After a career that ranged from manufacturing flavours for potato chips to developing strategies to allow IT to support best practice in cancer care, John Gilks is spending his retirement writing about classical music, opera and theatre. Based in Toronto, he has a taste for the new, the unusual and the obscure whether that means opera drawn from 1950s horror films or mainly forgotten French masterpieces from the long 19th century. Once a rugby player and referee, he now expends his physical energy on playing with a cat appropriately named for Richard Strauss’ Elektra.
Puccini Heroines Sondra Radvanovsky, soprano; Lyric Opera of Chicago Orchestra; Enrique Mazzola, conductor Pentatone, 2026 Puccini Heroines is a sort of followup to Sondra Radvanovsky’s…
Stravinsky: Sankofa, The Soldier’s Tale Retold & Histoire du soldat Suite Art of Time Ensemble; Andrew Burashko, musical director Leaf Music, 2026 Sankofa takes the…
Aribert Reimann: Ein Traumspiel; Denn Bleiben ist nirgends Franziska Rabl, mezzo-soprano; Karsten Jesgarz, tenor; James Tolksdorf, baritone; Marek Reichert, baritone; Opernchor Theater Hof; Hofer Symphoniker;…
Mark Abel: 4.4.2 Simone McIntosh, mezzo-soprano; Michael McMahon, piano; Alice K. Dade, flute and piccolo; Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano; Jennifer Choi, violin; Jonah Kim, cello; Keisuke…
Boulanger/Pugno: La ville morte Melissa Harvey, soprano; Laurie Rubin, mezzo-soprano; Joshua Dennis, tenor; Jorell Williams, baritone; Talea Ensemble; Neil Goren, conductor Pentatone, 2025 La ville…
Monica Pearce: December Maureen Batt, Erin Bardua & Danielle Buonaiuto, sopranos; Tara Scott, conductor Leaf Music, 2025 December is a very short (20-minute) opera by…
Weill: The Seven Deadly Sins Wallis Giunta, mezzo-soprano; Jennifer France, soprano; Katarina Andreasson, violin; Benjamin Herzl, violin; Swedish Chamber Orchestra; HK Gruber, conductor BIS, 2026…
Philippe Jaroussky — Gelosia! Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor; Artaserse Erato, 2025 The latest recording of Italian cantatas by countertenor Philippe Jaroussky and his own baroque ensemble,…
Pidgorna: Invented Folksongs Anna Pidgorna, composer & vocals; Ludovico Ensemble Red Shift Records In 2012-13 Ukrainian/Canadian composer and vocalist Anna Pidgorna visited Ukraine to…
Staniland: Calamus Jane Leibel, soprano; Vernon Regehr, cello; Robert Chafe, narrator Leaf Music Andrew Staniland’s Calamus is a setting of four poems from Walt Whitman’s…