Image of Opera Atelier Lucio Silla production in Salzburg, Germany. TheSceneinTO.com

Opera Atelier Debuts Mozart’s Lucio Silla

The premiere of Mozart's Lucio Silla is a special one for Canadian opera fans as it is the first time the composer’s masterpiece will be produced in Canada. This is Mozart's first masterpiece, where love proves more powerful than the tyranny of Rome’s infamous dictator. You’ll find passion, intrigue and redemption in an opera that is notoriously challenging for singers.
(l-r) Josef Wagner as Figaro and Uli Kirsch as Cherubim in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of The Marriage of Figaro, 2016, photo: Michael Cooper

For the love of Opera: Marriage of Figaro

Mozart and Da Ponte crafted timeless characters that work well together. Mount that with simply beautiful music and you have the makings of a thoroughly enjoyable night at the opera. Debus hoped “we all should leave the hall uplifted and energised,” and we certainly do.
Phillip Addis as Tancredi and Krisztina Szabó as Clorinda in the Canadian Opera Company’s world premiere production of Pyramus and Thisbe (with Lamento d’Arianna and Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda), 2015. Photo: Michael Cooper

For the Love of Opera: Review Pyramus and Thisbe

Barbara Monk Feldman’s Pyramus and Thisbe, not an opera for the uninitiated Everything about Pyramus and Thisbe seems dull and muted, including lighting and costumes. Let's start on a high note. Canadian...
Lauren Segal as Flora (centre) in a scene from the Canadian Opera Company's production of La Traviata, 2015.

For the Love of Opera: La Traviata

Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata, like so many operatic love stories, ends in tragedy. Director Arin Arbus has blessed audience goers at the Canadian Opera Company by casting
John Relyea as Duke Bluebeard and Ekaterina Gubanova as Judith in the Canadian Opera Company production of Bluebeard’s Castle, 2015. Conductor Johannes Debus, director Robert Lepage, revival director François Racine, set and costume designer Michael Levine, and lighting designer Robert Thomson. Photo: Michael Cooper Michael Cooper Photographic

Blood at the Opera: Bluebeard’s Castle and Erwartung

At the end of the night, what is clear, is that this Bluebeard’s Castle and Erwartung will creep through your psyche and remain there for days. Like Judith, we find ourselves simultaneously repulsed and intrigued, but we must see these disturbing tales through to their abysmal ends.