Vol. LIX, No. 3

Opera Canada

Canada's only Magazine Dedicated Exclusively to Opera

Opera Canada3 min read
Notebook
‘Tis the season for opera companies across the country to announce their 19/20 plans—the first time opera fans get to see which operas, singers, productions and directors will be coming to their local theatres. As of writing, companies in Victoria, V
Opera Canada3 min read
Opera In The News
With the passing of Neil Crory, Canada’s classical-music community mourns someone whose work in the decades around the turn of the century was especially important and influential. On his retirement in 2011, he was Senior Music Producer for the CBC,
Opera Canada7 min read
Artists on Stage
The first time I met Asitha Tennekoon, we were backstage after a Bach Magnificat in Ottawa in December. I had wanted to introduce myself to Tennekoon, an engaging young Sri Lankan lyric tenor who has called Toronto home since 2014. As we were chattin
Opera Canada7 min read
Letter from Brno
Every two years since 2008, the city of Brno, Czech Republic’s second largest urban centre, has hosted the Janáček Brno Festival. The 2018 edition (Nov. 17-Dec. 5) ambitiously presented Leoš Janáček’s (1854-1928) complete works for the stage amongst
Opera Canada6 min read
Letter from Thiré
In the Vendée, 100 km south-east of Nantes, France lies an enchanted garden in the town of Thiré. It is both vast and intimate, surprisingly wild but meticulously tended, and for the last two weeks of August, music arises from every thicket along its
Opera Canada6 min read
Letter from Zürich
Opernhaus Zürich attracts a well-dressed crowd, with beautiful architecture, top-notch service, and a very elegant auditorium. The house also features an eclectic array of inspiring and sometimes challenging offerings on its stage, works which are bo
Opera Canada8 min read
The Short Shelf Of Canadian Opera Singer biographies
WHEN I STARTED TO RESEARCH A biography of Bertha Crawford (1886-1937), a forgotten Canadian coloratura soprano whose career spanned the first quarter of the previous century, I looked for biographies of other Canadian opera singers. Opera biographies
Opera Canada7 min read
Live Or on Screen?
“I can’t stand it!” was among the first the answers received on Twitter when I asked readers to tell me how they feel about opera on screen. “It sounds and looks better than the live experience” was the reply that followed, from a proponent of contem
Opera Canada5 min read
Keeping Her Eye On The {prize}
If you hear the term ‘millennial’ and think of an entitled narcissist, scrolling through Instagram while living rent-free with their parents—you should have a word with Emily D’Angelo. “I worked really hard and I practiced,” said the 24-year-old mezz
Opera Canada7 min read
Femmes Fatales, Simpering Victims & #MeToo
No art form can exist in a vacuum, not even one that relies so heavily on creations from centuries past. The #MeToo social movement has sparked media debates about movies once deemed modern classics, songs once thought harmless, and comedy once viewe
Opera Canada6 min read
“I’m Not Very Good At Living In The Past”
It was Hollywood (via London, Ontario) that gave Michele Capalbo her first, fateful push towards opera. “I was about sixteen, I think, when the film Amadeus came out,” the youthfully apple-cheeked soprano recalls, “and I went by myself to a movie the
Opera Canada8 min read
‘Cosmic Seeker’ Claude Vivier’s star ASCENDS
In 1801 Goethe wrote to Felix Mendelssohn that “where nothing new is actually produced, an art cannot make itself vividly felt.” Innovation and impact are ideas Canadian composer ClaudeVivier took to heart. Born in 1948 to unknown parents, Vivier stu
Opera Canada2 min read
Calendar Highlights
4 OPERA ATELIER, Toronto. Measha Brueggergosman repeats her star turn as Elettra in a revival of the company’s 2008 production of Mozart’s Idomeneo with Colin Ainsworth in his role debut as the title character. 4 AGAINST THE GRAIN THEATRE, Toronto. T
Opera Canada35 min read
Opera in Review
About 1,700 Calgarians braved -30°C temperatures on Feb. 2nd for the Canadian premiere of Joby Talbot’s 75-minute opera Everest, about the ill-fated 1996 Mount Everest expedition that killed eight climbers, memorialized in journalist and mountaineer
Opera Canada3 min read
Diversity In Opera
In May last year, a news item appeared in Signal Toronto which caught the eye of Toronto opera goers. City Council, reported Arianne Robinson, was cutting part of the Canadian Opera Company and Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s cultural grants. An advisor
Opera Canada5 min read
Opera At Home
Against the Grain ATG001CD Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre has a hit on its hands with this recording of Argentinian-born composer Osvaldo Golijov’s genre-bending song cycle Ayre, which fuses elements from Arabic, Hebrew, Sardinian and Sephardic

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