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Browsing: Vocal

Performing The Queen In Me. Photo: Dahlia Katz

Teiya Kasahara: Transforming Opera

By Hal Kowalewski on 3 April 2026 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Opera, Toronto, Vocal, West

Teiya Kasahara is best known as the creator-performer of The Queen In Me, which plays with the operatic canon to critique the exclusion of marginalized voices in the opera industry. Trained as a coloratura soprano, Kasahara came to prominence performing roles like The Magic Flute’s Queen of the Night. More recently, they have moved on to heavier, more dramatic repertoire including Madama Butterfly’s Cio-Cio San and the title role in Salome. In 2020, Kasahara went viral as the ‘Balcony Soprano’ who sang familiar repertoire from their Vancouver balcony. However, the categorization of soprano and the feminine roles that accompany it…

La Scena a tavola | Ravioli alla Toscana with Davide Bazzali

By Adrian Rodriguez on 3 April 2026 Art of Living, Interviews, Montreal, Opera, Recipes, Vocal

In this latest instalment of La Scena a tavola, we invite you to meet Montreal chef and opera enthusiast Davide Bazzali. As the owner of Restaurant Il Bazzali, in the heart of Little Italy, Bazzali embodies the Italian way of life, blending fine dining with a love of song. Born in northern Tuscany, he moved to Parma, the city of Giuseppe Verdi, at a very young age. Ironically, he didn’t discover opera in Italy, the home of opera, but in Montreal. For a while, Bazzali dreamed of joining Opéra de Montréal’s Atelier lyrique. Reality had other plans: having arrived in…

The Sound of Connection: How Access to Communication Care Changes Everything

By Speech-Language & Audiology Canada (SAC) on 3 April 2026 Vocal

For someone whose life is defined by music, losing the ability to hear the sweetness of a violin, the resonance of a piano chord or the expressive power of their own singing voice can be devastating. Sound is more than vibration, it is emotion, artistry, memory and connection. But long before music becomes art, there is something even more fundamental: communication. Communication is a basic human right. It is the foundation upon which relationships, learning and social participation are built. Yet, for many Canadians, this right is not fully accessible. Roughly one in 10 Canadians lives with communication challenges, affecting…

Music and Film | The Leitmotif: Music as Narrative in Opera and Film

By Flora Marie Angerer on 3 April 2026 Classical Music, Film, Movie soundtrack music, Opera, Orchestral, Vocal

On May 14, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal will perform the Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, an opera in which certain musical ideas recur, subtly shaping the drama as it unfolds. These so-called leitmotifs, especially prominent in these excerpts, are associated with characters, emotions or dramatic concepts that reappear throughout the score. In Tristan and Isolde, these leitmotifs take many forms, ranging from the longing motif and the lovers’ call between Tristan and Isolde, to themes linked to individual characters such as Tristan or King Marke, as well as dramatic concepts such as the Daylight motif, which represents…

Left: Paige Robinson (Flora) in Opera 5's The Turn of the Screw, 2024; Right: Kate Fogg in Opera 5's Elegies, 2024. Photos: Emily Ding Photography

Opera 5’s Toronto Opera Festival: A Fresh, Canadian Triptych

By Emma Yee on 3 April 2026 Canadian Music, Classical Music, Contemporary, Opera, Toronto, Vocal

Puccini’s Il trittico (The Triptych) conjures up the image of three distinct tapestries, hung side by side. In their second annual Toronto Opera Festival, Opera 5 will imbue it with a fresh, new palette of colours, invigorating Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi with established artists and young talent, while replacing the triptych’s Il tabarro with the world premiere of Cecilia Livingston’s Parḗlios. Opera 5’s 2025 festival centred on the theme of grief, featuring Rachel Krehm and Ryan Trew’s Come Closer and William Finn’s Elegies. Currently Canadian Opera Company’s company-in-residence where Come Closer will be revived in June 2027, the company…

New Releases (April 2026)

By La Scena Musicale on 3 April 2026 Classical Music, Opera, Piano, Vocal

Some of My Stories: The Operas of Monica Pearce Essential Opera Release: April 17, 2026 Leaf Music, LM279 In Some of My Stories: The Operas of Monica Pearce, Essential Opera presents five one-act operas that balance humour, tenderness, and incisive character writing. From Maritime folklore and wedding-day chaos to inner reckoning, social ritual, and holiday anxiety, Pearce writes with theatrical flair and vividly drawn characters. Sung with clarity and conviction, this recording reflects a long-standing creative partnership and affirms opera as a living art shaped through new creation. Sonate des Saisons Rachel Laurin: Sonate en mi mineur, Op. 2 Minna…

Beyond Vocal Folds: Treating the Voice with Dr. Françoise Chagnon

By Viktor Lazarov on 3 April 2026 Interviews, Vocal

As a professional singer, it takes a good deal of courage—and a smidge of soul-searching—to acknowledge that a vocal issue might require medical examination. After all, what is a spinto tenor without a high C? A coloratura soprano without fluency in the stratospheric passages of her fach? More than a means of expression, these artists’ voices are their identity. An otolaryngologist and professor at McGill University Health Centre, Dr. Françoise Chagnon treats singers who work in both the classical and popular realms. In her teaching and clinical work, she aims to demystify beliefs about the vocal apparatus and encourage lifestyle…

Patrick Guetti (Fafner) in Salzburg Easter Festival's Das Rheingold. Photo: Frol Podlesnyi

Review | A Rheingold Reforged: Petrenko, Berliner & Serebrennikov in Salzburg

By Denise Wendel-Poray on 2 April 2026 Concert Reviews, Opera, Vocal

There are productions that succeed, productions that impress, and—very rarely—productions that bring the art form to a new level. The new Das Rheingold at the 2026 Salzburg Easter Festival belongs decisively to the last category. With the return of the Berliner Philharmoniker under Kirill Petrenko and a staging by Kirill Serebrennikov, this is not merely a strong new Rheingold—it is one of the most accomplished productions I’ve seen on any stage, in any repertoire, in recent years. What distinguishes it is not a single element, but the extraordinary precision with which all its components interlock: musical, visual, physical, and dramatic.…

Newswire | Manitoba Opera Announces 2026-27 Season

By Newswire on 31 March 2026 Classical Music, Newswire, Opera, West

Manitoba Opera announced programming for the 2026/27 season (its 54th) today at a launch event at the Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg. The Western Canadian premiere of Volcano Theatre’s production of Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha (pronounced TREE-muh-NEESH-uh): A Musical Reimagining will open the season with three performances November 21, 25, and 27. One of opera’s most powerful and unforgettable stories, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, will close the season April 17, 21, and 23. All performances will take place at the Centennial Concert Hall. Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha: A Musical Reimagining received its world premiere in 2023 in Toronto as part of the city’s…

Vancouver's Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Photo: Canmen Walker

Newswire | Suzanne Scott Joins Vancouver Opera as New Director of Development

By Newswire on 31 March 2026 Arts Industry, Classical Music, Employment, Newswire, Opera, Vancouver, Vocal, West

MARCH 24, 2026, VANCOUVER, B.C./ / Traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations – Vancouver Opera is pleased to announce the appointment of Suzanne Scott as its new Director of Development, joining the company’s leadership team to direct the organization’s fundraising strategy as it continues to expand artistic programming and deepen community engagement. In this role, Suzanne Scott will lead Vancouver Opera’s development initiatives, including individual giving, corporate partnerships, major gifts, and foundation support. Working closely with the executive team and board of directors, she will help strengthen the company’s philanthropic network and support the continued growth of opera in Vancouver and…