Ema Nikolovska comes home

Mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska made her Koerner Hall recital debut on Sunday afternoon just twenty-six years after first enrolling at the Royal Conservatory of Music.  It was clearly an emotional occasion for her and justified the barely choked back tears in her introduction.  The emotion though did not negatively affect her singing which was notable for, among other things, great control; emotionally and technically.

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Looking ahead to March

march2024First some additional February shows

  • On the 23rd at Harbourfront Centre Art of Time Ensemble are presenting Music from the Weimar Republic.
  • On the 25th VOICEBOX have a concert performance of Verdi’s Ernani at the St. Lawrence Centre.

Opera

  • Opera York are presenting Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts on March 1st and 3rd.
  • March 14th to 17th UoT Opera are doing Massenet’s Cendrillon at a to be determined location.
  • March 20th and 22nd at Koerner Hall, the Glenn Gould School spring opera is Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites.  That one has me excited!

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Cunning Little Vixen at the COC

Sometimes the Canadian Opera Company gets it right and the current production of Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen is a good example.  It’s got all the things that might help boost a flagging audience.  It’s not over familiar.  Nobody is going to be complaining that they have seen the same old boring production five times already.  It’s a brilliant score.  The production is intelligent with enough for those who want more than a costume drama while not doing anything to shock the pearl clutchers.  It’s well sung; with a goodly quantity of local talent, and the orchestral playing and conducting is exemplary.  What more could one ask for?  One could I suppose add that it’s an opera one could happily take children to.

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