The AGO, now with more music!

News

The AGO has partnered with Tapestry Opera to launch a new concert series on Friday evenings, each featuring music go to hand-in-hand with what's on at the Gallery. Yesterday the AGO launched J.M.W. Turner: Painting Set Free, an exhibition of over 50 large-scale paintings and watercolours by British artist Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851).

Meet the new Atelier lyrique: Caroline Gélinas

Mezzo-soprano Caroline Gélinas has begun her first season as a member of the Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal, and this month she'll have her performance on the mainstage in Strauss' Elektra. Caroline is from a small village in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, and she talks about her passion for the outdoors, and how her hikes in the woods fostered a love of singing.

Meet the new Atelier lyrique: Kevin Geddes

Interview

Tenor Kevin Geddes, is originally from Québec City, QC, and this is his first season with the Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal. Videographer Anne Kostalas followed Kevin to Montréal's Poutinefest, where he chats about his roots in AC/DC, Pink Floyd, and high school musicals.

In review: Opera Atelier's Armide

Review

Earlier this month I spoke with OA Artistic Director Marshall Pynkoski, who said, "love can be something that saves people or destroys people. Love is amoral. Love cuts through like a knife – anyone in love is cut open. Love is more powerful than hate, but that doesn’t mean it’s a happy ending."

Happy Hallowe'en, Miles...

Editorial

I'm always looking for an excuse for more Benjamin Britten, and thankfully he wrote the notoriously creepy opera based on Henry James' novella, The Turn of the Screw. It's got ghosts, troubled kids, maybe a haunted house, maybe some mental illness, and the general eeriness of what I imagine is a damp, foggy English countryside.

Talking with singers: Joyce El-Khoury

Interview

Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury is the perfect person to ask about Violetta Valéry, the heroine of Verdi's beloved La traviata. She has sung the role in over twelve productions, including at Welsh National Opera, Palm Beach Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, and currently with the Royal Opera House.

In review: David Warrack's Abraham

Review

Wednesday, October 28, 2015 at the Metropolitan United Church on the corner of Queen Street East and Church Street in the heart of Downtown Toronto was the the premiere of a new Canadian work by composer David Warrack.

Weird & wonderful: Toronto Darknet Market

Review

Last night I went to Mây on Dundas West for one of the most compact, strange evenings of music theatre I've ever seen. Canadian tenor Jonathan MacArthur, Loose TEA Music Theatre Artistic Director Alaina Viau, and Fawn Chamber Creative Artistic Director Amanda Smith have collaborated on Toronto Darknet Market, a fundraising event for Medée Toronto's 2016 production of Medée by Charpentier.

Managing the unexpected

Op-ed

Risk-proof your life. That’s what the personal finance experts will tell you. Well, experts... The prospect of ‘risk-proofing’ an artist's life seems pretty dang daunting. Do you guys ever feel like there’s nothing in this business that you can actually control?

Reconstructing a lost opera: Amleto

Interview

There's Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Thomas Adès' The Tempest, and of course, Verdi's Otello and Falstaff. There's also Hamlet, the opera by Ambroise Thomas, but did you know there's an Italian Amleto (#essereononessere), composed by one of Verdi's contemporaries with text by Shakespeare-friendly librettist Arrigo Boito?