Table of contents for Vol. LVIII, No. 2 in Opera Canada

There would seem nobetter time than now to reaffirm the value of a specialized arts publication like Opera Canada. Our national newspaper of record, The Globe and Mail, recently announced it has ceased to publish a separate arts section on weekdays, relegating that content to weekends only. There is little need to reiterate the ongoing shedding of dedicated classical music journalists that has plagued North American news agencies for more than a decade—to the point where many, like the Ottawa Citizen, no longer even hire freelance classical specialists. So, in the ‘traditional’ media at least, there is less and less of an appetite to analyse and review so-called ‘serious’ music. As a result, Opera Canada’s mandate to provide in-depth coverage of opera in Canada, and of Canadians in opera abroad,…

ON A SULTRY EVENING this past June, in the garden of a ground floor apartment in a quiet neighbourhood of Hamburg, Yves Abel is relaxed as he talks about the challenges and rewards of conducting A Midsummer’s Night Dream at the Hamburg State Opera. The Toronto-born maestro has conducted two well-reviewed performances of the run so far. Although this is his first Britten in the pit, he actually became familiar with the English composer at the age of eleven; Abel sang the boy’s part in 1975 in The Turn of the Screw, conducted by Mario Bernardi at Festival Ottawa (where later he was also the first boy in The Magic Flute). “That was an incredibly memorable time because it was with [legendary American soprano and vocal pedagogue] Phyllis Curtin singing…

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 Oct 11, 2017. Programs subject to change. Against the Grain Theatre (Toronto). againstthegraintheatre.com.Bound. C: Mokrzewski; D: Ivany. Loren, Tennekoon, Trudgen. Dec 13M, 14, 15, 16. Calgary Opera. 403-262- 7286. calgaryopera.com.Il barbiere di Siviglia(Rossini). C: Mokrzewski; D: Gauthier. Braun, Hill, Tessier, McGillivray. Nov 18, 22, 24. Canadian Opera Company(Toronto). 416-363-6671. coc.ca. The Elixir of Love(Donizetti). C: Abel; D: Robinson. Haji, Osborne, Shore. Nov 2, 4M. Rigoletto(Verdi). C: Lord; D: Alden. Wood, Christy, Costello/ Guerrero. Jan 20, 27M, Feb 01, 04M, 06, 09, 11M, 17, 21, 23. City Opera Vancouver.cityoperavancouver.com.**Missing (Current). C: Barber; D: Hinton. Courage, Wood, Newman. Nov 03, 05, 07, 09,…

HONOURS AND AWARDS The 2017 Oskar Morawetz Award for Excellence in Music Performance was awarded to Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Acting as the Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain since 2000, he will be succeeding James Levine as the Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 2020. He currently serves as Music Director for the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Nézet-Séguin’s other recent honours include being named Musical America’s Artist of the Year, Companion of the Order of Canada, and Officer of the National Order of Québec. Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo came out on top in this year’s Cesti Singing Competition, under the auspices of the Innsbruck Festival of Ancient Music. D’Angelo’s performance of arias by Cavalli and Handel convinced not just…

When attending an Opera Atelier production for the first time, the visuals make an immediate impression. Words like “opulent,” “decadent,” and “sumptuous” are often used to describe the Toronto-based opera company’s work, and with good reason. Opera Atelier’s specialty is producing work from a very distinct and notably decorative time in history—the Baroque period—and their stage designs are celebrated for the attention to detail and old-world aesthetic they bring to an ever-evolving art form. The credit for much of what has become Atelier’s visual branding certainly lies with company founders and co-Artistic Directors Marshall Pynkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg, but this merit extends equally to longtime designer Gerard Gauci. Since joining the company in 1983, Gauci has integrated the worlds of music, art, and dance with his fantastical creations. “That's…

MICHAEL PATRICK ALBANO is an opera director, librettist, dramaturg and educator who has had a major influence on generations of young people working in all aspects of opera. Currently he is resident stage director for UofT Opera. Today the notion that people can work as opera directors in Canada is taken for granted. When Albano was in university in the 1970s, it was not, and he has seen and contributed to the changes that have led to the vibrant opera culture that exists in Toronto today. In a telephone interview, Albano revealed that while growing up in Port Colborne he was always interested in theatre. His first time directing was in high school when he stepped in to lead the senior play during a teachers’ work-to-rule strike. His principal love,…

CBC Radio Season 2: Best Operas Ever Saturday at 1 p.m. EST (Opera stars introduce favourite recordings with host Ben Heppner) Nov. 4 Jamie Barton Das Rheingold Wagner C: Barenboim; Tomlinson, von Kannen, Clark (Warner: 97906) Nov. 11 Erin Wall Arabella Strauss C: Solti; della Casa, Gueden, London (Decca: 478 1400) Nov. 18 Tim Albery Peter Grimes (on the beach) Britten C: Bedford; Oke, Allen, Kempster (Signum Classics: SIGCD348) Nov. 25 Keri-Lynn Wilson Rusalka Dvorˇák C: Mackerras; Fleming, Heppner, Hawlata (London: 460568) Metropolitan Opera Saturday Afternoon Radio Broadcasts December 2, 2017 - The Metropolitan Opera’s Radio Broadcast Season resumes. Dec. 2 Requiem Verdi C: Levine; Stoyanova, Semenchuk, Antonenko Dec. 9 The Magic Flute - Holiday Presentation Mozart C: Rogister; Müller, Lewek, Castronovo Dec. 16 Norma Bellini C: Colaneri; Meade, Barton, Calleja…

CDs PROSERPINE SAINT-SAËNS Palazzetto Bru Zane: Opéra français, Vol. 15 Although Camille Saint- Saëns composed thirteen operas, Samson et Dalila tends to be the only one performed regularly today. Henry VIII, Les Barbares, Hélène, and many others have fallen into obscurity; however, Palazzetto Bru Zane has set out to revive lesser-known French operas from the 19th century, and the recent release of Saint- Saëns’ Proserpine is Vol. 15 in their series. Based on an 1838 French play by Auguste Vacquerie, Proserpine is a 4-act tale of love and passion set in Renaissance Florence. The complicated plot deals with the courtesan Proserpine, who is secretly in love with the young aristocrat Sabatino. She conceals her love by rejecting him, but is jealous of Angiola, who Sabatino intends to marry. In the…

Émile Belcourt was one of Canada’s most versatile vocal artists. Born into a French-Canadian family in Laflèche, Saskatchewan, he graduated as a pharmacist but decided to join the chorus of Glyndebourne Opera in 1950 before moving to Vienna, where he studied as a baritone. He sang in Germany (Ulm and Bonn) for three years before receiving his first major break in 1962, when conductor Sir Alexander Gibson engaged him to sing the role of Pelléas for Scottish Opera’s inaugural season. He returned to Scottish Opera on many occasions, most notably as Cassio in Verdi’s Otello and as Shuisky in Boris Godunov. The Scottish Opera debut led directly to engagements with Royal Opera, Covent Garden, where he debuted as Gonzalve in Ravel’s L’heure espagnole in 1963. Later that year, his debut…

Marie Clements, Pacific Opera Victoria (POV) and City Opera Vancouver (COV) aren’t interested in telling a single story. The tagline for Missing, POV and COVs’ new co-production centred on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG), reads: “A story everyone knows, from the vantage of a woman no one remembers,” setting the scene for an opera that opens up conversation about an ongoing Canadian crisis. The inclusion of First Nations issues in Canadian opera may seem new, but there are historical precedents. Aside from Harry Somers’ recently remounted Louis Riel, Calixa Lavallée’s 1883 operetta TIQ: Settled at Last. A Melodramatic Musical Satire in Two Acts depicts Sioux relations with the U.S. army (TIQ stands for “The Indian Question”), and Joseph Vézina’s 1912 operetta La Fétiche tells of First Nations…

WE HAVE A HABIT OF taking things for granted: family, friends, our general health, the beauties of nature. To that list, you can add one of this year’s Rubies honourees, soprano Karina Gauvin. It seems barely conceivable her truly distinguished international career is already over 25 years long and continues to be built on intelligence, innate musicality, strikingly efficient vocal technique, rare musical refinement and a sense of style. Born just outside Montréal, Gauvin grew up in Toronto before returning to her hometown, initially to study Art History but then transferring to the Conservatoire de musique de Montreal where she worked with Marie Daveluy and emerged with a Premier Prix. Both teacher and student were wary of pushing Gauvin beyond her means and so it was felt that opera school…

This fall sees Sudbury-based, Saskatchewan-born baritone Peter McGillivray taking on roles both familiar and new. First he travels to Pacific Opera Victoria for their new production of Janácˇek’s Jenu˚fa in a role debut as Stárek, then to Calgary Opera for a production of Il barbiere di Siviglia and a return to the role of Dr. Bartolo. He will be in Toronto and Vancouver this spring for a new operatic adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat by Morris Panych and James Rolfe, a co-production of Tapestry Opera, Canadian Stage and Vancouver Opera. Peter has increasingly specialized in comic and colourful character roles. “I absolutely live for making people laugh out loud on stage!” He also works tirelessly alongside wife Jennifer (Executive Director of the Sudbury Symphony Orchestra) to bring live opera…