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Newswire | Soundstreams Announces 2026/27 Season

By Newswire on 25 February 2026 Choral, Classical Music, Contemporary, Newswire, Toronto

February 23, 2026 (TORONTO, ON)—Lawrence Cherney, Founding Artistic Director of Soundstreams, has announced the company’s 44th season, kicking off this October with a major celebration of Steve Reich, performed by some of the world’s greatest interpreters of his music. Sir James MacMillan returns to Soundstreams with his new oratorio Angels Unawares, next February. Praise Song for Oceania will feature artists and works connected by the Pacific Ocean, curated by Soundstreams New Voices Mentorship Program winner Jesse Plessis, and next June’s CELLO X 8, presented in collaboration with Luminato and VEMU Estonian Museum Canada, will invite eight virtuoso cellists from Canada…

Newswire | Festival Classica Unveils a Banner 16th Edition

By Newswire on 25 February 2026 Chamber Music, Musique québécoise, Newswire, Piano, Strings, Vocal

Montérégie, (February 25, 2026) – Festival Classica invites the public to experience classical music in all its variety during its 16th edition, which will run from May 22 to June 14, 2026. The 2026 program once again showcases exceptional artists and a compelling repertoire, with the majority of events taking place on Montreal’s South Shore. Classical works, operatic performances, symphonic rock productions, and concerts for young audiences form a wide-ranging program designed to open the doors of classical music to seasoned concertgoers and newcomers alike. “Since its inception, Festival Classica has positioned itself as a space for sharing and discovery,…

Tabea Zimmermann with Konzerthausorchester Berlin. Photo: Simon Pauly

Review | Konzerthausorchester’s “Unfinished” Evening with Tabea Zimmermann in Berlin

By Gianmarco Segato on 23 February 2026 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Opera, Orchestral

The second concert in Konzerthausorchester Berlin’s “Vom Anfangen” (“On Beginnings”) festival featured works that could be described as unfinished in different ways. This superbly-curated evening brought together Schubert, Bartók, Kurtág and Puccini—strange bedfellows perhaps—in a program of stimulating connections (seen Feb. 20). As detailed in the program notes, György Kurtág (currently celebrating his 100th birthday) cites Schubert as his inspiration to compose, and for his ideal of musical beauty. In that light, the orchestra, under their chief conductor Joana Mallwitz, began with Schubert’s two-movement “Unfinished” symphony of 1822. There is much debate as to whether this work was truly unfinished,…

Music and Film: Battle of the Conductors

By Justin Bernard on 23 February 2026 Choral, Classical Music, Film, Romantic

The year 2026 offers a feast for lovers of music and film. In our last column I mentioned the new TV show about Mozart, based on the play Amadeus by Peter Schaffer. The five-episode series began airing Jan. 5 on STACKTV. A few days later, the highly-anticipated film The Choral, starring Ralph Fiennes as choirmaster, was released in some cinemas, including the Cinéplex Forum. We’ll talk a little about these two major releases—without giving too much away! Amadeus revisited You don’t need to have seen the 1984 film by Miloš Forman to enjoy the new version by Joe Barton. However,…

A scene from Massenet's "Manon." Photo: Marty Sohl / Met Opera

Newswire | The Metropolitan Opera Announces 2026-27 Season Including Five New Productions

By Newswire on 19 February 2026 Classical Music, Newswire, Opera, Theatre

New York, NY (February 19, 2026)—The Metropolitan Opera announced its 2026–27 season, featuring five new and 12 repertory productions, a special 60th-anniversary gala, and performances of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Met’s Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer Music Director. This season also marks the 20th anniversary at the helm for Peter Gelb, the Met’s Maria Manetti Shrem General Manager, and the 20th anniversary of the groundbreaking The Met: Live in HD transmissions—the Peabody Award–winning series that Gelb initiated—to cinemas worldwide. “Ever since I was a part-time teenage usher, I dreamed of a long-term association with the Met,” said Gelb. “Although…

Photo: Nomi Baumgartl

Remembering José van Dam (1940-2026)

By Kaitlyn Chan on 19 February 2026 Classical Music, Obituaries, Opera, Vocal

Celebrated bass-baritone José van Dam has passed away at age 85. His death on February 17, 2026, was announced by the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, a Belgian academic institute that was greatly shaped by van Dam’s contributions as founder and Master in residence of its voice section. Van Dam was one of today’s most requested interpreters of the bass-baritone repertoire, and he featured on the cover of La Scena’s October 2000 issue. As a tribute, we republish our interview with the singer below. José van Dam: Master Singer by Wah Keung Chan, October 1, 2000 It is refreshing to hear…

Newswire | An Exciting World Premiere at the Centre of Canadian Opera Company’s 2026-2027 Season

By Newswire on 18 February 2026 Classical Music, Newswire, Opera, Toronto

Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company’s newly unveiled 2026/2027 season will feature a bold Canadian world premiere, two new-to-Toronto productions on its mainstage at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, as well as an additional new work from Opera 5, the COC’s Company-in-Residence, to be performed at the Canadian Opera Company Theatre. The season’s full lineup includes: La Traviata, Verdi’s timeless tale of love and heartbreak; Così fan tutte, Mozart’s comic test of fidelity and desire; two new productions: The Turn of the Screw, Britten’s operatic adaptation of the chilling novella, and Richard Strauss’ tragicomedy Ariadne aux Naxos; Donizetti’s ever-charming The Elixir of Love; and the highly anticipated world premiere of Empire of…

Budapest Festival Orchestra performing Mahler 3. Photo: Budapest Festival Orchestra/Róbert Zentai

Review | Budapest Festival Orchestra & Iván Fischer’s Triumphant Mahler 3 in Toronto

By David Fanning on 17 February 2026 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Orchestral, Toronto, Vocal

Mahler’s longest, most philosophically ambitious, and second most lavishly scored symphony, in a less than full-sized hall, could so easily have proved too much of a good thing. Not a bit of it. Among several special—if not unique—features, the Budapest Festival Orchestra is known for its quality of listening: listening to each other and listening to the music. Accordingly, under Iván Fischer’s economical, yet never less than whole-hearted direction, they never pushed sonic thrills across the physical pain barrier or into mere vulgarity. Textures were transparent, the balance against orchestral and vocal solos optimally discreet. The notion that Mahler expanded…

A scene from National Theatre’s Das Rheingold. Photo: Petr Neubert

Review | Misogyny Unveiled in New National Theatre Das Rheingold in Prague

By Gianmarco Segato on 17 February 2026 Concert Reviews, Opera, Vocal

With director Sláva Daubnerová’s production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold (seen Feb. 15), Prague’s National Theatre embarks on a new Ring Cycle between now and 2028. The last time the company presented the Ring was in 2005, in a version from Germany’s Deutsche Oper am Rhein with Canadian soprano Frances Ginzer as Brünnhilde. For any company, a new staging of Wagner’s tetralogy is a huge undertaking and upon first evidence, things are off to a provocative, if visually overladen start. Daubnerová, along with set designers Boris Kudlička and Kateřina Hubená (also on costumes) and costume designer Dorota Karolczak have created a…

Listen | Yuma Kagiyama Skates Olympic Free Program to Premiere of Christopher Tin’s Turandot Finale

By Wah Keung Chan on 13 February 2026 Contemporary, Opera, Orchestral

When Japan’s Yuma Kagiyama skated his free program at the 2026 Olympic Men’s Figure Skating Finals, it was to the World premiere of a special condensed version of composer Christopher Tin’s new ending of Puccini’s Turandot. Tin reduced his 18 minute ending to 4:17 and it was recorded over two days at Abbey Road Studios in London, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the English National Opera Chorus, and then added soloists Grammy-winning soprano Christine Goerke and tenor Clay Hilley. Unfortunately, Kagiyama made several mistakes and only placed sixth in the Free Program, which when combined with his second place…

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