Spotlight on: Marjorie Maltais

Interview

Mezzo-soprano Marjorie Maltais first impressed me with her rich sound and feisty stage presence as Hermia in Opera on the Avalon's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Coveted mezzo roles like Rosina, Cenerentola and Carmen are also on Marjorie's résumé, and she recently wrote me from Santa Barbara, where she's enjoying her time with Marilyn Horne at the Music Academy of the West.

Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre

Interview

Baritone John Holland wrote me recently from Prague, Czech Republic (one of my favourite cities). He was there until recently as part of the Prague Summer Nights Young Artist Music Festival, singing Masetto in Don Giovanni. Sure, John got to go to a beautiful city to sing in a masterpiece opera, but he got to do it in the Estates Theatre, where Mozart conducted the premiere performance of Giovanni.

A Chair in Love. What, what?

Interview

This Friday, Opera By Request presents a semi-staged version of John Metcalf and Larry Tremblay's A Chair in Love. The 2005 opera about a man who falls in love with a chair is intriguing and bizarre enough to pique my interest. I had the chance to ask composer John Metcalf, music director William Shookhoff, and the show's cast about A Chair in Love, in the selfish hopes of figuring out what it's all about.

Putting on a show & other things instrumentalists can learn from singers

Op-ed

Ever since I started working more primarily with singers, I've learned a lot about what it means to be onstage. Unlike pianists, violinists, cellists, clarinetists, etc., singers are their instrument; this is the case when they're making sound, and when they're standing in silence during musical introductions, postludes, and interludes.

Potential orchestra mutiny and conductor envy

Op-ed

As a pianist and répétiteur, I don't envy conductors, either. Plenty of pianists do, and often their work repping in rehearsals or coaching singers is a stepping stone for them into the eventual world of conducting. I've never wanted to stand on the other side of the piano, largely because orchestras can be terrifying.

Music as Theatre: a chamber concert in Banff

Review

This week at The Banff Centre, the artists of Open Space: Opera in the 21st Century collaborated with the Master Class for Strings and Winds Program for an evening of chamber music at the Rolston Recital Hall. It sounds like your average chamber concert, but I promise you, it wasn't.

Così fan tutte: misogynist, or just unreasonable?

Op-ed

The other day I was fortunate to hear Graham Forst speak about Così fan tutte. If Graham's last name sounds familiar, it's because his wife is the formidable mezzo-soprano Judith Forst; they're both gracing The Banff Centre with their presences, she to teach, and he to get our minds a-spinning.

Despina in Banff

Op-ed

As the half way point of my time at The Banff Centre is coming up quickly, it seems like a great time to reflect on what it has been like staying in Banff and working on A Little Too Cozy.

"That concept production didn't work," & here's the real reason why

Op-ed

Instead of the lazy/meta/shock-value tactic, just commission an opera that tells the story you want to tell. Yep, that's a big ask, I know. It's a longer, riskier, more difficult process than slapping rape scenes onto Rossini, but I think it's the more creative way. Plus, it could be a serious killing of two birds with one stone; the stories would be organic (and still shocking, if you want - I'm no Victorian with what I want to see onstage), and it would be a great motivator to fuel the need for more contemporary operas.

Spotlight on: Danielle MacMillan

Interview

I first met mezzo-soprano Danielle MacMillan during the Canadian Opera Company's 2013 production of Peter Grimes, where she was one of the sassy Nieces keeping the Boar Pub interesting. Versatile like all good mezzos, Danielle is also preparing to sing Cherubino at Highlands Opera Studio's production of Le nozze di Figaro, this August/September.