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Photo: Kirsten Miccoli

Soprano Sara Schabas Wins IRCPA’s “Career Blueprint”

By Newswire on 9 November 2018 Newswire, Vocal

SOPRANO SARA SCHABAS GOES TO NEW YORK RECEIVES IRCPA’S “CAREER BLUEPRINT” AFTER NEW SINGING STARS PERFORMANCE AT ZOOMER HALL Soprano Sara Schabas of Toronto has been named recipient of a valuable “Career Blueprint”. The announcement was made Monday night at Zoomer Hall in Toronto after the concert New Singing Stars, featuring 11 young professional singers, presented by the International Resource Centre for Performing Artists (http://ircpa.net), and broadcast live on The New Classical FM with host Jean Stilwell. As a result of receiving the Career Blueprint, Ms. Schabas, 28 (www.saraschabas.com), will spend three days at the National Opera Center in New…

David Cangelosi: The Art of Singing Secondary Roles

By Adrian Rodriguez on 9 November 2018 Opera

In the glamorous world of opera most singers aspire to be the next star. Students rush to sing big arias such as “Nessun Dorma” or “Casta Diva” with the hopes of becoming the next Pavarotti or the next Callas. However, American tenor David Cangelosi recognized early in his career that he wanted to sing opera. Instead of chasing the primo uomo roles, he decided to put his acting talent and vocal intelligence to the service of secondary roles. His decision proved fruitful. Cangelosi is one of the few opera singers to remain relevant today after over 20 years of singing…

Alluring longueurs in restored Bayreuth Lohengrin

By Arthur Kaptainis on 9 November 2018 Concert Reviews, Opera

PRAGUE – Very strange. The knights and nobles were dressed in stylized medieval tunics and standing in orderly semicircles. When Lohengrin arrived, an alluring image of a swan appeared between two handsome panels of intertwining ivy. When Lohengrin did battle with Telramund, the combatants wielded realistic broadswords. This was a production from Bayreuth? Yes, from the Bayreuth of 1967, before the title character of Wagner’s opera was understood to be an electrician, as in the Lohengrin unveiled this past summer, or the citizens of Brabant were understood to be rats, as in the version premiered eight years earlier. We have…

Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s first appearances as Met Music Director

By Newswire on 7 November 2018 Newswire, Opera

Yannick Nézet-Séguin makes his first appearances as Met Music Director with a new production of La Traviata Diana Damrau sings Violetta, opposite Juan Diego Flórez as Alfredo and Quinn Kelsey as Germont Michael Mayer’s new production will be seen around the world as a part of the Met’s Live in HD series New York, NY (November 7, 2018)—The Metropolitan Opera’s new production of La Traviata, opening December 4, will be the first opera conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin as the Met’sJeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director. Soprano Diana Damrau, who made her acclaimed role debut as Violetta at the Met during the 2012–2013 season (with Maestro Nézet-Séguin on the podium),…

Baroque Opera and the Harpsichord

By Luc Beauséjour on 5 November 2018 Baroque and Early

My maternal grandmother introduced the sound of the harpsichord into our home. When I was still a child, she gave us records and her turntable. In quick succession, I discovered Bach’s Fourth and Fifth Brandenburg Concertos and, not long after, his famous Toccata in D minor for organ – preludes to my first listening of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. It was only much later, during a stay at the music camp founded by Father Lindsay, that I first laid my eyes on a harpsichord. We young campers were learning about musical history in a modest chalet nicknamed the Sorbonne – it…

Baroque Montreal: A Scene to Reckon with

By Olivier Brault on 5 November 2018 Baroque and Early, Violin

In a little less than 50 years, Montreal’s Baroque music scene has produced a steady flow of activities. It has delighted itself by mining the past and taking cues from many a fine role model. Initiatives are so numerous that the scene is now bursting at the seams while consolidating its reputation as one of the best of its kind on the continent. I have come to this conclusion in my travels as violin solo of the Cleveland-based Apollo’s Fire Baroque Orchestra. While Montreal may be far removed from the European soil that gave rise to this age-old music tradition,…

Baroque Passion

By Mélisande Corriveau on 5 November 2018 Baroque and Early

Baroque music, in my view, addresses the passions of humanity. In its heyday, it was a music of sophistication, elegance and exuberance, its essence profoundly humane. Those who expressed themselves through this medium were craftsmen who influenced its development, each honing his abilities according to whims and inspirations. As a genre, Baroque music is coded. There are certain ground rules, to be sure, but they are neither stringent nor imposing, simply understated. They constitute more of a framework for performers to engage with others with increased spontaneity and creative input. Ornamentation, dynamics, agogics, tempo, even the instrumentations themselves, are left…

Hank Knox, claveciniste

Hank Knox: The Paradox of Baroque Music

By Carol Xiong on 5 November 2018 Baroque and Early

One might assume a leading expert on Early Music to be esoteric. Hank Knox shatters this assumption. An entire side of Knox’s McGill University office is plastered with what he calls his “wall of shame,” posters of productions of students and himself, that by the looks of it, he had thumbtacked organically through the years on wherever there was still space. Knox has been director of the Early Music Program at McGill’s Schulich School of Music for more than 20 years. He is godfather of the school’s Cappella Antica (which is now directed by Grammy-award winning soprano Suzie LeBlanc) as well…

Soprano Hyunah Yu in the middle, flanked by players from Piffaro and Prism, at the premiere of “The Anchoress” at the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia); photo by Pete Checchia/Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

“The Anchoress” – Songs of a Soul in Solitude

By Charles Geyer on 4 November 2018 Art Song, Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Classical, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Experimental Jazz, Interviews, La Scena Online, Music Competition, Musical Theatre, Opera, Theatre, Vocal, World Music

REVIEW: of The Anchoress, a world premiere of a new musical monodrama/song cycle composed by David Serkin Ludwig with text by Katie Ford, performed by soprano Hyunah Yu, accompanied by saxophone quartet PRISM and ancient-instrument ensemble Piffaro; on Wednesday, October 17, at the Perelman Theatre of Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and on Thursday, October 18, at New York City’s DiMenna Center for Classical Music (the latter performance reviewed here); and INTERVIEWS: with composer David Ludwig and poet Katie Ford. The impulse to retreat from the world in search of spiritual insight or purity has manifested throughout human history. Twenty-one centuries of Christianity…

0022 – (l-r) Ensemble Studio Competition Second Prize winner Vartan Gabrielian, Third Prize winner Jamie Groote, Audience Choice Award and CBC Music Young Artist Development Prize winner Andrea Lett, and First Prize and CBC Music Young Artist Development Prize winner Matthew Cairns, Centre Stage 2018. Photo: Michael Cooper

Matthew Cairns Wins First Prize at COC’s 2018 Ensemble Studio Competition

By Newswire on 2 November 2018 Music Competition, Newswire, Opera

Toronto – Matthew Cairns of St. Catharines, ON took home First Prize at the Canadian Opera Company’s annual Ensemble Studio Competitionon November 1, 2018 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The competition is the feature event of the COC gala fundraiser Centre Stage, an annual celebration of Canada’s best young opera artists. Cairns was selected from eight finalists to receive the $5,000 award, supported by the Chair of the COC’s Board of Directors, as well as a performance opportunity at Ontario’s Elora Festival. Vartan Gabrielian of Toronto won the Second Prize of $3,000, and Jamie Groote of Toronto was awarded the Third Prize of $1,500. Andrea Lett of Prince Albert, SK took home the Audience Choice Award, worth $1,500. In…

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