He said/she said: Songbook V

Review

Marking the end of my weekend hat-trick of stuff to see, was Tapestry’s Songbook V. It’s the fifth year of Tapestry’s New Opera 101 Program, which gives singers and pianists a chance to work on contemporary opera with some of the best in the business; the rep is chosen from within Tapestry’s impressive library of commissions.

In review: Modern (Family) Opera

Review

Last night Opera 5 opened their double bill, Modern (Family) Opera, which was made up of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s Il segreto di Susanna and the world première of Darren Russo’s new opera, Storybook. Stage directors Grace Smith (Wolf-Ferrari) and Opera 5 Artistic Director Aria Umezawa shared the double bill, bringing their unique styles to two pieces that couldn’t have been more different.

Regietheater? Ja oder nein?

Op-ed

This past weekend, I attended The Opera Exchange, an event presented semi-regularly by the Canadian Opera Company to discuss relevant opera topics, structured around the COC’s current season. With Dmitri Tcherniakov’s production of Don Giovanni set to open on January 24th at the Four Seasons Centre, it was a good opportunity to chat about that polarizing topic, Regietheater, or director’s theatre.

In review: Mozart's Obscure Opera + Mass in C Minor

Review

Thursday night was the first of three concerts to be given by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, programming Mozart’s fantastic Mass in C Minor, K. 427, with fragments of two of his lesser-known operas, Lo sposo deluso and Zaide (K. 430 and 344, respectively). Paul Goodwin conducts the TSO, both the Amadeus Choir and the Elmer Iseler Singers, as well as the evening’s line up of formidable singers: soprano Hélène Guilmette, mezzo Julie Boulianne, tenors John Tessier and Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure, and baritone Gordon Bintner.

In review: Songs of Love and War

Review

At lunchtime on Thursday, January 22nd, members of the COC Ensemble Studio gave a concert in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre. Just past the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the music on this concert dealt with themes of war, love, and separation; we heard songs by Erich Korngold, Charles Ives, Hanns Eisler, and Francis Poulenc.

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?”