The 'Quiet Luxury' of haute-contre Cyrille Dubois
Kyra Millan: Arts Education counts
InterviewPerformer, teacher and artist educator Kyra Millan has taught countless students of all ages in school classrooms and in her private studio. She started the GLEESICAL music theatre program at the Classical Music Conservatory, and she leads workshops at the Canadian Opera Company, Opera Atelier, the Royal Conservatory of Music, Workman Arts, and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
10 Years of the Met at the Movies
News2015/16 marks the 10th anniversary season of The Met: Live in HD, and they're celebrating with a meaty selection to show off the best of opera. Starting with Il trovatore on October 3rd, non-New Yorkers can get their Met fix in Cineplex theatres across North America (including four in Toronto!).
Check out: MYOpera
InterviewMYOpera is the brand new face of Toronto-based indie opera company Metro Youth Opera. Their commitment to providing professional experience to emerging artists remains the same, but MYOpera has a new name, and a new season. At the aptly chosen Opera Bob's Public House, Artistic Director Kate Applin announced MYOpera's upcoming production of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia in spring, 2016.
In review: The Seven Deadly Sins
ReviewI'm always excited by Kurt Weill. Ever since my first exposure to Mahagonny and Down in the Valley (one of his American musicals) I've been fascinated by his work with Bertolt Brecht. On Friday, September 25th I got to re-hear one of my favourites presented by The Friends of Gravity.
Pianists: 3 tips for sounding like an orchestra
How-toPianists, when you're playing orchestral reductions, it's all a complicated system of smoke and mirrors. Rather than on getting every note under your fingers, your priorities lay in creating a broader palate of sound, representing the different sections of a hypothetical orchestra. There's a difference in sound between a viola and an oboe, and a group of strings can have a different collective rhythm than a group of winds.
Talking with singers: Othalie Graham
Interview"If I'm cast in something, I show up incredibly prepared, I'm a very good colleague, and I do the things I can do to make it work. There's so much of it that we can't control, as you know. *So much* of it that you can't control. But I do the best that I can every day, I work really hard with the things I can control," she laughs. "Which isn't a lot."
Learn: Opera in the City
NewsLooking to enhance your opera-going experience? The Royal Conservatory of Music offers Opera in the City, a four-week look into two of Toronto's upcoming shows, La traviata (opening at the Canadian Opera Company October 8th) and Armide, opening October 22nd with Opera Atelier.
Quick tips: the rolled R test
How-toWhat I've found is that rolled Rs in a singer's text can act as a sort of litmus test for where that singer is maintaining their resonance. As a coach, if I ask for more consonants in an Italian aria, and a rolled R seems difficult to project, the problem usually lies in the preceding vowel.
Opera nerd meets grammar freak
EditorialI look at a lot of artist biographies, concert programs, season line-ups, and other lists of opera titles, and I keep noticing a small, nerdy detail that I've finally decided to address. Can we discuss the right way to use capital letters in your opera titles?
#COC1516: the new Ensemble Studio
ReviewThe Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio have kicked off the 2015/16 Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre with their annual introductory concert, Meet the Young Artists. Eight singers and two pianists performed in what's called the "death by aria" style, each singer showing off an aria that shows what they do best.