Spotlight on: Diego Silva

Interview

"I make a living from doing what I love to do, and my schedule is always changing and includes lots of travel. I never get bored because I have to study a lot of different music in different languages and there is always room for improvement."

Young singing done right: Aksel Rykkvin

News

It's entirely refreshing to hear 13-year old Aksel Rykkvin, Norwegian boy soprano. With early classical training, Rykkvin has already appeared with Norwegian National Opera; now, he has released an album of arias by Mozart, Handel and Bach, with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under conductor Nigel Short.

Operalia & advertising

Editorial

Promoting Domingo, in between the well-honed performances of the Operalia finalists, felt in opposition to the competition's mission. The business of advertising seemed to take over the air time between competitors. Perhaps it was the perfect opportunity for Domingo to promote his work, since the Operalia audience is the right demographic to purchase a documentary like "My Greatest Roles".

Pavarotti's "Nessun dorma" & the Trump campaign

Editorial

What's likely is that the sweeping sounds of Puccini sounded fancy to the Trump folk, and that Pavarotti's voice sounds heroic (#winning). They're not wrong, but it just screams, "I heard this on YouTube once."

In review: The Rape of Lucretia at TSMF

Review

In the title role, mezzo-soprano Emma Char, was every bit of the descriptions we hear of Lucretia at the beginning of the show. Delicate, pure, and lovely on stage, she had a groundedness that I really enjoyed. The whole space seemed to calm down when she stepped on stage - which was made all the more thrilling when her character shifts to a darker place after the events of Act II.

Anne Kostalas: a year with opera singers

Interview

Filmmaker Anne Kostalas has wrapped a three-part documentary, following the lives of three young singers at Opera McGill, Schulich School of Music, Montréal. The documentary was commissioned by Patrick Hansen, head of Opera McGill, who is "thrilled at how this documentary seems like a love letter, not just to Opera McGill but to the McGill campus and all the people who study and work there."

Spotlight on: Claire Kuttler

Interview

"Get right with failure (again, a constant work in progress). Keep working hard, there is value in working hard no matter the outcome. You don't know half of what you think you know. Get right with being humble. Read books. Study foreign languages more. Watch more comedies than tragedies (I still don't follow this one)."

Michael Rose on A Tale of Two Cities

Interview

This summer, Summer Opera Lyric Theatre enters its 30th season; to celebrate, the line-up includes the world premiere of A Tale of Two Cities, a new operatic adaptation of Dickens' novel by Victor Davies and Eugene Benson. We spoke with Music Director and pianist Michael Rose about this new opera, some upcoming projects of his own, and about SOLT's mission to train young artists for the professional stage.

Hypothetical operas: The 2016 Presidential Election

Humour

Trump would be a buffo bass role, clearly. Blustering, bumbling and woofy, his lines would be meaningless patter in the style of Rossini. His lines would overlap those of all other characters', interrupting in that charming way, and rambling on long after anything of possible meaning had been said.

Tales from the score: Deh vieni, non tardar

How-to

This aria is so often sung that we can become immune to its effect in the context of the entire opera. It's incredibly difficult to play all the musical and dramatic layers when singing the aria alone in an audition or concert. But it can be tons of fun to pretend (to pretend to pretend, really) that Susanna is imagining herself a Real Lady, and finally gets the chance to try it out. It's very Eliza Doolittle, when you think about it.