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1078 – Russell Braun as Louis Riel (centre) in a scene from the Canadian Opera Company’s new production of Louis Riel, 2017. Conductor Johannes Debus, director Peter Hinton, set designer Michael Gianfrancesco, costume designer Gillian Gallow, lighting designer Bonnie Beecher, and choreographer Santee Smith. Photo: Michael Cooper

New Music for Louis Riel Co-Commissioned by COC and NAC

By Newswire on 3 June 2019 Classical Music, Indigenous, Opera

Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company is proud to partner with the National Arts Centre in co-commissioning new work to replace the music from the Kuyas aria that opens the third act of Louis Riel by composer Harry Somers and librettist Mavor Moore. Composer Ian Cusson, of Métis and French-Canadian descent, has been commissioned to create this new work for the opera, last performed at both the COC and NAC in 2017. This decision resulted from a consultation process to redress the misuse of a Nisga’a song in Louis Riel and was initiated and led by Stó:lō First Nations scholar…

Photo: Rachel Dawson

Conductor Brian Law: A Musical Adventurer Returns

By Charles Geyer on 31 May 2019 Classical, Vocal

Author : (Charles Geyer )

“He did remarkable things,” says Julian Armour of Ottawa’s pioneering choral music conductor Brian Law. “He probably made a greater contribution to music in this city than anyone else in its history.” That’s no idle assessment, coming as it does from the founder of the original Ottawa Chamber Music Society and the Music and Beyond festival, and himself one of the capital’s most influential classical-music shapers. But Armour’s esteem for Law is well-founded. On a personal level, Law is responsible for one of Armour’s most important early professional opportunities, having offered Armour a place in the renowned Thirteen Strings chamber…

Photo: Yves Lacombe

François Girard: From Film to Opera

By Justin Bernard on 30 May 2019 Arts Industry, Film, Interviews, Movie soundtrack music, Opera, Quebec Music

I’m there to serve an idea, serve the music, not so much to transmit my own views or personal concerns […] You have to ask yourself: What does this story say now, how can I give it a contemporary resonance? That’s the real task of a director, making the music and meaning resonate. The main event of this summer’s ninth edition of the Festival d’opéra de Québec is an eagerly-awaited staging of The Flying Dutchman by Richard Wagner. Under the musical direction of Jacques Lacombe, a cast led by baritone Gregory Dahl will present the mythical story in a production…

Original photo: Yves Lacombe

François Girard: Du cinéma à l’opéra

By Justin Bernard on 30 May 2019 Arts Industry, Film, Interviews, Movie soundtrack music, Opera, Quebec Music

« Je suis là pour servir un propos, une musique, pas tellement pour faire passer mes vues ou mes préoccupations personnelles […] Il faut se poser la question : que veut dire cette histoire aujourd’hui, comment lui trouver une résonnance contemporaine ? Faire résonner la musique et faire résonner le sens, c’est ça, le vrai travail de mise en scène. » La 9e édition du Festival d’opéra de Québec qui aura lieu cet été sera marquée par une production très attendue du Vaisseau fantôme de Richard Wagner. Sous la direction musicale de Jacques Lacombe, le baryton Gregory Dahl et les autres membres de la…

Photo: Yves Lacombe

Soprano Jane Archibald: Meeting Challenges, Owning The Role

By Charles Geyer on 30 May 2019 Opera

“The biggest challenge,” says critically acclaimed soprano Jane Archibald, on the subject of the contemporary female opera singer, “is feeling like you’re not just a soundtrack and a Barbie Doll.” This is a diva who pulls no punches. Archibald is smart, articulate, sharply analytical – and disarmingly candid. In conversation recently from her home in Halifax (on what she termed “a bit of a gray day”), Archibald belied the weather with a veritable sunburst of scintillating reflections on her art, her career, the rewards and pitfalls of life on the road, and the trends she sees working themselves out in…

Photo: Terry O'Neill

Pavarotti: Genius Is Forever: Entertaining, even for experts

By Adrian Rodriguez on 29 May 2019 CD and Book Reviews, Film, Interviews, Opera

Pavarotti: Genius Is Forever, a documentary directed by Ron Howard, opens on June 6. La Scena Musicale got exclusive access to the two-hour film before the release. In the past, this acclaimed Hollywood director and producer explored the world of music with The Beatles: Eight Days a Week and, most recently, with Made in America, a documentary that involved the participation of rap mogul Jay-Z. In his new effort, Howard emphasizes the human side of Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti. He chronicles his life trough a mix of interviews with the singer’s family, colleagues, live concerts and backstage footage. We are…

Oper Leipzig "Der fliegende Hollnder". Foto Tom Schulze

A little literature, and some Broadway, in new Leipzig Flying Dutchman

By Arthur Kaptainis on 17 May 2019 Opera

LEIPZIG – Is sanity making an operatic comeback? Surely not in Germany, you say, where “innovative” productions still have a firm hold on the houses and the headlines. Yet a generally comprehensible (and, in showbiz terms, spectacular) new staging of The Flying Dutchman has turned up in the capital of Saxony, which is most often equated with Bach but is also the city where Wagner was born and where (the local Wagner society will be happy to remind you) the first complete production of the Ring outside of Bayreuth was given in 1878. The Leipzig Opera House in 2008 was…

Photo: Voies culturelles des faubourgs

Le Grand Chœur du Centre-Sud- Free concert by and for the community

By Newswire on 16 May 2019 Choral

Montreal, May 16, 2019 – On June 7, Voies culturelles des faubourgs will present the very first edition of a great citizen concert, Le Grand Choeur du Centre-Sud. This unifying event will begin outside at Espace Pierre-Bourgault (corner of Plessis and Ontario) and will end with a grand concert at Sacré-Coeur Church. This great collective work, directed by André Pappathomas, composer, musician and winner of the 2017 artist award in the community, will bring together a hundred choristers from the Centre-Sud community. The choir will be accompanied by soloists, musicians and the great organ of the Sacré-Coeur Church. An inclusive…

Photo: Jason Homa

Soprano Lisette Oropesa wins the Met’s 2019 Beverly Sills Artist Award

By Newswire on 7 May 2019 Classical Music, Music Competition, Opera

New York, NY (May 7, 2019)—The Metropolitan Opera has named soprano Lisette Oropesa as the winner of the 14th annual Beverly Sills Artist Award. The $50,000 award is given to extraordinarily gifted singers with rising Met careers. Given in honor of the legendary American soprano Beverly Sills, the award was established in 2006 by an endowment gift from the late Agnes Varis, a managing director on the Met’s Board of Directors. Oropesa will sing two leading roles in the Met’s 2019–20 season: the title role in Massenet’s Manon and Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata. She began her career at the…

AUSTIN, TX - MAY 2, 2019 - Puccini's La Bohème.

Austin Opera Breathes New Life into La Bohème

By Paul E. Robinson on 6 May 2019 Classical, Classical Music, Opera, Vocal, World Music

PUCCINI: La Bohème Elizabeth Caballero, sop. (Mimì) Kang Wang, ten. (Rofolfo) Noel Bouley, bar. (Marcello) Ashraf Sewailam, bass (Colline) Andrew Lovato, bar. (Schaunard) Susannah Biller, sop. (Musetta) Alison Moritz, stage director Michael Yeargan, scenic designer Walter Mahoney, costume designer Austin Opera Orchestra and Chorus/Peter Bay, conductor Long Center for the Performing Arts Austin, Texas May 2, 2019 Whenever lists are compiled of the most popular operas, La Bohème is invariably in the top two or three, with good reason. After more than a century, the beauty of its music and the appeal of its characters continue to win audiences. In…

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