This morning at 10 a.m. E.S.T. the Canadian Opera Company released its plans for the 18/19 season. The highlight has to be the much-talked about premiere of Canadian singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright's new opera Hadrian. When the COC first announced this commission...
What does an opera lover do on a raw December night in Vancouver, with no opera on the visible horizon until the new year? You grab at a ‘four note’ opera, as four are better than none! On Dec. 9 at the Orpheum Annex, Erato Ensemble presented Tom Johnson’s hilarious...
One good parody deserves another. And so it was with the Hamburg State Opera’s revival of Barbe & Doucet’s 2014 production of Offenbach’s three act opéra bouffe, La belle Hélène (seen Dec. 31, 2017, the third of six performances, playing until Jan. 19)....
Massenet's Werther (seen at Oper Frankfurt on Dec. 30, 2017), based on Goethe’s epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther written in Wetzlar near the author’s native Frankfurt, is one of those timeless operas which has enriched the coffers of opera houses the...
BOUND is Against the Grain Theatre at its best, blending old and new in an immersive operatic experience. With BOUND, Founder & Artistic Director Joel Ivany and Founding Member & Music Director Topher Mokrzewski have created a troubling exposition of an...
It was a tale of two D’Arcy McGees as the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra presented a double bill of Dermot Nolan’s play, It’s Morning Now followed by the premiere of HPO composer-in-residence Abigail Richardson-Schulte’s chamber opera, Shot, in The Studio at...
Calgary Opera has announced the appointment of a new General Director and CEO, effective January, 2018. Dr. Keith Cerny will come to Calgary in January from The Dallas Opera, where he acted as General Director and CEO from 2010 until present. “We are very pleased to...
During recent decades, John Adams has composed a range of highly successful operas, including the repertory standard Nixon in China (1987). The more surprise then when Girls of the Golden West—in its San Francisco Opera world premiere—proved, on the whole, ponderous...
Opera in concert or a minimalist staging? Despite the company’s title, Voicebox: Opera in Concert’s Nov. 26 production of Rodelinda was by no means a static presentation with six singers “parking and barking” in front of a small Baroque orchestra of eleven players....
The Opéra de Montréal held its very first Atelier lyrique National Auditions Gala in Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts on November 15. This prestigious event, entitled TALENT 2017, brought together over three hundred music lovers who gathered to celebrate...
A changed world makes for a changed Don Giovanni. Produced by an all female team, UofT Opera’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni (seen Nov. 23) struck new chords in how to deal with the leading man’s appalling treatment of women. Flanked by a chorus of silent female...
As an opera, Missing is under-written. As an important piece of theatre that builds over its short 80 minutes to a shatteringly emotional conclusion, this Pacific Opera Victoria production is something every Canadian should see. Co-commissioned by Pacific Opera...