A Parisian Traviata Spectacle

Review

This production is feast for the eyes and ears. So much to see and listen to, full of emotional highs and lows, and a stage full of amazing talent.

Joynt angelic in Canadian debut as Gilda in Edmonton Opera's Rigoletto

Review

With Rigoletto, Edmonton Opera connects with a wide spectrum of themes that most people will identify: the danger of power that goes unchecked, the fear when those closest to you are threatened, and the purity of love and being loved. If you've never seen an opera before, this is a production that will definitely get you hooked.

The Bohos come home: AtG's Bohème is back at the (dive) bar

Review

For those paying attention, Ivany's libretto only updates details, the kind that are in place to connect character with audience. If we were to strip away the hipster scarves and references to manscaping and BMV, we're still left with the original personalities from the libretto by Illica and Giacosa.

Cuervo's "sophisticated, lyric" Frida in Atlanta

Review

Frida and Diego encounter many struggles, the communist revolution turning against Diego, the pair travelling to New York, their struggle to carry a pregnancy to full term, and their return to Mexico, which led to Diego’s many affairs.

Talking with singers: Michelle Bradley

Interview

"The hard part is when I lock myself in a room and go over the score, figure out who the character is, make sure I get every pianissimo and forte, and accent and legato. When I come here, it's already engrained in me. I can just go where the director tells me to go."

#TheStories, part 12

Editorial

At one point, I tried to express how uncomfortable I was, my teacher told me that I was an adult and I could have left at any time. I was 20. On my way back home, my teacher's husband told me that they had decided to increase John's paycheque for all of the extra work he had put in.

Luisa Miller a "superbly shaped" start to Chicago's early Verdi venture

Review

While in the first act, the singers interacted awkwardly, with little to no dramatic commitment to their movements or singing, in the final moments of the show, the principals all rose to the occasion, singing and acting with dramatic impetus that temporarily stopped time.

#TheStories, part 11

Editorial

"Each rejection only affirmed this belief; if I really had talent, someone would want me. On the other hand, each time I did manage to be cast, I was afraid it had been a mistake, and wondered if there was some other sort of agenda. To this day I find it difficult to trust mentors."

A star soprano and a stellar debut in Oper Frankfurt's Manon Lescaut

Review

In Puccini's anodyne libretto however, des Grieux and Manon become unwitting martyrs. Des Grieux's self-pity is sublimated into hopeless romanticism too pure for a cruel world. Manon, mercurial and unparsable in the novella, is given a clearly defined voice and a straight-forward moral compass.

A Tosca found wanting in Virginia Opera's production

Review

In general, tempos throughout the performance were sluggish, particularly in the first act. The love duet plodded along and the Te Deum was agonizingly slow, as was Mario's third act aria "e lucevan le stelle."