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Photo: Jason Homa

Richard Tucker Music Foundation Names Lisette Oropesa as Winner of 2019 Richard Tucker Award

By Newswire on 8 April 2019 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Vocal

The Richard Tucker Music Foundation announced today that Lisette Oropesa has been named as the winner of the 2019 Richard Tucker Award. The soprano already headlines major productions worldwide, and after her recent house debuts in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro Real Madrid and Royal Opera House, The Guardian declared: “The Cuban American soprano is sensationally good. She makes the stratospheric vocal fireworks … sound easy; indeed, her every note is part of a convincing portrayal of a complex character.” Widely referred to as the “Heisman Trophy of Opera,” the Tucker Award carries the foundation’s most…

Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin; Lambert Orkis, piano

Concerts Reviews

By La Scena Musicale Team on 7 April 2019 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Dance, Opera, Violin

by Benjamin Goron, Robert Kilborn and Adrian Rodriguez Swan Lake, Polish National Ballet / Place des Arts, Montreal**** Conviction and savoir faire This Swan Lake changes everything while remaining the same. It unfolds at the imperial court of Russian Tsar Alexander III. Alexander’s son, the Tsarevich Nicholas, must choose between his first love, Princess Alix of Hesse, and his infatuation with the young Polish ballerina, Mathilde Kschessinska. Nicholas would of course become Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia, shot and bayoneted to death in the Russian Revolution, along with his wife and five children. Vladimir Yaroshenko as the Tsarevich…

Baritone Tyler Duncan in "Leonardo" by Jonathan Berger

Da Vinci Our Contemporary – The Legendary Renaissance Polymath Arrives Center Stage in Composer Jonathan Berger’s New Monodrama

By Charles Geyer on 5 April 2019 Baroque and Early, Chamber Music, Classical, Classical Music, Contemporary, Education, La Scena Online, Musical Theatre, Opera, Theatre, Visual Arts

PREVIEW: of the world premiere of Leonardo, a new operatic monodrama about Leonardo da Vinci by composer Jonathan Berger at NYC’s 92nd Street Y; and INTERVIEW: with composer/librettist Jonathan Berger. “Che cos’è uno starnuto?” Leonardo da Vinci asks himself – and his audience – at the top of composer Jonathan Berger’s new one-man opera, Leonardo. “What is a sneeze?” It may seem a disarmingly piddling question from one of history’s most titanic intellectual figures – but that is precisely composer Jonathan Berger’s point. “Leonardo’s greatest asset was his unabashed asking of simple questions,” Berger says, “and through those questions arriving…

Bluebeard visits Longueuil

By Benjamin Goron on 3 April 2019 Classical Music, Opera, Vocal

Donald Lavergne is starting his 12th production as musical director and his sixth as artistic director of the Théâtre lyrique de la Montérégie in Longueuil. This year is the bicentenary of the birth of Jacques Offenbach, the famous composer of comic operas, and to celebrate, the Théâtre lyrique is presenting Barbe-Bleue (Bluebeard) in a production by Étienne Cousineau. When it premiered in 1866 at the Théâtre des Variétés in Paris, the operetta was an immediate success. The libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy retained little of Perrault’s tale. The evocatively-named characters (such as the peasant Boulotte, the alchemist Popolani…

Marc David. Photo : Denis Germain

Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil Celebrates Offenbach and his Friends

By Marie-Claire Fafard-Blais on 3 April 2019 Classical Music, Vocal

Light-hearted humour will be in the spotlight at the Soirée à l’Opérette, the closing concert of the Grands Concert series of the Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil (OSDL), given in in collaboration with Atelier lyrique of the Opéra de Montréal. “In recent years, we have started working with the Atelier lyrique for one-off events and we have established an interesting relationship with the singers,” says Marc David, artistic director and head of the OSDL. “We wanted to push this collaboration a little further by presenting a large-scale event to end the year in style.” The OSDL will present famous operetta arias in…

Festival Classica – Something for Everyone

By Marie-Claire Fafard-Blais on 3 April 2019 Art Song, Classical Music, Music Competition, Vocal

From Berlioz to the Bee Gees: This is the guiding theme of the 2019 edition of Festival Classica. Set in Montérégie, specifically Saint-Lambert, it welcomed 65,000 festival-goers last year and hopes to reach similar heights with its ninth edition. “The idea to put together a festival came to me in 2008, while I was an invited soloist for the 25th anniversary of Versailles’s Centre de musique baroque,” recounts general and artistic director Marc Boucher. “In Versailles, there are several concert halls: the Trianon, the Opéra, the Queen’s Theatre, the Royal Chapel, etc. I saw people walk out of one concert,…

Gilbert Patenaude, Man of Music – Opus Tribute Award

By Dominic Trudel on 3 April 2019 Arts Industry, Choral, Music Competition

Last February, the Opus Tribute Award from the Conseil québécois de la musique (CQM) went to Gilbert Patenaude in recognition of a long career. He is known for his commitment to choral singing, particularly as the director, for 38 years, of Les Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal. It is with dedication and rigour that he has taken on a demanding pedagogical and musical load that includes, in addition to teaching, more than 80 annual performances, religious services and other events. His achievements with young singers include no fewer than 23 international tours and a dozen recordings. He has trained more than…

A Canadian Fauré to New York

By Newswire on 3 April 2019 Arts Industry, Newswire, Vocal

A CANADIAN FAURÉ TO NEW YORK Conductor Lisette Canton Brings Choirs from Toronto, Ottawa, and St. John’s to Carnegie Hall NEW YORK, NY, April 3, 2019 – A northern light will shine through the performance of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, May 25. Ontario-based conductor Lisette Canton will conduct the New England Symphonic Ensemble; vocal soloists Danielle Talamantes, soprano and Rob McGinness, baritone; and a choir, more than 165 voices strong, containing members of the following Canadian ensembles: Philharmonic Choir of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada (Stephen Candow, Director) York University Singers, Toronto, Ontario,…

Photo: Josèphe Peppelnak

Christopher Dunham – Baritone at Work

By Adrian Rodriguez on 28 March 2019 Interviews, Opera, Vocal

Christopher Dunham will sing the famous role of Escamillo in the upcoming Opéra de Montréal production of Bizet’s Carmen. The Niagara Falls native possesses all the qualities we wish to hear in a Kavalier baritone, including chiaroscuro timbre with strong middle voice and easy emission in the high notes but with more bite than a lyric voice. Such a voice is perfect for other roles like Don Giovanni or Eugene Onegin. In my opinion he is a Canadian talent that deserves more attention. Over the last few years he has been quietly carving himself a place in the industry. Some…

Singing Valentines Leave a Lasting Impression

By Vasyl Pawlowsky on 28 March 2019 Romantic, Vocal

For the ninth year, La Scena Musicale has provided an alternative gift on Valentine’s Day. Singing Valentines are a different way of reaching out to those you care about. And geographic location is not an issue “It was a lovely surprise,” stated Monique Djokic of New York, who received L’invitation au voyage as sung by soprano Chantal Dionne from her nephew Mark. Dionne also sang Vissi d’arte from Puccini’s Tosca for longtime patron of the arts (and La Scena supporter) Noël Spinelli. “It made my day,” said Raymonde Coderre after Wah Keung Chan had sung La fleur que tu m’avais…

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