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Welcome to La Scena Musicale’s weekly Highlights, a roundup of classical music news from Canada and beyond. This week we’ve seen several big appointments at various festivals, orchestras, and opera companies. More holiday concerts are on their way, and several publications have released their top albums of the year.
Ensemble Appointments
ItalfestMTL
ItalfestMTL’s general director, Josie Verrillo, has stepped down to make way for her successor, Francesca Sacerdoti.
Charlotte Symphony Orchestra has appointed Toronto-based music director Kwamé Ryan (CBC).
Opéra de Lille has appointed Barbara Eckle as its new director (Opera Wire), but Caroline Sonrier will hold the position until the start of July 2025.
Christopher Franklin will be the new principal conductor for the Minnesota Opera (The Violin Channel).
Recent and Upcoming Shows
Patrick Dillon says the singers were “all first-rate” at Metropolitain Orchestra’s Dec. 14 performance of Florencia en el Amazonas (Opera Canada). However, the English text accompanying the work was difficult to read because it was “awkwardly projected onto the curving scenery,” and he wishes “the Met’s head maestro had resisted the temptation to amp up the volume at the end of act 1, at the eloquent (Mattia) Olivieri’s expense.”
Tafelmusik
At Tafelmusik’s Dec. 15 Messiah concert (Ludwig Van), reviewer Joseph So says the chamber choir was “superb… under the expert direction of Ivars Taurins.” He adds that “there’s something quite magical in the perfect blending of the different voices, soothing, ethereal yet incisive and quicksilver when needed.”
On Dec. 23, Vancouver Cantata Singers will perform the 20th edition of their “Christmas Reprise” concert (Stir).
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra has announced an April 2024 performance of Riopelle Symphonique (Stir), in honour of Canadian painter Jean Paul Riopelle’s 100th anniversary.
Debuts
The first opera to feature a central transgender character (The Violin Channel), “Lili Elbe,” has premiered at Switzerland’s Konzert und Theater St. Gallen.
Awards and Competitions
Quebec composer Francis Battah has been awarded first prize at the International Composition Competition “Free Range,” for his piece Traduttore, Traditore (2023). Another of his works, Trois paysages (2022), took home the third prize.
“French pianist Kojiro Okada joins French violinist Hugo Meder and French-Korean cellist Bogeun Park in the award-winning Trio Pantoum,” according to The Violin Channel.
Local News
CBC has unveiled its top 13 Canadian classical albums of the year, including Emerson String Quartet’s Infinite Voyage, Cheng2Duo’s Portrait, and ARC Ensemble’s Chamber Works by Robert Müller-Hartmann. The Guardian has also named its top 50 albums of the year.
After discovering a partially written, never-before-seen 1950s opera called The Lake in the Canadian Music Centre library, soprano Heather Pawsey is reviving it with a focus on decolonization narratives (CBC).
Rosemary Thomson, who was fired from her position as music director of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra on Dec. 1, is filing a claim for wrongful dismissal (Global News).
On Dec. 8, a 300-year old violin was stolen (The Violin Channel) from the home of Los Angeles-based art dealer Rowland Weinstein. The Amati instrument is estimated to be worth $700,000 USD (around $940,000 CAD). The FBI has released details about the violin to the public in an attempt to recover it.
Obituary
The founder of the Opera Theatre of St Louis, as well as the former vice president of OPERA America, Richard Gaddes, has died at 81 (St Louis Public Radio).
Founding AC/DC drummer Colin Burgess (La Presse) has died at 77.
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