Opera - my/maSCENA

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2025 Banff Centre Summer Arts Festival Programming Announced!

By Newswire on 4 April 2025 Canadian Music, Classical, Classical Music, Film, Newswire, Opera, Piano, Strings, Theatre, Visual Arts

Banff Centre Summer Arts Festival launches with over 70 concerts, talks, readings, exhibitions, performances, and screenings—including 50 free events—running from May to September, 2025 Held every summer at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Banff, Alberta, the 2025 festival is themed around “gatherings and conversation,” and will feature Jeremy Dutcher, an evening dedicated to Oscar Peterson, an opera adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale, the 15th Banff International String Quartet Competition, a new venue, and more! BANFF, AB, April 3, 2025 – A tradition since 1950, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is again turning its campus into the grounds of…

Midori Marsh. Photo: Sam Gaetz.

Review | Midori Marsh Travels Through Generations of Sisterhood

By John Gilks on 4 April 2025 Art Song, Classical Music, Concert Reviews, Opera, Piano, Toronto, Vocal

The Women’s Musical Club of Toronto’s Music in the Afternoon series continued at Walter Hall on April 3rd with a song recital by soprano Midori Marsh and pianist Frances Armstrong. The theme was “sisters,” with each set designed to explore a particular aspect of sisterhood. The first set dealt with religious sisterhood. It began with the duet, Bone Jesu, fons amoris, by the Benedictine nun Chiara Margarita Cozzollani for which Midori was joined by mezzo-soprano Alex Hetherington. It’s a very lovely piece which sounds more polyphonic than two voices should. The blend was excellent too, with just the right difference…

Photos: J. L. Tarrant; Valérie Remise; Nini Krysztofiak

Festival TransAmériques: Hiroshima mon amour, the opera

By Nathalie de Han on 2 April 2025 Musical Theatre, Opera, Theatre

The 1959 film, Hiroshima mon amour depicts the brief encounter between a French actress and a former Japanese soldier, whose family perished under the bombs. Writer Marguerite Duras and director Alain Renais invoked love, death, war and reminiscence in what is considered one of the vanguard productions of the French New Wave. In her introduction to the published screenplay, Duras wrote that it was an allegory, the material of an opera. It is this idea that Australian composer and writer Rósa Lind grasped onto for her five-act, one hour and twenty minute opera written for chamber ensemble. Christian Lapointe, general…

Roberto Alagna as Don José (left), and Elīna Garanča as Carmen (right)

Carmen at 150: A Listener’s Guide

By Adrian Rodriguez on 31 March 2025 Opera, Romantic

“L’amour est un oiseau rebelle que nul ne peut apprivoiser, Et c’est bien en vain qu’on l’appelle, S’il lui convient de refuser.” With these lines, Georges Bizet’s Carmen bursts onto the stage, declaring that love is wild, untameable, and indifferent to human desire. This is the heart of Carmen: a tale of irresistible attraction and fatal freedom, set against the sun-drenched streets of Seville. Nearly 150 years after its premiere, Carmen remains a fan favourite. According to OperaBase, it is the third most performed opera in the world, with 19,405 performances across 4,686 productions, including 232 performances in Canada. History…

Opéra de Trois-Rivières: Giving Voice To Vocal Talents

By Adrian Rodriguez on 31 March 2025 Arts Industry, Canadian Music, Classical Music, Montreal, Opera, Quebec Music, Vocal

In 2021, at the height of the COVID pandemic, while many cultural companies faced closing their doors, soprano Valérie Poisson took the bold step to establish the Opéra de Trois-Rivières. Almost five years later, the company is bearing fruit. From the beginning, the Quebec soprano’s vision was clear: offer a space to up-and-coming lyric artists to be able to practise and experiment with their art. “These days, it’s very hard to find opportunities for performing in full operas,” she explained. “For me, nurturing our artistic soul and developing our unique qualities as lyrical artists, comes from being part of a…

Thomas Hampson. Photo: Chris Singer

Thomas Hampson: A Song of Freedom

By Justin Bernard on 31 March 2025 Art Song, Interviews, Opera, Quebec City

Thomas Hampson needs no introduction. At nearly 70 years old, the American lyric baritone continues to travel the world, not only as a singer and recitalist, but also as a singing teacher. He studied with teachers who themselves had learned from the great masters. Today, he passes on his passion for vocal arts to young artists, notably at the Lied Academy in Heidelberg. On April 26, he will present a recital at the Club musical de Québec and, a few days before that, will sing Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte at the Maison symphonique. La Scena Musicale spoke to…

Shira Gilbert. Photo: Tam Photography

CMIM: Big Changes for 2025 Vocal Edition

By Gianmarco Segato on 31 March 2025 Art Song, Interviews, Montreal, Music Competition, Opera, Vocal

The 24th edition of the Concours musical international de Montréal (CMIM) will once again be dedicated to voice. For its 2025 iteration, 348 singers—including 74 Canadians—applied from 43 countries. A preliminary jury has already winnowed the number down to 24 competitors, ages 25 to 32, who will gather in Montreal from May 25-June 6 to compete for prizes valued at $160,000. In terms of its place within the firmament of international voice competitions, Artistic Director Shira Gilbert points to CMIM’s position near the top “both in terms of prize money which includes our career development grant, which is significant, the…

Marie-Nicole-Lemieux in the role of Carmen at the Chorégies d'Orange. Photo: Christophe Agostinis

Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Carmen: A Canadian first

By Justin Bernard on 31 March 2025 Interviews, Opera, Romantic

If Marie-Nicole Lemieux’s arrival in Canada—and in Quebec, in particular—is always an event, what can we say about her local debut in Bizet’s Carmen, which celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2025! Her very first take on the role dates back to 2017, in Paris, alongside tenor Michael Spyres. “I was ready to sing Carmen long before I did it,” she says. “I was waiting for a conductor to have the courage to entrust me with the role, and that was Michel Franck, general director of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Let’s face it, Carmen is mostly given to tall brunettes, which…

Samuel Mariño. Photo: Diana Gomez

Samuel Mariño: From Prejudice To Pride

By Adrian Rodriguez on 31 March 2025 Classical Music, Interviews, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

Maricón! Parchita!! Mamita!!! (an alluvium of homophobic and demeaning insults)—these were the sort of taunts Samuel Mariño endured daily in school while growing up in Venezuela. His unusually high voice made him a target of constant ridicule. As a 14-year-old, desperate to fit in, Mariño visited the ENT, tried vocal therapy, and even considered surgery to lower his larynx. Each failed attempt to change his voice felt like another rejection of who he was. At the end of his rope, a laryngologist asked him a question that shattered his despair: “Why don’t you sing soprano?” The suggestion sparked a joyful…

Caring For Voices And Singers: Dr. Françoise Chagnon, ENT

By Viktor Lazarov on 31 March 2025 Arts Industry, Canadian Music, Interviews, Montreal, Opera, Popular Music, Vocal

If you are a singer in Quebec, you likely know Dr. Françoise Chagnon. A specialist in otorhinolaryngology (commonly referred to as ear, nose and throat medicine) and cervico-facial surgery for nearly 40 years, Dr. Chagnon takes care of professional voices in both opera and popular music. Some of her patients have sung on the most prestigious stages in the world and, with her guidance, have learned to better understand, master, and maintain their hidden vocal instrument. Her affinity for musicians’ health developed through medicine and, first and foremost, her fascination with the larynx, vocal cords, and the physiology of the…

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