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Vancouver Opera’s 2025 production of Flight. Photo: David Cooper Photography

Review | Vancouver Opera’s Flight: Laugh Until You Cry

By Kaitlyn Chan on 12 February 2025 Concert Reviews, Opera, Vancouver, Vocal

On Feb. 8, Vancouver Opera presented the local premiere of Jonathan Dove’s 1998 opera, Flight. This opera—inspired by the true story of an Iranian refugee stranded in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport for 18 years—is an emotional rollercoaster ride from the comedic to the heart-wrenching. The production originated at Pacific Opera Victoria in early 2020, just before the pandemic shut down. Stage direction was entrusted there to veteran Canadian theatre legend Morris Panych who has revived his retro-1960s vision for Vancouver Opera. At the start of the opera, Ken MacDonald’s set design looked quite simple with a tall control tower…

Scene from Paris Opera's I puritani. Photo: Sebastien Mathe

Review | Lisette Oropesa Triumphs in Misguided Paris I puritani

By Ossama el Naggar on 11 February 2025 Concert Reviews, Opera

Bellini’s final opera, I puritani (1835), premiered shortly before the composer’s untimely death by accidental poisoning. It is one of the highpoints in the romantic Italian bel canto repertoire, leaving us to wonder what other masterpieces Bellini might have written had he lived past thirty-three. I puritani is based on the French play Têtes Rondes et Cavaliers (1833), itself derived from Sir Walter Scott’s Old Mortality (1816). It takes place in Plymouth circa 1640, during the English Civil War fought between Puritans and Royalists culminating with Cromwell’s victory. Reputed to have been Queen Victoria’s favourite opera, it’s dramatically compact and…

Alexandra Marcellier (Blanche de la Force) in Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia's Dialogues des carmélites. Photo: Miguel Lorenzo-Mikel Ponce/Les Arts

Review | A Very Canadian Dialogues des carmélites in Valencia

By Ossama el Naggar on 11 February 2025 Concert Reviews, Opera

Based on Die Letzte am Schafott (“The Song at the Scaffold”), a novella about the execution by guillotine of sixteen Carmelite nuns from Compiègne in 1794, Georges Bernanos (1888-1948) wrote a screenplay for a film that ultimately was not produced. However, seeing its potential, Italian publisher Ricordi bought the rights and commissioned Francis Poulenc to write Dialogues des Carmélites, based on Bernanos’s work. The opera premiered in 1957 at La Scala to great acclaim, and has been a mainstay of the twentieth-century opera canon ever since. In Act I, Blanche de la Force, a young noblewoman afflicted with an unnamed…

Tenor Frédéric Antoun, conductor Kent Nagano, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the OSM Chorus give the world premiere of 2016 AMP Laureate Brian Current’s prize-winning Seven Heavenly Halls at Maison symphonique de Montréal.

Azrieli Music, Arts and Culture Centre Opens its Call for Scores & Proposals for the 2026 Azrieli Music Prizes

By Newswire on 10 February 2025 Canadian Music, Choral, Music Competition, Newswire, Orchestral, Toronto, World Music

Toronto, ON, Canada, 10 February 2025 – The Azrieli Music, Arts and Culture Centre (AMACC) has opened its international call to composers for the (AMP). For its sixth biennial cycle, AMP is seeking scores and proposals for choir and orchestra with optional soloists. The 2026 call is open from 7 February through 2 May 2025. Created in 2014 by Sharon Azrieli CQ for the Azrieli Foundation, AMP celebrates excellence in music composition by offering the largest prize package of its kind in Canada, making it one of the most substantial composition competitions in the world. “We are looking for composers who exhibit the most…

Opera Atelier's production of Mozart's The Magic Flute. Photo: Bruce Zinger

Opera Atelier Announces 2025/2026 Season

By Newswire on 6 February 2025 Classical Music, Dance, Newswire, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

Toronto, ON — Opera Atelier celebrates its landmark 40th year with two significant productions: the company’s iconic production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, on stage October 15, 16, 18 and 19, 2025 at the Elgin Theatre, and the world premiere of Debussy’s surrealist opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, on stage April 15, 16, 18 and 19 2026 at Koerner Hall TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning. “We’re thrilled to open our season in Toronto’s historic Elgin Theatre with the company’s period production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, part of our 40th anniversary celebrations,” says Opera Atelier Founding Co-artistic Director Marshall Pynkoski. “Opera Atelier’s Magic Flute remains North America’s first and only period production of the Opera and has proven to…

Vancouver Opera Announces 2025-2026 Season

By Newswire on 4 February 2025 Canadian Music, Classical Music, Newswire, Opera, Orchestral, Vancouver, Vocal

FEBRUARY 4, 2025, VANCOUVER, B.C. / Traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations – Vancouver Opera announces an exciting and audience-inspired 2025–2026 season with three classic opera productions. The 2025-2026 season begins in October with Verdi’s eternally thrilling Rigoletto, followed by Mozart’s light-hearted Così fan tutte in February 2026. La Bohème, Puccini’s enduring love story, closes the season in blockbuster style with a five-show run in April/May 2026. “For our 66th season, we’re bringing operas by the art form’s greatest composers to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre stage,” said Tom Wright, Vancouver Opera General Director. “These…

The CMIM announces 24 singers selected for Voice 2025

By Newswire on 4 February 2025 Arts Industry, Choral, Classical Music, Montreal, Music Competition, Newswire, Vocal

Montreal, February 4, 2025 – The Concours musical international de Montréal (CMIM) is proud to announce the names of the singers chosen to participate in the Voice 2025 edition. This 23rd edition of the CMIM brings together some of the most outstanding classical singers of the new generation. Under the expert eye of a prestigious jury, the 24 selected artists gather in Montreal from May 25 to June 6, 2025, for an exceptional experience and the chance to make their mark on the international scene. This year, the CMIM once again received applications of superior quality from around the world,…

La Scena’s Singing Valentines: Back for its 15th Edition to Spread the Love

By La Scena Musicale Team on 4 February 2025 Vocal

Last year, we decided to offer 100 free Singing Valentines serenades for seniors 65-plus and the feedback we received from the recipients was amazing. So this year we continue to show love to our community by repeating the offer.

Kirsten MacKinnon as Christine in COC's La Reine-garçon. Photo: Michael Cooper

Review | Outsider as symbol in under-characterized COC La Reine-garçon

By Gianmarco Segato on 2 February 2025 City, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, La Scena Online, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

Composer Julien Bilodeau and librettist Michel Marc Bouchard’s La Reine-garçon represents a milestone as the first co-production of a new “mainstage” opera between two of Canada’s major opera companies. Premiered at Opéra de Montréal almost exactly one year ago, it made its Canadian Opera Company debut on Jan. 31st. Taking iconoclast 17th-century monarch Queen Christine of Sweden as its subject, the new work ambitiously grapples with big topics like the emergence of free will, the rationalist philosophy of René Descartes, religious freedom and unconventional sexual desire. With an evocative score and poetic libretto, La Reine-garçon succeeds on many levels, but…

2025 Macina Voice Competition Finalists Announced

By Newswire on 31 January 2025 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Opera, Toronto

Toronto, ON – Toronto City Opera (TCO) is thrilled to announce the eight finalists selected for the second annual Macina Voice Competition. The highly anticipated event, set for February 22, 2025, will feature some of Canada’s most promising young opera singers as they compete in front of a live audience for cash prizes and future performance opportunities. This year’s competition saw a record-breaking 110 video submissions from talented vocalists across the country. After careful deliberation, the TCO artistic staff has chosen the following finalists to perform in the live competition: Alex Hetherington – Mezzo-Soprano Matthew Li – Bass Lauren Margison…

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