Reviews
Canadian Opera Company
Don Giovanni Visually monumental, darkly provoking
Paolo Bordogna as Leporello (below) and Gordon Bintner as Don Giovanni (above) in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Don Giovanni, 2024 © Michael CooperMaestro, the biographical-drama film of Leonard Bernstein released to general acclaim last year, we are...
Edmonton Opera
Don Giovanni “Judging from the audience’s approval of the comic tone, Ivany got his Don Giovanni right”
When Edmonton Opera’s Artistic Director, Joel Ivany, remodels an operatic classic, its semblance to the original could be generously described as approximate. His ‘transladaptation’ of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, reimagined as A Little Too Cozy, for his erstwhile...
Canadian Opera Company
The Cunning Little Vixen Charmingly absurd
Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen (Jan 26, 28; Feb 3, 8, 10, *13, 14, 16, 2024), returning to the Canadian Opera Company (COC) for only the second time, and twenty-five years after its last staging in 1998, has that rare quality of an opera that captures, in a...
Opéra de Montréal
La Reine-Garçon “More of this, please.”
Finally, a new opera that doesn’t get in its own way! The premiere of La Reine-Garçon on February 3 was the affirmation (that some of us badly needed) of contemporary opera’s ability to tell a compelling story. Not a story from our times, apparently that’s still an...
Toronto Operetta Theatre
The Merry Widow “Everything I needed from Léhar’s beloved creation was right here in Toronto”
When I was a young child, I was fascinated with my parents' 1960 Reader’s Digest Treasury of Great Operettas boxed LP set. I would faithfully listen to the 9 records, while pouring over the accompanying book, The Golden Age of Operetta, with its synopses and beautiful...
Metropolitan Opera
Florencia en el Amazonas “Yannick Nézet-Séguin led the orchestra with an audible strong affection for Catán’s colours and rhythms”
“I’m Old Fashioned”—that lilting Jerome Kern standard popped unbidden into my head as Florencia en el Amazonas unfolded at the Metropolitan Opera. Its title sang to me with two distinct “I”s: there was, on the one hand, Daniel Catán’s unfashionably old-fashioned...
Early Music Vancouver / re:Naissance Opera
The Queen of Carthage Register and Watch On-Line Until Jan 5
The Queen of Carthage is a multi-media performance staged as part of the Early Music Vancouver 2023 Summer Festival. It was filmed in performance at Simon Fraser University and is now available on-line until January 5th. It’s a co-production of Early Music Vancouver...
Manitoba Opera
Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North “many compelling moments ringing with truth in this show”
Manitoba Opera marked a significant milestone in Canadian opera history as it launched its 51st season with the first full-scale Indigenous-led opera presented on a national mainstage, Li Keur: Riel's Heart of the North. The 135-minute (including intermission) opera...
San Francisco Opera
Omar “a striking and beautiful production”
Omar ibn Said was a rich Senegalese man and devoted Muslim scholar, learned in the Qur’an and several disciplines. In 1807, he was seized in Futa Toro, transported via the slave trade’s horrible “middle passage” to Charleston, S.C. and sold to a cruel master. In...
Opéra de Québec
Lucie de Lammermoor “Soulignons la solide prestation du chœur…et l’excellence de l’orchestre symphonique de Québec”
Jean-François Lapointe, directeur général et artistique de l’Opéra de Québec est, on le sait, très attaché au répertoire lyrique chanté en français. En ouvrant la saison avec Lucie de Lammermoor, la version française du célèbre opéra de Donizetti, il a fait d’une...
Edmonton Opera
Carmen “solid” and “perfectly clear rendition”
Edmonton Opera opened its 60th anniversary season on October 19, a Thursday, rather than its traditional Saturday night, with Bizet’s Carmen. The company last did Carmen in 2016, and they enlisted the same director, Maria Lamont, for this three-show production. This...
Southern Ontario Lyric Opera (SOLO)
Madama Butterfly “With productions like this, Madama Butterfly will continue to remain a fan favourite.”
On October 15, Southern Ontario Lyric Opera (SOLO) opened their 2023/24 season with Madama Butterfly at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre. I am not surprised that this particular masterpiece by Puccini is one of the most performed operas worldwide. The sold-out...