Vocal - my/maSCENA

Ann Summers: Dossena and IRCPA: A Fond Farewell

By Joseph So on 4 November 2022 Art Song, Opera, Vocal

On Oct. 19, Eleanor Friedland, president of the venerable International Resource Centre for Performing Artists (IRCPA), announced in a press release that it will bid farewell to the music world in a month’s time: “After 40 years as a charitable service organization for Canada’s musicians, the IRCPA will cease operation on Nov. 30.” For many Canadian artists—a number totalling close to 600—the IRCPA has played an invaluable role in helping them establish their careers, especially during the transition from being an aspiring young artist to that of a full-fledged professional. The driving force behind this organization from the very beginning…

Joyce DiDonato. Photo: Sergi Jasanada

Joyce DiDonato: The Musical Messenger

By Joseph So on 3 November 2022 Art Song, Opera

There are recitalists, and then there is Joyce DiDonato. While there are many singers with equally beautiful voices, exemplary musicality, communicative power, and charismatic stage presence, very few have her desire—and ability—to give to her audience something extra-musical, a vital and timely message that we all need to hear. Such is her current recital project, Eden, which the American mezzo is bringing to her audiences on a global tour of 45 cities on five continents. It started in the fall of 2021 and continues until 2024. Through music, song text and evocative staging, her show celebrates the power and beauty…

Review | CellOpéra! (October 2022)

By Justin Bernard on 6 October 2022 CD and Book Reviews, Opera, Piano

CellOpéra! Duo Cavatine : Noémie Raymond-Friset, cello; Michel-Alexandre Broekaert, piano. Label: unknown (October 2022) Duo Cavatine’s name could never have been better suited than for this recording. Cellist Noémie Raymond-Friset and pianist Michel-Alexandre Broekaert have issued a sparkling collection of operatic arias all rearranged for this album. Given the cello’s range and timbral overlap with the human voice, it only seems natural to entrust it with the vocal parts. Such effects as vibrato and glissando translate well to stringed instruments like the cello. Whereas everything is dependent on interpretation, lyricism and repertoire choices, some pieces in this collection are bound…

Rose Naggar-Tremblay, Contralto, 2021 OSM Competition, Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques

By Eva Stone-Barney on 2 October 2022 Classical Music, Music Competition, Vocal

Although she is still but poised on the precipice of a career full of promise, contralto Rose Naggar-Tremblay has been charming audiences for many years. The Montreal native began her musical studies at 12 years old, and went on to receive a degree in vocal performance from McGill before joining the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal in 2017, where she sang the role of Zora in their 2018 Opus Prize-winning production of Ana Sokolovic’s Svadba, as well as Getrude Stein in Twenty-Seven, and Gabrielle in the première of La nuit est ma femme. More recently, her work as an…

Matthew Cairns, Tenor, 2022 Met Opera Auditions

By Gianmarco Segato on 2 October 2022 Art Song, Classical Music, Music Competition, Opera, Vocal

Tenor Matthew Cairns’s star has been rising for a few years now, but his promise was given the ultimate seal of approval when he became one of the winners of the prestigious Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition this past spring. When asked to share the secret of his success, Cairns said: “I think you need to sing what you feel most comfortable singing, and what is also a popular piece. The audience loves an aria that is full of emotion and drama. Ultimately you need to show the audience who you are, and the right aria will do…

Simone McIntosh, Mezzo-Soprano, 2022 CMIM Aria Division

By Eva Stone-Barney on 2 October 2022 Classical Music, Music Competition, Vocal

Canadian mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh has no shortage of impressive accolades under her belt already. The Vancouver native is a graduate of both UBC and the Schulich School of Music, where she was awarded the prestigious Wirth Vocal Prize. She recalls the moment following her Wirth Prize and COC victories, saying: “I sat down and said, I can do this.” And she certainly could! McIntosh went on to participate in both the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio program, as well as the San Francisco Opera’s Adler Fellowship program. This year, McIntosh will relocate to Zurich, where she will be a member…

Meredith Wohlgemuth, Soprano, 2022 CMIM Art Song Division

By Adrian Rodriguez on 2 October 2022 Classical Music, Music Competition, Vocal

La Scena discovered American soprano Meredith Wohlgemuth’s crystalline soprano and soaring high notes when our panel prepared our predictions for the CMIM 2022 (see the April/May 2022 issue). We predicted that she would win first prize in the Art Song division. Fast-forward to June 2022, when Wohlgemuth was clearly the jury’s unanimous choice for First Prize in the Art Song Division as well as the Joseph Rouleau Career Development Grant ($50,000), Normand Beauchamp Winner’s Tour Grant ($15,000) and the French Mélodie Art Song Award with her duo partner, Jinhee Park who took home the $5,000 John Newmark Prize for Best…

Ensemble Caprice

Dido and Aeneas : New Prologue Breathes Fresh Life into a Classic

By Gianmarco Segato on 30 September 2022 Baroque and Early, Classical Music, Opera

When Ensemble Caprice brings Henry Purcell’s 1689 operatic gem Dido and Aeneas to Montreal’s Salle Bourgie on Nov. 8 under conductor, flutist and composer Matthias Maute, audiences will hear and see an amalgam of old and new. As with everything this stellar, now 30-year-old group presents, Maute hopes listeners “will feel a spark and be beguiled” by a work that is “really something that is in the present” as much as the far-away past. Maute will be helped in this regard by the vagaries of history itself. We know Dido and Aeneas premièred as a stage work with a prologue…

Allyson McHardy. Photo: Bo Huang

Opera and vocal art highlights: Opéra de Montréal presents Verdi’s Il Trovatore de Verdi

By Justin Bernard on 19 September 2022 Classical Music, Opera, Vocal

From Sept. 10 to 18, Opéra de Montréal will present another operatic masterpiece at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Composed during the same period as La traviata and Rigoletto, Verdi’s Il trovatore (in French, Le trouvère) is no less famous for its multi-generational plotlines, its inclinations toward revenge and romance, and, of course, its famous arias. Stage directed by Michel-Maxime Legault and under the baton of Jacques Lacombe, the production features world-class artists, including Australian soprano Nicole Car (Leonora), baritone Etienne Dupuis (Count de Luna), contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Azucena) and Luc Robert (Manrico). Also featured are Matthew Treviño (Ferrando), and three current or…

Photo: Vivien Gaumand

Review | Il Trovatore: top-class singers and no stage set

By Justin Bernard on 12 September 2022 Concert Reviews, Opera

On September 10, the Opéra de Montréal launched its season with Verdi’s Il Trovatore, another classic of the operatic repertoire. For the occasion, the company had attracted one of the most prestigious casts we have ever seen on the Wilfrid-Pelletier stage: Australian soprano Nicole Car (Leonora), and Canadians Marie-Nicole Lemieux (Azucena), Etienne Dupuis (Count di Luna), and tenor Luc Robert (Manrico). All experienced and with many career successes. In the lead role, Nicole Car was the Verdian heroine that everyone dreams of hearing. Her voice had the depth take on the difficult score of Leonora and the…

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