In review: Mozart's Obscure Opera + Mass in C Minor

Review

Thursday night was the first of three concerts to be given by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, programming Mozart’s fantastic Mass in C Minor, K. 427, with fragments of two of his lesser-known operas, Lo sposo deluso and Zaide (K. 430 and 344, respectively). Paul Goodwin conducts the TSO, both the Amadeus Choir and the Elmer Iseler Singers, as well as the evening’s line up of formidable singers: soprano Hélène Guilmette, mezzo Julie Boulianne, tenors John Tessier and Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure, and baritone Gordon Bintner.

In review: Songs of Love and War

Review

At lunchtime on Thursday, January 22nd, members of the COC Ensemble Studio gave a concert in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre. Just past the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the music on this concert dealt with themes of war, love, and separation; we heard songs by Erich Korngold, Charles Ives, Hanns Eisler, and Francis Poulenc.

This weekend: Songbook V

Interview

This Saturday, January 24th, Tapestry Opera presents Songbook V. It’s a one-night-only concert, featuring excerpts from Tapestry’s library of Canadian opera. Baritone Peter McGillivray and pianist Steven Philcox will perform along with the singers and pianists of Tapestry Opera’s New Opera 101 program.

Talking with Singers: Jessica Muirhead

Interview

Canadian soprano Jessica Muirhead is ready to take the stage as Pamina in Edmonton Opera's production of The Magic Flute, opening January 31st. Jessica last appeared at the Canadian Opera Company as Micaëla in their 2010 production of Carmen. She's stayed busy across the pond at the Vienna Volksoper (Pamina, Agathe, Antonia), Semperoper Dresden (Marguerite, Mimì), and she just finished a touring production of Carmen with Welsh National Opera.

Schmopera on the radio

Editorial

Readers, listen up! This coming Wednesday, January 21st, I get to join arts writer Catherine Kustanczy (Hyperallergic, xoJane, Opera News) on her brand new radio show, Hydra. The topic? Don Giovanni: we love to hate the Don, and opera companies love to put up Mozart’s “perfect” tale of history’s most ubiquitous womanizer.

#COC1516

Editorial

Alright, it's official! The Canadian Opera Company has announced their line-up for the 2015/16 season. This year the event was grand in scale, taking place in the theatre at the Four Seasons Centre, with the full COC Orchestra downstage of the looming set for the upcoming Die Walküre.

In Toronto: David Lang's The Whisper Opera

Editorial

Soundstreams welcomes the Canadian premiere of David Lang‘s The Whisper Opera at The Theatre Centre from February 26-March 1st. Performing the work are soprano Tony Arnold and New York’s International Contemporary Ensemble, also giving their Canadian debuts. The Whisper Opera grew out of the question, “What if a piece were so quiet and intimate and so personal to the performers that you needed to be right next to them or you would hear almost nothing?”

If opera characters went to the opera

Humour

It’s time for some beautifully nerdy, utterly hypothetical, and completely meta musings. Sure, the next few paragraphs won’t really contain any practically useful information, but it’s hard to stop me once I’ve gotten on the character-deconstruction-train that is dramaturgy. It’s my favourite pastime, and now I’m sharing it with you. I present to you all the following hypothetical: if opera characters went to the opera, what would they see? Photo: Werther after a really bad night at the opera.

Beardism, the Lumbersexual, and the Young Performer

Op-ed

This post isn’t so much about singing or opera or theatre in the usual sense. I just wanted to talk about one of the parts of our industry that sort of gets taken for granted by the audience. I make that statement because I’m guilty of it. I also opened with that little bit of a diatribe so that I can hope make a point stronger.

Help Get Diana to the Opera

Editorial

A Chicago-based non-profit organization is trying to help 92-year-old Diana see her first opera in about 8 years. One Dream has set up a crowdfunding campaign, hoping to raise $1400 to pay for Diana’s ticket for a Lyric Opera of Chicago production, as well as handicap accessible transportation, and a videographer to capture her night out.