Vol. LVIII, No. 2

Opera Canada

Canada's only Magazine Dedicated Exclusively to Opera

Opera Canada3 min read
Notebook
There would seem nobetter time than now to reaffirm the value of a specialized arts publication like Opera Canada. Our national newspaper of record, The Globe and Mail, recently announced it has ceased to publish a separate arts section on weekdays,
Opera Canada2 min read
Opera In The News
The 2017 Oskar Morawetz Award for Excellence in Music Performance was awarded to Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Acting as the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000, he will be succeeding
Opera Canada3 min read
In Memoriam
Émile Belcourt was one of Canada’s most versatile vocal artists. Born into a French-Canadian family in Laflèche, Saskatchewan, he graduated as a pharmacist but decided to join the chorus of Glyndebourne Opera in 1950 before moving to Vienna, where he
Opera Canada3 min read
Benjamin Bowman
“It’s been a circuitous route back to New York,” mused Benjamin Bowman, sipping coffee in the living room of the picturesque suburban fixer-upper he’d recently moved into with his wife and preschool daughter—with a new baby on the way. In just a few
Opera Canada3 min read
Geoffrey Sirett
This past summer, baritone Geoffrey Sirett completed a three-week, 1000 kilometer tour with the Bicycle Opera Project as the musical director and conductor for their production of Sweat. Sirett is a passionate advocate for introducing Canadian audien
Opera Canada3 min read
Marie Clements
Marie Clements, Pacific Opera Victoria (POV) and City Opera Vancouver (COV) aren’t interested in telling a single story. The tagline for Missing, POV and COVs’ new co-production centred on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), read
Opera Canada3 min read
Marion Newman
Marion Newman grew up on Vancouver Island, the daughter of a mother of English/Scots/Irish heritage and a father of Kwagiulth and Stó:lo ancestry. It’s a background that informs much of her current work in the area of Reconciliation but before that,
Opera Canada3 min read
Gerard Gauci
When attending an Opera Atelier production for the first time, the visuals make an immediate impression. Words like “opulent,” “decadent,” and “sumptuous” are often used to describe the Toronto-based opera company’s work, and with good reason. Opera
Opera Canada5 min read
New Productions New Roles Over To The Dark Side
“I think my mother is a little disturbed I'm doing all these dark characters, but…” Gerald Finley lets out a warm, low laugh. The Canadian bass-baritone is enjoying a year of intriguing role debuts, filled with many conflicted, complex psyches. “I'm
Opera Canada5 min read
Letter From Prague And Terezín
As a producer, there are few occasions one feels an opera has been taken to some degree of final, artistic completion. There’s a feeling that with just one more show, workshop, or presentation to an audience that ‘really should see it’, you might be
Opera Canada7 min read
Letter from Bayreuth
This was a big summer in Bayreuth, one of the comparatively rare seasons when all the later Wagner operas were performed together. The 106th Festival started on July 25th with a new staging of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg by Barrie Kosky, the Austr
Opera Canada6 min read
Karina GAUVIN
WE HAVE A HABIT OF taking things for granted: family, friends, our general health, the beauties of nature. To that list, you can add one of this year’s Rubies honourees, soprano Karina Gauvin. It seems barely conceivable her truly distinguished inter
Opera Canada6 min read
Yves ABEL
ON A SULTRY EVENING this past June, in the garden of a ground floor apartment in a quiet neighbourhood of Hamburg, Yves Abel is relaxed as he talks about the challenges and rewards of conducting A Midsummer’s Night Dream at the Hamburg State Opera. T
Opera Canada6 min read
Michael ALBANO
MICHAEL PATRICK ALBANO is an opera director, librettist, dramaturg and educator who has had a major influence on generations of young people working in all aspects of opera. Currently he is resident stage director for UofT Opera. Today the notion tha
Opera Canada8 min read
EDMONTON OPERA OUT OF THE Ashes
At the end of the 2012-13 season, the company was bankrupt. Their expenses exceeded revenue by $1.7 million. Without an emergency injection of cash, they, like the companies in Hamilton and Ottawa, would have gone under. Fortunately for Edmonton Oper
Opera Canada3 min read
Calendar
Legend: C: conductor; D: stage director; Des: designer; Ctms: costumes; Lght: lighting; Chor: choreographer; *new production; **world premiere; ***national premiere; Op: opening date; M: matinée. Information correct as of Oct 11, 2017. Programs subje
Opera Canada43 min read
Opera in Review
On September 16, artistic director and conductor Sabatino Vacca launched Southern Ontario Lyric Opera’s (SOLO) 17/18 season with Puccini’s La bohème. The popular crowd-pleaser is so well known that it can be a mundane experience—however, this is not
Opera Canada10 min read
Opera At Home
SAINT-SAËNS Palazzetto Bru Zane: Opéra français, Vol. 15 Although Camille Saint- Saëns composed thirteen operas, Samson et Dalila tends to be the only one performed regularly today. Henry VIII, Les Barbares, Hélène, and many others have fallen into o
Opera Canada3 min read
The Final Take Music Baritone Peter McGillivray Can’t Live Without
This fall sees Sudbury-based, Saskatchewan-born baritone Peter McGillivray taking on roles both familiar and new. First he travels to Pacific Opera Victoria for their new production of Janácˇek’s Jenu˚fa in a role debut as Stárek, then to Calgary Ope

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