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.
Renato Girolami as Doctor Bartolo and Joshua Hopkins as Figaro in the Canadian Opera Company production of The Barber of Seville, 2015. Conductor Rory Macdonald, director Joan Font, set and costume designer Joan Guillén, choreographer Xevi Dorca and lighting designer Albert Faura. Photo: Michael Cooper

Review: The Barber of Seville

I’m tempted to surmise that the music of Rossini's comic masterpiece The Barber of Seville is unparalleled in successfully penetrating pop-culture. Musically it’s vintage, memorable, tuneful and full of character.
Atom Egoyan, Wagner Die Walkure, COC, Canadian Opera, theSceneinTO, theScene, inTO, Opera in Toronto, Canadian Opera, Four Seasons Centre

For the Love of Opera: Die Walküre

This Die Walküre production hits all the right notes in every department, including set design. It’s a pity that I had a conflict and wasn’t able to attend the opening night performance of Canadian Opera Co...
A scene from the Canadian Opera Company production of Don Giovanni, 2015. Photo: Michael Cooper

For the Love of Opera: Don Giovanni

Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov brings his unique vision of Mozart’s indelible tragicomedy, Don Giovanni to the Canadian Opera Stage.