Far too many recent adaptations of Brothers Grimm fairy tales adhere to the belief that the ideal presentation of a children’s story emphasizes adult themes and dark undertones—but Canadian Opera Company’s new production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel & Gretel...
When Pacific Opera Victoria (POV) Artistic Director Timothy Vernon picked up a score of Flight at an Opera America conference, it immediately piqued his interest. After all, Vernon had met composer Jonathan Dove at the Banff Centre a few years previously, where the...
Canadian Opera Company announced its 20-21 season on Monday evening, Feb. 10 at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts at what has become an annual, celebratory event open to subscribers and donors. There is much to look forward to in COC 20/21,...
The COC's Hansel & Gretel (seen Feb. 6th) gives Englebert Humperdinck’s classic 1893 opera a Toronto twist, with benchmark vocal performances and an uncompromisingly creative staging that only rarely misses the mark. It is difficult to imagine a fairy tale more...
Anyone who says opera is old-fashioned just isn’t paying attention. We love that there’s an amazing, vital, and engaged community of young opera fans here in Canada. You’re the ones championing our artists and the work they do. You're literally the future of opera!...
Edmonton Opera announced their 2020/21 season today and here are the exciting details! EO kicks off their 2020/21 season when La Bohème comes to the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium on Oct. 24, 27 & 30, 2020 in a revival of their 2010 production. The cast...
Canadian Opera Company is gearing up for their staging of Hansel and Gretel, a classic German opera that will be given a modern-day Toronto twist. The COC’s production, the fourth in their 2019-2020 season, is set in a present-day Toronto apartment complex brought to...
Romeo and Juliet should have had Figaro the Barber helping them to escape and run away together just as Rosina and Count Almaviva do in The Barber of Seville. Clever and funny, Canadian Opera Company’s The Barber of Seville (seen Jan. 19th) is a comedy portraying two...
With Written on Skin, composer George Benjamin and librettist Martin Crimp have fashioned a svelte opera, as effective as a scalpel. With brisk 90-minute pacing, a small cast, and persuasive and accessible music, you could call it shrewd—political psychodrama for the...
There is one thing a Count and a hairdresser share, something that has the power to unite them toward a singular goal. You might think that thing is love, but you would be wrong. It is, in fact, money. In Canadian Opera Company’s The Barber of Seville (seen Jan....
Toronto Operetta Theatre’s (TOT) The Gypsy Baron by Johann Strauss II (seen Dec. 28th) is about as silly as one might expect from a Viennese operetta of the period. It’s a tale of righted wrongs, tangled love affairs, heroism, hidden treasure and pigs. Also, hot...
As this long decade comes to a close, we at Opera Canada look back at the best operas of the decade. Cataloging 10 years worth of opera from across the world is no small task. So we reached out to our contributors, and asked them to reflect on their favourite opera of...