Category Archives: Toronto opera news and views

September upcoming

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The season starts to ramp up a bit…

Concerts and Opera

  • September 1st at Lula Lounge, Louisa Lyne & di Yiddishe Kapelye, present Leonard Cohen in Yiddish as part of the Ashkenaz Festival.
  • September 18th is the opening of Verdi’s La Traviata at the Four Seasons Centre. There are ten performances split between two casts with the last on October 17th.
  • September 23rd sees the Ensemble Studio open the Free Concert Series in the RBA. Note these shows are still free but are now ticketed.
  • September 30th is National Truth and Reconciliation Day and the COC has a lunchtime lecture/recital in the RBA by mezzo Camryn Dewar on The Evolution of Female Indigenous Representation in Canadian Opera from 1879 to Present.
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It’s all about the Fringe and TSM

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July in Toronto is pretty much about the Fringe and TSM.

The Fringe runs June 30th to July 12th and there are 123 shows across 27 venues plus free events. Obviously for a critic that’s overwhelming. Right now I have ten shows booked, including anything that looks vaguely opera related. So:

  • Minimum at Factory Theatre… the Premier of Ontario living in Hamilton on minimum wage.
  • You Choose at Tarragon… an improvised murder mystery from the Howland company
  • God Save the Sodomites at Native Earth… is anyone in Sodom worth saving?
  • Sinner at Theatre Passe Muraille… breaking up with white Jesus
  • Songs for Moby Dick at Theatre Passe Muraille… operatic epic about a whale
  • Night Journey at the Arts and letter Club…studying The Odyssey
  • Brava at Soulpepper… Yannick Gosselin celebrates divas
  • Potato Potato Saves the World at Soulpepper… can a sketch comedy troupe save the world?
  • Ooga Chaka at Soulpepper… two prehistoric cave painters invent art
  • Catching a Cheese Pervert at Soulpepper… Canada’s most prominent anti-vegan influencer searches for the cheese pervert in her hometown
There’s tons more of course and I may add some shows based on word of mouth later but interests and logistics (no-one wants to do shows at Tarragon and Soulpepper on the same day!) came up with this as a starting point. Continue reading →

June – festivals and more

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Here are some shows to take in in June:

Opera, music etc

  • Opera 5’s Toronto Opera Festival at Theatre Passe Muraille. The double bill of Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi runs June 3rd to 7th with casts including Rachel Krehm, Krisztina Szabó and Greg Dahl. June 12th to 14th is the world premiere of Cecilia Livingston and Duncan McFarlane’s Parélios.
  • June 11th to 14th the TSO is performing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Roy Thomson Hall. Soloists are Golda Schultz, Ema Nikolovska, Saimir Pirgu and Jongmin Park. Gustavo Gimeno conducts. The Friday performance will be livestreamed to Sankofa Square with a singalong option for the Ode to Joy.
  • June 16th to 21st, COC, Tapestry Opera and Luminato are presenting Rene Orth’s Ten Days in a Madhouse at the Bluma Appel Theatre.
  • June 22nd is Against the Grain’s Opera Pub (Pride edition) at the Tranzac.
  • June 27th and 28th Toronto City Opera presents a fully staged version of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld with orchestra. It’s at Trinity St. Paul’s.
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Opera 5 Toronto Opera Festival Preview

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How many singers can you fit in a clown car one hour lunchtime recital in the RBA? Opera 5 managed eighteen ranging from Krisztina Szabó and Greg Dahl to a whole posse of interns plus Trevor Chartrand at the piano. Besides material obviously related to the upcoming (June 3rd to 14th) festival at Theatre Passe Muraille there was Mozart, Strauss (R), musical theatre and Die Fledermaus. It was all really well done but I’m just going to talk about the material that’s most relevant to the festival.

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A special shout out

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Don Giovanni!

I wanted to give a shout out to a one off performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni coming up later this month as it’s in support of a good cause; the Redwood Women’s Shelter.  Appropriately the show is at the Redwood Theatre on Gerrard East (an interesting space with an excellent bar if you haven’t been there before.)  It’s on May 22nd at 8pm with a talk by Michael Jones of Opera Canada at 7.15pm.

It’s piano accompaniment (Brahm Goldhammer) and I suspect it’s basically arias with narration format but it’s an excellent cast headed up by Alex Hajek as the Don.  Tickets start at $50 and are available at:
https://www.theredwoodtheatre.com/event-details/don-giovanni
And there’s early bird discount code DG2026 for 20% off tickets.

The full details including casting are in the linked document

Don Giovanni PR

Coming up in May 2026

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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

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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

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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.