Table of contents for Vol. LXI, No. 3 in Opera Canada

NOTEBOOK

Like most North Americans, I listened with some alarm, but had little notion of the dire implications this news would have. Let’s just stick to opera for now and do a little recap. In Canada, live performances still had a few months left, but by February the writing was on the wall. Here we are 10 months later and there has been little to no live opera on any Canadian stages, with some brave exceptions. We now consume almost all our opera content online—a sort of forced culmination of a digital trend in the performing arts that has been building for at least a couple decades. Yet, live opera did not disappear worldwide. With various hiccups along the way, full-scale, live productions returned in big opera centres like Vienna, Munich,…

2 min

Opera Canada|Vol. LXI, No. 3

Speed Round with JONELLE SILLS

1 Dream Role? I don’t really have one… anything Puccini or Verdi 2 Favourite opera production? COC’s Rusalka 3 Favourite opera you’ve been in? Against the Grain Theatre’s La Bohème (shout out AtG!) 4 Current favourite song? “Getaway”—Mac Ayres 5 Administrative role in opera you’d like to try? Fundraising and development 6 Advice to yourself 4 years ago? Just keep going and minding your business and you’ll be fine. 7 Performance day ritual? Drink lots of water, move my body, exercise, be chill, don’t talk too much… 8 Opera singer you most admire? Angel Joy Blue…

1 min

Opera Canada|Vol. LXI, No. 3

JUDITH YAN

When Opera Canada put out a call for stories from artists of colour in Canada’s opera scene, Judith Yan was among the first to respond. Yan, who was born in Hong Kong, and who was nine when she immigrated to Canada with her family, had things she wanted to say publicly about her life as an Asian-Canadian woman who conducts opera, ballet, and symphony orchestras. Certainly, Opera Canada’s call for submissions—for tales of IBPoC (Indigenous, Black, and Person of Colour) opera artists—came under the larger context of talking about race in 2020. Opera is among the industries facing renewed pressure to prove its accessibility to IBPoC; particularly among the younger generation of artists. Opera’s denizens are crying foul about a systematic exclusion of people of colour, be it onstage or…

13 min

Opera Canada|Vol. LXI, No. 3

“Asians should be seen in all roles, in all operas”

From my experiences working as an opera singer in Canada, the United States, and now Germany, I can attest that Canada’s classical music world is no exception to the rule of institutional racism. Much of this racism is invisible because it’s not obvious, even to ourselves sometimes. It wasn’t until recently that I started to think about what being a half-Chinese opera singer actually meant, and how I saw myself in the current opera landscape. My first voice teacher Dr. Gina Oh, a Canadian-born Korean soprano teaching in Vancouver, and I discussed our experiences as Asian-Canadians in the opera industry. We covered topics like colour-casting in roles like Turandot and Madama Butterfly, and whether or not those roles should be exclusively played by Asian performers. My own response is complicated,…

3 min

Opera Canada|Vol. LXI, No. 3

OPERA IN REVIEW

CANADA L’hiver attend beaucoup de moi/La voix humaine OPÉRA DE MONTRÉAL After being postponed twice due to COVID-19, L’hiver attend beaucoup de moi finally had its world premiere online on Nov. 5th. Opera de Montreal had originally planned to present Laurence Jobidon’s new one-act opera, with a libretto by Pascale St-Onge, in late Mar. 2020. As the pandemic shuttered live performances in Canada, the premiere was postponed indefinitely. In the summer, when cases were down and the situation seemed to be improving, the company set an optimistic new opening night of Oct. 28th. By September, infection numbers in Montreal were soaring again and the Quebec government responded with a second “red zone” lockdown. It looked like Jobidon’s composition might not see a stage at all this year, until OdeM announced…

41 min

Opera Canada|Vol. LXI, No. 3

TAKE NOTE

DECEMBER Faculty of Music, University of Toronto Acclaimed American mezzosoprano Denyce Graves will be giving masterclasses to some lucky UofT voice students covering art song, opera and intriguingly, crossover repertoire on Dec. 1, 2 and 4 respectively. The classes are free to watch for future viewing: youtube.com/user/UofTMusic Calgary Opera The Yuletide Sessions virtual concert was created to “celebrate the beauty and tranquility of the holiday season” with CO’s emerging artists. Listen in for seasonal tunes blended with classical masterworks to bring some untraditional tradition into your home. (On Demand) Opera McGill, Montréal On Jan. 30th and 31st Opera McGill will webcast The Turn of the Screw live from Pollack Hall. Stephen Hargreaves conducts members of the McGill Symphony Orchestra and OM head Patrick Hansen directs Britten’s 1954 opera based on…

2 min

Opera Canada|Vol. LXI, No. 3

Denise Wendel-Poray

STROLLING AROUND PARIS under lockdown during a late afternoon in mid-November, the only opera that comes to mind is Erich Korngold’s Die tote Stadt (The Dead City). My calendar is full of ghosts: at the Paris Opera, September—Marina Abromovic’s 7 Deaths of Maria Callas and October—a new Ring cycle staged by Calixto Bieito; November—an exciting series of operas at Theatre des Champs Elysees (TCE) not to mention a must-see concert with Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov—all canceled. I invariably go beyond the one-kilometer perimeter permitted from one’s domicile and walk from the Parc Monceau either south towards the Palais Garnier and the Opera-comique or west toward TCE. All the controversies from just a few months ago have since been silenced: Stephane Lissner’s dramatic departure from the Paris Opera, throwing the sponge…

7 min

Opera Canada|Vol. LXI, No. 3

VOICE LEADING

“What would you like to start with?” …is an in-joke totemic of #singerlife. It is the first phrase uttered in auditions the world over, giving singers an opportunity to elegantly and efficiently communicate who they are as artists. So here, in the inaugural instalment of this column, I’d like to start with what it is to be a professional opera singer in 2020 both from my own vantage and from that of my friends and colleagues. As an Italian-Canadian soprano based in New York but now increasingly Europe-centric, I was trained and now sing in Canada, the U.S., Germany and Italy. I’m currently living in Berlin, using a pandemic-induced lighter schedule for three things: creating, networking and auditioning. In future columns, the opaque process of auditioning will feature prominently. But…

3 min

Opera Canada|Vol. LXI, No. 3

CANADA’S YAPs WEATHER THE COVID-19 STORM

In April 2009, Dana Fradkin—stage director, actor and stunt performer—made her opera debut as a clown in Canadian Opera Company’s La bohème. Coming from a theatre background, Fradkin said she fell in love with the music with an intensity she could not have prepared for. “I became obsessed with La bohème, and then when I did the Magic Flute, became obsessed with the Magic Flute and just like every show, you know, I’d do my bootcamp workouts to them and whatnot,” Fradkin said. Fradkin is one of six participants in Vancouver Opera’s 2020/21 Yulanda M. Faris Young Artists Program, and will be traveling to Vancouver in January. As of publication, only the first two weeks of training will be conducted on Zoom to accommodate self-isolation. “We can practice everything off-ice…

11 min

Opera Canada|Vol. LXI, No. 3

PHOTO CREDITS

P. 3 photo by Chris Hutcheson P. 4: Erin Wall as Pamina in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s The Magic Flute, 2005/06, photo by Dan Rest. P5: Judith Yan photo by Edward Kowal; Alexander Neef photo by Bo Huang; La voix humaine photo courtesy of Vancouver Opera P. 6: Denyce Graves photo by Devon Cass; photo courtesy of Calgary Opera; photo courtesy of UofT Opera; illustration by Isaiah Bell courtesy of City Opera Vancouver; Suor Angelica: Disegno per copertina di libretto, Wikimedia Commons. P. 7: Turn of the Screw photo courtesy of Glyndebourne Festival; Julie Andrews as Cinderella, Wikimedia Commons; Miriam Khalil photo by Shayne Gray; Luka Kawabata photo by Mark Yammine Photography; Mansfield Park illustration courtesy of UBC Opera P. 9: Jonelle Sills photo by Khadija Mbowe P. 10/11 Wikimedia…

1 min

Opera Canada|Vol. LXI, No. 3

JONELLE SILLS

Though Jonelle Sills isn’t exactly new on the scene, the Toronto-based soprano has had quite the list of firsts this year. Most notably, she was named among the CBC’s top 30 Classical Musicians under 30 in August, the same month Vancouver Opera announced she’ll be one of six participants in their Young Artist Program—pandemic schmandemic. In a year that has temporarily relegated opera performances in Canada to the rearview, the privilege of an invitation to perform with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, back in October, was especially cherished by Jonelle. Reflecting on that eclectically assembled program, titled Solace—wherein Jonelle sang Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and narrated Courtney D. Ware’s text in Portrait of a Queen by Carlos Simon—she describes the experience as “Everything I’ve ever wanted. Knoxville with…

3 min

Opera Canada|Vol. LXI, No. 3

Erin Wall

NOVEMBER 4, 1975 ——— OCTOBER 8, 2020 Sincerity. Simplicity. Authenticity. Honesty. All precious qualities to have in a performer. And when these are combined with a luminous voice, uncommon musicality, strong dramatic instinct, and a lovely stage persona, you have the makings of a treasured artist. These qualities defined soprano Erin Wall, the singer and the person. With her passing from metastatic breast cancer, we have lost one of our brightest stars in the operatic firmament. Wall left this world at the young age of 44, at the height of her artistic powers. News of her death brought forth an outpouring of grief and sadness in the music world, underscoring how beloved she was. Opera is full of tragic heroines who die young, but when it’s no longer makebelieve, the…

4 min

Opera Canada|Vol. LXI, No. 3

Alexander Neef & THE COC

When Richard Bradshaw died suddenly in 2007, he left a giant-sized hole in the landscape of opera in Canada. During his tenure as Artistic, and then General Director, of the Canadian Opera Company from 1994 to 2007, he raised the company to a height of popularity, internal integrity and international visibility it had never known before. No one expected that the void Bradshaw left could be filled. Bradshaw was the man who raised the COC Orchestra to the highest standards, who mounted the first Canadian Ring Cycle and who in 2006 brought the long-held dream of Canada’s first purpose-built opera house to completion. After such heroic efforts, the most one could hope for was a successor who would prevent the gap left by Bradshaw from widening and build on his…

16 min

Opera Canada|Vol. LXI, No. 3

‘The Rubies’ 2020 GOES DIGITAL

On Nov. 23rd, for the first time ever, the Opera Canada Awards—‘The Rubies’ was presented as an all-digital event. Opera lovers from across the world tuned in to celebrate this year’s four honourees…and you can still join the party and watch the festivities at operacanada.ca/the-rubies where our video will be streaming into the new year. For the 20th anniversary edition of the Rubies, in the magazine’s 60th anniversary year, Opera Canada celebrated four individuals who have dedicated their careers to forwarding the art of opera in Canada. Attracting fervent supporters from across the world, viewing from the comfort of their homes, the 2020 Rubies were awarded to soprano and conductor, Barbara Hannigan; conductor and Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, Yannick Nezet-Seguin; tenor Michael Schade and posthumously, tenor and former…

6 min

Opera Canada|Vol. LXI, No. 3

FINAL WORD

YOU’RE NOT ACRITIC if you can’t afford to make enemies—you’re a publicist. No offence, publicists do useful work and are also great suppliers of free drinks. That it feels pedantic or naive to say this today is a sign of how messed up the ecosystem is—we’re all frogs in boiling water. The remaining critics I know are either old enough to live off assets they accumulated before the extinctionlevel internet event, or like me, they cover the income gap with other work. The older generation critics effectively subsidize publishers with their own money, covering the difference between a living wage and today’s rates. Today, a few critics even freelance for opera companies as program writers, rehearsal pianists, musicologists or voice coaches. You do what you have to, even if in…

3 min