Reviews
Review: Vancouver Opera Amahl and the Night Visitors offers the “actually there” experience
Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors was the first opera written specifically for American television, premiering on NBC on Christmas Eve, 1951. It became a Christmas Eve tradition until the mid-60s when, in a dispute, Menotti forbade its production and...
Review: Messiah/Complex joyfully proves beauty of a vast ‘Canadian’ experience
I feel I must preface this review with the confession that I have never--not ever--seen a holiday-season Messiah. I am grateful that Messiah/Complex, a filmed collaboration between the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) and Against the Grain (AtG) Theatre, seen Dec....
Review: Opera Atelier Something Rich & Strange puts new clothes on Baroque works
Despite repeated coronavirus lockdowns, social distancing rules and a climate of apprehension, Opera Atelier and its fearless co-artistic directors Marshall Pynkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg were determined to continue their 35th season regardless. They made...
Review: Tapestry’s Love Songs “musically and dramatically rich piece of work”
Love Songs-A Saxophony is a collaboration between Tapestry Opera and New Music Concerts; a staged and filmed version of Ana Sokolović’s Love Songs for soprano and saxophone created in the Ernest Balmer Studio. The show aired on Youtube Live Nov. 28th but is it an...
Figaro at Oper Frankfurt: adapted for social distance
Saddled with reviving an Oper Frankfurt production not compliant with pandemic restrictions, Director Caterina Panti Liberovici and her team faced a nearly impossible task: in two weeks, re-stage and rehearse Le nozze di Figaro such that the characters never sing...
Aida: Against the odds at Teatro di San Carlo, Naples
Probably nothing could have nudged me out of my semi-confinement in Normandy and reluctantly onto my first plane since January, if it weren’t an invitation to hear Jonas Kaufmann as Radames in an outdoor concert performance of Aida given by Teatro di San Carlo in...
Tapestry Opera’s Songbook X goes virtual
These are troubling times and Tapestry Opera’s decision to go ahead with a live stream version of its Songbook X program on Mar. 21st was a welcome diversion. Traditionally, the Songbook concert is the culmination of a week in which a group of young singers work with...
POV’s Flight: retro take on deeply human tales
POV's Flight, English composer Jonathan Dove’s 1998 collaboration with librettist April De Angelis, soared high enough on Feb. 20th at Pacific Opera Victoria that it may even have converted die-hard contemporary opera haters into new music believers. It's a production...
Hansel & Gretel at the COC: Making magic of the mundane
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...
COC’s Hansel and Gretel takes up tenancy
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...
Barber of Seville at the COC: Take Two!
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...
Written on Skin at Opéra de Montréal: A Cold Fascination
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...