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Elissa Lee talks about the upcoming BIGLAKE Festival
Founders and Directors Elissa Lee and Johannes Debus present BIGLAKE, an annual festival in Prince Edward County (PEC). Johannes Debus and Elissa Lee Founded in 2018 by classical musicians Elissa Lee...
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Last Werther to end an era
The matinee of Werther Saturday May 23rd to end the current Canadian Opera Company Spring Season was not without a bit of ceremony. At the end of the curtain call, Music Director Johannes Debus...
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Multidimensional Michael Patrick Albano: an interview
Michael Patrick Albano’s photo on the University of Toronto Faculty of Music website Michael Patrick Albano is Associate Professor Emeritus with the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, where you...
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Witnessing the birth of romanticism with young Werther
Excuse me as I gush. I love the new Canadian Opera Company production of Werther, featuring some of the best singing we’ve heard in years. I want people to come see this opera, so that the COC decides...
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Interviewing soprano Sarah Dufresne
Reviewers work after the fact, which means that sometimes we only notice stars when the show is over, especially when we are seeing the artist for the first time. So here I am belatedly interviewing...
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A closer look at the COC’s zany Barber of Seville
Your tickets to the opera really are a case of “location location location”. When I saw the Canadian Opera Company’s Barber of Seville two weeks ago seated in the middle of the downstairs at the Four...
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A last Rigoletto on the cusp of a regime change
For Valentine’s Day 2026 this subscriber attended the Canadian Opera Company’s last performance of Rigoletto in their winter season at the Four Seasons Centre, in Christopher Alden’s rather...
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COC Barber in 2026
At first glance the two operas being presented by the Canadian Opera Company represent a contrasting pair. Last week I reviewed the dark Christopher Alden Rigoletto, being offered in a revival with a...
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A Rigoletto for our time
The Canadian Opera Company are reviving the Christopher Alden Rigoletto, last seen in 2018 and first seen here in 2011. I have always been conflicted about it, a production that in some ways shows the...
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Superb Orfeo revival
I was delighted by the Canadian Opera Company revival of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice Saturday at the Four Seasons Centre. Although I thought I liked it well enough when I saw it in 2011 I never expected...
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COC’s highly original Roméo et Juliette
It might be the best-known of all Shakespeare stories, the star-crossed lovers, dying young for love. Romeo and Juliet becomes Roméo et Juliette when a French composer such as Charles Gounod (1867) is...
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Holly Chaplin and Ryan Hofman talk about their upcoming La Boheme On Tap
La Boheme is being presented at the Redwood Theatre on Friday September19th 8:00 p.m., a co-production with The Redwood Theatre including a silent auction in support of Daily Bread Food Bank. I talked...
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Robert Lepage’s Macbeth at Stratford
Bruce asked me whether the Scottish play is worth seeing. I had seen it from the front row, able to see every detail of the complex presentation in the Avon Theatre, less Shakespeare’s immortal play...
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Reflections from Stephen Bell, former COC chorister, Founder of Coffeeshop...
Stephen Bell is an award winning filmmaker and visual designer based in Toronto. Videographer by day and opera singer by night, Stephen is the Founder of Coffeeshop Film & Creative. Stephen Bell...
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COC gets Eugene Onegin
It seems like Tchaikovsky season in Toronto. Yuja Wang played his 1st piano concerto with the Toronto Symphony a couple of weeks ago, and the TSO play his 6th Symphony later this week. This weekend...
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COC’s Wozzeck, a relatable opera
This spring season of the Canadian Opera Company feels a bit like the second coming of Alexander Neef, their former General Director. Next week we’ll be seeing the revival of Robert Carsen’s Eugene...
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A first look at La Reine-Garçon
I attended the Canadian Opera Company’s presentation of La Reine-Garçon, their co-production of a new opera with a libretto by Michel Marc Bouchard and music composed by Julien Bilodeau. Today,...
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Varieties of virtuosity: an interview with Piano Lunaire founder Adam Sherkin
Last month I was delighted to discover Adam Sherkin at a free noon-hour concert in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, a brilliant pianist & composer I probably should have heard sooner and founder...
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Paraphrases on La Reine-garçon from Sherkin & Bilodeau
Today was my first time attending a noon-hour Canadian Opera Company concert in a long time, tempted by a few magic words: a world premiere performance of excerpts from a suite of paraphrases composed...
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Faust Adaptations
Today I saw the closing performance of the Canadian Opera Company’s new production of Gounod’s Faust, in a week when it seemed everyone was selling their soul to the devil even without the manifest...
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