Opera Canada

Ruby Mercer Volume LXII Number 2 Edition 245 $9.95 Opera Canada Publications operacanada.ca CHAIR: David Speers David Giles—Past Chair Indi Gopinathan Jason Howard Peter Hunt Eva Innes Robert Morassutti—Vice Chair Rev. Edward Jackman (Honourary) Gian

Opera Canada is our country’s longest running, continually published arts journal. That it has achieved its 60th anniversary is a testament to generations of readers whose keen engagement with opera has demanded the type of critical, in-depth analysi

After World War Two, cultural critics looked at how the world had changed and announced that many traditional art forms had become outmoded. Figurative art was dead. The literary novel was dead. All of classical music was dead. The genre of classical

GERALD FINLEY: One of the things that is interesting is the fact that you live in the United States—does that impact your choice of role progression into what would be considered bigger or more developed repertoire? Is something like Tannhäuser—which

JORDAN DE SOUZA: What was it like to discover Vienna as a young person in the 60s and 70s? TIMOTHY VERNON: When I arrived to begin my studies in Vienna in 1965, the Staatsvertrag, which created the Second Austrian Republic, was only 10 years old. Wor

CAMELLIA KOO: How did you get your start in the industry? SUSAN BENSON: Both my mother and grandmother were in the theatre. I grew up in that atmosphere and it was always something that I wanted to be a part of. In the early 20th century, my grandmot

IAN RYE: So did you come to opera because of a connection to Tapestry or because you were drawn to the company? JAIME MARTINO: I was drawn to the company. I was looking around for my next move but nothing excited me the way that Tapestry excited me.

RAYMOND SOKALSKI [TRAC Y’S HUSBAND]: What was the opera that you first saw in Winnipeg? ANDRIANA CHUCHMAN: Hilariously, my first opera was probably when I was nine years old and it was Hansel & Gretel and I fell asleep halfway through. R: So what’s t

JUDITH FORST: So, how did you get your start in the industry? WALLIS GUINTA: My introduction to classical music and the idea of being able to sing for a living came through many years of singing in a prominent children’s choir in Ottawa. I started in

TERESA STRATAS IS UNQUESTIONABLY one of Canada’s most dynamic operatic stars. I’ve never had the chance to meet her, but have learned so much through her example. She first inspired me when I was learning about Kurt Weill; her album The Unknown Kurt

P. 4 photo by Chris Hutcheson. P. 7: photo by Barry Glass/courtesy of Vancouver Opera. P. 8: Bettmann/Getty Images. P. 9: photo courtesy of Library and Archives Canada. P. 10/11: photo by Michael Cooper. P. 12: photo by Gary Smith, used by permission