Coming up in May 2026

Coming up… music etc

  • May 2nd.  The Artists’ Studio of the Canadian Children’s Opera Company are presenting Judith Weir’s The Black Spider.  It’a very rare chance to see a Judith Weir opera in Toronto.
  • There are two free shows on the 4th.  At noon Opera 5’s interns are performing in the RBA and in the evening it’s AtG’s Opera Pub at the Tranzac.
  • On the 5th there’s a sneak preview of Toronto Summer Music in the RBA at noon.
  • On the 6th Jane Archibald has a recital at Koerner Hall.

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Confluence Concerts 2026/27

The Confluence Concert series for next season was announced last night.  There are eight concerts:

  • August 20th – Side by Side.  The Confluence team will spend a week in workshops with a group of young artists.  The public concert resulting from that is on August 20th at Heliconian Hall (which is the venue for all their concerts unless otherwise specified).
  • September 25th and 27th – Global Voices.  Suba Sankaran curates a concert of a cappella works from different musical traditions.  The 27th show is at some place at Queen and Shaw that I didn’t catch!  (the Shaw & Queen location is Youngspace (formerly an Artscape location) at 180 Shaw).

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More season announcements

Following on from yesterday’s COC announcement we now have the TSO’s 2026/27 season announcement.  It’s the usual mix of Classics, Pops, Films and Young People’s concerts.  The Classics section is heavy on standard rep with lots of Beethoven and some big name soloists.  There are, however, three concerts with significant vocal content:

  • November 12th and 14th 2026 Rachel Willis-Sørensen is performing Strauss’ Four Last Songs.  There’s also a Beethoven 4th on that programme.
  • June 17th and 19th 2027 we get Mahler’s monumental 8th Symphony.  If you were impressed by Sarah Dufresne (pictured above) in Rigoletto, she’s one of the soloists for the Mahler.
  • And, speaking of COC stars this year’s Messiah features Deepa Johnny along with Louise Alder, Paul Appleby and Joshua Hopkins (December 15th to 20th 2026).

Here’s the full season brochure.TSO 2026_27 Subscription Brochure

Also recently announced, Opera Atelier’s 2026/27 offering.  They have two shows; both at Koerner Hall.

  • October 22nd to 25th they are performing Charpentier’s The Descent of Orpheus featuring Mireilles Asselin and Lebel, among others.  Chris Bagan conducts which is welcome.
  • April 15th to 18th 2027 there’s a remount of Handel’s The Resurrection.  Carla Huhtanen and Meghan Lindsay reprise their roles but the rest of the cast is new.

Full details of casts and creative teams are here.

Toronto City Opera’s Macina Voice competition

Toronto City Opera’s third annual Macina Voice Competition is set for February 21, 2026 at Church of the Redeemer. The finalists are:

  • Camila Montefusco – Mezzo-Soprano
  • George Theodorakopoulos – Baritone
  • Hillary Tufford – Mezzo-Soprano
  • Jaclyn Grossman – Soprano
  • Jamal Al Titi – Baritone
  • Marion Germain – Soprano
  • Nicholas Kluftinger – Tenor
  • Olivia LaPointe – Soprano

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Coming up in February

Here’s a few things to look forward to next month.  Weirdly everything I know about so far is in the first half of the month so I’ll maybe do a supplemental for the back half in a couple of weeks time. Continue reading

What might we see at the COC in 2026/27

It’s about the time of year when one starts to think about what might be in the next season at the COC.  The last couple of years the announcement has just been an email drop and there’s really no way of telling when it will happen.  In about a month’s time is likely so if I’m going to make some predictions now is a pretty good time.

Once upon a time there were some pretty good indicators of what the next COC season might look like.  Rumours aside, one could look at:

  • Co-productions with other companies and expect that they would come around sooner or later
  • Ditto commissions of new work
  • A certain regularity in the recurrence of “popular” works.  Madama Butterfly every five years for example.

The trouble is none of this seems to be relevant anymore.  Co-pros and commissions disappear without trace and the regularity patterns seem no longer to apply.  The only real certainty is that three or four shows will be revivals.  All of which makes trying to make predictions a bit daft… which makes me ideally suited to do it.  So here goes… Continue reading

Upcoming in the New Year

Here’s some of what January has to offer…

Toronto Operetta Theatre is doing Imre Kalman’s The Czardas Princess over the New Year holiday.  It’s st the Jane Mallett Theatre and there are shows on December 30th and January 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

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Opera 5’s 2026 Toronto Opera Festival

Following on from this year’s successful festival at Theatre Passe Muraille Opera 5 are once again running a sort of mini festival at that venue in June next year.  There will be two programmes.  There’s a Puccini double bill of Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi which, I’m guessing will be given with chamber ensemble accompaniment.  Rachel Krehm headlines as the theologically unsound nun while Gianni Schicchi has Greg Dahl in the title role.  Krisztina Szabó will appear in both operas as Princess Zia and Zita.  Jessica Derventzis directs and Evan Mitchell is in charge of matters musical.  This one runs June 3rd to 7th. Continue reading