- 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.
Tag Archives: tso
More season announcements
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.
Juno awards 2026
The nominations for the 2026 Juno awards have been announced and four of the nominees are recordings that I have reviewed here or elsewhere. Continue reading
Looking forward to December
‘Tis the season of family holiday shows and Messiahs. Not that I’m planning to do much of either but here are some shows that you might be interested in…
- On December 7th, the earliest of the Messiahs. Toronto Choral Society have a matinée performance at Koerner Hall. Soloists include Quinn Kelsey and Teresa Tucci .
- The Ensemble Studio have a noon hour concert on December 9th in the RBA
- Rogers vs Rogers opens at Crow’s Theatre on December 10th. This is another adaptation by Michael Heaney of a book about Toronto shenanigans. He was also responsible for The Masterplan. Previews are the 2nd to the 9th with the run extending to January 3rd.
TSO opens season with an intriguing double bill
My review of last Thursday’s TSO season opener is now published on bachtrack.com.
Photo credit: Alan Cabral
Falling into September
Life slowly returns to some version of normal.. Here’s what I’m seeing so far for Sptember.
- 5th September – Apocryphonia have a PWYC concert at St. Thomas’ Huron Street featuring music from the Hundred Years War.
- 11th September – Lucy Kirkwood’s The Welkin opens at Soulpepper. Previews are the 4th to the 10th with the run extending to October 5th.
Poska and Goodyear team up with the TSO to good effect
My review of the TSO’s concert on Wednesday night with Stewart Goodyear and Kristiina Poska is now up at Bachtrack.
Photo credit: Allan Cabral, courtesy of the TSO
@bachtrack
Looking ahead to June
Things slow down just a little bit in June but with both Luminato and Opera 5’s Opera festival it’s not that quiet. Here’s what’s coming down:
- June 5th to 7th at Daniels Spectrum there’s Nigamon/Tunai; an exploration of Indigenous perspectives from North and South America (part of Luminato)
- June 6th at Metropolitan United Krisztina Szabó leads in Queen of the Night Communion, another Luminato show.
May 2025
Here are my top picks for May.
- The Cunning Linguist opens at Factory Theatre on May 1st. Previews are April 26th, 27th and 30th and it runs to May 11th. A young queer Mexican woman, with her sidekick God, decides to move to Toronto…
- Eugene Onegin in the Robert Carsen production opens May 2nd at the COC. Runs until May 24th.
- On May 3rd Confluence has a Teiya Kasahara curated show called Project T: Home Video (this is a change from the originally scheduled May 2nd/3rd show).
Mahler and more at the TSO
My review of last night’s concert at Roy Thomson Hall featuring the TSO, Anna Prohaska and the Spanish ambassador is now up at La Scena Musicale.
Photo credit: Jae Yang

