Simon Cowell, stop it.

Editorial

Well, it's happened. Child opera singer (and human oxymoron) Amira Willighagen will release her first album, and it's going to be on Simon Cowell's label, Syco Entertainment. It features the poor little thing singing things like "O mio babbino caro" and dub-over duets with Luciano Pavarotti. Wait, what? Yup.

Opera Gossip is the best Gossip

I heard some interesting news through that long and winding operatic grapevine: Toronto's small and mighty opera companies are banding together! There are some great creative minds behind this indie opera collective, and the possibilities are even greater. By forming a collective, the companies will be able to share resources like performance venues, audition space, and their respective contact lists of singers.

That great scene in...

I'm on the House of Cards train, because I'm always rooting for the underdog. Kevin Spacey's the underdog, right? Anyway, I watched this brilliant scene play out in one of the episodes; it was one of those incredible scenes where both parties have clear objectives, but one party's objective is to screw the other party over.

Coming up in Toronto

Alright, it's Monday, and we're going to jump right in with a personal list of things to catch in Toronto as the weather warms up over the next little while.

In case you didn't see it...

A recent viral video has been pinging around social media-ville, showing an adorable little girl conducting along to choral music in church. And she conducts that choral music from her guts. Have a look:

Coming up on The Big COC Podcast...

Well, Schmopera is officially a veteran of the Big COC Podcast. Later this week, mark my third appearance on the COC's official podcast, joining guests Opera Canada editor Wayne Gooding and arts journalist Catherine Kustanczy (Hyperalleric, Torontoist). Host extraordinaire Gianmarco Segato will lead a chat about the latest current events in the opera world. What will the topics be? A little Met, a little elitism; but you'll have to listen to really find out. In the meantime, click here for archives of past episodes of the Big COC Podcast.

Cameron McPhail: On Competing

Interview

Last month, fellow colleague and buddy Cameron McPhail was named a winner of the George London Foundation Awards Competition. Way to go, Cam! I asked the COC Ensemble Studio member how it felt:

Talking with Singers: David Cangelosi

Interview

American tenor David Cangelosi has worked with, well, everyone. We're talking Conlon, Ozawa, Boulez, Zeffirelli, and Plácido himself, and he made his Met debut singing Wagner with James Levine. David has even graced the stage of the Four Seasons Centre here in Toronto, appearing most recently as Spoletta (Tosca, 2012) and Dr. Blind (Die Fledermaus, 2012).

Three Big Things We Can All Learn From Singers

Editorial

You know, after sitting at the piano through many, _many_ voice lessons, I've never felt an urge to attempt to do what singers do. It's too difficult; and too many people have an opinion on how to do the difficult thing, and I honestly don't know how professional singers do it.

On the ego

Op-ed

I want people to like me.  I got into singing because I want people to like me. Yup. Of course, I didn’t think of it like that at the time; wanting people to like you is not necessarily an attractive quality.  Later, when I really thought about what it means to be a performer, I decided that I didn’t actually want it to be about me.