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Metropolitan Opera Guild Ceases Operations; Opera News joins Opera Magazine

By Eva Stone-Barney on 16 August 2023 Arts Industry, Classical Music, La Scena Online, Opera

The Metropolitan Opera Guild has announced that it plans to scale back its operations fairly significantly this year, following an extended period of economic challenges. Founded in 1935 by Mrs. August Belmont, the Met Opera Guild has existed as an independent not-for-profit organization, completely separate from the Metropolitan Opera. All 20 of the Guild’s current employees will receive severance packages, with some moving to positions at the Met. Its board members, meanwhile, will all be offered positions on the Met Board. This overhaul will see the end of the Guild’s monthly publication, Opera News, which will move under the editorial…

Photo: Daniel Dufour

Review | ItalfestMTL 2023: An ideal evening For an Opera Buffa in Three Acts, Under a Mild Sky

By Dino Spaziani on 11 August 2023 Concert Reviews, Opera

In previous years, the week-long Italfest had culminated in this unique event, the only one of its kind in Montreal. This year, though, the festival is much longer than just one week, running from August 4th to 20th. What’s more, instead of taking place on rue Saint-Laurent, between Bellechasse and Jean-Talon, the festival’s activities are happening at Quartier des spectacles, and elsewhere in the city where there are branches of the Italian community. With ideal weather conditions, and an orchestra of about twenty musicians conducted by Maestro Jean-Michel Malouf, the open-air opera offered audiences the chance to hear beautiful…

Joel Ivany. Photo: Taylor Long

Newswire | Founder & Artistic Director Joel Ivany Stepping Back from Against the Grain Theatre

By Newswire on 13 July 2023 Newswire, Opera, Vocal

TORONTO (July 12, 2023) – Against the Grain Theatre (“AtG”), Canada’s award-winning experimental opera company, announces its esteemed Founder and Artistic Director, Joel Ivany, will be stepping back after thirteen (13) years of service. After a remarkable tenure of visionary leadership, Ivany has made the decision to step down from his role on the heels of a successful season for AtG, with its first live production since the COVID-19 pandemic, Bluebeard’s Castle, earning seven (7) Dora nominations and winning three (3) including Outstanding Opera Production. “This decision to leave AtG was the hardest of my career. My next chapter of life…

Lebrecht Weekly | Benjamin Appl: Forbidden Fruit (Alpha Classics)

By Norman Lebrecht on 9 June 2023 Lebrecht Weekly, Opera, Vocal

Franz Schubert knew what he was doing when he wrote songs in cycles. It stopped singers from taking them pick-and-mix for recitals that showcased their own gifts rather than the composer’s. The art of creating a voice and piano recital has receded in the present century with very few – Matthias Goerne and Alice Coote spring to mind among recent, coherent exceptions – willing and able to pitch a programme in which the individual songs relate to one another and to a larger idea. Welcome, then, this new release by the German baritone Benjamin Appl and his British pianist James…

Newswire | Korean Baritone Taehan Kim Wins the 2023 Queen Elisabeth Voice Competition

By Newswire on 5 June 2023 Music Competition, Newswire, Opera, Vocal

Brussels, May 5, 2023 – The International Queen Elisabeth Grand Prize – Queen Mathilde Prize receives EUR 25.000 and numerous concerts in Belgium and abroad. The ranking of the laureates INTERNATIONAL QUEEN ELISABETH GRAND PRIZE : €25.000 First Prize – Queen Mathilde Prize Taehan Kim BELGIAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PRIZE : €20.000 Second Prize, awarded by the Belgian Science Policy Jasmin White COUNT DE LAUNOIT PRIZE : €17.000 Third Prize Julia Muzychenko-Greenhalgh PRIZE OF THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE BELGIAN COMMUNITIES : €12.500 Fourth Prize, this year awarded by the Government of the Federation Wallonia-Brussels Floriane Hasler BRUSSELS-CAPITAL REGION PRIZE : €10.000…

CD Review | Ave Maria (Decca Classics, 2023)

By Zenith Wolfe on 29 May 2023 Classical Music, Opera, Vocal

Ave Maria Joseph Calleja, tenor; Étienne Dupuis, baritone; Daniel Hope, violin; Malta Philharmonic Orchestra; Sergey Smbatyan, conductor Decca Classics, 2023 To celebrate his 20th year with Decca Records, Joseph Calleja has undertaken his first sacred music album: Ave Maria. It offers four beautiful renditions of this classic piece, originally composed by Schubert for the third canto of “The Lady of the Lake,” now arranged for orchestra and tenor. They’re also accompanied by various works by Rossini, Verdi, Bizet and Wagner. The first half of the album displays the controlled beauty of these adaptations; the melodies of the violin and Malta…

Isidore String Quartet

Festival Picks

By Eva Stone-Barney on 26 May 2023 Baroque and Early, Canadian Music, Chamber Music, Choral, Classical, Classical Music, Contemporary, Opera, Orchestral, Piano, Strings, Vocal

Author : (Eva Stone-Barney)

MONTREAL/QUEBEC Centre Culturel de Pointe-Claire In an effort to make cultural programming accessible to its residents, and breathe life into public park spaces, the Centre Culturel de Pointe-Claire will present a series of free concerts as part of their Summer Evenings in the Parks / Summer Beats in the Parks Festival. Running from June 28 to Aug. 16, the festival will consist of 10 concerts in parks across the city. Starting at Stewart Park on June 28, audiences are invited to a concert of world music titled Paul Kunigis: Yallah. Performances of blues, Latin jazz, world jazz, and Brazilian percussion…

Highlands Opera Studio: Finding New Ears in Haliburton, Ont.

By Eva Stone-Barney on 26 May 2023 Education, Opera

Author : (Eva Stone-Barney)

For the last 17 summers, Canada’s promising opera singers have flocked to Haliburton, Ont., to participate in the Highlands Opera Studio (HOS) which, this year, takes place July 27 to Aug. 28. The professional training academy and festival was brought to life by internationally renowned tenor Richard Margison and former Metropolitan Opera stage director Valerie Kuinka who, as Kuinka put it, “recognized a disconnect between high-level training programs and the professional world.” The pair identified the need to assist early career singers by offering high-level musical opportunities, as well as exposure to industry professionals. They have been filling that gap…

Newswire | 2023 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Voice Announce 12 Finalists Including Two Canadians

By Newswire on 25 May 2023 Art Song, Newswire, Opera, Vocal

Brussels, Belgium (May 25, 2023) – The final of the 2023 Voice Competition will be held at the Brussels Centre for Fine Arts on Thursday 1 to Saturday 3 June, 8.15pm. Presenting the twelve finalists : Fleuranne Brockway, mezzo-soprano Daniel Gwon, baritono Floriane Hasler, mezzo-soprano Inho Jeong, basso Taehan Kim, baritono Juliette Mey, mezzo-soprano Julia Muzychenko-Greenhalgh, soprano Anna-Sophie Neher, soprano Carole-Anne Roussel, soprano Sílvia Sequeira, soprano Maria Warenberg, mezzo-soprano Jasmin White, contralto Via this link you can read more about the finalists and download their photos on their personal pages. The biographies of the finalists will be available on the press…

Photo: Michael Cooper

Review | Canadian Opera Company’s Macbeth a Hit with some Misses

By Denise Lai on 8 May 2023 City, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

Emboldened by witches’ prophesies and with strong encouragement from his wife, Macbeth turns into a power-thirsty man who uses violence to annihilate everything in his way to seize Scotland’s throne. Verdi’s ominous score is enhanced by dramatic stage effects: dark sets punctuated by thunder and lightning; ghostly appearances of witches and three demonic children; bloodied bodies rising from the dead. Although the murders are all swiftly carried out, David McVicar‘s COC/Chicago co-production delivers a longing sense of foreboding and some genuinely frightening moments. What you missed There was all-round good singing from the male leads. American baritone Quinn Kelsey’s debut…

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