I don’t usually take much notice of awards like the Grammys but this year there is an odd coincidence.  As usual, CanCon is in very short supply across the 95 categories of awards but the three that I could find were all familiar to me.

In Category 89 “Best Opera Recording” there are two nominees with Canadians in the leading role.  Mary Kouyoumdjian’s Adoration has Mirian Khalil as its leading lady and Royce Vavrek as librettist and it’s based on an Atom Egoyan film.  It’s pretty good.

The recording of Jeannine Tesori’s Grounded is essentially the sound track of the MetHD broadcast.  Here Emily D’Angelo stars.  It’s a very good performance but I didn’t care much for the opera.  Attentive readers might at this point be asking themselves why they haven’t seen reviews by me of these two.  If all goes to current plan they should be in the next couple of print issues of Opera Canada.

In Category 84 “Best Immersive Audio Album” Toronto’s own Justin Gray’s Immersed gets a nomination.  I haven’t heard the album but I did attend a “live” performance at the TD Music Hall at Massey Hall which has the kind of multi channel Dolby ATMOS sound system it’s designed for.  Definitely one of the more interesting works of it’s kind.

There were thirty eight musicians involved in the project…