Tabla de contenidos para Summer 2025 en Opera Canada

Arts journalism has faced unprecedented challenges in recent years. Since 2000, American statistics show that circulation of print media is down 60%, and advertising revenues for newspapers and magazines are down 50%. As newspapers decrease their expenses, arts coverage has seen cutbacks. What “news” remains is often focused on pop culture, typically American film, television and music with wide audiences. In the opera community, we know what these cuts look like. People continue to lament the end of Opera News, which was discontinued and incorporated into the British magazine Opera in November 2023. In this challenging environment, I’ve been having a lot of conversations with different people. We’ve been talking about the purpose of arts journalism. Joseph So and I both reviewed a recent performance in Toronto (with similar but…

The Burundi-born mezzo-soprano grew up in Kitchener, where she spent countless hours of her childhood listening to music and dancing with her grandmother. Her musical passion was taken to another level when a family friend, Ruth-Ann Boos, took her under her wing and taught her piano and singing, took her to see musicals at the Stratford Festival every year for her birthday, and signed her up for the Inter-Mennonite Children’s Choir in Kitchener-Waterloo. Halfway through her undergraduate music degree at the Université de Montréal, Hezumuryango realized that she wanted to pursue opera rather than musical theatre. “After singing in a couple of required opera choruses at school, I began to feel a curiosity for this impressive art form, and one day I saw a video that completely converted me –…

from the April/May 1975 issue of Opera Canada IT HAS OFTEN BEEN SURMISED THAT THE worries and frustrations which Georges Bizet suffered during rehearsals of his Carmen contributed just as much to his death as did his actual illness. He died on June 3, 1875, just three months after the opera’s premiere at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on March 3rd. The music of Carmen was so entirely different from existing types that few could understand it. To make matters worse, the director Camille du Locle not only disliked the libretto but had the greatest qualms about the realism of Prosper Mérimée’s story being suitable for his patrons. To a regular habituée who wrote asking for a box for himself and his family for the premiere, du Locle’s reply, “Better come…

If you ask an opera singer about the challenges of learning a role, they will often describe the process of learning the notes and rhythms, pronouncing a language they might not speak, or how the tessitura is vocally demanding. Then you will often hear them say “It took at least six months to get it into my body.” What does that mean? Stage director and opera consultant Jeannette Aster is adamant that body work be part of the training process, and she works with singers to connect the body, voice and rhythm. “‘Prima la musica’ doesn’t mean prima la voce” she laughs. Throughout her 50 years in the opera business, Aster has been consistently learning from the greatest artists and is passionate about disseminating information to the next generations, emphasizing body…

Don Pasquale CALGARY OPERA It helps when the singers can handle the difficult music, especially those playing Norina (Lucia Cesaroni) and Ernesto (John Tessier). Here, this production was ably served. —KENNETH DELONG Bluebeard’s Castle EDMONTON OPERA The artistic merit of this smaller approach to opera was theatrically engaging and musically coherent. —BILL RANKIN Pelléas et Mélisande OPÉRA NATIONAL DE PARIS The new production by Canadian-Lebanese director and writer Wajdi Mouawad relies heavily on atmosphere, suggestion and ambiguity. —DENISE WENDEL-PORAY Madama Butterfly VANCOUVER OPERA The entire opera was imbued with a dreamy quality that waxed lyrical, poignant and gorgeous. — HADANI DITMARS Jacqueline TAPESTRY OPERA, TORONTO Marnie Breckenridge [has] an infinitely flexible voice that scorches when it needs to, at other times holding all the air in the room in the…

“People want a night out, so let’s partner with restaurants, clubs and bars and offer experiences.” THOSE WHO KNOW ME, dear readers, know I am far too mystical and superstitious (read: Catholic!) to ever be mistaken for a Lutheran type, but indulge me these theses, nailed to the Stage Door for your consideration. I’m also an incurable optimist, and by asking questions in other sectors, I see how it could be in ours. I’ve canvassed some industry heavyweights, too. I’ll start with some big questions posed by Ian Rye, CEO at Pacific Opera Victoria. 1. Why is opera seen as a luxury and not a necessity? Why doesn’t every city in Canada have an opera company to serve their community? Why do we suffer school boards that cut music education…

VIDEO Strauss: Arabella DEUTSCHE OPER BERLIN NAXOS BLU-RAY, NBD0182V ARABELLA, RECORDED IN2023, is the first of a trio of Richard Strauss operas to be directed by Tobias Kratzer at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Kratzer is one of the most interesting and enterprising of the younger generation of directors, and unsurprisingly, his Arabella got a somewhat mixed reception, though anyone who has seen and liked his Tannhäuser or Fidelio is likely to be intrigued by this one too. The production concept is driven by Kratzer’s view that there’s an unresolved conflict between librettist von Hofmannsthal’s relatively progressive views on women’s place in society and Strauss’s more reactionary mindset. This might have led to a really interesting collaboration on Arabella, but von Hofmannsthal died before work on the music began, and Strauss declined…

I will be conducting La traviata for Opera Kelowna’s summer mainstage production. What do you do to prepare for a season as artistic director? There are so many moving parts when preparing for a season. At Opera Kelowna, managing director Brianna Wells and I consider our programs under three pillars – productions, education and community engagement – but I always start with the productions. Our current model is to produce one full mainstage opera in our summer season and a studio production in late winter. This summer’s mainstage opera, La traviata, will be the first Verdi opera that Opera Kelowna has ever produced, and we are all very excited to bring it to life. Once I decide on the opera, the next step is to invite the stage director –…