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Simon Rivard. Photo: Tam Lan Truong.

The OCM Launches Its 85th Season Featuring Two Chamber Operas

By Newswire on 1 October 2024 Newswire, Opera, Vocal

Montreal, September 10, 2024 – The Orchestre classique de Montréal (OCM) kicks off its 85th season with the presentation of two chamber operas performed by the rising stars of the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal: Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona and Menotti’s The Medium. The concert takes place on Tuesday, October 8, at 7:30 p.m., at Salle Pierre-Mercure. Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona, a light, comic Baroque gem, promises to delight the audience’s senses with amusing misunderstandings and false pretenses, and will feature Jamal Al Titi (baritone), Sophie Naubert (soprano) and Angelo Moretti (tenor). The Medium, a one-act opera…

Photo: GTG / Carole Parodi

Review | Disappointing Tristan und Isolde opens Geneva opera season

By Ossama el Naggar on 25 September 2024 Concert Reviews, Opera, Vocal

Tristan und Isolde is a colossal work, not only due to its length (five hours, including two intermissions) or for the influence of its “Tristan” chord on Western music, but also for its symbolism, as Wagner was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer’s philosophy. He was also conducting an illicit affair with Mathilde, the wife of his benefactor, Swiss businessman Otto von Wesendonck. Tristan’s plot is simple: an Irish Princess takes pity on Tantris, the knight who killed her betrothed Morold. She tends to him, nursing him back to life, even while knowing he was her fiancé’s killer. Tantris turns out to…

Winners of the 2024 Operalia Announced

By La Scena Musicale Team on 21 September 2024 Classical Music, Music Competition, Opera, Vocal

Mumbai, Sept. 21, 2024 – This year, the Operalia Competition presented by Rolex took place from September 15 to 21 at The National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai, India. Here are the winners: First Prize Kathleen O’Mara, soprano, USA Le Bu, bass-baritone, China Second Prize Elmina Hasan, mezzo-soprano, Azerbaijan Angel Romero, tenor, USA Third Prize Sun-Ly Pierce, mezzo-soprano, USA Meridian Prall, mezzo-soprano, USA Polina Shabunina, soprano, Russia Vladislav Chizhov, baritone, Russia Birgit Nilsson Prize Kathleen O’Mara, soprano, USA Le Bu, bass-baritone, China The Pepita Embil Prize of Zarzuela Elmina Hasan, mezzo-soprano, Azerbaijan The Don Plácido Domingo Ferrer…

Concours Musical International de Montréal, Voice Edition, Announces Prestigious Jury

By Newswire on 17 September 2024 Montreal, Music Competition, Newswire, Vocal

The jury of the Voice 2025 edition of the CMIM will be composed of eminent members, including performers and influential figures from the world of opera and classical music, who will gather in Montreal for the next edition of the Competition. Chaired by world-renowned Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka, this jury will have the challenging task of evaluating the competitors’ performances, rewarding both technical excellence and artistic interpretation. “The members of the jury for our Voice 2025 edition all have exceptional backgrounds. Their expertise and influence on the international music scene will make them first choice references for our competitors at the start of their…

(L-R) Sara Schabas, Lucie St-Martin, Corey Arnold, Matthew Li

Review | Cultural Unity in the Chinese Gardens: A Lyrical Mid-Autumn Festival Celebration

By Amanda Wong on 16 September 2024 City, Classical Music, Montreal, Opera, Vocal

In the lunar calendar, the 15th day of the 8th month marks the annual Mid-Autumn Festival, a celebration of the harvest moon at its fullest and brightest. This significant day is a time of gratitude in many East and Southeast Asian countries for community and the season’s bountiful harvest. This occasion also symbolizes gathering, commemoration, and harmony among people — themes prominently emphasized in Rencontre Lyrique Chine-Canada (Chinese-Canadian Lyrical Gathering), a concert held in Montreal’s beautiful Botanical Gardens on Sept. 14th. Seven young Canadian and/or Chinese opera singers were featured, showcasing the power of music to unite cultures. These performers…

Anna Prohaska & the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at Musikfest Berlin. Photo: Fabian Schellhorn

La Scena on the Road | Musikfest Berlin 2024: The Americas & Politics

By Gianmarco Segato on 11 September 2024 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, La Scena Online, Vocal

Musikfest Berlin is an ambitious annual festival that hosts the world’s top orchestras, instrumental and vocal ensembles, together with the major symphony orchestras of the city of Berlin. Its 20th-anniversary season focuses on the double continent of America and borrows its title, “Amériques”, from France-to-US transplant, Edgard Varèse’s 1921 work that raised the roof at the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra’s festival-opening concert on Aug. 24th. Acknowledging the ‘American’ theme during his opening remarks, artistic director Winrich Hopp made reference to recent and upcoming European and North and South American elections which have seen far right parties gain more ground than…

CD Review | Ensemble ArtChoral — Art Choral, Vol. 1: Renaissance

By Kristen Whittle on 5 September 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Choral, Classical Music, Vocal

Art Choral, Vol. 1: Renaissance Ensemble ArtChoral; Matthias Maute, artistic director ATMA Classique, 2024 Ensemble ArtChoral’s newest installation to its collection spanning the history of choral singing returns to the origins of polyphony in Art Choral, Vol. 1: Renaissance. Under the direction of Matthias Maute, the ensemble performs early choral repertoire by composers from across Europe, including Cristóbal de Morales, Josquin des Prés, and William Byrd, to name a few. The album opens with No. 5, Adoramus te, Christe from Palestrina’s Recueil des morceaux de musique ancienne. Given Palestrina’s role in creating polyphonic technique, ArtChoral’s expert use of the push…

CD Review | George Benjamin: Picture a day like this

By Justin Bernard on 5 September 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Opera, Vocal

George Benjamin: Picture a day like this George Benjamin, composer and musical direction; Martin Crimp, libretto; Marianne Crebassa, mezzo-soprano; Anna Prohaska, soprano; Beate Mordal, soprano; Cameron Shahbazi, countertenor; John Brancy, baritone; Mahler Chamber Orchestra Nimbus Records, 2024 The opera Written on Skin by George Benjamin had its Canadian premiere in the winter of 2020. The orchestration proved to be of great harmonic density. The overlap between the orchestral and vocal parts demonstrated extremely delicate work, playing a lot with crescendo and decrescendo effects. Benjamin also demonstrated a pronounced taste for notes held in a style that recalled the purity and ethereal…

CD Review | Benjamin Bernheim, Douce France, DG

By Gianmarco Segato on 4 September 2024 Art Song, CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Vocal

Douce France: Mélodies & Chansons Benjamin Bernheim, tenor; Carrie-Ann Matheson, piano Deutsche Grammophon, 2024 For his debut album of French mélodies and chansons, French-Swiss tenor Benjamin Bernheim and Canadian pianist Carrie-Ann Matheson have not shied away from some of the most performed, most recorded songs in the repertoire. Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été, three of Duparc’s glorious mélodies and even Chausson’s cycle, Poème de l’amour et de la mer are certainly not lacking in exposure. But as Bernheim notes in the program book, the Berlioz and Chausson sets have historically been the domain of high-voiced female singers, the Duparc often taken…

CD Review | Strauss: Ein Heldenleben; Mahler: Rückert Lieder

By Joseph So on 2 September 2024 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Orchestral, Vocal

Strauss: Ein Heldenleben; Mahler: Rückert Lieder Sonya Yoncheva, soprano; Orchestre symphonique de Montréal; Rafael Payare, conductor Pentatone, 2024 Following their successful release last year on the Pentatone label of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony comes this new disc, by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under the felicitous baton of its music director, Rafael Payare. The forces are back with more Mahler—this time, the sublimely introspective Rückert Lieder (1901-02)—paired with the grand Ein Heldenleben (1898) by Richard Strauss. Pentatone’s press release points out the rather unusual, if not perplexing, pairing of an exuberant Strauss tone poem with an inwardly radiant and spiritual Mahler…

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