VOICEBOX:Opera in Concert has announced details of their upcoming season.  There are four shows:

• October 30th sees Shakespeare 400, featuring music using and inspired by Shakespeare’s texts.  Solists are Michael Nyby, Holly Chaplin, Gena van Oosten, Diego Catalá, Stephanie Kallay, Anthony Rodrigues and Mikhail Shemet witrh pianist Narmina Afandiyeva and chorus.
• On November 20th it’s more bard (sort of) with Bellini’s I Capulet e i Montecchi.  Anita Krause sings Romeo, Caitlin Wood is Juliet and Tonatiuh Abrego plays Tybalt with Raisa Nakhmanovich at the piano.
• Onto the new year and it’s Haydn’s L’isola disabitata on February 5th.  This, for me, is the one to go for.  Haydn’s operas are greatly underrated and this is the piece that gets Kevin Mallon and the Aradias in the pit rather than just piano.  The cast includes Valérie Bélanger, Marjorie Maltais and Alexander Dobson.
• The season finishes up with Mussorgsky’s epic Khovanshchina, presumably in much reduced form.  Voicebox:OIC Sunday afternoons rarely run much over two hours and Khovanshchina is well over three.  The soloists include Emilia Boteva, Andrey Andreychik and Dion Mazerolle with Narmina Afandiyeva at the piano.

All performances are at 2.30pm in the St. Lawrence Centre’s Jane Mallett Theatre.