News
Michael Levine designs Teatro Real’s new Peter Grimes
Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes was first performed in London at Sadler’s Wells in June 1945, just months after Victory Day in Europe marked the end of WWII. While it took only two-and-a-half years to appear at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, it would be another 75...
Announcement: Job Opportunity with Opera Canada magazine
Opera Canada magazine invites applications and referrals for a Circulation & Marketing Manager, a permanent part-time position. Opera Canada is the oldest, continuously published arts periodical in Canada and is available quarterly. Opera Canada magazine has been...
Angels & vampires: a chat with Canadian composer Andrew Ager
This weekend, catch up with Canadian composer Andrew Ager (Frankenstein, Führerbunker)! In an interview led by the National Capital Opera Society, Andrew Ager is joined by Bronx Opera General Director Ben Spierman, and Canadian singers Carmen Harris and Bradley...
In case you missed them: 6 must-see Canadian opera streams
It's extraordinary, the fast-growing body of work that has come out of the pandemic-inspired opera drought in the last 13 months. It's no substitute for live stages, but there's still enough digital creativity out there that it's easy to lose track. In case our...
Editor’s Notebook: me, recorded opera & the CBC
Opera companies’ ‘forced’ embrace of digital content during the pandemic has, I think, caused many opera lovers to reevaluate their own relationship to ‘recorded’ opera, be it audio or visual. For most of us I’d venture, our initial exposure to opera was probably via...
Royce Vavrek: Librettist-approved film picks
If you couldn’t tell by his operatic adaptations of films like Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves, and Carlos Reygadas’ Silent Light, Canadian librettist Royce Vavrek is a movie buff. So, since we’ve all got more time on our hands than usual, I figured it would be an...
Looking south: 5 American opera streams to keep you curious
While opera-deprived Canadians stay patient (because we're nice, and frankly, because we have no choice), it's a good time to peek over the border for a few fresh digital items. Out of our neighbours to the south, here's a shortlist of new and brand-new American opera...
Canadian tenor Paul Frey turns 80
Anxiously awaiting the warm weather that signals his return to the golf course, Canadian tenor Paul Frey also looks into his seeing-stone for signs of another a milestone event. April 20th, 2021 marks Frey's 80th birthday. During his heyday from the mid-1980s to 2005,...
Dear singer… Advice from Rodney Sharman
In our latest instalment of our advice series, "Dear composer…dear singer", we're diving deep with Vancouver-based composer Rodney Sharman. What homework does he do when writing for a new voice? How does it feel when singers perform his music? Who are his memorable...
Post-covid, opera companies will need to sell ‘live’ to survive says John Gilks
This piece was originally published in our Spring 2021 issue; for this and the rest of our exclusive content, peruse our subscription options. Due to the COVID pandemic there have been, for some time in Canada at least, no truly live, in-person performances, so we’ve...
Opera Outsider: What does opera mean to me?
Over the past 4 months, I have had the wonderful opportunity to join the Opera Canada team for an internship as their Editorial Assistant. Going in as an opera outsider, my background included Phantom of the Opera and the Looney Tunes “What’s Opera, Doc?” episodes....
Met Opera Orchestra finds work in Dallas
As reported by Musical America, the beleaguered Met Opera Orchestra is joining the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) for performances of Mahler's First Symphony on Apr. 30 and May 1 at Meyerson Symphony Hall in Dallas. The Met's group of musicians, led at home in New...