Table of contents for Summer 2015 in Opera Canada

A very surprising item of Canadian opera news in the weeks leading up to publication of this issue prompted me to go back and look at the inaugural number of Opera Canada, or Opera in Canada as that four-page newletter was titled in Feb./Mar. 1960. A couple of entries in that issue’s “in the news” section related to Vancouver. One was notice that the stars of the forthcoming production of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the Vancouver International Festival, “under the leadership of Nicholas Goldschmidt, will be the Toronto soprano Teresa Stratas (formerly a member of the Canadian Opera Company and now with the Met) in the leading role of Cio-Cio-San, and the Montreal singers, Richard Verreau and Louis Quilico.” The second item noted that the “Vancouver Opera Association will give…

If you had the chance to see Winnipeg-born Cameron McPhail’s title performance in #UncleJohn, Against the Grain Theatre’s reworking of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, you were likely impressed by three things—his rich baritone, his deft ability to portray malevolence and his athleticism. This last attribute should have been no surprise; McPhail was an athlete before he was a singer. “After being cut from the University of British Columbia volleyball team, some friends coerced me into going with them to audition for the UBC Choral Union. I ended up being placed as a 2nd Tenor in Bruce Pullan’s University Singers, with whom I traveled all over Europe, sang all the great choral repertoire and experienced countless humiliations until I learned how to read music and sing in other languages.” Pullan gave McPhail…

CBC Opera Season Jul. 25 Der fliegende Holländer Wagner Bayreuth Festival 2014 C: Thielemann; Youn, Merbeth, Muzek, Mayer, Bruns, tenor, Daland’s Steersman Aug. 1 Salome Strauss EMI Recording C: Karajan; Bohm, Baltsa, Behrens, van Dam, Ochman, Salomé Mariotte Accord recording (Montpellier Festival) C: Layer: Aldrich, Wilde, Juon, Chaignaud, Reijans, Galou Aug. 8 Ariadne auf Naxos Strauss Royal Opera, Covent Garden (2014) C: Pappano; Mattila, Sacca, Archibald, Donose, Werba, Allen Elektra Strauss Semperoper, Dresden (2014) C: Thielemann; Herlitzius, Meier, Pape, Schwanewilms, van Aken Aug. 15 Norma Bellini Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona (2015) C: Palumbo; Radvanovsky, Gubanova, Kunde, Aceto Aug. 22 Eugene Onegin Tchaikovsky Grande Theatre de Geneve (2014) C: M. Jurowski; Lamprecht, Kovaleska, Shishkova, Toczyska, Nagy Aug. 29 Médée Cherubini Grande Theatre de Geneve (2015) C: Letonja; Care, Deshorties, Doronzio,…

HONORS AND AWARDS Jennifer Maines (formerly Jen-nifer Chamandy), lead soprano for the Tiroler Landestheater in Innsbruck, Austria, since 2003, won the 2015 Austrian Music Theatre Prize for Best Leading Actress. Maines won her “Goldenen Schikaneder” for her portrayal of Kundry in the company’s staging of Wagner’s Parsifal. The Canadian Opera Company swept the opera categories at this year’s Dora Mavor Moore Awards with just two of its 2014/15 productions. The season-opening staging of Verdi’s Falstaff had eight wins, including: Gerald Finley (Outstanding Performance–Male), Paul Steinberg (Scenic Design), Brigitte Reiffenstuel (Costume Design), the production’s ensemble for Outstanding Performance-Ensemble and the company itself for Outstanding Production. The COC’s revival of Wagner’s Die Walküre won Dora Awards for Atom Egoyan (Direction), soprano Christine Goerke (Outstanding Performance— female) and David Finn (Lighting). Greek National…

When the Bayreuth Festival, much later than usual, finally posted in late spring the full artist roster for this summer’s Wagner festival, there were several cast changes from last year. The biggest surprise in the line-up for director Frank Castorf ’s über-controversial Ring production was that German tenor Stefan Vinke had replaced Canadian Lance Ryan as the eponymous young hero in Siegfried and as his older self in Götterdämmerung. Ryan, who himself replaced Christian Franz in his Bayreuth debut in these roles in the final, 2010 outing of the previous Ring production, sang the first two years of Castorf ’s staging and thought he would be back for this third year. Discussions last summer with Eva Wagner-Pasquier, one of the two Wagner family members running the festival, resulted in a…

CANADA CALGARY At one point, Calgary Opera’s seasonclosing, injury-plagued production of Bizet’s Carmen threatened to turn into a Feydeau farce, given the rapid entrances and exits of the singers. It all began promisingly, with a solid dress rehearsal in which all the singers were in fine voice and ready to roll. But on opening night, Sandra Piques Eddy, in the title role, was forced to retire from the stage after the “Habañera” because of a serious throat infection. The show had to go on, and CO was able to draw on its Emerging Artist Development Program. On one hour’s notice, mezzo Beste Kalender, originally scheduled to sing Mercédès, had learned that she might have to step in. And this she did, with remarkable success, performing the music from the side…

Gregory Dahl is proud to have been booed at his curtain calls on more than one occasion—purely because of his aptitude in playing some of the darkest villains in the baritone repertoire. He particularly enjoys dress rehearsals in front of school student audiences: “They always boo me. And that’s a huge compliment, if it doesn’t smash your ego up!” Despite being a memorable Iago and Macbeth, he insists that in real life he is not one for stratagems and spoils. “Off stage, my true character is Papageno,” he says. “You know, happy-go-lucky. But I often come on as hate. That’s why it’s both fun and selfactualising. I am who I am because of how I’ve grown up in my own world. But on stage I can grow into that madness,…

Jon Vickers was a PHENOMENON. Anyone who heard him experienced an event that was without equal on the operatic stage. It was not the case that his voice was so beautiful—there were certainly other tenors who surpassed him in the sheer beauty of sound—but no one sang any role with such intensity and totality of sound and character. I first heard the operatic Jon Vickers as the Duke in Rigoletto at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto in 1954. He also sang Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Don José in Carmen, Filiperto in Wolf-Ferrari’s I quatro rusteghi, Alfredo in La traviata, among other roles that I did not hear. I also recall his singing the tenor solos in Handel’s Messiah (there is a recording for Beaver Records LPS 001; a 1994…

Listings of Canadian Stage Performances July-October 2015. For U.S. and international schedules and more: go to operabase.com Compiled by B. Krsek. Legend: C: conductor; D: stage director; Des: designer; Ctms: costumes; Lght: lighting; Chor: choreographer; *new production; **world premiere; ***national premiere; Op: opening date; M: matinée. Information correct as of June 30, 2015. Programs subject to change. Banff Summer Arts Festival (Banff, AB). 403-762-6301 or 800-413-8368. banffcentre.ca. Crush (Rolfe). Mus D: Shannon; D: Gladstone. D’Alessio, Frazer, McAteer, McIntosh, Pickett, Roy. Jul 17, 18. A Little Too Cozy (Così fan tutte) (Mozart). Mus D: Mokrzewski; D: Ivany. Calis, Przybylo, Ryan, Sheppard, Spinney, Wood. Jul 24, 25M, 26 Early Music Vancouver. 604-732-1610. earlymusic.bc.ca. Dido and Aeneas (Purcell). Mus D: Weimann. Whicher, Thomson, C. Daniels, Mobley, Beaudin, Woodley, Webster. Jul 30. The Queen’s…

CDs DONIZETTI LES MARTYRS Opera Rara: ORC52 Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) was nothing if not prolific. He wrote almost 70 operas, 51 of them for Naples and the Teatro San Carlo alone. In 1838, however, his latest creation for the San Carlo, Poliuto, was banned by Neapolitan censors due to its religious content, which was deemed unfit for the stage. Furious at this, Donizetti decided to leave Italy and go to Paris, where he hoped to secure a commission. Instead of a fresh commission, however, Donizetti and the Paris Opéra chose to expand and rework the ill-fated Poliuto into a grand opera in the style of Meyerbeer and Halévy. A new French libretto by Eugène Scribe was ordered, ballet music was added, three acts became four, new arias and ensembles were…

The curtain was barely down on the 2014/15 opera season before Marie Bérard, Concertmaster of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, was heading west, first to San Diego for its Mainly Mozart Festival in June and then on to play for a few days at the Strings in the Mountains Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. “Festivals are the funnest part of the business,” she says. “You meet so many people and make so many new friends.” Closer to her Toronto home, the summer also took Bérard to Ottawa’s Music and Beyond Festival, where she was playing and teaching, and to Port Milford, Ont., for its Chamber Music Festival and Summer School, where she’s on the faculty. Also in her summer plans is a recording session for the next installment of British…