Selfishly, I chose to wrap up the year with a list of my favourite tidbits of operatic delight. Included are my favourite renditions of great moments in opera: a bit of Figaro to warm your heart, Kathleen Battle’s Zerbinetta, ( in the Met’s 1989 Ariadne auf Naxos, which is fascinatingly documented, including footage in rehearsal with _Maestro _Levine), Renée Fleming’s shiver-inducing Rusalka and Hye-Jung Lee’s rockin’ Madame Mao. Looking ahead to 2014, two singers I’m excited to see in 2014 at the Canadian Opera Company are Alice Coote and Sir Thomas Allen. So I’ve also included some of Coote’s Nerone at Glyndebourne,  and of course, Sir Thomas Allen’s Little List.

Enjoy, and Happy New Year.

Not Nozze: Figaro’s Proposal, Against the Grain Theatre-style.

Kathleen Battle gets COACHED.

The way she ends this aria has been giving me shivers for years.

Merola alum Hye-Jung Lee sang this aria from _Nixon in China_ at the Cardiff finals a few years ago and I think she rocked it.

Alice Coote and Danielle de Niese sing one of my favourite operatic duets in L’incoronazione di Poppea.

Sir Thomas Allen at the Proms singing G&S. Talk about classic.