Reviews
Canadian Opera Company The Flying Dutchman A “gripping performance” to open the season
After almost three years in virtual drydock, the Canadian Opera Company launched its 2022/23 season October 7 with a gripping performance of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman. This is the company’s third revival of the production it commissioned in 1996 from American...
Opéra Comique Lakmé “Sabine Devieilhe and Frédéric Antoun triumph”
Eight years after their débuts in Leo Delibes's Lakmé, Sabine Devieilhe and Frédéric Antoun triumph once again as the ill-fated lovers in this orientalist Romeo and Juliette story. Set in British India in the 19th century, Nilakantha, a Brahmin priest, is stoking...
ALBUM: Robert le Diable Palazetto Bru Zane “a milestone in the history of opera that should be heard by anyone with an interest in the development of the genre”
The latest release in the CD/book series from the Palazetto Bru Zane is Meyerbeer’s 1831 grand opera Robert le Diable.
San Francisco Opera Eugene Onegin “Few opera productions live as long and travel as widely as this one has”
When Tchaikovsky based his lushly Romantic, quite personal, opera on Alexander Pushkin's then already classic novel in verse, he bravely cut both against the grain of its iconic author's scintillating, ironic manner (inspired by the English poet Lord Byron) and...
Tapestry Opera Box Concerts “A lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon”
If you’re a die-hard Toronto voice/opera fan like yours truly, you may well have heard of “Box Concerts.” It’s a 30-minute long, packaged show offered by Tapestry Opera. Simply put, it’s music on wheels—a singer performing on a travelling stage that goes to wherever...
Ashkenaz Festival Bas-Sheve A Curious Yet Worthy Addition to the Operatic Canon
It’s not everyday that opera fans get to experience a premiere, let alone a Yiddish opera that had been forgotten for nearly a Century. The 2022 Ashkenaz Festival (Aug 30–Sept 5) has done that, presenting the North American premiere of Bas-Sheve as its centrepiece. It...
Highlands Opera Studio Eugene Onegin “An exciting era of new talent”
Highlands Opera Studio’s return to a full season with masterclasses, concerts, community events, and operas, culminated with a fully staged version of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. In order to showcase the artists in Valerie Kuinka’s and Richard Margison’s unique...
Manitoba Underground Opera 2022 Summer Festival For Better or for Worse Thoughtful Boundary-Pushing Programming
Manitoba Underground Opera took a deep dive into the bonds of matrimony this summer with its 2022 Summer Festival titled For Better or Worse, presented repertory style between August 18-27, completing a two-year, nonetheless pandemic-interrupted series that initially...
Highlands Opera Studio / Loose Tea Music Theatre A Powerful Partnership in Haliburton, ON
One of Highlands Opera Studio’s mandates is the creation, development, and presentation of new Canadian operatic works, including telling stories of people who have been historically silenced and marginalised. This summer, Highlands Opera teamed up with Toronto’s...
Halifax Summer Opera Festival ARMIDE “a magical show”
Over the years to 2019 Halifax Summer Opera Festival evolved into an exciting annual August celebration with three double-cast fully staged operas. The global pandemic, sadly, put that tradition on hold until this year, with the production of one single rarely...
ALBUM: La Zingarella Through Romany Songland Bayrakdarian’s “musicality shines through”
Bayrakdarian handles the 27 numbers with great aplomb. Her musicality shines through all the material, and her voice has retained the silvery tone and flexibility that were hallmarks at the outset of her career…
Santa Fe Opera The Barber of Seville A Crowd-pleasing Mix of Slapstick Comedy and Superb Vocalism
After two seasons of cancellations and restricted offerings due to COVID-19, the Santa Fe Opera (SFO) returned to its former glory this summer, with a full offering of five operas: Barber of Seville, Carmen, Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, plus the world premiere of M....