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Canadian Opera Company Cancels Rest of 2019/2020 Season

By Wah Keung Chan on 27 March 2020 Arts Industry, Opera

March 27, 2020, Toronto – Following the recent state of emergency declared in Ontario and the ongoing public closures due to precautions around the spread of COVID-19, the Canadian Opera Company is cancelling all upcoming performances and events for the remainder of the 2019/2020 season. Cancellations include the company’s mainstage productions of Aida and The Flying Dutchman, which had been set to run for seven performances each, from April 18 to May 16. All 23 remaining performances in the Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre have also been cancelled, along with a number of community programs and events. The COC’s spring fundraising events, Operanation and…

Papagena Vocal Quintet: Hush! (Somm Recordings)

By Norman Lebrecht on 27 March 2020 Chamber Music, Contemporary, Lebrecht Weekly, Vocal

What can you do with 3 sopranos and 2 altos. Be inventive, that’s what. The all-women quintet Papagena have come up with a range of unaccompanied songs, settings and original commissions that often takes the breath away. Don Macdonald’s Moonset, for instance, does just what the title says: it sinks, gently, bringing hope of a new day, a breath of fresh air. Libby Larsen’s Jack’s Valentine declares ‘I love you’ with just the right degree of equivocation. Sweet Child O’Mine is a Guns N Roses hit reset for a capella voice – magic. Apart from Larsen, David Lang, Tchaikovsky and Gustav Holst, I don’t recognise any…

Photo: Chad Batka

Placido Domingo Tests Positive for COVID-19

By La Scena Musicale Team on 22 March 2020 Opera

Placido Domingo has tested positive for COVID-19, the tenor wrote on his Facebook page. “I feel it is my moral duty to announce to you that I have tested positive for COVID19, the Corona virus. My Family and I are all in self isolation for as long as it is deemed medically necessary. Currently we are all in good health but I experienced fever and cough symptoms therefore deciding to get tested and the result came back positive. I beg everyone to be extremely careful, follow the basic guidelines by washing your hands frequently, keeping at least a 6 feet…

Photo: Nicolaus Karlinsky

Ladies Stay the Course for 129th Season

By Arthur Kaptainis on 13 March 2020 Art Song, Chamber Music, Piano, Strings, Vocal

“Only good news from the Ladies’ Morning Musical Club,” Constance Pathy, president of the venerable organization, said at the formal launch of the 2020-21 season. The announcement came a day before some not-so-good news, as the LMMC was forced to cancel the March 15 appearance of the Pavel Haas Quartet with pianist Boris Giltburg, thus joining several Quebec organizations (and countless worldwide) affected by the coronavirus outbreak. A recital on April 5 by the Russian pianist Pavel Kolesnikov is also cancelled. Premier François Legault’s ban on gatherings numbering more than 250, announced on March 12, was intended to remain in…

Toronto Operetta Theatre’s H.M.S. Pinafore a Boatload of Fun

By Denise Lai on 6 March 2020 Concert Reviews, Opera

Toronto, March 5, 2020 — Premiered in 1878, H.M.S. Pinafore remains one of Gilbert & Sullivan’s most successful and well-loved operettas. Set on board the namesake ship, it is a tale of love, mischief and mistaken identities. Ralph, a lowly sailor, is in love with the Captain’s daughter Josephine, a hopeless match because of difference in their social class. Josephine is also secretly in love with Ralph, but her father persuades her to marry Sir Joseph Porter, the First Lord of the Admiralty. Mistakenly thinking that Josephine refuses his marriage proposal because she is not worthy of his rank, Sir…

Photo: Dahlia Katz

Jacqueline du Pré opera gets it half right

By Arthur Kaptainis on 23 February 2020 Concert Reviews, Opera

Classical music has its icons, including Jacqueline du Pré, the brilliant British cellist who contracted multiple sclerosis at the youthful height of her powers and died in 1987 at 42. Various efforts have been made at posthumous commentary, to which we must now add Jacqueline, an opera for voice and cello that seems to toggle erratically between skepticism of, and sympathy for, its subject. The only positive impulse this Tapestry Opera production inspires is a desire to know more and get the story straight. Photo: Dahlia Katz The problem resides not in the accomplished and free-spirited score of Luna Pearl…

Singing Valentines! A Memorable Romantic Experience

By Vasyl Pawlowsky on 11 February 2020 Art Song, La Scena Online, Newswire, Opera, Vocal

This Year’s Singing Valentines: 12th Edition includes Serenades and Free Streaming Concert FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE La Scena Musicale presents Singing Valentines! A Memorable Romantic Experience Montreal, QC, Feb. 11, 2020 – This Valentine’s season, for the cost of a bouquet of flowers, offer a unique valentine! For the tenth year, La Scena Musicale has been providing individuals an opportunity to deliver a unique gift to their loved ones regardless of their location. Six professionally trained singers offer their time on Valentines Day, to help raise funds for La Scena Musicale and to give a special gift through song. “It has…

Tous en chœur autour de Beethoven with the OSCM

By La Scena Musicale Team on 10 February 2020 Classical Music, Orchestral, Vocal

Tous en chœur autour de Beethoven with the OSCM The Orchestre symphonique du Conservatoire de la Montérégie (OSCM) this year celebrates the fifth anniversary of its residence at the École de musique Vincent-d’Indy. Concluding the season on May 10 is Tous en chœur autour de Beethoven, a concert at the Maison symphonique given in collaboration with the choirs of École de musique Vincent-d’Indy and the dancers of the École supérieure de ballet du Québec. To open the program, the orchestra under guest conductor Nicolas Ellis performs Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”) along with a ballet choreographed by Anne Dryburgh, followed…

Photo: Erich Schlegel

Everest the Opera a Tough Climb in Austin

By Paul E. Robinson on 26 January 2020 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, Opera

BY PAUL E. ROBINSON ON 26 JANUARY 2020 Austin, TX – Joby Talbot’s one-act opera Everest was composed in 2014, and is based on an ill-fated Mount Everest expedition in 1996 in which several climbers perished. The premiere was presented by Dallas Opera in a fully staged version. Three years later it was again performed in Dallas but this time in a semi-staged version with the orchestra on stage. It was this version that was offered last week by Austin Opera at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. Among the survivors from the 1996 expedition was the journalist Jon…

Santiago Ballerini as Count Almaviva (right) in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of The Barber of Seville, 2020. Photo: Michael Cooper

COC’s Barber of Seville, a Night of Fun and Laughter

By Denise Lai on 23 January 2020 Opera

With its popular, catchy tunes, Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville is a perennial favourite comic opera. It was given a vibrant interpretation by the Canadian Opera Company, complemented by a stellar cast of both Canadian and international artists. Figaro is Seville’s famous barber and jack of all trades, who boasts special skills helping lonely hearts pursue their love interests. Count Almaviva is smitten by the young Rosina, who is strictly guarded by the old doctor Bartolo, who schemes to marry Rosina himself to claim her family fortune. Almaviva enlists Figaro’s help to woo Rosina, and after a series of…

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