The most prolific operatic composer of the postwar period, Hans Werner Henze's contribution to the music theatre canon includes some 30 works encompassing a wide variety of musical styles and literary topics. His 1990 opera Das verattene Meer is based on Yukio...
An old professor of mine startled me recently, asking, “What’s it like singing Messiah as a Jewish person?” I was taken aback, never having given the matter much thought. “It’s beautiful music and story-telling, like all my other repertoire,” I replied, perplexed at...
Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors was the first opera written specifically for American television, premiering on NBC on Christmas Eve, 1951. It became a Christmas Eve tradition until the mid-60s when, in a dispute, Menotti forbade its production and...
I feel I must preface this review with the confession that I have never--not ever--seen a holiday-season Messiah. I am grateful that Messiah/Complex, a filmed collaboration between the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) and Against the Grain (AtG) Theatre, seen Dec....
Despite repeated coronavirus lockdowns, social distancing rules and a climate of apprehension, Opera Atelier and its fearless co-artistic directors Marshall Pynkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg were determined to continue their 35th season regardless. They made...
The November 2020 opening of Orchestre Classique de Montréal’s production of Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell, and Kimberly Reed’s chamber opera As One opened up another frustrating conversation about where transgender people belong in the performing arts. Navigating...
As advent calendars continue the countdown to a bittersweet 2020 holiday season, opera companies keep inline with tradition--or should we say online--via streamable versions of the Handel classic. Keep reading for a complete list of Messiah shows to curl up to with a...
In November 2020, Opera Canada magazine spoke with Rebecca Hass, mezzo-soprano and creative wellness coach, about her work with opera artists. 1. Opera artists face specific challenges that require specific solutions Nearly 13 years into her life-coaching career,...
Love Songs-A Saxophony is a collaboration between Tapestry Opera and New Music Concerts; a staged and filmed version of Ana Sokolović’s Love Songs for soprano and saxophone created in the Ernest Balmer Studio. The show aired on Youtube Live Nov. 28th but is it an...
Canadian opera director Michael Cavanagh has been appointed Artistic Director of the Royal Swedish Opera, the company announced in a press release on Nov. 30th. Cavanagh has directed over 150 opera productions at 32 companies in Canada, U.S. and Europe. His...
On Dec. 1st, Opera Mariposa is creating a platform for Deaf and disabled perspectives in opera via an online panel discussion on accessibility, inclusion and pursuing live music safely during COVID-19. With Making Opera Accessible: during the pandemic and beyond, the...
On paper, As One seems perfect. At a time when high-profile trans stories with trans people in the creative team are still few and far between, As One—an opera with music by Laura Kaminsky and words by Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed—not only has a trans...