Robert Picardo, giving Cassini the farewell it deserves

Humour

Cassini's research is catalogued by NASA with some pretty stunning images. Giving a different kind of tribute - one that's a bit more operatic - is the one and only Robert Picard, whom you may know The Doctor on Star Trek: Voyager. It's not his first time straddling the worlds of space exploration and opera; we recounted a few gems a few years back.

Tamara Wilson gives a "flawless" Aida at WNO

Review

While Zambello's attempt to create a modern, stylized Aida may have failed, this performance is a delight for the ears. Tamara Wilson's flawless performance alone is worth making the trip to the Kennedy Center.

A masked ball: American Baroque Opera Co.'s Opera Cabaret

Review

This group has succeeded in being a passionate representative of Baroque opera as not merely an outlier that "comes before the real operas of Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, and Bizet", but as a vibrant, effusive, and brilliant genre sui generis that appreciates the love and devotion performers bring to it.

A refreshing gateway drug: The Magic Flute at O17

Review

While a new and forward-thinking production such as this Flute is of tremendous value, we must be wary of the cost on the performers themselves. There is a danger in productions where singers are made to fit into a sort of machine (see The Metropolitan Opera) and do not have total freedom to access their full range of expressive tools. These are the tools which would otherwise allow them to connect with the audience and portray their respective characters without limitation.

A dreamy psychological thriller: Vanessa at Oper Frankfurt

Review

Thoma presents the trio of women as three generations of the same person: Erika, the Baroness and Vanessa herself are all one immortal woman, eternally alone and suffering, stuck in time forever and unable to move forward. The Baroness embodies Vanessa's future as a bitter widow, while her niece Erika represents her past as a hopeful, beautiful, innocent young girl. As Erika laments, "Sometimes I am her niece/But mostly her shadow".

LA Opera scores in first half of Bizet double-header

Review

If you're someone who has seen little or no opera, Carmen is perhaps the perfect place to start because it's a perfect show; the libretto and score are true partners. Although the show runs about three and a half hours, the drama is so compelling and the music is so beautiful, you never find yourself looking at your watch (or, depending on your age, the clock on your cellphone).

A stunning premiere: Elizabeth Cree

Review

The production is bursting at the seams with variations in style, mood and display. Its musical ideas seamlessly transition from comical to frightening. The score includes some familiarity in terms of the musical vocabulary it employs. We hear moments evoking a Broadway musical, moments that are reminiscent of Bernard Herrmann's sounds of horror, and moments of gorgeously sweeping romantic lines.

Talking with singers: Andrew Haji

Interview

After high school, Haji went not into music, but into computer science. After just two years - and a realization that he was miserable - he "quickly abandoned ship". He took a year off, during which he met with his high school music teacher, discussing the beginnings of his plan to pursue music.

Talking with singers: John Fanning

Interview

"Even geezer singers will take breaths they shouldn't," he says of the all-too-human aspect to singing live onstage. "Those things never change, we just get better at dealing with them."

Talking with singers: Simone Osborne

Interview

"For the first couple of seasons that I came back I still very much felt like I had to prove myself," says Osborne of returning to what she considers her home company. She admits to feeling pressure to bring consistently great performances to the COC, where the standard of artistry is high and the audiences are in-the-know. "It's probably the pressure I put on myself."