Spotlight on: Laurelle Jade Froese

Interview

I don't think I've met many young singers who work as hard as mezzo-soprano Laurelle Jade Froese. The Winnipeg native is a graduate of the University of Toronto, where I heard her as the hilariously uppity Florence Pike in Joel Ivany's production of Albert Herring. Laurelle has sung at Saskatoon Opera, Highlands Opera Studio, and she just finished a season with Vancouver Opera as a Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist.

Spotlight on: Kimberley-Ann Bartczak

Interview

Kimberley-Ann Bartzcak is a current member of the Yulanda M. Faris Young Artists Program at Vancouver Opera; at VO, she's a pianist, coach and répétiteur, but she's also a driven young conductor who's beginning to make waves. I always thing young conductors are some of the bravest folks around (not to mention a woman in what's arguably a man's world), so I was curious to ask Kim about her experience on the podium.

Banff Diaries: a postlude

Editorial

Opening night brought audiences into a seedy bar, with intimidating bouncers, walls covered in sex toys and a floor littered with latex. Novelty aside, the team delivered in quality with two...arousing?...performances.

Check out: Opera After Hours

Interview

Vancouver based company Opera After Hours is all about looking twice at historical opera repertoire. Led by Artistic Directors Christopher Bagan (historical keyboardist) and Debi Wong (mezzo-soprano), Opera After Hours had its inaugural production last summer, with #DidoAndAeneas; they took the story in a new direction, focusing on issues of cyberbullying and collaborating with Stop-A-Bully Canada.

Spotlight on: William Ford

Interview

Toronto-based tenor William Ford is fresh out of the University of Toronto Opera School; this makes him a young singer, but he's not lacking in wisdom. I was thrilled to read his eloquent and smart interview responses, and more than a little blown away by his awareness of self (something that took me and many others much longer to learn).

COSI: A day in the life

Editorial

It's the final week of the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy (COSI), a month-long, comprehensive summer training program that immerses emerging opera artists into the complete world of opera. Nearly a decade old, the program's illustrious alumni have gone on to grace the stage of the Met, staff the majority of the current COC Ensemble Studio, and launch opera companies.

An interview with Judith Forst

Interview

British Columbia-born mezzo-soprano Judith Forst had her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1968 as the Page in Rigoletto, and her career has spanned long enough for me to hear her most recently as Madame de Croissy in Robert Carsen's Dialogues des Carmélites at the Canadian Opera Company in 2013. Judith has sung with the likes of Joan Sutherland, Shirley Verrett, and Teresa Berganza, and she sang everything from Musetta to Hänsel to Giovanna Seymour to Donna Elvira.

Gallery: hiking with the music staff

Editorial

On our last day off together, I invited conductor Against the Grain Theatre Music Director, and fellow music staffer Christopher Mokrzewski on a hike of the Hoodoos Trail here in beautiful Banff. Neither of us are particularly athletic, but we did enjoy a collective "mountain experience" in the meantime. Enjoy a few photos from our day!

Spotlight on: Marjorie Maltais

Interview

Mezzo-soprano Marjorie Maltais first impressed me with her rich sound and feisty stage presence as Hermia in Opera on the Avalon's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Coveted mezzo roles like Rosina, Cenerentola and Carmen are also on Marjorie's résumé, and she recently wrote me from Santa Barbara, where she's enjoying her time with Marilyn Horne at the Music Academy of the West.

Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre

Interview

Baritone John Holland wrote me recently from Prague, Czech Republic (one of my favourite cities). He was there until recently as part of the Prague Summer Nights Young Artist Music Festival, singing Masetto in Don Giovanni. Sure, John got to go to a beautiful city to sing in a masterpiece opera, but he got to do it in the Estates Theatre, where Mozart conducted the premiere performance of Giovanni.