Don Giovanni in 2018: in search of a "concept"

Op-ed

And, let's be honest, we've all seen these productions, in which even basic narrative details of a piece are obscured, confused, ignored or senselessly "deconstructed" with sometimes baffling outcomes.

Swept away: Roméo et Juliette

Review

The contemporary setting didn't feel like a gimmick but a way to make the characters that much more relatable, and the overall effect was that of a John Hughes movie. Muller's approach gets teenagers and how they feel emotion so intensely that it can turn fatal in an instant.

Nicole Lizée on the Mosaïque Project

Interview

"For the past few years I've been thinking a lot about Canadian culture - or Canadiana - and, more specifically, Saskatchewan culture and identity. I've written two large-scale works in addition to this one that explores this as a premise. I feel I've just started this exploration."

Darren Sigesmund on the Mosaïque Project

Interview

"Although the piece is written for a classical ensemble, I composed using my own sensibility as a writer. Classical music is very much a part of my sound world, and there are similar compositional concepts that cross over into jazz and vice versa. It merely comes down to articulating those ideas on paper."

Sarah Slean on the Mosaïque Project

Interview

"It's always a treat writing music for master musicians and I'm thrilled to be in the company of such great composers, but I'm especially honoured to be part of this project, I think it's ambitious and timely and a beautiful tribute to Canada."

Layered comedy: Flight

Review

What struck me most about this work by Jonathan Dove and April de Angelis is the intricate, layered nature of the music and text. I could see numerous performances of this opera and discover something new about it everything single time. Great comedy should make us think, and Flight provides plenty of food for thought.

Strange inside: The Tender Land

Review

The Maytag hosts clearly took the term "Iowa Nice" to heart. Free snacks and beverages were supplied prior to the performance, as well as pie and ice cream afterwards. The atmosphere was welcoming and friendly, and I could sense that the Newton community had enthusiastically embraced their first opportunity to host the opera.

Canada sounds like: Mosaïque Project

Interview

"We dreamed of going on a nation-wide tour for our 10th anniversary, and realised that it was not going to be easy to pull off. So we came up with the idea of commissioning a piece that takes us across the country musically. One thing let to another, and we now have a nation-wide tour, and a great added visual dimension, including listeners from all across Canada."

Antoine Wagner: Gesamtkunstwerk in 2018

Interview

He remembers an early-1990s summer at the Bayreuth Festival, during the creation of the now-famed Harry Kupfer production of the Ring Cycle, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Antoine and Barenboim's son, David, had renamed all of their He-Man figurines after Wagnerian characters.

La Gazzetta: The Funny Papers

Review

All the antics amount to nothing more than a big helium balloon and to keep the whole enterprise on the ground, director and designer Josh Shaw has approached it as if it were a musical-comedy. Every "song" is a "number" filled with coordinated movements and choreography.