Reviews
Review: Mercury Opera Carmen in a “legendary Edmonton greasy spoon”
Having the title character's leg brush up against your thigh is just one unique prospect in attending a Mercury Opera Carmen. The Edmonton company brings traditional opera into tight spaces, and the performers are apt to be singing and gesticulating their hearts out...
Review: Étienne Dupuis & Philippe Sly star in new Ivo van Hove Don Giovanni for Paris
For the last production of the season celebrating the 350th anniversary of Opéra national de Paris, Mozart’s Don Giovanni was entrusted to Belgian theatre director Ivo van Hove. Famous for his minimalist stagings and radical innovations at the Toneelgroep, a repertory...
Review: Robert Carsen “Bausch period” Iphigénie in Paris
Between the Parisian museums, theatres and opera houses, when Robert Carsen is in town, it is very likely that he is up to more than one project if not three or four. In many ways, he is like the great fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld for whom he paid homage in a...
Review: Sondra Radvanovsky brings “incredible beauty” to Royal Opera House Andrea Chénier
Composer Umberto Giordano and librettist Luigi Illica stuffed their 1896 opera Andrea Chénier full of setting-specific details from the French Revolution. All the leading figures of that time are referenced, whether in a major role, a cameo, or in passing. Probably...
Review: Frédéric Antoun is “noble and sincere” in Opéra Comique’s Manon
When Opéra Comique announced it would be programming Jules Massenet’s Manon (seen May 13th) as part of their spring season I was overjoyed. Not only is it one of the most beloved operas of the French Romantic repertoire but it premiered in this very house in 1884 and...
Review: Shanawdithit is an “effective and accomplished piece of music theatre”
Shanawdithit, with music by Dean Burry and libretto by Yvette Nolan is the story of Shanawdithit, last surviving member of the Beothuk people of Newfoundland who died before turning thirty, in 1829. The opera goes beyond simply narrating the last year of...
Viewpoint: COC’s La Bohème can convert any non-believer
*tap tap* Is this thing on? Hello everyone. My name is Lydia Perović and I’m here to admit publicly that after years—nay, decades—of musical snobbery, I am coming out as a fan of Puccini’s La Bohème. SUPPORT GROUP FOR THE LOVERS OF SENTIMENTAL MUSIC: Hi, Lydia! This...
Review: Vancouver Opera’s La Cenerentola is “three hours of irresistible, effervescent fun”
Vancouver Opera’s production of Giacomo Rossini’s La Cenerentola (seen May 1st) hardly put a foot wrong. Perfect casting, insightful yet genuinely funny direction by Rachel Peake, witty acting and above all, brilliant singing throughout added up to nearly three hours...
Review: COC’s Otello features “one of the best Iagos of the current generation”
Arrigo Boito, the redoubtable 19th-century Italian poet and Verdi’s best known librettist, skillfully distilled and adapted Shakespeare’s Othello for the operatic stage but also, unfortunately for us today, flattened it into a morality play. Gone is Shakespeare’s Act...
Commentary: Opera Atelier’s Idomeneo: Mozart’s neo-classical grand opera
There has been little if no question over the years that Mozart's opera seria, Idomeneo (1781), is considered to be the composer's masterpiece in the genre. But something new seemed to pop out at Toronto’s Ed Mirvish Theatre on April 6 that I had initially missed...
Review: Against the Grain Theatre & Vivier’s Kopernikus: technology takes on ritual
Against the Grain Theatre (AtG) opened Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus: A Ritual Opera for the Dead on Apr. 5 at Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille in a staging that featured a multi-disciplinary ensemble, roaming orchestra, and some very moving music. The work is one of the...
Review: Joyce El-Khoury in Welsh National Opera’s Roberto Devereux
Of course it is a gross simplification to say that Donizetti is all about the singing; but the focus is undeniably on beautiful, exciting and agile voices. And Welsh National Opera’s 2019 presentation of Roberto Devereux, which I saw in Birmingham on Mar. 8th,...