"A dove, as you know, is respected."

Review

At the back of the Natural History gallery, soprano Christine Buras was found in pigeon-like garb, curiously inspecting the listeners with twitching movements and unsettling direct eye contact. The story unfolded of a pigeon, whose feet had been cruelly severed by "country folk," and put "in the pockets of farm boys," as a good luck charm.

Opera in virtual reality: The Parksville Murders

Interview

"In episode 1, two young women (Sarah and Corrine) wake up confused and terrified in a dark, surreal, music-filled world of incongruities and evil intentions, a space where Time seems to have curved in on itself somehow. Grotesque, masked figures slowly gather around the two from the corners of the darkened room, ceremoniously awaiting the women’s fate."

Talking with singers: David Shipley

Interview

Shipley also sang in Tosca with Angela Gheorghiu ("She was lovely."), and in Nabucco with Plácido Domingo; this season, he'll join Sondra Radvanovsky in Manon Lescaut, and Bryn Terfel in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. "You're having a conversation with these huge figures of the opera world," says Shipley of the opportunity to work closely with top-tier singers in the industry.

Great love affairs: singers and pianists

Editorial

So, perhaps we've dubbed this Friday "Hug a Singer Day" for the pianists out there, and "Hug a Pianist Day" for the owners of lovely voices. Together, singers and pianists are our favourite example of something that's greater than the sum of its parts.

Spooky shows: The Tell-Tale Heart

Interview

"The old man's glass eye triggers her murderous rage – as she sings about the eye, she sees it and is held captive by its image – so the eye gets its own trance-like music. There's furtive, creepily joyful music while she describes her cunning murderous actions. There's a demented waltz that gets progressively weirder as the narrator's tenuous grip on sanity loosens."

Spotlight on: Owen McCausland

Interview

"Get used to listening to yourself. That recording of your last - lesson/coaching/recital/opera has important information and it will help you move forward. Video is even better. It can be hard, especially at first, but it will highlight the things you can’t hear and also help you forgive yourself for dumb mistakes."

Talking with singers: Héloïse Werner

Interview

"Getting a job at the Royal Opera House in the chorus, for me, even if that would be amazing for most other singers, I wouldn't like it." Werner is aware of the different pursuits of professional singers - career stability, for example. "I can totally understand why most people aren't like me."

Don't miss: Boys of Paradise

Interview

"The whole show is an analogy of the Phoenix mythology, a bird that burns brighter and brighter and then burns out. This is such a classic, ancient story, and our characters are off their faces for the majority of the show, so I felt okay with sticking to a quirky, acoustic instrumentation. Also it was a fun challenge to conjure up the feelings of euphoria when coming up on ecstasy, or getting drunk, using conventional instruments."

Talking with singers: Christian Bowers

Interview

"There are a lot of times when I'm in an empty hotel room, and I'm looking at Facebook and I'm seeing you with pictures of your kids, the pictures of your house and the garden you planted," he explains. "All my stuff's in my room that I grew up in, and I live out of a suitcase or two for five weeks at a time."

Rhythm: the good, the bad, and the stressful

Humour

To be clear, readers, this bit of grumbling isn't meant to say, "look how bad the average person's rhythm is!" It's truly an impressive feat to master the art of keeping a beat. It's a skill that makes a stellar beat-boxer, and adds to the value of a great drummer.