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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