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La Scena Online is the digital magazine of La Scene Musicale.Contents: News, Concert reviews, CD reviews, Interviews, Obituaries, etc; Editor: Wah Keung Chan; Assistant Editor: Andreanne Venne
ISSN: 1206-9973

Photo: HNH International

Lebrecht Weekly | Dmitri Shostakovich: Premiere recordings (Naxos)

By Norman Lebrecht on 28 November 2025 Lebrecht Weekly

I was almost put off listening to this album by a cover note announcing that ‘Shostakovich was known for his fun-loving attitude during his early years as a composer’. A fun guy, right? In his first decade as a composer he was too busy to have much fun and any time later he was oppressed. Any humour he showed was of the gallows variety. What we have here is a clutch of film and theatre music, some of it reconstructed by the conductor Mark Fitz-Gerald. None is top-drawer Shostakovich. Interludes to Bezymensky’s 1929 comedy The Shot veer between reckless experimentation…

Cellist Nicolas Altstaedt with the OSM conducted by Anja Bihlmaier. Photo: Antoine Saito

Review | Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique with Anja Bihlmaier and the OSM

By Amanda Wong on 28 November 2025 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Montreal, Orchestral

Despite Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Music Director Rafael Payare’s absence due to his busy schedule conducting elsewhere, there is no shortage of exciting programming at OSM this November. Witness German conductor Anja Bihlmaier, Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, who made her OSM debut on Nov. 26. Dressed smartly in head-to-toe teal, she led the orchestra through a program of English music before diving into Tchaikovsky’s famous final masterpiece. First up was the Ballade in A minor by British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s (not to be confused with poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge). Bihlmaier’s somewhat stiff and pushed approach, that thankfully…

Bruno de Sá (Achilles) in Wexford Festival Opera's Deidamia (2025). Photo: Pádraig Grant

Review | Wexford Festival Opera: An Antidote for Opera Ennui

By Ossama el Naggar on 24 November 2025 Concert Reviews, Opera, Vocal

For opera aficionados, a fatigue sets in, seeing the same repeated warhorses each year: Tosca, La bohème, La traviata, Rigoletto, et al. As excellent as they are as tested works of art, it can be an ordeal to experience them with such frequency, unless one has the great fortune of hearing a superlative cast, or the chance to witness a brilliant director’s fresh vision. A welcome relief from operatic ennui is Ireland’s Wexford Festival Opera, specializing in operatic rarities. A trip to the charming town of Wexford, two hours south of Dublin, revealed a world of marvelous surprises at this…

Lebrecht Weekly | Anna Fedorova: Liberté (Channel Classics)

By Norman Lebrecht on 21 November 2025 Lebrecht Weekly

In the days when records had two sides and plane tickets were paper booklets, the Grieg piano concerto would get paired with the Schumann on new releases and the Ravel G major with his own left-hander. These twins sat together on LP like Cav and Pag at La Scala, a reassurance of balance and normality. Nowadays, two concertos would be considered short measure. Digital albums have room for more. So the Ukrainian pianist Anna Fedorova has twinned the Ravel concerto with George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and has filled the space in between with a cornucopia of surprises under a…

Glass Marcano conducts Orchestre Métropolitan

Review | A New World with Glass Marcano and Orchestre Métropolitan

By Amanda Wong on 17 November 2025 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Montreal, Orchestral, Piano

Last year, I had the pleasure of witnessing—and writing about—Glass Marcano’s Canadian debut with Orchestre Métropolitan (OM), here in Montreal. The Venezuelan conductor’s return to Maison Symphonique with OM—and a new collaboration with pianist Tony Siqi Yun—was just as rewarding, with a diverse program of Dvořák, Prokofiev and Ortiz. Marcano’s humble origins have foregrounded her hard work and determination. She is a multitalented powerhouse whose accomplishments extend to fields outside of music like law. This concert proved that her energy remains undiminished since her last Montreal appearance. Marcano and the OM kicked off the afternoon with Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No.…

Clockwise L-R: Yanik Gosselin, Colin Ainsworth, Nicole Katerberg, Alice Macgregor

Review | Richard Coeur-de-lion: When Squire is King at Opera in Concert

By Gianmarco Segato on 16 November 2025 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, La Scena Online, Opera, Région, Toronto, Vocal

Tenor Colin Ainsworth’s announced indisposition at VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert’s Nov. 15 presentation of Grétry’s Richard Coeur-de-lion proved not as potentially ruinous as one might have anticipated. The title role is remarkably short, consisting mainly of an aria and a duet. Ainsworth bravely soldiered on (how could one possibly find another tenor at short notice to fill his shoes in such a rare work?), singing much of his part down an octave. Glints of his familiar bright tone shone through on occasion and his stage presence and declamation were impeccable as usual. But despite its title, the main mover of…

Ben Rudisin & Heather Ogden in The Winter's Tale. Photo: Bruce Zinger

Review | National Ballet’s Disturbing and Cathartic The Winter’s Tale

By Gianmarco Segato on 16 November 2025 Concert Reviews, La Scena Online, Région, Toronto

The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare’s strange amalgam of tragedy and rustic comedy, was given ballet form in 2014 by choreographer Christopher Wheeldon and composer Joby Talbot, a co-production between The National Ballet of Canada and London’s Royal Ballet and Opera. In many ways it is the very model of the contemporary story ballet with its filmic score, modern yet not overly avant-garde choreography, and fast-paced narrative. It returned to Toronto on Nov. 14 with a completely new cast from its 2015 local premiere in a satisfying revival of a work that is at once disturbing and emotionally-cathartic. As with its source…

Lebrecht Weekly | Franz Schubert: 4-hand piano music (Erato)

By Norman Lebrecht on 15 November 2025 Lebrecht Weekly, Piano

Schubert, in the final year of his short life, feared he was dying and hoped he was not. Some doctors thought his symptoms were neurotic (this was Vienna, after all), others suspected a consequence of his mercury treatment for incurable syphilis. Schubert, 31 years old, kept on composing between bouts of vomiting, headaches and excruciating pain in his joint. Among the awesome outpouring of 1828 are the great C major symphony, the unsurpassed string quintet, three last piano sonatas and the so-called ‘Swansong’ song cycle. Apparently trivial by comparison are four works for piano duo, intended for home use. They…

Jeremy Scinocca Photo : Tam Photography

Review | Gala Talent 2025: A Glimpse into Opera’s Future

By La Scena Musicale Team on 14 November 2025 Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Montreal, Opera

On November 11, Opéra de Montréal presented its annual Gala Talent at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, featuring finalists from the Atelier lyrique National Auditions. Accompanied by pianists Jérôme de los Santos and Brian Cho, the evening offered a panorama of promising young voices before an audience that included many figures from Montréal’s philanthropic community, an almost full house despite the city’s transportation protests. The performances were heard by a jury composed of Michel Beaulac (Artistic Director, Opéra de Montréal), Jennifer Szeto (Director, Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal), Adrianne Pieczonka (soprano and Chair of Voice Studies at the Glenn Gould School), Matthew…

Industry News November/December 2025

By Gianmarco Segato on 11 November 2025 Arts Industry, La Scena Online

Appointments Les Violons du Roy and La Chapelle de Québec have announced news that Bernard Labadie will assume the music directorship of the orchestra starting in the 2026–27 season while the organization continues to recruit his eventual successor. This decision comes after the June 2025 departure of Jonathan Cohen, who had led the ensemble since the 2018–19 season. Labadie founded Les Violons du Roy in 1984 and remained its music director for three decades until 2014. He also founded La Chapelle de Québec in 1985, and has remained the choir’s music director ever since. Labadie will play an advisory role…

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