Vol. LVIII, No. 4

Opera Canada

Canada's only Magazine Dedicated Exclusively to Opera

Opera Canada3 min read
Notebook
Our ‘planning an opera season’ feature seems welltimed given the number of 18/19 announcements that continue to flow in. For some years now the opera company PR lexicon has seized on the buzzword ‘flexibility’—of venue, of scale, of musical and prese
Opera Canada2 min read
Opera In The News
Eight Canadian singers are among the 38 chosen to compete at the Concours musical international de Montréal from May 29-Jun. 7. In the new Art Song division, the Canadians are sopranos Anna-Sophie Neher and Suzanne Taffot along with mezzo-soprano Rih
Opera Canada3 min read
Aria Umezawa
When Toronto-native Aria Umezawa started her undergraduate degree in Vocal Performance at McGill University, she knew almost instantly that the life of an opera singer wasn’t for her. “What I enjoyed was the process of collaboration,” she observes of
Opera Canada4 min read
Nathan Brock
“What am I doing this season? People ask me and I can’t remember. That’s how much stuff comes and goes every month.” Nathan Brock is on a roll at the Hamburgische Staatsoper (Hamburg State Opera), where he has been Kapellmeister since 2015. The multi
Opera Canada3 min read
Mireille Asselin
“Both the beauty and the frustration of a singing career is that you can never stand still and rest on your laurels,” muses soprano Mireille Asselin, in a recent conversation. Now into the second decade of a burgeoning career, it’s time for a little
Opera Canada7 min read
Letter from Vienna
For a five-week period from Nov. 16 through Dec. 21, 2017, the Vienna State Opera (VSO) presented a not-so-mini festival within their already jam-packed season called Strauss-Tage (Strauss Days): six operas and one ballet by Richard Strauss. Even tho
Opera Canada5 min read
Letter from Verdi Country
Each autumn, thousands of music lovers flock to northern Italy to mark the birthday of composer Giuseppe Verdi. Taking a major role in the celebrations is Festival Verdi, an annual opera event which features an array of performances and productions.
Opera Canada7 min read
Letter from Philadelphia
Opera in Philadelphia sure isn’t what it used to be. Back in my relative boyhood, in November 1969, I hopped aboard a Trailways bus in New Haven and five hours later alighted, for the first time, in the historic birthplace of American independence. B
Opera Canada5 min read
A Classic, Re-tailored
Morris Panych is blunt about his relationship to opera. “I know nothing about opera! But there are certain things I love.” The acclaimed Canadian theatre artist is the creator of The Overcoat, a movement-based dramatic work featuring the music of Dmi
Opera Canada8 min read
Body Work FOR Singers
In a few short decades, the Young Artist Program has become a ubiquitous element in the career arc of the contemporary opera singer. These programs, colloquially known as YAPs, are housed within opera companies for which young singers hope to work; t
Opera Canada7 min read
HOW TO PUT ON AN opera season 2018 STYLE
For more than a decade the world of opera has undergone (and continues to undergo) wide ranging changes. Whether dealing with the economic downturn after 2008; live HD transmissions in movie theatres or, changes in public tastes and demographics, the
Opera Canada6 min read
Double Duty
It was just another quiet mid-winter day, Feb. 9th to be exact. I was sitting in front of my computer doing some writing when a news release popped up on my screen: “Canadian Opera Company General Director Alexander Neef Appointed Artistic Director o
Opera Canada7 min read
CANADIAN CHILDREN’S OPERA COMPANY at 50
In reviewing the 2004 premiere of The Hobbit, commissioned from Dean Burry by the Canadian Children’s Opera Company, The Globe and Mail’s Robert Harris wrote, “One only wishes that as much effort, time and energy could go into every musical event pre
Opera Canada2 min read
Calendar Highlights
1 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY, Toronto. The first local revival of Robert Lepage’s spectacular Stravinsky program including The Nightingale, complete with swimming pool in the orchestra pit. 3 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY, Toronto. Sondra Radvanovksy stars in t
Opera Canada47 min read
Opera in Review
Calgary Opera’s production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin (seen Feb. 3) presented a visually attractive, compellingly performed account of the opera. While originally set around 1830, it is invariably played as if the period is late imperial Russia,
Opera Canada12 min read
Opera At Home
DEBUSSY LSO: 0790 This Dec. 2016 live recording from London’s Barbican Centre documents a semi-staged performance (directed by Peter Sellars) that had first been mounted with the same cast a year earlier at Berlin’s Philharmonie, home of the Berlin P
Opera Canada3 min read
The Final Word
Why is it so thrilling to see someone pouring their heart out on stage when we know it’s manufactured? Why do we make heroes out of professional pretenders? When I was an emotionally repressed teenager, the lives of people in movies seemed more real

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