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LA Opera - The Magic Flute - Orchestra Tech #1 and #2 Photo by Greg Grudt/Mathew Imaging

In 2019-2020, The World’s Greatest Opera Stars in Montreal

By Newswire on 25 February 2019 Newswire, Opera

Montreal, Monday, February 25, 2019 — The Opéra de Montréal is proud to announce a 2019-2020 season that promises to be truly extraordinary: the world’s greatest voices in four major productions in Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, an intimate program at Espace Go, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s highly anticipated return to the Opéra de Montréal! Opera fans in the city and from surrounding areas will also be able to take advantage of an all-new option at the Opéra de Montréal: all shows in the season will have a matinee performance on Sunday afternoon, thereby making it easier for many patrons from all walks of…

Polish National Ballet. Photo: E. Krasucka

The Poles Save Western Civilization. Again.

By Robert Kilborn on 22 February 2019 Concert Reviews, Dance

The Polish National Ballet sets Swan Lake in the imperial court of Tsar Alexander III, presented by Les Grands Ballets at Montreal’s Place des Arts. Despite their decorative association with delicacy and grace, swans are fierce and formidable creatures. You approach their nests at your peril. The ancient Greeks metamorphose Zeus into a predatory swan who rapes Leda, Queen of Sparta, who in turn begets Helen of Troy. In one of the great 20th century poems, “Leda and the Swan,” W.B. Yeats exploits this god-as-swan violation to evoke a tragic vision of history (something the Poles know about). The Ugly…

Wilhelm Furtwängler: The radio recordings, 1939-45 (Berlin Philharmonic)

By Norman Lebrecht on 22 February 2019 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Lebrecht Weekly

At the end of the war, when the Russians occupied Berlin’s radio centre, a musically literate officer called Konstantin Adzhemov rounded up some 1,500 tapes and sent them home to Moscow. His purpose in doing so is unknown, unless it was just part of the general order to plunder everything, but the result was that a historic picture was preserved of the music that was played in Berlin during the Hitler years. Musicians in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra had been spared from military service and their conductor, Wilhelm Furtwängler, was known to be the Führer’s favourite Wagner interpreter. The musicians…

SONDRA RADVANOVSKY IN THE TITLE ROLE OF DONIZETTI'S MARIA STUARDA. SONDRA RADVANOVSKY INTERPRÈTE LE RÔLE-TITRE DE MARIA STUARDA DE DONIZET PHOTOS : KEN HOWARD/METROPOLITAN OPERA.

New Productions at Metropolitan Opera for 2019-20

By Newswire on 20 February 2019 Newswire, Opera

New Productions of Porgy and Bess, Der Fliegende Holländer, and Wozzeck, and Met Premieres of Agrippina and Akhnaten Headline the Metropolitan Opera’s 2019–20 Season Yannick Nézet-Séguin, in his second season as Music Director, conducts the new William Kentridge production of Wozzeck, as well as two revivals, Met Orchestra concerts at Carnegie Hall, and a New Year’s Eve Puccini Gala starring Anna Netrebko Sunday matinee performances are offered for the first time From Roberto Alagna to Sonya Yoncheva, favorite Met singers return Debuting conductors are Karen Kamensek, Antonello Manacorda, and Vasily Petrenko; returning maestros include Valery Gergiev and Sir Simon Rattle…

32e Festival de musique du Conservatoire de musique de Rimouski

By Newswire on 15 February 2019 Classical Music, Newswire

Rimouski, le 15 février 2019 — Du 22 au 24 février, le Conservatoire de musique de Rimouski invite tous les mélomanes du Bas-Saint-Laurent à participer aux nombreuses activités de son 32e Festival de musique. Une importante nouveauté est au programme cette année : un volet impliquant les harmonies de la région, qui se joindront aux musiciens fidèles à l’événement depuis plusieurs années. En effet, cette nouvelle initiative s’ajoute aux volets classique et jazz-pop existants. En tout, ce sont près de 400 étudiants de la relève musicale qui bénéficieront de ces activités, soit le double du nombre habituel ! « Joignez-vous aux…

Alexander von Zemlinsky: Lyric Symphony (Accentus)

By Norman Lebrecht on 15 February 2019 CD and Book Reviews, Classical Music, Lebrecht Weekly

I think I’m safe in saying there is no satisfactory performance of this troubling work on record. Lorin Maazel undertook it for DG with minimal conductorial intervention, Michael Gielen released a live- and fairly lithe – radio recording and Riccardo Chailly broached it with the Concertgebouw in the early 1990s, which is as good as it got until now but not close enough for me to the heart of the Zemlinsky enigma. The Lyric Symphony is the only major work to take the form of Das Lied von der Erde, with baritone and soprano instead of tenor and mezzo, but…

Alexandre Da Costa Warm and Expressive with McGill Chamber Orchestra

By Genevieve Roy on 12 February 2019 Classical Music, Concert Reviews

Montrealers celebrated the much anticipated return of Sony Classical artist and 2012 Juno Award winner, violinist Alexandre Da Costa at Bourgie Hall on Saturday, Feb. 9. The Montreal native gave a warm, expressive and entertaining performance, accompanied by the McGill Chamber Orchestra conducted by Boris Brott. Since several orchestra members were Da Costa’s former colleagues or fellow students from his time at the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec, it was heartwarming to see the deep respect and altruistic nature that radiated from the stage from all sides. Da Costa performed with heartfelt emotion and precise dexterity a selection of works…

(de g. à d.) Le directeur général Alexander Neef, membre du conseil d'administration du FAO Judith Gelber deuxieme prix - Joel Allison, troisième prix - Simona Genga, lauréate - Anna-Sophie Neher, Russell Braun, Christina Petrowska Quilico, et Tracy Dahl. Photo: Chris Hutcheson

Anna-Sophie Neher Wins 2019 Christina and Louis Quilico Awards Vocal Competition

By Newswire on 12 February 2019 Music Competition, Newswire, Vocal

Toronto, February 12, 2019 – On Monday, February 11th, the rising stars of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, Canada’s premier training program for young opera professionals, competed in the fifth biennial Christina and Louis Quilico Awards, with Anna-Sophie Neher claiming the first prize of $8,000. Joel Allison won the second prize of $4,000, and Simona Genga won the third prize of $3,000. The event took place at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, as a part of the COC’s Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre. The competition was adjudicated by a panel composed of Alexander Neef, General Director of the Canadian Opera…

Credit: Cylla von Tiedemann

Old meets new as Tafelmusik unveils 2019/20 Season

By Newswire on 12 February 2019 Baroque and Early, Newswire

Tchaikovsky on period instruments Elisa Citterio’s new orchestral arrangement of Bach’s Goldberg Variations Six new commissions by living composers The Indigo Project, Alison Mackay’s new multimedia program Christmas program with Vesuvius Ensemble Europe tour with soprano Karina Gauvin Elisa Citterio’s debut Tafelmusik recording Toronto, February 12, 2019… Today Music Director Elisa Citterio unveiled Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra’s 2019/20 season, which highlights the freshness and vigour at the heart of everything Tafelmusik undertakes. Old meets new in unprecedented ways, including Tafelmusik’s first-ever foray into the music of the late Romantic composer Tchaikovsky, a new multimedia program by Alison Mackay, the return of…

Credit: Zachary Spence

Israel in Egypt Takes Capital Region by Storm

By Dwain Richardson on 12 February 2019 Concert Reviews, Vocal

Many listeners equate George Frideric Handel with the Water Music and Messiah, the one oratorio everyone hears during the holiday season. But what about the composer’s other oratorios? (He wrote about 30.) If you were looking to hear a long work besides Messiah and were in Canada’s capital region last weekend, you were in for a treat. The Caelis Academy Ensemble, directed by organist and conductor Matthew Larkin, and the Ottawa Baroque Consort offered a rousing performance of Israel in Egypt, premiered in London in 1739, two years before Messiah. To cap it off, former CBC Ottawa journalist Eric Friesen…