In my review of Opera Atelier’s production of The Magic Flute I had this t say about Rainelle Krause’s Queen of the Night… “Her coloratura was powerful and pinpoint, and as the applause died down she reappeared and reprised the most spectacular section with additional stratospheric high notes.”
Now you can see the reprise for yourself on Instagram. I wasn’t kidding.
Opera Atelier opened a run of Mozart’s The Magic Flute (in English) at the Elgin on Wednesday evening. It’s basically the 1991 production (tweaked in 2013) and features a rather spectacular Queen of the Night. Full review at Opera Canada.
Photo: Bruce Zinger
Opera Atelier’s fall offering this year is a remount of the Magic Flute in essentially the version that first appeared in 1991. It’s sung in English and we got a preview in the RBA on Thursday. It was basically a working rehearsal of the opera’s opening plus a few other scenes with Chris Bagan at the piano.
My review of Opera Atelier’s production of Charpentier’s David and Jonathan which opened at Koerner Hall last night is now available at Opera Canada.
Photo: Bruce Zinger
Thr RBA concert on Tuesday lunchtime was a preview of Opera Atelier’s upcoming production of Charpentier’s David and Jonathan. Besides the usual Opera Atelier chat there was some useful information on the piece and the production and some excerpts.
Opera Atelier has announced its 2025/26 season and while it’s not especially surprising it is intriguing. As usual it’s two shows. The first show is pretty conventional. It’s a revival of OA’s production of The Magic Flute at the Elgin Theatre on October 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th 2025. Nice cast though with Colin Ainsworth as Tamino, Meghan Lindsey as Pamina, Douglas Williams as Papageno, Karine White as Papagena and Stephen Hegedus as Sarastro.
My review of Opera Atelier’s production of Handel’s Acis and Galatea is now up at Opera Canada.
Photo: Bruce Zinger
Opera Revue teamed up with Opera Atelier for a show called Trills, Chills and Thrills at the Redwood Theatre on Sunday evening. The usual gang of Danie Friesen, Alex Hajek and Claire Harris were joined by tenor Ben Done and mezzo Kathryn Rose Johnston for a programme of opera arias and musical theatre numbers that (sort of) turned the plot of Handel’s Acis and Galatea (OA’s upcoming show) into a murder mystery.
There was music on spooky themes by Britten (Turn of the Screw), Schubert, Handel (of course), Corigliano (Ghosts of Versailles), Lloyd Webber (Phantom, natch), Verdi and more. It was glued together by a narrative in which the mermaid/nymph Galatea is murdered and despite being turned into sushi her ghost returns to wreak its revenge. And there was one of the dances from Acis and Galatea (Julia Sedwick and Eric da Silva). Continue reading
Opera’s back with the start of a new COC season and more. Here’s a look at what I think looks interesting in October.
First up there are two theatre festivals with multiple shows. Aluna Theatre’s RUTAS International Performing Arts Festival runs from September 26th to October 9th (various venues). There’s a distinct Latinx twist to this one. Then from the 16th to the 27th at Buddies in Bad Times there’s the Next Stage Theatre Festival run by the same folks as the Fringe. Both are pretty varied with something for pretty much everyone.
All is Love, which opened Thursday night at Koerner Hall, is a remount of the 2022 Opera Atelier show which, for various reasons, nobody much saw. It’s a staged series of quite eclectic (mosly) opera and ballet excerpts around the theme of “love”; which means pretty much anything goes.
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