By Joseph So on January 22, 2015
Don Giovanni has always been among the most popular operas in the standard repertoire. A quick check of the statistics from the last five seasons puts it at No. 10, out of a total of 2,581 operas performed by over 900 companies worldwide. Not only is it held in the highest regard by opera lovers, and scholars, but composers the likes of Rossini, Tchaikovsky, Gounod, Flaubert and George Bernard Shaw also had nothing but praise for this dramma giacoso.
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By Paul E. Robinson on January 22, 2015
Tucson, Arizona | I caught up with conductor Roger McMurrin recently in Tucson, Arizona. In a few weeks time he was scheduled to make a return visit to Bishkek, Kyrgystan for a series of concerts, but home these days is Kiev, Ukraine where he has been making music and preaching the Gospel for the past 22 years...
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By Jenna Douglas on January 20, 2015
This past weekend, I attended The Opera Exchange, an event presented semi-regularly by the Canadian Opera Company to discuss relevant opera topics, structured around the COC's current season. With Dmitri Tcherniakov's production of Don Giovanni set to open on January 24th at the Four Seasons Centre, it was a good opportunity to chat about that polarizing topic, Regietheater, or director's theatre...
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By Tyler Versluis on January 19, 2015
Last week the Canadian Opera Company revealed a surprising series of commissions from Canadian composers: Barbara Monk Feldman’s Pyramus and Thisbe paired with Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento de Tancredi e Clorinda and Lamento d’Arianna in October and November 2015, Harry Somers’ monumental opera Louis Riel for the 2017-2018 season, and finally a new opera by Serbian-Canadian composer Ana Sokolović for the 2019-20 season...
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By Neil Crory on January 7, 2015
Early this past year, a new CD release on the Naïve label arrived in my mail. Glancing at the title - Arias for Caffarelli [sung by] Franco Fagioli - I reacted with as much enthusiasm as I could muster, "Good god! Not another countertenor!" And with that, I tossed it, unceremoniously, into a box overflowing with CDs to be auditioned...at a much later date...
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By Jenna Douglas on January 5, 2015
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By Robin Roger on December 22, 2014
My inner curmudgeon was pleasantly affirmed by Michael Vincent’s November 27th post on Composer insults. Nice to know that those demigods who have created the sounds that express our highest aspirations, tender sensitivities, and most profound perceptions are capable of being petty, envious, competitive and begrudging. Yet for me, there was a simultaneous dissonance (pun intended) because of attending a recent monthly gathering of Toronto composers called The Toronto Ravel.
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By Michael Vincent on December 15, 2014
At any given time during the holiday season, hundreds of choirs will amass in churches and various concert halls across the world, to perform Handel’s Messiah . With the exception of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, no other choral work has been so fixed into western musical culture. In fact for many, the tradition of going to a performance of the Messiah is as dear as beautifying the Christmas tree in the family living room.
But why?
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By Jenna Douglas on December 13, 2014
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By Paul E. Robinson on December 4, 2014
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