Talking with singers: Ambur Braid

Interview

Dramatic coloratura soprano Ambur Braid has been on our interview wish-list since Schmopera's day one. Her choice repertoire consists largely of "evil, crazy royalty," where she can show off her staggering high notes and coloratura so fast you can blink and miss it.

Gems: Beauty Pageant Opera

Humour

It's rare, but I just love it when it happens: beauty pageant opera. It usually happens one of two ways for me: predictably not great, or surprisingly good. When I'm listening to the former, I'm wondering how they picked their aria, trying to hear their singing background in their sound, all very judgy things that I scold myself over almost immediately.

Michael Park: on opera & disease

Interview

Vancouver-based Composer and pianist Michael Park has spent considerable time thinking about how to talk about disease through music. He performed his Alzheimer's Variations (absolutely worth a listen) as part of his TEDxSFU talk in 2013, entitled "Experience disease through music."

Story webs & the original Romeo & Juliet

Op-ed

No piece of art is created in a vacuum. Any time I've worked on an opera, I've always loved learning of the connections between the story, and its ancestry in literature and history. Greek mythology, Shakespeare, the Bible, Egyptian history, the atomic bomb...

The 5 best & worst states for finding an opera house

Editorial

The other day, this Canadian blogger was thinking about the United States. Specifically, I was wondering just how many opera houses there are in a country of over 300 million people. So, I gathered some quick stats on the number of opera houses (or organizations producing professional opera) versus millions of people, in each state.

Browse Suzanne Vinnik's Opera Diva Dress Collection

Interview

I sometimes wonder what the average number of evening gowns in the closets of opera singers. Probably at least 5 - maybe closer to 10? Having a closet that won't stay shut from all the tulle doesn't actually sound like a bad problem, but it's certainly not practical.

3 ways to have a great first rehearsal

How-to

Technically, a singer's deadline for learning and perfecting a role is opening night. In reality, the ubiquitous deadline for opera singers is the first day of music rehearsals with the conductor. In this rehearsal, most singers want to a) sing incredibly well, b) make the conductor happy and c) not embarrass themselves in front of colleagues.

Conductors: what else do they tell us?

Op-ed

When George Martin and The Beatles made Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, they made history by using the recording studio itself as a sort of "instrument." Songs like "A Day in the Life", or even "With a Little Help from My Friends" aren't easy to reproduce on a live stage, and the album isn't meant to be a preserved concert in the same way that Please Please Me is.

Gems: Carlos Kleiber's Maestro Cam

One of my favourite parts about being backstage during a show is looking at all the monitors. They're mostly showing the maestro, via the now-ubiquitous camera in the orchestra pit. I love watching the small reactions on the maestro's face, noting what he hears, what he wants, if he has any opinions on what's happening on stage.

Ottawa's Barber is brushing up his skills

News

Opera Lyra Ottawa's production of The Barber of Seville opens September 26th, and not only will baritone Joshua Hopkins sing the title role (Torontonians caught him in the COC's Barber last spring), he'll be getting a lesson in the tonsorial arts (#wordoftheday!) from House of Barons Barber Shop.