Rose Bruford College: "We are absolutely unique."

Interview

"I began studying for the opera degree soon after I retired. I discovered I finally had time to pursue a passion for opera that began in my teenage years. For someone like me, online learning is a real treat. I couldn't see myself returning to a university campus and I can organise my studying around a busy social life. I love being able to work my way through the excellent course papers at my own pace."

Talking with singers: Zachary Nelson

Interview

"When I was in Chicago doing Das Rheingold, it was the first Wagner I'd ever done," Nelson recalls. "I was sitting onstage on opening night, and Eric Owens is just wailing away [as Wotan]. I'm standing there on the stage with him, and I just started welling up." It was a moment in his career that will stick with him, and which offered a clear picture of the rewards that remain in store for the young baritone.

Talking with singers: Anna Caterina Antonacci

Interview

"La voix humaine is unique because it's not really a monologue. The protagonist is speaking to her lover and hears his answers on the telephone. The challenge is to make the audience imagine the unheard part of the conversation, and have them participate in the drama."

Star opera singers: time-efficient, or just late to rehearsal?

Editorial

With the few exceptions of singers who are stepping back into a production they've already rehearsed, with the same cast and conductor, it seems as though companies are willing to offer their audiences a lesser production in favour of having a famous name onstage. And maybe it's a profitable trade-off. It just feels...not right.

Are the arts & other creative fields a waste of time & money?

Op-ed

Go ahead and get rid of all the music on your phone and elsewhere. When you go into stores, no music will be playing, and you won't be hearing any while you work out at the gym. If you've got tickets to a concert of any kind, throw those out. Musicians are artists, and you won't be needing any of that.

Talking with singers: Sir John Tomlinson

Interview

"They're the most important years of my working life," he says, proud of the legacy of live performances and recordings, particularly from his time at the Bayreuth Festival. There, in the late 1980s, Sir John sang his first Wotans, along with fellow first-timer Daniel Barenboim at the podium. In his 18 years at Bayreuth, he recalls, "I've never answered so much fan mail in my whole life." The cast would sign autographs in the mornings following performances, "and it would be a two-hour long session with endless people."

In review: LPO presents St. Luke Passion

Review

What struck us most about this performance was how clear these characters appeared to this modern audience. The passion is truly a timeless story, and to see these thousand-year-old character’s come to life in an extremely relatable way is why we yearn to keep seeing passions performed.

Flipside Opera throws a "Greeriad"

Interview

"I am more grateful than I can say for opportunities such as the Flipside Greeriad, to see my songs performed by artists who understand them from the inside out and who can pass their full message on to an empathetic audience. I am on the Board of Directors for the Canadian Art Song Project, a nation-wide organization dedicated to the promotion of new Canadian vocal music. I realize from this central standpoint how regionalized artistic expression is or can be."

4 things you shouldn't expect from summer programs

Editorial

If you decide that you're not going to get hired based on your work at a summer program, you'll ironically have a better time doing what you're meant to be doing at said program. You'll focus on the work in front of you, and not with building up forced face time with the conductor or bothering the agent over break with banal conversation meant to "impress" them. You'll be a better artist, and you'll have that air of confidence - as false as it may be - that makes people want to work with you.

Cross-Canada opera: The Overcoat comes to Toronto & Vancouver

Editorial

The Overcoat: An Opera has its roots in the 1998 Canadian play by Morris Panych and Wendy Gorling. Rolfe's operatic adaptation is a co-commission with Tapestry Opera and Vancouver Opera, and a co-production between Tapestry, VO, and Canadian Stage.