Alexander Brose, Michael and Sonja Koerner President & CEO Designate of The Royal Conservatory of Music, Executive Director of Performing Arts Mervon Mehta, and Dean of The Glenn Gould School James Anagnoson, today revealed programming details of the 16th season at Koerner Hall.
Welcome to the 2024 Summer national issue of La Scena Musicale, our final national issue of the year, in this our 28th season (2023-24) of publishing. CURRENT ISSUE La Scena Musicale’s 28th annual Summer Festival Guide is again glossy, all-colour and in the bigger three-column format. With over 450 festivals, this is Canada’s largest directory of summer arts and music festivals—classical music, jazz, world, folk, country, pop and rock music, theatre, dance, film, visual arts and competitions. This summer issue comes in separate English and French editions with a combined print run of 68,000 copies and is distributed nationally, including…
Massenet – Werther (baritone version) Tassis Christoyannis (Werther), Véronique Gens (Charlotte), Hélène Carpentier (Sophie), Thomas Dolié (Albert), Matthieu Lécroart (Le Bailli), Artavazd Sargsyan (Schmidt), Laurent Deleuil (Johann/Brühlmann); Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Children’s Choir of the Zoltán Kodály Hungarian Choir School, György Vashegyi, conductor Bru Zane, 2024 This new Werther continues Bru Zane’s estimable series of French opera recordings, complete with elaborate hardcover book filled with extensive scholarly essays. Massenet himself approved a baritone version of his famous tenor showcase at the request of the great Italian baritone Mattia Battistini, but no autograph of the alternate score exists. Since its premiere…
Co-hosted by Canada Choral and l’Alliance chorale du Québec, the Podium 2024 Choral Conference and Festival took place in Montreal from May 16 to 19. This year’s theme was “Open voices, open minds.” Bringing together dozens of choirs from across Canada and beyond, the festival featured seven major indoor concerts and a series of free concerts, which took place across downtown Montreal. The festival opened with the Cultural Landscapes concert, featuring Toronto-based ensembles Babεl and Concreamus, as well as Coroncoro Vocal Ensamble from Bogotá, Colombia. The high-calibre performances delighted the audience. Coroncoro should be singled out, having delivered a flawless…
Rose in Bloom Erin Morley, soprano; Gerald Martin Moore, piano Orchid Classics, 2024 One of today’s most in-demand lyric coloratura sopranos, Erin Morley sings roles like Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, Cunegonde in Candide and Gilda in Rigoletto at The Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera and Munich’s Bavarian State Opera. Rose in Bloom is her debut recital disc alongside pianist Gerald Martin Moore. It centres on floral themes in songs dating from the early 19th century to the current day. Morley’s consummate mastery of high, florid music ensures there are inevitably several songs representing composers’ penchant to equate piping coloratura with…
Lully – Armide Stéphanie d’Oustrac, Cyril Auvity, Tomislav Lavoie, Marie Perbost, Eva Zaïcik, Timothée Varon, David Tricou, Virgile Ancely, Anouk Defontenay and Jeanne Lefort; Le Poème Harmonique, Chœur de l’Opéra de Dijon; Vincent Dumestre, music director Château de Versailles Spectacles, 2023 Recorded in May 2023 at Versailles’s Royal Opera, Jean-Baptiste Lully’s Armide here receives a royal treatment in every sense of the word. Le Poème Harmonique, directed by its founder Vincent Dumestre, showcases its expertise in the 17th- and 18th-century repertoire thanks to an interpretation full of the bounding energy which characterizes French music. Each section of instruments seems to…
LSM: How did you become interested in opera? VT: Music and opera are at the heart of my life. With my Italian origins, opera is a family affair! It was my father who introduced me to it. I learned piano, dance and singing, but today the voice remains the instrument that fascinates me most. My two babies naturally became the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal and the Canadian Vocal Arts Institute. The development of young operatic careers is at the heart of my mission as a patron of the arts. I am fortunate to be, with Bernard Stotland, co-chair…
Have you ever sung in a choir, or thought about singing in one? Those who already sing in choirs will know about all the little secrets that I am about to share with you; those who haven’t yet joined a choir, please read on. In an article published on Dec. 19, 2023, the British Northamptonshire Council stated the following: “We all know that singing is fun—when our favourite song starts playing, many of us would agree that it’s impossible not to sing along, dance or at least tap our feet. Now, research has revealed that singing with others by joining…
The Metropolitan Opera has named soprano Leah Hawkins the winner of the 2024 Beverly Sills Artist Award.
The Canadian Opera Company’s (COC) Ensemble Studio is a major training ground for opera singers of the future.
