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 Michael Vincent on January 21, 2015
Around this time last year, Opera Hamilton made the announcement that due to a lack of funding, it was closing its doors for good. It wasn’t the first time Hamilton has lost an opera company. Opera Hamilton’s predecessor, Opera Ontario, went bankrupt in 2008, and despite moving from Hamilton Place to the Dofasco Theatre —(a smaller venue designed to cut costs) it wasn’t enough to balance the books...
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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 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...
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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...
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By Jenna Douglas on January 5, 2015
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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?
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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.
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By Paul E. Robinson on November 19, 2014
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