Reviews
Gianni Schicchi hits its hilarious high-notes at Opera Mariposa
Opera Mariposa is one of the landmarks of the indie opera scene in Vancouver, and their 2019 mainstage production is Puccini's slapstick one-acter, Gianni Schicchi. Due to the short 50 minute run time, the company paired the comedy with a number of different opera...
Another Brick in the Wall is all bark, and no bite
The music came to a sudden stop and the curtain fell onto the stage with mechanical precision. As the choir hummed, a heart-rate monitor blared out a sinister flat-line and for a moment I thought I’d died. Sadly though I was still very much alive. When the lights...
Lucia di Lammermoor loses itself to literalism at Opéra de Montréal
The soprano may be the star of Lucia di Lammermoor, but it was the gentlemen who took the night at the Nov. 9th premiere of Opéra de Montréal’s latest take on Donizetti's classic. I’ve never been in favour of casting light lyric coloratura sopranos in meaty bel canto...
Don Giovanni goes buffa at Opera Atelier
Productions of Don Giovanni and its troublesome topic of seduction seem to elicit a variety of mixed feelings from both directors and their audiences. Mozart's famous dramma giocoso, not that long ago, would have been presented typically as a mythic tale about a...
AtG’s La bohème — Homecoming for Toronto’s bohemians
Against the Grain Theatre’s La bohème feels like a cult movie that everyone’s heard of but no one has actually really seen. Like Game of Thrones or Hamilton, a shared cultural osmosis sparks déjà vu as Rodolfo mourns Mimì’s lifeless form, or as Schaunard boasts of...
Rusalka at the COC — Darkness in Still Waters
Canadian Opera Company premiered a sensuous and sumptuous, new-to-Toronto production of Rusalka on Oct. 12th. Sir David McVicar’s wildly entertaining staging of Dvořák’s story of a doomed water sprite ranges from the delightfully silly to the profoundly human. The...
Manon at the Met—a marvelous revival keeps Massenet fresh
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Laurent Pelly’s drab production of Massenet’s Manon will never be a favorite of mine (he’s got a far, far defter hand for comedy), but the performance I saw on Oct. 2nd—its third of the new Met season—managed to easily outshine its...
COC Turandot — Making people out of porcelain
Canadian Opera Company’s (COC) season-opening presentation of Puccini’s Turandot (seen Sept. 28th) showcased the full force of legendary avant-garde director Robert Wilson’s genre-shattering impact on opera. As much as Wilson’s sparse, hard-edged aesthetic felt deeply...
Dutch National Opera: Pagliacci/Cavalleria rusticana—A double bill turned inside out
With a double bill that opened the Dutch National Opera (DNO) 19/20 season on Sept. 5th, Robert Carsen celebrates the traditional tandem of Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci with a special twist. First, he begins with Pagliacci rather than...
Review: Manitoba Underground Opera 2019 Summer Festival
Manitoba Underground Opera (MUO) rose again from the netherworld of a frigid Winnipeg winter with an all-new summer festival of site-specific opera. The festival, loosely themed Reflections of Ourselves, was performed in repertory style between Aug. 16th -24th at a...
Review: Highlands Opera Studio —Tales of Gods and Social Media
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Now in its twelfth season under the leadership of General Director Valerie Kuinka and Artistic Director Richard Margison, Highlands Opera Studio (HOS) presented an impressive array of events highlighting the talents of twenty-five...
Review: Halifax Summer Opera Festival—The Full Report!
Among the many cultural summer happenings occurring simultaneously in the province of Nova Scotia, the 15th annual Halifax Summer Opera Festival (HSOF) distinctly held its own. In the true spirit of a festival, it hosted events in several venues across the city...