The Human Voice. La Voix Humaine / Jan 2021 … starring tenor Isaiah Bell, has been filmed at The Cultch Historic Theatre, and is set for release as a series of nightly webisodes in January 2021, sung in a new English translation. Thanks to coach/pianist Roger Parton, Chris Randle (video), Andrew Smith (sound), Sophie Tang […]
One of Canada’s most gifted composers, Alice Ping Yee Ho here offers excerpts from Venom of Love, presented in premiere by Little Pear Garden Dance Company at the Fleck Theatre, Toronto in 2014. Venom is a four-act 60′ musical composition for ballet based on the enthralling Legend of the White Snake 白蛇傳, one of China’s […]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIpF-RPw0pw The master. The song. Montréal. 2008
From our friends at Music on Main, pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, and composer Rodney Sharman, a hauntingly beautiful and evocative triptych: Voyageur, Watchful, and Notes on Beautiful. While you listen, forbid disturbances. You’ll know why.
In 2016, many Canadians discovered the painter Maud Lewis for the first time, in the film Maudie, starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke. It was revelation. Someone dismissed as a ‘primitive’ turned out to be a fountain of purity, emotional honesty, directness and courage. Here from 40 years earlier, an NFB documentary about a uniquely […]
One of Canada’s most gifted and unpredictable composers, James’ work intersects acoustic and electroacoustic media, employing field recordings, amplified found objects, computer-assisted transcription of environmental sounds, and unique performance conditions. He won his first Juno at age 26, for ‘Classical Composition of the Year’. His artistic output spans chamber, orchestral, live electronic and acousmatic idioms, […]
It’s #WorldOperaDay, and how better to celebrate than with… well, you know. Here, the immortal Duet from The Pearl Fishers (1863), by Georges Bizet. In the spirit of Canadian comity for which we are so famous, it is sung by celebrated Canadian tenor Russell Braun, and celebrated Canadian baritone Russell Braun. The duet is abetted […]
Something about this Festival has attracted a lot of interest from double bassists and their admirers. In a futile effort to appease them, here is the legendary duo of Gary Karr and Harmon Lewis, and a folk song that needs no further.
L’ Orchestre symphonique de Montréal has long been recognized as the greatest French orchestra in the world. In Canada, the OSM is a major part of our music. In our second largest city, it is a major part of Québec culture. In 2016, the OSM added an octobass to its ranks, in order to play […]
On October 2, we launched the Festival of Contemporary. It runs to October 31. We have introduced rare, archival, unique and most moving film of 21st C Canadian artists active in song, drama and theatre, composition and collaboration, fusion and fantasy, opera and dance and cinema. And more. We have offered the work and imagination […]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mgw8pV4iPM We think of the great Canadian pianist Angela Hewitt as a master of Bach, and rightly so. Her clarity, her command of architecture, style, and substance make it so. Bach has made her name, and she has honoured his. But listen to this: her Ravel. It is remarkable in its colours and contours, its […]
Charles Ives never knew the work of Jacob Intilé, but would surely have been inspired. Today we switch gears, and move from collage in music to its precursor in art and design. This fascinating clip is from a CBC Arts online series, Paper Cuts. Hint: wear gloves.
City Opera Vancouver is grateful and honoured to work, create and perform on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Xwməθkwəyə̓ m (Musqueam), Sḵwxw̱ ú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl ̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
