Reviews

An excellent use of camp: Only an Octave Apart

An excellent use of camp: Only an Octave Apart

Musically, Only an Octave Apart has no business being so clever. The aria/song mash-ups are the product of a lot of thought and respect for the original works, but they're also so much fun.

Jenna Simeonov
Edmonton Opera delivers "all-the-feels" Bohème

Edmonton Opera delivers "all-the-feels" Bohème

The company has a triumphant opening night in spite of off-stage challenges.

Oliver Munar
Digital Svabda a ritualistic enigma, with some confusion

Digital Svabda a ritualistic enigma, with some confusion

I have to admit, after a while, the music did draw me in. This is an opera I suspect some people will have to sit with, but it will pull you into its language. And when it does, it does feel remarkably transformative afterwards.

Arturo Fernandez
Enchanting Production Brings Calgary Opera Back to Live, In-Person Audience

Enchanting Production Brings Calgary Opera Back to Live, In-Person Audience

On this night, the company’s full roster of emerging artists (now branded as the McPhee Artists in honour of the company’s longtime Artistic Director and CEO) enchanted the audience with a whimsical production that the whole family would enjoy.

Oliver Munar
Helios Opera brings hilarious Service Provider home

Helios Opera brings hilarious Service Provider home

Service Provider is essentially an opera all about cell phone use; the characters are on cell phones for most of the run-time, pretty much ignoring everything around them.

Arturo Fernandez
Obscura Nox: Plato meets Mozart and Iman Habibi in remarkable short film

Obscura Nox: Plato meets Mozart and Iman Habibi in remarkable short film

Under Mary Birnbaum's assured direction this harrowing and cerebral story moves in a refreshingly linear way. The extraordinary melding of music, voice, dance and photography, not to mention Plato's philosophical discourse, have melded in a way that leaves us artistically and emotionally sated.

John Hohmann
HGO Carmen "the epitome of unity"

HGO Carmen "the epitome of unity"

Everything about this production went out of its way to imbue the whole with artistic cohesion and integrity, even the elements that might have seemed vaguely avant-garde out of context.

Andrew Schneider
Enigma Opera’s Curlew River a transcendent experience

Enigma Opera’s Curlew River a transcendent experience

I chose my words very carefully when I call this Curlew River a transcendent experience: I am afraid I cannot fully explain the power that this particular production had and why it had that power, but I remember leaving the Cathedral Church of St. Paul feeling somewhat transformed by the experience.

Arturo Fernandez
Installation La traviata intimate and effective production

Installation La traviata intimate and effective production

La traviata hosts what is probably opera's most well-beloved idiot plot: all of the characters make some fairly idiotic choices for the plot to progress as it does, and some characters can really come off as extremely unlikable as a result.

Arturo Fernandez
Les Délices presents Song of Orpheus: The Music Speaks For Itself

Les Délices presents Song of Orpheus: The Music Speaks For Itself

The music is beautiful and speaks for itself. French Baroque rarities by Rameau, Dandrieu and Courbois dance with subdued, exuberant and often tremulous elegance around the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice.

John Hohmann

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