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Opera Atelier's production of Mozart's The Magic Flute. Photo: Bruce Zinger

Opera Atelier Announces 2025/2026 Season

By Newswire on 6 February 2025 Classical Music, Dance, Newswire, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

Toronto, ON — Opera Atelier celebrates its landmark 40th year with two significant productions: the company’s iconic production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, on stage October 15, 16, 18 and 19, 2025 at the Elgin Theatre, and the world premiere of Debussy’s surrealist opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, on stage April 15, 16, 18 and 19 2026 at Koerner Hall TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning. “We’re thrilled to open our season in Toronto’s historic Elgin Theatre with the company’s period production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, part of our 40th anniversary celebrations,” says Opera Atelier Founding Co-artistic Director Marshall Pynkoski. “Opera Atelier’s Magic Flute remains North America’s first and only period production of the Opera and has proven to…

Vancouver Opera Announces 2025-2026 Season

By Newswire on 4 February 2025 Canadian Music, Classical Music, Newswire, Opera, Orchestral, Vancouver, Vocal

FEBRUARY 4, 2025, VANCOUVER, B.C. / Traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations – Vancouver Opera announces an exciting and audience-inspired 2025–2026 season with three classic opera productions. The 2025-2026 season begins in October with Verdi’s eternally thrilling Rigoletto, followed by Mozart’s light-hearted Così fan tutte in February 2026. La Bohème, Puccini’s enduring love story, closes the season in blockbuster style with a five-show run in April/May 2026. “For our 66th season, we’re bringing operas by the art form’s greatest composers to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre stage,” said Tom Wright, Vancouver Opera General Director. “These…

Kirsten MacKinnon as Christine in COC's La Reine-garçon. Photo: Michael Cooper

Review | Outsider as symbol in under-characterized COC La Reine-garçon

By Gianmarco Segato on 2 February 2025 City, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, La Scena Online, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

Composer Julien Bilodeau and librettist Michel Marc Bouchard’s La Reine-garçon represents a milestone as the first co-production of a new “mainstage” opera between two of Canada’s major opera companies. Premiered at Opéra de Montréal almost exactly one year ago, it made its Canadian Opera Company debut on Jan. 31st. Taking iconoclast 17th-century monarch Queen Christine of Sweden as its subject, the new work ambitiously grapples with big topics like the emergence of free will, the rationalist philosophy of René Descartes, religious freedom and unconventional sexual desire. With an evocative score and poetic libretto, La Reine-garçon succeeds on many levels, but…

2025 Macina Voice Competition Finalists Announced

By Newswire on 31 January 2025 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Opera, Toronto

Toronto, ON – Toronto City Opera (TCO) is thrilled to announce the eight finalists selected for the second annual Macina Voice Competition. The highly anticipated event, set for February 22, 2025, will feature some of Canada’s most promising young opera singers as they compete in front of a live audience for cash prizes and future performance opportunities. This year’s competition saw a record-breaking 110 video submissions from talented vocalists across the country. After careful deliberation, the TCO artistic staff has chosen the following finalists to perform in the live competition: Alex Hetherington – Mezzo-Soprano Matthew Li – Bass Lauren Margison…

A scene from the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Madama Butterfly, 2025. Photo: Michael Cooper

Review | COC’s Madama Butterfly a Profound Emotional Journey

By Denise Lai on 28 January 2025 Newswire, Opera, Toronto

With its epic music and heartbreaking story, it is no surprise that Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly remains one of the most popular and beloved operas of all times. It has been over 10 years since Madama Butterfly was last staged by the Canadian Opera Company after the pandemic forced the cancellation of its mainstage performances in 2022. This opera has also struggled with many controversies related to western imperialism, along with cultural and gender stereotypes. In this production (seen Jan. 26), COC has at least in part addressed them by foregoing the traditional geisha makeup, and by having an all-Asian…

Tickets now on sale for Opera 5’s Toronto Opera Festival

By Newswire on 28 January 2025 Chamber Music, Classical, Newswire, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

TORONTO, ON – Tickets are now on sale for Opera 5’s first-ever Toronto Opera Festival, running from June 12-21, 2025 at Factory Theatre. The festival features a series of performances, including the world premiere of Come Closer by Canadian Composer Ryan Trew and with a libretto by Opera 5’s General Director Rachel Krehm, Opera 5’s first musical theatre production, Elegies: A Song Cycle by William Finn, and a Gala Performance – featuring the Portfolio Artist Interns. The Toronto Opera Festival is currently Toronto’s only professional opera festival dedicated to celebrating opera, musical theatre, and new Canadian works. It will also showcase homegrown talent while training the next generation of portfolio artists. Rooted in…

Announcing Calgary Opera’s 2025/26 Season

By Newswire on 23 January 2025 Classical Music, Newswire, Opera, Orchestral

Calgary, AB – Calgary Opera’s 2025/26 Season will deliver an epic range of adventurous operas onstage, in addition to programs and events year-round. Programming includes the moving Madama Butterfly; hilarious hit, The Barber of Seville; and two family-friendly productions: Little Red Riding Hood for the holidays and a playful Hansel and Gretel featuring designs from The Old Trout Puppet Workshop. New Sunday matinee performances will give audiences more flexibility. “Opera’s timeless stories of love and loss remind each of us to make the most of the life we’re living right now,” said Sue Elliott, Calgary Opera’s General Director & CEO. “Our 2025/26 season is filled with hearts-and-minds experiences that will engage…

Opera 5 Announces 2025 Portfolio Artist Internship Program Participants

By Newswire on 23 January 2025 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Education, Employment, Newswire, Opera, Toronto

TORONTO, ON – Today Opera 5 announces the 8 singers who will join the Portfolio Artist Internship Program for the 2025 Toronto Opera Festival, in partnership with Opera McGill and the Schulich School of Music. The Portfolio Artist Internship is an innovative new approach to artist training designed to support individuals pursuing a portfolio career: a multi-faceted path, artistic or otherwise, simultaneously. The internship provides three levels of learning opportunities: performance, professional skills development, and secondary artistic/administrative skills. The 2025 interns include Kyle Briscoe, Jayden Burrows, Len Crino, Kate Fogg, Brenna McFarland, Maddelena Ohrbach, MacKenzie Sechi, and Emma Yee. For more information on these artists, click…

Shown left-right: incoming singers of the 2025/2026 Ensemble Studio, Ariana Maubach, Angelo Moretti, Nicholas Murphy, Emma Pennell, and Ben Wallace (all photos submitted by the artist).

Ensemble Studio to Welcome Five New Singers for 2025/2026 Season

By Newswire on 16 January 2025 Newswire, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company’s prestigious Ensemble Studio for artistic career development has invited five of the country’s most talented artists to join next season, marking the 45th anniversary of the COC’s innovative program for singers and pianists. Soprano Emma Pennell, mezzo-soprano Ariana Maubach, tenor Angelo Moretti, baritone Ben Wallace, and bass-baritone Nicholas Murphy will join the company’s highly specialized program for Canadian opera professionals in 2025/2026, alongside two returning Ensemble Studio members entering their second year of the program, soprano Emily Rocha and bass Duncan Stenhouse. Last fall, following a national audition tour, Maubach, Pennell, and Murphy all placed as finalists at the COC’s 11th annual Centre Stage: Ensemble Studio Competition, with Pennell securing Second Prize and Maubach clinching both First Prize and…

Soprano Lauren Margison and tenor Colin Ainsworth.

Review | Lauren Margison & Colin Ainsworth Shine in OIC Alceste

By Gianmarco Segato on 13 January 2025 Concert Reviews, Opera, Toronto

Although Toronto audiences have experienced memorable Robert Carsen stagings of two operas by Christoph Willibald Gluck in relatively recent seasons (Orfeo ed Euridice and Iphigénie en Tauride, both in 2011), Voicebox: Opera in Concert (OIC)’s Jan. 12th presentation of his Alceste (1767) is a Canadian premiere. Its 1769 preface was a de facto manifesto outlining Gluck’s ideals for operatic reform. The result is an opera stripped bare of virtuosic vocal display that relies on expert articulation of its French text to make an effect. Happily, in soprano Lauren Margison and tenor Colin Ainsworth, OIC had found two exemplars of French,…

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