Reviews
Concours Musical International de Montreal Part 5 Aria semifinals, first course
The competition moved to the big garish canoe, the Maison Symphonique, for the rest of the aria rounds; it’s hard on the eyes but cozier for big voices than Bourgie Hall. Most singers sounded much better than in the little room where their power can be alarming, with...
Concours Musical International de Montreal Part 4 Art Song finals, let’s call it a tie
The absurdity of comparing performers becomes the most acute in the finals. Typically, by now, token local competitors and other political choices are eliminated and your ears are left with more than they could possibly eat. This was certainly true in the Art Song...
Canadian Opera Company The Queen in Me “timely, provocatively entertaining addition to the genre”
Nikkei-Canadian Teiya Kasahara developed The Queen in Me over about five years, bringing the latest iteration with orchestra to a sold-out, three-show run at the Canadian Opera Company Theatre June 2-4. Co-produced by the COC, Nightwood Theatre, Amplified Opera (of...
Concours Musical International de Montreal Part 3 Art Song Semifinals
It was harder to enjoy the singers in the Art Song semifinals, the rep orbiting late 19th century romantic poetry like a donkey tied to a grindstone. Angst is universal: don’t we all go through a phase of uncontrollable sighing and obsessions with flowers, moonlight,...
Concours Musical International de Montreal Part 2 Art Song takes the lead
(and we taste disappointment for the first time) The second eight-hour concert hits differently. Repertoire begins to repeat, Bourgie Hall’s “discount sepulchre” vibe closes in; you glare with outrage and longing at the judges’ complimentary cushions. It becomes...
Tapestry Opera’s R.U.R. A Torrent of Light is “musically brilliant”
Nicole Lizée and Nicolas Billon’s new work R.U.R. A Torrent of Light was, overcoming many COVID inflicted delays, finally presented by Tapestry Opera in collaboration with OCAD University in the Great Hall at OCAD. The story concerns a couple; Dom and Helena, who own...
Concours Musical International de Montreal Part 1 It’s getting judgy in here
It’s good that music competitions are rare. It keeps them weird. I suppose for many people they are just concerts, which sounds like it would be nice. Since you’re reading this in Opera Canada you’re likely more familiar than most with competitions, which are one of...
Pacific Opera Victoria’s For a Look or a Touch “rings true in the heart”
Pacific Opera Victoria’s second leap into the world of film is very different from its psychedelic, special-effects-laden first, Elizabeth Raum’s The Garden of Alice. Jake Heggie’s For a Look or a Touch, seen April 23 on a big screen at the Royal Theatre, is firmly...
Wallis Giunta “Exemplary” in Opera North’s The Seven Deadly Sins
“Few love to hear the sins they love to act.” Truer words have never been spoken. But then again, Shakespeare’s Pericles never heard Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s The Seven Deadly Sins. Though this ballet chanté lags behind the popularity of the duo’s two previous...
Canadian Opera Company returns with an affecting La traviata
The Canadian Opera Company enjoyed a successful return to the mainstage of the Four Seasons Centre Apr. 23 with a splendidly sung, effectively staged performance of Verdi’s La traviata. The revival is in the hands of the production’s original director, American Arin...
LA TRAVIATACalgary Opera sets La traviata in the Roaring ’20s
Calgary Opera’s second production in its 2022 COVID-comeback season drew a large, largely unmasked crowd to the Jubilee Auditorium for its opening Apr. 2. This La traviata was a reprise of a concept staged in Edmonton in the fall of 2018, including the same adaptable...
VanessaVoicebox: Opera in Concert scores with Vanessa
Samuel Barber’s Vanessa is a Gothic romance set in winter in some unspecified part of northern Europe. Three generations of aristocratic women act on their differing ideas of love and honour as they encounter the unscrupulous Anatole, son of Vanessa’s former flame of...