This season, the remarkable Opera Atelier is celebrating its 30th anniversary. During these three decades, the company has continued to educate the audience in the delicacies of baroque opera. In other words, for long-time fans of the company, the concept of 17th and 18th century performance practices seems completely natural, as opposed to the aesthetic […]
Toronto Operetta Theatre took a big leap of faith in 2008 by mounting the world premiere of the Canadian operetta, EARNEST, The Importance of Being. Here’s a quote from my 2008 review for Classical 96 FM. “A new Canadian music work is a significant event, and the charming chamber operetta EARNEST, The Importance of Being, […]
This is the age of the auteur opera director. With the endlessly repeating standard repertoire a fact of opera life, companies are now searching for productions that give a fresh take on the classics. New opera, of course, is always going to be fresh. Thus, directors and their visions are what drive opera productions these days. The […]
I had heard through friends that the Oshawa-based Ontario Philharmonic was not your average community orchestra, and that turned out to be correct. In fact, OP is a crackerjack professional orchestra. The guest concertmaster was none other than the excellent Marie Bérard who is concertmaster of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra. It’s hard to imagine […]
The first act of the COC’s production of The Tales of Hoffmann is worth the price of admission. English director Lee Blakeley has done such a brilliant job with Olympia (Andriana Chuchman), that we can forgive the messy Guilietta (Keri Alkema) act, and puzzling Prologue and Epilogue. His Antonia (Erin Wall) act falls somewhere in between […]
