Talking with directors: opera's Marvel

Interview

American stage director James Marvel's work has taken him across the United States and Canada (including the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy and Opera on the Avalon), not to mention gigs in South Africa, Belgium, Italy, Chile, Poland and South Korea. In 2014 he started Marvel Arts Management, which has a roster of seven directors, four conductors, and four designers.

Richard Margison is throwing a Gala in the Gardens

Interview

Highlands Opera Studio present Gala in the Gardens, in honour of their exciting initiative of creating a new, attractive theatre space. Richard Margison, famed Canadian tenor and Artistic Director of Highlands Opera Studio, is putting on quite a show, featuring jazz artists, players from the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, and alumni singers from past HOS seasons.

Spotlight on: Maeve Palmer

Interview

For Toronto-based soprano Maeve Palmer, learning music is "like a puzzle that you can never quite finish decoding." Currently a student of Mary Morrison's, Maeve has a great handle on the concept of patience. She writes articulately about enjoying the process of learning to sing, and the excitement she gets out of singing well.

Check out: Essential Opera

Interview

Essential Opera's new seasons starts October 8th in Halifax, with a presentation of Elisha Denburg's Regina at the Gilsig Series in Jewish Arts & Culture at Dalhousie University. Regina reprises along with Monica Pearce's Etiquette in Ottawa on October 16-18, in conjunction with Opera Lyra Ottawa.

Check out: Opera 5

Interview

Artistic Director Aria Umezawa and General Director Rachel Krehm, also known as the ladies of Opera 5, said to me that although they take their work and their art very seriously, they don't take themselves seriously. I think that's a great way to sum up Opera 5, a Toronto-based company that creates a full opera-going experience for its audiences. They commission new works, put up rarely heard operas, and pair their performances with food, drink, and atmosphere suggestive of the evening's entertainment.

Check out: Urbanvessel

Interview

Based in Toronto, Urbanvessel produces performances that are interdisciplinary, provocative, and based in the human voice. Past shows include Voice-Box, a boxing opera for an all-woman cast, Stitch, an a cappella opera for three women and sewing machines, and this summer's Singing River, which brought dance, poetry, singing and more to the Toronto's Don River.

Spotlight on: Jeremy Hirsch

Interview

American baritone Jeremy Hirsch impressed me last season when he doubled up as both Bottom and Peter Quince in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream at Opera on the Avalon. Jeremy is comfortable on the opera stage, keeping busy with a mix of Mozart and new opera; he also has a great passion for song repertoire.

Spotlight on: Laurelle Jade Froese

Interview

I don't think I've met many young singers who work as hard as mezzo-soprano Laurelle Jade Froese. The Winnipeg native is a graduate of the University of Toronto, where I heard her as the hilariously uppity Florence Pike in Joel Ivany's production of Albert Herring. Laurelle has sung at Saskatoon Opera, Highlands Opera Studio, and she just finished a season with Vancouver Opera as a Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist.

Spotlight on: Kimberley-Ann Bartczak

Interview

Kimberley-Ann Bartzcak is a current member of the Yulanda M. Faris Young Artists Program at Vancouver Opera; at VO, she's a pianist, coach and répétiteur, but she's also a driven young conductor who's beginning to make waves. I always thing young conductors are some of the bravest folks around (not to mention a woman in what's arguably a man's world), so I was curious to ask Kim about her experience on the podium.

Check out: Opera After Hours

Interview

Vancouver based company Opera After Hours is all about looking twice at historical opera repertoire. Led by Artistic Directors Christopher Bagan (historical keyboardist) and Debi Wong (mezzo-soprano), Opera After Hours had its inaugural production last summer, with #DidoAndAeneas; they took the story in a new direction, focusing on issues of cyberbullying and collaborating with Stop-A-Bully Canada.