Folds: the new full-length solo album from Nathan Shubert

Editorial

There's an appealing subtlety to Folds, a muted chain of pieces that wavers between improvisation and a feeling of familiarity. "Expressive and accessible, Nathan wrote these pieces purely for the pleasure and beauty inherent in them, not as exercises in composerly rigor or pianistic dexterity. Free of external meanings, the pieces take on their own deeply implicit, wordless significance. These pieces became Folds."

Spotlight On...who?

Editorial

If you know an artist - even better, an up-and-coming artist - with some wise words to share about the opera life, please introduce us! You can email us at [email protected], and let us know a bit about what they're up to.

One World Symphony gets "Defiant"

Editorial

Defiance is truly the theme of this programme. Beethoven defied his deafness, Chaplin and Obama the violence and hatred of their times, and composers like Margaret Allison Bonds and Valerie Capers (the first blind composer to graduate from Juilliard) produced their work defiantly amid the racism, ableism, and sexism that pervaded their lives.

4 shows to perk up the post-holiday blues

Editorial

The holidays are great - but after roughly a month of wavering between buzzed and hungover, and eating like a complete idiot, it's nice to get back to some semblance of a schedule where businesses are open and you can trust their hours of operation.

Canadian singers & their great reputations

Editorial

Perhaps it's because we border the behemoth that is the United States, and perhaps it's because we're far-removed from the operatic centre that is Europe. In any case, it drives Canadian singers to meet the perceived standards of the "biggest and best". Maybe we underestimate the quality of training available at home, and thus we head out into the world in over-prepared hordes.

Bocelli & Evancho to sing at Trump inauguration, opera folk feel weird about it

Editorial

Personally, I suppose I feel a bit icky that it was within the opera world (which does include popera) where the Trump people found artists willing to perform for his big day. Like it somehow shames by association a whole community of opera singers who are largely liberal-leaning.

#Roundup2016: Greg & Jenna's Top 10

Editorial

"I totally loved interviewing baritone Sidney Outlaw. He has a peace and wisdom about him that translates into his work. He answers every tough question about the industry with some form of "take it to the practice room." He was easy to talk with, and funny enough to make me wish we could have done a podcast out of it."

Risky opinions: there are 2 types of singers...

Editorial

To be fair: maybe these singers can do subtle, and we just didn't get the chance to see it (and most of the above examples come from an arguably different era of directing opera). But they're still quite different from singers like Diana Damrau, Christopher Purves, Krisztina Szabó, Barbara Hannigan, Alice Coote, and Allan Clayton. These guys are versatile, and they really do pair their beautiful sounds with mature, layered dramatic performances that feel organic and believable, rather than hokey and overdone.

Early music of Venice: the Academy of Ancient Music bridges the gap

Editorial

Christopher Hitchens once said of religion, that it was "the race's first (and worst) attempt to make sense of reality." In later conversations, Hitchens clarified that because it was our first attempt, it was by nature, our worst. This concept doesn't seem to apply to Early Music; rather, over and over again we are stunned by the timelessness - the edginess, really - of Baroque music.

Opera and sci-fi: the puritan intersection

Editorial

The great, classic sci-fi isn't about aliens or lasers or teleportation; it's about people and the things we go through in any environment. Similarly, the great, classic operas aren't about singing for its own sake; they're about those same people and those same environments.