Reviews

Two different servings from the Opera Fest menu

Two different servings from the Opera Fest menu

Brooklyn-based Regina Opera has taken on Verdi's Il Trovatore and though they clearly have limited resources, they have staged a first-rate, fully-realized production.

Loren Lester
Hearing the Seldom Seen

Hearing the Seldom Seen

The singers playfully (or angrily) splash about, shoot each other with squirt guns and finally land dead in the (unheated) water for the violent finale.

Loren Lester
Alkema a world-class Tosca at WNO

Alkema a world-class Tosca at WNO

To me, Tosca is just about a perfect piece of theater. I think it's funny that it often gets dismissed as absurdly over-the-top melodrama, especially in this moment in time when Game of Thrones is so wildly popular, and the latest Avengers instalment is the highest grossing movie in theaters.

Molly Simoneau
A very Canadian La bohème: the latest in Opera for Toronto

A very Canadian La bohème: the latest in Opera for Toronto

The preparation for this single show can stretch over an entire season, with input from the multiple teachers and coaches who come to work with the young artists throughout the year.

Jenna Simeonov
Installation Handmaid's Tale a dramatic, chilling staging

Installation Handmaid's Tale a dramatic, chilling staging

There is so much to like musically because Ruders stays true to Atwood's novel while finding time to let the music tell the drama on its own that it is indeed a good thing that it has finally found its cultural moment.

Arturo Fernandez
Sanitized tragedy: La traviata in Minnesota

Sanitized tragedy: La traviata in Minnesota

Violetta's most vulnerable moments were during the overtures behind a scrim. In the initial overture Violetta was seen revving herself up for the party between coughing fits, and before the final act Violetta dreams that Alfredo is still with her.

Callie Cooper
Pomakov a dominating devil in Vancouver Opera's Faust

Pomakov a dominating devil in Vancouver Opera's Faust

The austere, dark sets and costuming were paired with relatively austere stage direction from François Racine. While the intention may have been to let the music speak for itself, in this case it seemed to slow the pace of the show, and gave the performers little to do on stage.

Melissa Ratcliff
Vancouver Opera's Storybook Perfect Cenerentola

Vancouver Opera's Storybook Perfect Cenerentola

Rossini is incredibly unforgiving in his lighting-fast patter, overlapping harmonies, and blistering tempi in the ensembles, and every single one was perfectly precise, executed flawlessly, and were still all funny, evocative, and playful.

Melissa Ratcliff
A dismal opera: Werther

A dismal opera: Werther

The effect was darkly whimsical and visually captivating, allowing the drama to unravel within a framework of fiction – well-suited to the opera's poetic exaggerations and high-flying emotions.

Carly Gordon
The Mikado in the White House

The Mikado in the White House

Although meant to generate laughs at the expense of privileged white people, it's extremely difficult today to present this show, even as gently written as it is, without entering dangerous racist waters.

Loren Lester

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