Romantic - my/maSCENA

Leif Ove Andsnes, piano. Photo: Helge Hansen

Leif Ove Andsnes : The View from Above

By Justin Bernard on 4 September 2025 Contemporary, Interviews, Piano, Romantic

Leif Ove Andsnes rarely takes time off from music. Winter, summer, spring, autumn—it fills his days and, sometimes, his nights. At 9:30 p.m. on the evening of our Zoom meeting, the Norwegian pianist was getting ready to sit down at the keyboard for another rehearsal session. His concerts at the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival on the west coast of Norway and then at the Chamber Music Festival in the capital, Oslo, had barely ended when the artist was already looking ahead to the new season that awaits him. And what a season it will be! In the space of just…

Michael McMahon, piano. Photo: TamPhotography

Michael McMahon: The Singer’s Pianist

By Emma Yee on 3 September 2025 Art Song, Interviews, Piano, Romantic

By Emma Yee; interview by Wah Keung Chan Not many pianists, no matter how accomplished, can say they learned lieder from Elly Ameling; taught alongside famed language and diction pedagogue Nico Castel; and accompanied Maureen Forrester, Gerald Finley, Richard Margison, and Catherine Robbin. Or have been passed the torch by the founders of McGill University’s famous opera and song interpretation programs. But as Michael McMahon says, he’s “worked really hard, not because [I have] to, but because [I love] it so much.” The pianist and professor who, on April 17, 2025, was awarded the Order of Canada. McMahon grew up…

Erica Petrocelli (Jitka); Members of the Bard Festival Chorale; "Dalibor" by Bedřich Smetana; Bard SummerScape 2025; photo by Maria Baranova

A Czech Masterpiece Reclaimed – “Dalibor” at Bard SummerScape

By Charles Geyer on 31 July 2025 Choral, Classical Music, Opera, Romantic, Theatre

Czech composer Bedřich Smetana, most famous for his comic “folk” opera, The Bartered Bride (Prodaná nevěsta), culled from the myth-shrouded annals of Czech history the material for his only foray into tragic opera, Dalibor. The result is a lush, melodic late Romantic tale of knights, vendettas, heroic resistance, chivalric romance, and – most centrally – male bonding that reaches beyond the grave. And as this year’s featured opera highlight at Bard College’s 2025 SummerScape festival (Annandale-on-Hudson, New York), Dalibor is being accorded what appears to be its historic first-ever fully-staged professional production in America. Czech-ered Past… Premiering in Prague in…

Roberto Alagna as Don José (left), and Elīna Garanča as Carmen (right)

Carmen at 150: A Listener’s Guide

By Adrian Rodriguez on 31 March 2025 Opera, Romantic

“L’amour est un oiseau rebelle que nul ne peut apprivoiser, Et c’est bien en vain qu’on l’appelle, S’il lui convient de refuser.” With these lines, Georges Bizet’s Carmen bursts onto the stage, declaring that love is wild, untameable, and indifferent to human desire. This is the heart of Carmen: a tale of irresistible attraction and fatal freedom, set against the sun-drenched streets of Seville. Nearly 150 years after its premiere, Carmen remains a fan favourite. According to OperaBase, it is the third most performed opera in the world, with 19,405 performances across 4,686 productions, including 232 performances in Canada. History…

Marie-Nicole-Lemieux in the role of Carmen at the Chorégies d'Orange. Photo: Christophe Agostinis

Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Carmen: A Canadian first

By Justin Bernard on 31 March 2025 Interviews, Opera, Romantic

If Marie-Nicole Lemieux’s arrival in Canada—and in Quebec, in particular—is always an event, what can we say about her local debut in Bizet’s Carmen, which celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2025! Her very first take on the role dates back to 2017, in Paris, alongside tenor Michael Spyres. “I was ready to sing Carmen long before I did it,” she says. “I was waiting for a conductor to have the courage to entrust me with the role, and that was Michel Franck, general director of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Let’s face it, Carmen is mostly given to tall brunettes, which…

Andrei Feher, Bryan Cheng and Daniel Bartolomew-Poyser. Photo of Bryan Cheng by Andrej Grilc.

Orchestre symphonique de Laval: Two Conductors, Two Visions

By Justin Bernard on 31 March 2025 Orchestral, Romantic

One month apart, Orchestre symphonique de Laval (OSL) is presenting two concerts with dissimilar repertoires and moods, but they are linked by a name that resonates: Brahms the Romantic. These concerts are also an opportunity to get to know two young conductors with complementary visions. Symphonic Jazz Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser grew up in Montreal and then moved to Calgary. His professional career has taken him to the United States, Ontario and Nova Scotia, among other places. His April 16 OSL concert at Salle André-Mathieu will mark his second return to Quebec in just over a year. On the program are compositions…

Sarah Dufresne (Ophélie). Photo: Vivien Gaumand

Review | Opéra de Montréal: Hamlet or Ophélie’s Triumph

By Justin Bernard on 21 November 2024 Concert Reviews, Opera, Romantic

On Nov. 16, Opéra de Montréal (OdeM) took up the challenge of presenting a little-known work from the French repertoire for the first time in its recent history. Of the entire production, conductor Jacques Lacombe was the only one to have performed it before. It sure speaks for the rarity of this Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas. But what a discovery, what an abundance of musical themes, what genius of orchestration! Without analysing the score in detail, we can legitimately be enthusiastic about the saxophone solo at the start of Act II, Scene 2, a gesture as astonishing as it is…

Crédit photo: David Mendoza Hélaine

Les Violons du Roy: 40 Years of Musical History

By Justin Bernard on 8 November 2024 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Romantic

The 2024-25 season marks the 40th anniversary of Les Violons du Roy. Founded by Bernard Labadie in 1984, the Quebec City chamber orchestra first made a name for itself with concerts and recordings of Baroque repertoire, before tackling a whole range of works from different eras—from classical to contemporary to Romantic—over the past few decades. The programming of this new season is a tribute to the diversity of the ensemble’s repertoire. Les Violons du Roy opened its current season with Mozart quartets and quintets. Next came Bach cantatas with countertenor Hugh Cutting, followed by a touring Handel program with the…

Clockwise top L-R: Teiya Kasahara; Geoffrey Sirett; Andrew Haji; Rose Naggar-Tremblay

Concert Review | Toronto Mendelssohn Choir’s shock & awe Verdi Requiem

By Gianmarco Segato on 29 April 2024 Choral, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Romantic, Toronto

Toronto Mendelssohn Choir under Jean-Sébastien Vallée delivered a hugely affecting Verdi Requiem at George Weston Recital Hall.

Lebrecht Weekly | Bezhod Abduraimov: Shadows of My Ancestors (Alpha-Classics)

By Norman Lebrecht on 23 February 2024 Lebrecht Weekly, Piano, Romantic

In the more sentimental pieces of the Prokofiev set on this new album, Bezhod Abduraimov melts the listener’s heart like spring snows.

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