In composer Jake Heggie’s operatic treatment of Moby-Dick, there are significant obstacles when taking on the role of Captain Ahab. The entire part has to be sung on one leg, the other resting uncomfortably on a peg replacing the limb that the irascible captain lost...
It has been nearly twenty years since L’elisir d’amore graced the Vancouver Opera stage, so the return of Donizetti’s ever-popular 1832 Tristan-und-Isolde-meets-Much-Ado-About-Nothing confection in this colourfully kinetic staging was eagerly anticipated. This...
When it comes to the live presentation of both orchestral as well as operatic works, the Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall seems to exist in a league of its own. The service, which can be accessed on a one-time basis or via subscription, allows access to the...
Christopher Alden’s production of Verdi’s Rigoletto originated in 2000 at Lyric Opera of Chicago where it was instantly retired after just one outing, not having found favour with that city’s conservative opera audience. Brought back to life by the Canadian Opera...
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...