In review: The Talisker Players' Bestiary

Review

I went to a concert on Tuesday night, one of the Talisker Players' main concert series at Trinity St. Paul's United Church. I'd never been to see the Talisker Players, but I was lured both by singers Norine Burgess and Geoffrey Sirett, and by the evening's title: Creature to Creature.

My Train of Clicks Led Me To Marilyn Horne

Humour

I was browsing through r/Opera (which should be your new favourite place), and noticed on the sidebar a welcome message, in italiano. The message was clearly the text of an aria, and I was more than a little miffed that I couldn't immediately identify it.

Simon Cowell, stop it: An Update

Editorial

Yesterday I posted a link to a ridiculous track from 10-year-old Amira Willighagen's new album, produced by Simon Cowell's label, Syco Entertainment. The track was a duet version of Puccini's "Nessun dorma," which featured the dubbed and transposed voice of Luciano Pavarotti, taken without permission from one of his studio recordings of the aria.

Simon Cowell, stop it.

Editorial

Well, it's happened. Child opera singer (and human oxymoron) Amira Willighagen will release her first album, and it's going to be on Simon Cowell's label, Syco Entertainment. It features the poor little thing singing things like "O mio babbino caro" and dub-over duets with Luciano Pavarotti. Wait, what? Yup.

Opera Gossip is the best Gossip

I heard some interesting news through that long and winding operatic grapevine: Toronto's small and mighty opera companies are banding together! There are some great creative minds behind this indie opera collective, and the possibilities are even greater. By forming a collective, the companies will be able to share resources like performance venues, audition space, and their respective contact lists of singers.

That great scene in...

I'm on the House of Cards train, because I'm always rooting for the underdog. Kevin Spacey's the underdog, right? Anyway, I watched this brilliant scene play out in one of the episodes; it was one of those incredible scenes where both parties have clear objectives, but one party's objective is to screw the other party over.

Coming up in Toronto

Alright, it's Monday, and we're going to jump right in with a personal list of things to catch in Toronto as the weather warms up over the next little while.

In case you didn't see it...

A recent viral video has been pinging around social media-ville, showing an adorable little girl conducting along to choral music in church. And she conducts that choral music from her guts. Have a look:

Coming up on The Big COC Podcast...

Well, Schmopera is officially a veteran of the Big COC Podcast. Later this week, mark my third appearance on the COC's official podcast, joining guests Opera Canada editor Wayne Gooding and arts journalist Catherine Kustanczy (Hyperalleric, Torontoist). Host extraordinaire Gianmarco Segato will lead a chat about the latest current events in the opera world. What will the topics be? A little Met, a little elitism; but you'll have to listen to really find out. In the meantime, click here for archives of past episodes of the Big COC Podcast.

Cameron McPhail: On Competing

Interview

Last month, fellow colleague and buddy Cameron McPhail was named a winner of the George London Foundation Awards Competition. Way to go, Cam! I asked the COC Ensemble Studio member how it felt: