Vocal - my/maSCENA

Photo credit: David Allen

Opera San José presents Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers online

By Newswire on 4 February 2021 Classical Music, Opera

SAN JOSE, CA (3 February 2021) – In keeping with Opera San José’s mission to expand accessibility to its work, the company has announced that through the support of generous donors it is able to extend access to its hit virtual production of Jake Heggie’s chamber opera, Three Decembers, now making it available on a pay-what-you-can basis for streaming on demand. The production is being offered with subtitles in Spanish and Vietnamese, as well as English, furthering its accessibility to the Spanish and Vietnamese speaking members of the San Jose community, two of the largest populations in its home region. Featuring world-renowned mezzo-soprano Susan…

Adrian Angelico (right) as Octavian at Den Norske Opera

Amplifying Transgender Voices

By Olivier Bergeron on 28 January 2021 Opera

by Olivier Bergeron in collaboration with Camille Rogers and with the participation of Katherine Goforth The performing arts in the Western world have never strictly enforced gender norms. Since European women were not allowed to appear on stage until the 17th century, men have performed female roles from the beginnings of Greek theatre, through the days of Shakespeare and, in some cases, continue to do so today. The performing arts are, however, a place where gender can be not only challenged, but expressed. Openly transgender performers are starting to appear on stage, sometimes portraying a character whose gender corresponds with…

Melody Moore in Madama Butterfly at Opéra de Montréal (Photo by Yves Renaud)

Race and casting: looking the other way

By Justin Bernard on 28 January 2021 Opera

In recent years, opera companies have had no problem with singers of colour taking the roles of people of colour. In 2008, for example, the Opéra de Montréal welcomed Japanese soprano Hiromi Omura to the stage as the geisha Cio-Cio San. A few years later, in 2013, in a production by the Opéra de Québec, the Korean-born soprano Yunah Lee was chosen to play the character. Some might fear that these artists are confined to a certain type of role and have few other options. They can remember the career of the great Leontyne Price. As early as the 1960s,…

Suzanne Taffot : mother, lawyer, soprano

By Olivier Bergeron on 28 January 2021 Opera

Soprano Suzanne Taffot’s journey to the stage has been somewhat unconventional. A lawyer by trade, she studied in Cameroon, France and Quebec before embarking on a second career in music, something she never thought would be possible. “When I was growing up in Cameroon, becoming a classical musician wasn’t even a possibility,” she said. “After high school, I had three options: try to find a position as a government employee, continue my studies in literature or pursue law studies.” Taffot was struck by the beauty and harmony of the voices of a parish choir after arriving too early for a…

Marian Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939

A Golden age for Black singers: Marian Anderson, Leontyne Price, Grace Bumbry

By Justin Bernard on 28 January 2021 Classical Music, Opera

The death of George Floyd incited a series of protests across the United States, including in the world of opera. Mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges was invited by the Los Angeles Opera to give a virtual recital shortly after the events. Instead she offered to moderate a panel with fellow Black singers on the issue of race and inequality in their milieu. The company agreed. Among the participants were tenor Lawrence Brownlee, soprano Karen Slash and bass Morris Robinson, all of whom experienced at least casual or implied racism from the beginning of their careers. Much has changed for the better, of…

Magali Simard-Galdès makes an unexpected debut in Cologne

By Olivier Bergeron on 28 January 2021 Opera

Much has been written, and rightly so, about musicians who have lost months of work because of the pandemic. What about those who, by some miracle, have had the opportunity to get back on stage? Magali Simard-Galdès was in Ireland when the pandemic forced the world to close up shop. After she arrived in Montreal on March 13, she found herself facing an almost empty calendar for the next year or so, as did the majority of the entertainment industry. She took advantage of the free time to prepare for a recording of Massenet’s complete mélodies to be released the…

The prix d’Europe: a force in Canadian musical life for 110 years

By Jacqueline Vanasse on 28 January 2021 Art Song, Music Competition, Piano, Violin

The Prix d’Europe will celebrate its 110th anniversary this year. Since its beginning, the scholarship offered by the Prix d’Europe has enabled winners to study abroad. The competition offers what might be called a sabbatical year for further development after musical studies and before embarking on a professional career. “We are always transformed by studying abroad,” comments Vincent Boucher, vice-president of the Académie de musique du Québec and organist at St. Joseph’s Oratory. “I think that the Prix d’Europe was an important cultural driving force in Quebec in the sense that a Quebec musician who went to Vienna or Paris…

Canadian Opera Company Hires a Management Man

By Arthur Kaptainis on 28 January 2021 Arts Industry, Opera

Perryn who? This was the consensus in the hours following the announcement by the Canadian Opera Company that Perryn Leech, a British-born resident of Houston, would succeed Alexander Neef as general director in March. I include in this informal survey a critic who lived for decades in Texas. Perryn who? Not that someone of whom we have never heard is disqualified by his or her anonymity from leading the biggest opera company in the land. The pantheon of Canadian arts management includes many people of whom, when they were first appointed, we had never heard. Alexander Neef, the COC general…

Rafael Payare. Photo: Antoine Saito

Industry News

By Arthur Kaptainis on 27 January 2021 Arts Industry, Movie soundtrack music, Orchestral, Popular Music, Vocal

Battleground: Brahms For 10 days in March home viewers will be able to compare the old upstart, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, with the new kid on the block, Rafael Payare, in the same piece of music, on the same day if desired, as performed on the same stage. YNS launches a Brahms cycle with the Orchestre Métropolitain on March 12 (available online through March 21) with that composer’s First Symphony. This was the score with which Payare, Montreal Symphony Orchestra music director designate, chose to introduce himself online on Jan. 10 in the Maison symphonique. MSO replays are available on www.medici.tv through April 11.…

Sébastien Ricard at the Salle Ludger-Duvernay

Prélude à l’opéra: When absence haunts us

By Newswire on 12 January 2021 Contemporary, Opera

WHEN ABSENCE HAUNTS US The postponement of the creation of L’orangeraie gave an opportunity for Chants Libres to film Prélude à l’opéra in the deserted Monument-National. This digital event, inspired by excerpts from the opera and coloured by constraints imposed on the performing arts milieu, will be webcast on January 21, 2021. “After four years of work, I received the last notes of the score in March of 2020 just before the lockdown,” explains Pauline Vaillancourt. “We were ready for what was to come (costumes, rehearsals, set design, etc.), everything that is requires for the months leading up to a…

Browsing: Vocal

Opera San José presents Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers online

Amplifying Transgender Voices

Race and casting: looking the other way

Suzanne Taffot : mother, lawyer, soprano

A Golden age for Black singers: Marian Anderson, Leontyne Price, Grace Bumbry

Magali Simard-Galdès makes an unexpected debut in Cologne

The prix d’Europe: a force in Canadian musical life for 110 years

Canadian Opera Company Hires a Management Man

Industry News

Prélude à l’opéra: When absence haunts us

Current Issue