Tag Archives: schellenberg

Bas-Sheve

Posted on by
Reply

Last night, as part of the Ashkenaz Festival, we got to see Henekh Kon’s Bas-Sheve.  It’s the only known pre Holocaust Yiddish opera and there’s quite a saga involved in it getting to a staging.  The work dates to 1924, when it premiered in Warsaw then disappeared.  In 2017 Dr. Diana Matut unearthed an incomplete piano score version which was completed and orchestrated by librettist Michael Wex and composer Joshua Horowitz to create an hour long piece that premiered in August 2019 as part of the Yiddish Summer Weimar festival.

opERA4

Continue reading →

Participants for Centre Stage announced

Posted on by
1

The seven finalists for the COC’s Centre Stage have been announced.  Centre Stage is a singing competition and gals that serves as a sort of final audition for the following year’s Ensemble Studio, a contest for cash prizes and a beano for the rich.  This year it’s being held on November 3rd when, unfortunately, I shall be overseas.  So, no report here.  The finalists are baritone Samuel Chan (Calgary); soprano Maria Lacey (St. John’s, N.L.); soprano Myriam Leblanc (Saint-Lazare, Que.); soprano Andrea Lett (Prince Albert, Sask.); mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh(Vancouver); soprano Andrea Núñez (Markham, Ont.); and baritone Geoffrey Schellenberg (Vancouver).

gang

Last year’s contestants with the Lieutenant Governor

Continue reading →