Reviews
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...
The Barber of Seville at COC: money talks
There is one thing a Count and a hairdresser share, something that has the power to unite them toward a singular goal. You might think that thing is love, but you would be wrong. It is, in fact, money. In Canadian Opera Company’s The Barber of Seville (seen Jan....
The Gypsy Baron offers strong singing at TOT
Toronto Operetta Theatre’s (TOT) The Gypsy Baron by Johann Strauss II (seen Dec. 28th) is about as silly as one might expect from a Viennese operetta of the period. It’s a tale of righted wrongs, tangled love affairs, heroism, hidden treasure and pigs. Also, hot...
Figaro’s silver screen dazzle at Champs Elysées
Hollywood film director James Gray, winner of the Golden Lion for his film “Little Odessa” (1994) and nominated several times for the Palme d’Or in Cannes, claims that directing Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro was one of the “artistic highlights of his career.” It also...
AtG Figaro’s Wedding: fun with philandering fiancés
Against the Grain's (AtG) Figaro’s Wedding takes the Mozart opera off the stage and to an events hall at Enoch Turner Schoolhouse, going all in on the wedding of the century! Like a dork’s day at a Renaissance fair, the roll-out for this production and the subsequent...
Opera Niagara’s La bohème nails it
Opera Niagara’s fourth season opened with La bohème, given four performances at Southminster United Church in Niagara Falls. Bohème is consistently one of the most performed operas in the world—this season alone saw the bohemians' return to AtG and Calgary Opera—and...
Sidewalk Labs and Tapestry Opera’s Augmented Opera is an enjoyable oddity
Tapestry Opera’s experimental opera series, TAP:EX is back. Conceived as an annual opportunity for operatic experimentation, this year’s installment, Augmented Opera, showcases Tapestry’s love of Black Mirror. Hosted by Alphabet Inc.'s Sidewalk Labs and with some...