So here we go with a round up of what’s been going on and the best things I saw and listened to in 2025.  I’m picking from 165 live performances and over 100 recordings so there was some competition!

Opera

The Toronto opera scene is recovering slowly from the pandemic but there’s still way less going on than pre 2020.  Opera 5 continued their comeback in 2025 and Opera Revue made their eclectic contributions but the indie opera scene is pretty thin.  The ring is pretty much held by the well established; the COC, Opera Atelier, OIC, Tapestry and the student programmes.  It looked like Against the Grain was emerging fro hibernation but that’s been kicked into the long grass now too.

So my favourites:

• Tapestry Opera’s remount of Luna Pearl Woolf and Royce Vavrek’s Jacqueline in February showed that this work had legs and deserved it’s, by now, multiple appearances around North America.
• Julien Bilodeau and Michel Marc Bouchard’s La Reine-garçon at the COC in March was a substantial and excellent new Canadian opera in a fine production and performance.
• The highlight of the year at the COC and likely one of the highlights of the decade at the COC was William Kentridge’s searing production of Berg’s Wozzeck in April.  It was everything one could want from a 20th century classic with some great performances from the likes of Michael Kupfer-Radecky, Ambur Braid, Matt Cairns and Michael Schade backed up by Johannes Debus and the COC orchestra in the finest form I have heard them in.
• The first site specific performance in a while was the rather weird but very satisfying Queen of the Night Communion staged by Tapestry Opera and Luminato at Metropolitan United Church in June.  There were some unique arrangements of well known pieces, cool staging by Michael Mori and a strong cast headlined by Krisztina Szabó.
• In July Toronto Summer Music showcased a touring production of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea in a production by Cappella Mediterranea that transcended the limitations of being “semi-staged” to offer a proper period take n the composer’s masterpiece.
• TSM also gave us the long awaited Toronto appearance of Brian Current and Marie Clements’ MISSING; about murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls.  The powerful performances and evocative use of video transcended the limitations of a semi-staged performance.
• October’s revival of Robert Carsen’s production of Gluck’s Orfeo and Euridice in October combined Carsen’s minimalist but beautiful production with fine performances to create a very satisfying overall result.

Brooklyn Marshall and Ambur Braid in Wozzeck – Photo: Michael Cooper

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So here we go with a round up of the best things I saw and listened to in 2024.

Opera

The Toronto opera scene is still a bit flat and lacking the vibrancy of pre-pandemic with Against the Grain pretty much invisible and Tapestry wrapped up in building out their new digs.  Still, there were some good shows.  The best of the CCC’s offerings, IMO, were Cherubini’s Medea in the spring and Gounod’s Faust in the fall.  Beyond the COC, William Christie and co’s presentation of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen at TSM was refreshingly different, Opera 5 bounced back with a rather good production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and let’s throw Art of Time Ensemble’s reimagining of Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale into this category too.  There were a couple of excellent student shows.  The GGS produced a very good Dialogues of the Carmelites early in the year and UoT Opera chipped in with their Three Islands show featuring three one act operas directed by Tim Albery. Continue reading →

So here goes the usual annual round up of the best things I’ve come across in a very busy 2023.

Opera – It’s been a rather thin year for opera in Toronto.  The indie scene has been slow to make a comeback and programming at the COC has been ultra conservative.  There have been some worthy efforts at both UoT Opera and the Glenn Gould School but nothing quite up to “best of” standard.  So my first pick is Salome at the COC; largely for Ambur Braid’s performance of the title role with bonus points for Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils spin off.  I was also very impressed with Opera Atelier’s take on Handel’s La resurrezione.  It’s one of the best things they have done in a while with a particularly moving performance by Meghan Lindsey as Mary Magdalene.  The one really notable indie show of the year was Against the Grain’s chamber scale version of Bartók’s Duke Blubeard’s Castle with Gerald Finley and Charlotte Hellekant. Continue reading →

It’s that time of year when one looks back at the previous twelve months and reflects. It’s also customary to produce “best of” lists and the like. So here goes.

In terms of fully staged, large-scale opera productions it wasn’t an especially eventful year. The COC staged six solid, enjoyable productions but nothing that would hit my list of all time favourites. There was open criticism of Tcherniakov’s Don Giovanni from the usual suspects and more behind the scenes muttering about Pyramus and Thisbe but I thought both shows were examples of things that needed to happen. We need more contemporary opera and we need bolder takes on established classics. I wrote at length on why I thought the Don Giovanni received such a high degree of scrutiny, often from people who had reviewed Opera Atelier’s Alcina the year before, apparently oblivious to the liberties that were taken there! If I had to pick a favourite from the COC’s line up it would likely be Robert Lepage’s production of Schoenberg’s Erwartung featuring a stellar one woman performance by Krisztina Szabó. Opera Atelier’s offerings were, frankly, so much like virtually every other Opera Atelier production since the Flood as to leave anyone trying to write about them pretty desperate. OA watching has become a bit like Kremlinology. The most minute things are blown up into issues for want of anything else to write about!

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