The future of opera? Holograms & dream casts

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Or! Don Carlo, with Plácido Domingo's hologram in the title role, and the real-life Plácido Domingo as Rodrigo? Add a little Jamie Barton as Eboli, and Nicolai Ghiaurov as Philip II? Delicious.

Hilarity: Someone Like Me (L'opera di Facebook)

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The folks behind Something Blue: The Bachelor Opera and Connection Lost: The Tinder Opera are back! This time, it's Someone Like Me (L'opera di Facebook), a harrowing tale of likes, validation, and rye toast. Adam Taylor writes and directs, with music by Nathan Fletcher. Baritone Jonathan Hare and soprano Amelia Berry star in the fab, sassy cast of this must-see:

The Met's 2018/19 seas...zzzzzzzzz

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But, compared with the offerings at places like Opera Philadelphia, Minnesota Opera, The Atlanta Opera, and a fast-growing proportion of other regional opera houses in the United States and Canada, the Metropolitan Opera is proving its status as an honest-to-God opera museum.

An encore to remember: high notes & marriage proposals

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Tenor Clay Hilley knows how to pair business with pleasure: in his recital for the Wagner Society of New York on January 6, the tenor took an encore - and an opportunity to publicly propose to his girlfriend, Sara (of the very fab Shoperatic, in fact!).

4 things you're probably thankful for if you're an opera fan

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For our Canadian readers, we head into Thanksgiving weekend (it's true, Americans!), and the deal is we have to say out loud the things for which we're thankful. We're a bunch of thankful opera lovers over here, so here's our list of gratitude, tailor-made for our fellow fans of big, loud singing.

Robert Picardo, giving Cassini the farewell it deserves

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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.

Sawney Bean & his cannibal clan would make a great opera

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Whether you turn Sawney Bean himself into a booming basso profundo with a mean snarl and a taste for human flesh, or you tell the story of an anti-social family living among a mob-like community with a tendency toward exaggeration and gossip, the story is full of operatic qualities.

Tragedies: Toronto's summer opera shortage

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Perhaps they're trying to tell us something, these vacationing opera-and-music-makers. Maybe they're saying, Get out of the city, you crazy opera-house addicts, they're saying. Go sit by a lake somewhere, and build up your vitamin D for the season to come.

What are your irrational stage fears?

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One singer admitted an irrational fear of finding himself standing downstage centre, unable to do anything but open and close his mouth silently and dumbly, like a carp. A conductor told me that he rarely uses a baton, for fear of letting it slip out of his hands and fly into the eyeball of his concertmaster. A certain director is afraid of accidentally preparing the wrong opera.

5 opera mothers from hell

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They're mean, mad, and even murderous: call it sexism, or call it a series of very loud Freudian slips, but the creators of opera have never been too kind to mothers. Still, Mother's Day is fast approaching; despite the generally poor representation they have in our favourite operas, these crazy mamas sure do get some great music.