A call for Honest Bios™

Humour

Sometimes, readers, after a long day of scouring information on opera singers, we start to bemoan the fact that their bios don't really tell us anything about them. If any of you know an opera singer personally, go read their professional bio right now. Who is that person? They seem busy, but it's not clear why anyone should go and hear them sing.

FAWN announces composers for next stage of Synesthesia IV

News

"I feel very lucky to realize new music in this collaborative way," says MacArthur. "I love the music, the tension and the excitement of a FAWN show. When I perform with FAWN, I can lose myself in the performance and feel new sounds. It's such a rush!"

Talking with singers: Daniel Okulitch

Interview

"Canada is small enough that when someone shows an interest in classical music, there is a community that will claim you and help you. As such, I believe we are able to find and produce large numbers of exceptional musicians, disproportionate to our population. We're smaller than California, but produce more classical singers who have international careers. Figure that one out."

Hvorostovsky to take a "pause in my operatic career".

News

After the discovery of a brain tumor in 2015, and taking a break to deal with his health last summer, he returned to the opera and recital stage to great reviews. Anthony Tommasini from the Times noted from Hvorostovsky's appearance in Il Trovotore at the Metropolitan Opera that his "resplendent voice, with its distinctive mellow character and dusky veneer, sounded not at all compromised."

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.

Oh look, it's the "elitist" argument again...

Op-ed

But here's the kicker in my eyes: no one bats an eye when someone says, "Oh, she's a Susanna, not an Ariadne," but thinking that this Susanna would also sound great as Lucy in The Secret Garden garners a completely different response.

Don't miss: The Demon at AVA

News

The famed Russian pianist was also a prolific composer, who wrote twelve operas during his lifetime (did you know Tchaikovsky studied composition with Rubinstein?). The Demon is based on the poem of the same name by Mikhail Lermonontov: a demon falls in love with Tamara and has her fiancé killed, Tamara starts to become attracted to the demon and lets him kiss her, but his kiss is fatal, and she falls dead.

Falstaff in Cambridge

Interview

"There is something very exciting about staging grand opera in an intimate venue," says Redmond, "that brings a power and intensity to the performances that one can sometimes miss in a large opera house. With an orchestra of 80, a chorus of nearly 100, and an international cast of soloists, it's an exciting sound!"

In review: Scenes from the End

Review

"Over the past few years, I have experienced grief. It's impossible to rationally 'describe' your experience of grief because death is absurd," writes Werner in her performer's notes. "When you lose someone, you find yourself surrounded by people who never talk to you about it - not in person anyway - because they simply can't. Or, if they think they can, it quickly becomes unhelpful and patronising, in a weird sort of way."

Aria guides: Dido's Lament

How-To

For our latest Aria Guide, we've picked an aria that has it all: it's beautiful, it's in English, and mezzos get to play Dido, an actual woman. In Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, "Dido's Lament" happens at the end of a simple and sad story: Aeneas, whom Dido loves and has agreed to marry, believes he has to leave her and go to Italy. As he goes, Dido dies from her grief.