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...
(Continue reading)
By Neil Crory on January 16, 2015
On Wednesday evening the Canadian Opera Company announced its 2015-2016 season in Grand Opera style. No exclusive little cocktail party for a handful of press here – instead General Director, Alexander Neef went straight to his public and pulled out all the stops. Over a 90 minute programme he offered the crowd of over 1700 an 'event' overflowing with informal chat, Q & As, video segments, interviews, live music, surprise guest singers, a full orchestra conducted by COC Music Director, Johannes Debus - and the complete Act II finale of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Brent Bambury, the affable CBC Radio One host, functioned as moderator and kept the various elements moving along in a quick and orderly fashion. With the massive set for Richard Wagner's Die Walküre in the background, all that was missing was the chorus...
(Continue reading)
By Michael Vincent on January 7, 2015
Rock icon Courtney Love has been cast as the star of Todd Almond's Kansas City Choir Boy, an experimental opera staged by the Prototype Festival at the Manhattan Arts Centre on January 8...
(Continue reading)
By Jenna Douglas on December 1, 2014
Opera doesn't make money, it never has, and we all know it. I was recently asked about opera's economy and why opera companies have never functioned as a for-profit theatre company. The theoretical comparison was between the Canadian Opera Company and Mirvish Productions. My initial response to the question of a business model was that there was simply not enough money. Opera is expensive to put up, and expensive to maintain; Mirvish Productions was funded with Ed Mirvish's wealth, and designed to make money from its theatres and productions. As with most opera and theatre companies worldwide, the COC receives government grants, and both corporate and individual donations to supplement their revenue from ticket sales. Without that kind of support, the math simply wouldn't add up. We know this in the theatre industry; it's nothing new. So, with all the generous donors keeping opera afloat, why hasn't there been a notable attempt to invest in starting an opera company that will eventually self-sustain?
(Continue reading)
By Neil Crory on November 26, 2014
I can't recall ever attending a vocal competition in which the men took home all the medals: bronze, silver and gold. Those cunning little sopranos and mezzos always seem to find ways to endear themselves into the hearts of jury and audience members, don't they? That is until last evening for the final round of the Second Annual Canadian Opera Company's Centre Stage Ensemble Studio Competition Gala at the Four Season's Centre.
(Continue reading)
By Paul E. Robinson on November 17, 2014
One might be forgiven for thinking that the strong Canadian presence in this performance is the key to its success. Baritone Russell Braun and conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin are both in top form. And director Des McAnuff, formerly the artistic director of the Stratford Festival, has produced a fresh and powerful interpretation of Gounod’s perennial favourite.
(Continue reading)
By Lev Bratishenko on November 17, 2014
It is a mystery why Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is performed so rarely. This wild opera was written in 1932 and it only premiered at the Met in 1994 with a production by Graham Vick that returned last Monday. The production remains silly, the opera magnificent.
(Continue reading)
By Jenna Douglas on November 12, 2014
(Continue reading)
