director sees no problem with putting an all-white cast of singers in brownface makeup and...
It's a big week for opera birthdays, readers! On January 25, 1817, Rossini's La Cenerentola premiered in Rome - and mezzos have been drilling their coloratura ever since. If you're a Canadian opera fan, you might remember back in 2018, when the Canadian Opera Company...
Canadians Juliane Gallant and Jennifer Tung have been announced as the first conductors to join the new Women in Musical Leadership fellowship program led by Toronto's Tapestry Opera. Designed as a professional opportunity meant to expand the talent pool of musical...
This is the first in a new series of Q&As with the artists of Canada's opera scene. After our "Quarantine Questions" from the spring/summer of 2020, we're checking in once again with these artists as they share new perspectives on mid-pandemic opera. First up:...
Note: this article was originally published on Schmopera.com, and is being reprinted here with permission by the author. There was a funny little anecdotal post on r/opera, about the habits of basses during curtain calls. "I have noticed this in many performances,...
This article was originally published on Schmopera.com in 2017. It is being reposted here with the author's permission. Dear "listeners", Though you indeed are whispering, everyone around you can still hear the conversation you insist on having during the show. You...
VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert is making an exciting debut into the digital world, with its upcoming double-bill of La voix humaine (The Human Voice), presented online from February 5-19, 2021. Poulenc's chamber opera is a popular choice in pandemic-era opera-making. It's...
This month, get Canadian about your Nightly Met Opera Streams! We're into weeks 45 and 46 - can you believe it? - respectively titled, "Leading Ladies: Opera's Greatest Heroines" and "The Antiheroes". Here at Opera Canada, we're on the ready for Canadians at the Met...
Note: this article was originally published in 2017 on Schmopera.com, and is being reprinted here with permission by the author. When we go to the opera, what we see onstage is the result of a complicated system of task delegation; some folks do the singing, others...
Canadian baritone Louis Quilico would have been 96 today. He had the kind of career that most baritones dream of, finding an organic fit in Verdi's operas: Germont in La traviata, Renato in Un ballo in maschera, Iago in Otello, Macbeth in Macbeth, and of course, the...