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Opera review: Against the Grain’s Turn of the Screw the best sort of Britten
Against the Grain Theatre has, with its first attempt to mount opera in a traditional theatre space, achieved that rarest of wonders: a production that succeeds on all levels. Based on Saturday’s show,...
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Interview: Caitlin Smith tries to balance personal and political in new opera...
Opera lives and dies by the force of conflict — most often on questions of love and fidelity that have nothing overtly to do with current events. Toronto composer Caitlin Smith is merging the two in a...
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DVD Review: Leos Janácek’s music at its most visceral in Salzburg Makropulos...
I can’t help thinking that Claudio Monteverdi would smile at the operatic accomplishments of Leos Janácek. Monteverdi and his peers worked hard at developing a new form of drama that would enhance the...
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Arts portion of Canada Council Molson Prize awarded to Queen of Puddings...
Queen of Puddings Music Theatre co-founder Dáirine Ní Mheadhra is the arts winner of this year’s $50,000 Molson Prize, awarded and administered by the Canada Council. It’s a significant sum and...
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Opera review: Toronto premiere of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha a significant...
This is a guest review by Toronto soprano Mary Lou Fallis: Scott Joplin’s opera Treemonisha had its Canadian Premiere at the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall on Tuesday night. It was the last concert...
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Preview: Laura’s Cow a witty, charming new stage arrival from the Canadian...
Toronto’s Canadian Children’s Opera Company has not pulled a rabbit out of its hat for this year’s Luminato festival. It’s a cow — and a charming one at that. The country’s only full-scale children’s...
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Essay: Toronto Symphony’s Mahler 8 an epic-scale peek into a conflicted soul
Tonight, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra offers a picture-window view of the tourtured soul translated into music with the first of two performances of Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony of 1,000,” aka his...
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Concert review: Henry Purcell opera Dido and Aeneas gets a setting equal to...
If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to experience music from inside an acoustic instrument like a guitar or a cello, a concert at the Sharon Temple will give you a pretty good idea. The...
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Soprano Xin Wang only Torontonian among opera winners of Dora Awards
The Canadian Opera Company did well at the 2012 Dora Awards, Toronto’s annual salute to its theatre, musical theatre, opera and dance productions. The company earned two awards for its presentation of...
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Opera review: The Auction fits into its Westben festival setting like a...
It’s mystifying that one has to leave Toronto in order to see the premiere of a new, full-length Canadian opera. We’re lucky that Westben festival co-founders Brian Finley and Donna Bennett have had...
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Listening: The ghosts of Wagners future and past hover over Gluck, Elgar and...
Grabbing the heart with text and music takes many forms. This weekend, we have a chance to sample opera reduced to its essence, and two very operatic ways of crafting oratorio and cantata. The first...
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An operatic synonym for bittersweet at the Gladstone Hotel
Scott Belluz and Tracy Smith Bessette in Ross Manson and Ashiq Aziz’s A Synonym for Love, adapted from an opera by George Frideric Handel, at the Gladstone Hotel (John Terauds iPhone photo). The...
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Opera review: A clever blend of Baroque and modern in A Synonym for Love at...
Emily Atkinson as Teresa in Volcano Theatre and Classical Music Consort production of A Synonym for Love at the Gladstone Hotel (John Lauener photo). Take something like an opera, give it something...
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CD Reviews: A magnificent trinity of early Baroque vocal riches from England...
Anne Sofie von otter sings opera arias by Monteverdi, Cavalli and others. ANNE SOFIE VON OTTER Sogno Barocco (Naïve) Sultry-voiced Swedish mezzo Anne Sofie von Otter uses her remarkable powers of...
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The power of four in music on view at Toronto International Film Festival
Mark Ivanir, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Chirstopher Walken and Catherine Keener star in A Late Quartet. The Brentano Quartet did the actual playing — and they’re in town for a Music Toronto recital on...
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CD Reviews: Europe’s libraries turn up forgotten Baroque opera and sacred...
The lavish period-style production of Leonardo Vinci’s La Partenope premiered by Neapolitan historical performance conductor Antonio Florio in 2004 is now released on CD from a live performance in...
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Album reviews: Opera sopranos Renée Fleming and Karina Gauvin in delectable...
Karina Gauvin is richly expressive in opera arias written by Handel for soprano Anna Maria Strada. Here are three excellent early arrivals in the fall opera/vocal album bonanaza, starting with Canadian...
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Opera review: Canadian Opera Company’s Il Trovatore worthy of master composer...
Elza van den Heever and Ramón Vargas in the Canadian Opera Company’s season-opening production of Il Trovatore (Michael Cooper photo). Even in the world’s most storied opera houses it is so rare to get...
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How to enjoy opera without trying too hard: a simple guide for the curious
(New Yorker cartoon) Sometimes we get caught in a vicious circle where people are intimidated by classical music or opera and, in return, those who love it try too hard in the wrong way to find the...
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Review: Christopher Alden puts bats in Canadian Opera Company Die Fledermaus...
David Pomeroy, James Westman and Tamara Wilson cavort in the Canadian Opera Company’s new production of Johann Strauss Jr’s Die Fledermaus (Michael Cooper photo). The Canadian Opera Celebrated the...
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