Interviews

Talking with singers: Rihab Chaieb

Talking with singers: Rihab Chaieb

"I've started listening back to my metal band that I was in during high school. That's the whole reason I started signing, is to be in a metal band. I had this nostalgia of going back and starting a band again. It's something in the back of my mind as a mid-30s project: create a metal band and tour the world after being an opera singer!"

Jenna Simeonov
Talking with composers: Jonathan Dove

Talking with composers: Jonathan Dove

"I don't try to write anything down until it's already quite a long way to being finished in my mind. Before that, I just keep playing (piano or keyboard) until I have an idea that seems to have a future, and then follow where it leads."

Jenna Simeonov
Bon Appetit indeed: don't miss Muse 9's delicious, musical menu

Bon Appetit indeed: don't miss Muse 9's delicious, musical menu

"Julia Child was a woman of vision and passion, who carved her way through male dominated industry with grace and sense of humour. Even living in this modern day society, we as women are often faced with challenges and roadblocks that differ from men."

Jenna Simeonov
Talking with singers: Jennifer Zetlan

Talking with singers: Jennifer Zetlan

"I love to tell stories and I love great music, and I can't imagine a better blend of the two! That I get to do it for a living constantly astonishes me, no exaggeration."

Jenna Simeonov
Don't miss: Macbeth in Vancouver

Don't miss: Macbeth in Vancouver

"Treachery, swordfights, murders, wild women in the woods telling the future…what isn't to love? And the way Verdi tells the tale musically, he really makes my job easy – I just have to listen to what the music is asking of us."

Jenna Simeonov
Thomas Guthrie on puppetry and opera: "It's really magical."

Thomas Guthrie on puppetry and opera: "It's really magical."

"The biggest thing is believing yourself that the character is real, is alive. Then it draws on your own experiences, your own emotions, in order to communicate."

Jenna Simeonov
Stonewall: "Uplifting and eerily timely."

Stonewall: "Uplifting and eerily timely."

"I hope audiences will walk away inspired, with renewed strength to fight back against the oppression of marginalized communities."

Jenna Simeonov
Alek Shrader on directing Dido: "Ideas assail me."

Alek Shrader on directing Dido: "Ideas assail me."

"Tina Fey said 'If you want to be a screenwriter, take an acting class to get a sense of what you’re asking actors to do.' It's another perfect quote from one of my writing idols, and my performance experience definitely informs hypothetical staging."

Jenna Simeonov
Talking with conductors: Joseph Mechavich

Talking with conductors: Joseph Mechavich

"It is essential that both the director and conductor celebrate the singer-actor and love the act of storytelling. The awesome feat of the singer producing their sound and getting that sound into the house should be respected."

Jenna Simeonov
Talking with singers: Leonardo Capalbo

Talking with singers: Leonardo Capalbo

"I will not play Carlo as a wounded bird. He may lament the many things which he has lost in life, but his cries are not in vain."

Jenna Simeonov

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