The recent passing of philanthropist Roger D. Moore sent shock waves through the Toronto opera scene. A beloved figure within the Canadian classical world, Moore was the recipient of a 2010 Opera Canada—‘The Rubies’ award, an honour which, as former Opera Canada...
In 1801, Goethe wrote to Felix Mendelssohn that “where nothing new is actually produced, an art cannot make itself vividly felt.” Innovation and impact are ideas Canadian composer Claude Vivier took to heart. Born in 1948 to unknown parents,Vivier studied at the...
This morning, the 19/20 Calgary Opera season details were released, the first under the new senior leadership team of Artistic Director, Bramwell Tovey, and Managing Director and CEO, Heather Kitchen. Here's our season rundown: The 19/20 Calgary season opens in...
Manitoba Opera recently released details of their upcoming 19/20 season—their 47th— featuring an American classic and an iconic French opera. The season kicks off in November with the Manitoba premiere of Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah. Loosely based on the Apocryphal tale...
The lives of infamous arts patrons Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas are making their way to the opera stage and they’re bringing the City of Lights with them. L’Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal presents Twenty-Seven, from March 23-31, as a part of the L’Opéra...
Of course it is a gross simplification to say that Donizetti is all about the singing; but the focus is undeniably on beautiful, exciting and agile voices. And Welsh National Opera’s 2019 presentation of Roberto Devereux, which I saw in Birmingham on Mar. 8th,...
On Mar. 2, Southern Ontario Lyric Opera produced a fully staged production of Don Giovanni. Under the artistic direction of maestro Sabatino Vacca, this relatively new company’s mandate is to promote “the magnificent world of operatic entertainment across Southern...
Edmonton’s Mercury Opera prides itself on being a maverick enterprise, taking grand opera into alleys and subway corridors, arid barrens and inner-city parks. It once produced Puccini’s Il tabarro on a docked riverboat. Last year, Mercury Opera staged La traviata in a...
The time has come for the L’Opéra de Montréal 19/20 season to be announced! Tchaikovsky opens the season on September 14 with his most famous opera, Eugene Onegin. The ultimate opera of lost love and bitter regret will feature real life couple Étienne Dupuis and...
It’s the time of year for season announcements and the Pacific Opera Victoria 19/20 details have been released! The season opens with Puccini’s last completed stage work, Il trittico. Rarely staged anywhere, but especially in Canada, this trio of one-act operas...
We are only in the second month, but already, one of the most significant Canadian classical music events of the New Year is history. On Feb. 20th, in a glittery gala concert at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, the musical-operatic community...
Alessandro Scarlatti’s Il primo omicidio (1707), recounts the first murder in the history of mankind. Cain and Abel are the sons of Adam and Eve. Cain, a farmer, becomes enraged when the Lord accepts the offering of his brother Abel, a shepherd, in preference to his...