This weekend: Songbook V

Interview

This Saturday, January 24th, Tapestry Opera presents Songbook V. It’s a one-night-only concert, featuring excerpts from Tapestry’s library of Canadian opera. Baritone Peter McGillivray and pianist Steven Philcox will perform along with the singers and pianists of Tapestry Opera’s New Opera 101 program.

Talking with Singers: Jessica Muirhead

Interview

Canadian soprano Jessica Muirhead is ready to take the stage as Pamina in Edmonton Opera's production of The Magic Flute, opening January 31st. Jessica last appeared at the Canadian Opera Company as Micaëla in their 2010 production of Carmen. She's stayed busy across the pond at the Vienna Volksoper (Pamina, Agathe, Antonia), Semperoper Dresden (Marguerite, Mimì), and she just finished a touring production of Carmen with Welsh National Opera.

Schmopera on the radio

Editorial

Readers, listen up! This coming Wednesday, January 21st, I get to join arts writer Catherine Kustanczy (Hyperallergic, xoJane, Opera News) on her brand new radio show, Hydra. The topic? Don Giovanni: we love to hate the Don, and opera companies love to put up Mozart’s “perfect” tale of history’s most ubiquitous womanizer.

#COC1516

Editorial

Alright, it's official! The Canadian Opera Company has announced their line-up for the 2015/16 season. This year the event was grand in scale, taking place in the theatre at the Four Seasons Centre, with the full COC Orchestra downstage of the looming set for the upcoming Die Walküre.

In Toronto: David Lang's The Whisper Opera

Editorial

Soundstreams welcomes the Canadian premiere of David Lang‘s The Whisper Opera at The Theatre Centre from February 26-March 1st. Performing the work are soprano Tony Arnold and New York’s International Contemporary Ensemble, also giving their Canadian debuts. The Whisper Opera grew out of the question, “What if a piece were so quiet and intimate and so personal to the performers that you needed to be right next to them or you would hear almost nothing?”

If opera characters went to the opera

Humour

It’s time for some beautifully nerdy, utterly hypothetical, and completely meta musings. Sure, the next few paragraphs won’t really contain any practically useful information, but it’s hard to stop me once I’ve gotten on the character-deconstruction-train that is dramaturgy. It’s my favourite pastime, and now I’m sharing it with you. I present to you all the following hypothetical: if opera characters went to the opera, what would they see? Photo: Werther after a really bad night at the opera.

Beardism, the Lumbersexual, and the Young Performer

Op-ed

This post isn’t so much about singing or opera or theatre in the usual sense. I just wanted to talk about one of the parts of our industry that sort of gets taken for granted by the audience. I make that statement because I’m guilty of it. I also opened with that little bit of a diatribe so that I can hope make a point stronger.

Help Get Diana to the Opera

Editorial

A Chicago-based non-profit organization is trying to help 92-year-old Diana see her first opera in about 8 years. One Dream has set up a crowdfunding campaign, hoping to raise $1400 to pay for Diana’s ticket for a Lyric Opera of Chicago production, as well as handicap accessible transportation, and a videographer to capture her night out.

In review: Anne Sofie von Otter and Angela Hewitt

Review

Last night I went to see famed mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and star pianist Angela Hewitt in recital. I couldn’t believe my luck; these two women are both artists whom I’ve wanted to hear live for years, and here they both were at the very convenient Koerner Hall. They performed a focused, cohesive program.

Kristine Dandavino on Oshawa Opera

Interview

In the midst of grim news for plenty of North American companies, I love to hear about new places to catch some opera. Mezzo-soprano Kristine Dandavino is Artistic Director of Oshawa Opera, founded in 2013, and looking forward to finishing its second season this April with La traviata on April 19th, and a reprisal of Norma on April 25th. I’m always in awe of people who start opera companies, no matter what size, and so I took the chance to ask Kristine a bit about this new company in what is perhaps an unlikely community for opera.