Judith Forst

Pacific Opera Project (POP) presents a watch party of their critically acclaimed production of Madama Butterfly on July 15 at 5:00 PM Los Angeles time. This is the first true-to-story bilingual production of the opera. Performed in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo and Houston's Opera in the Heights, the opera now has a new libretto written by POP Artistic Director Josh Shaw and Opera in the Heights Artistic Director Eiki Isomura.

Sir Andrew Davis, Interim Artistic Director, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Johannes Debus, Music Director, Canadian Opera Company, will be among the musical luminaries taking part in the Neil Crory Tribute Concert on Friday, October 11, 7 PM, at Jeanne Lamon Hall, Trinity-St. Paul's Centre. With their recorded and live spoken tributes, Davis and Debus join an unprecedented lineup of singers, instrumentalists, CBC broadcasters, and guest speakers for this extraordinary celebration of music and the human voice in honour of the legendary CBC Music producer, mentor, impresario, colleague, and friend who died on January 10 at the age of 68. Tickets and program information are available at tafelmusik.org/crory.

The program has been unveiled for the Neil Crory Tribute Concert on Friday, October 11, 7 PM, at Jeanne Lamon Hall, Trinity-St. Paul's Centre. An unprecedented lineup of stellar Canadian singers whose careers Crory nurtured will take part in this extraordinary celebration of music and the human voice in honour of the legendary CBC Music producer, mentor, impresario, colleague, and friend who died on January 10 at the age of 68.

Conductor Bramwell Tovey began the evening by saying, 'in light of the way things are… I want to give you permission to laugh.' It didn't take very long before the audience was in stitches with laughter. The Toronto Symphony Orchestra performed Leonard Bernstein's CANDIDE last weekend, accompanied by some of the country's greatest classical voices - Judith Forst and Tracy Dahl - and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. The evening was a spectacular display of fine music, drama, and comedy.

From Sibelius to Bernstein, with a detour by Broadway and a foray into the music of Bruckner and Beethoven, the April lineup at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) is refreshing as spring.

City Opera Vancouver with Pacific Opera Victoria presents the world premiere of Missing, a profoundly moving and pivotal opera that sheds new light on a national crisis, November 3,7,9 & 11 at 8pm, and November 5 at 2pm at The York Theatre. Written by distinguished Canadian M tis playwright Marie Clements, with a gripping score by JUNO Award-winning composer Brian Current, this work confronts the immense tragedy of more than 1,200 missing and murdered First Nations, Inuit and M tis women and girls in Canada, and the devastation to communities and families both First Nations and non-First Nations left to grapple with their loss.

Three dazzling new opera productions are at the core of the inaugural Vancouver Opera Festival, April 28 to May 13, 2017.

Today, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) proudly unveils its 96th performance season. From awe-inspiring music by legendary composers to dance-all-night Pops, and bold and experimental works to educational concerts and Hollywood films with live orchestra, the TSO has something for everyone.

Three dazzling new opera productions are at the core of the inaugural Vancouver Opera Festival, April 28 to May 13, 2017. Full-scale productions of Giuseppe Verdi's late-career masterpiece Otello, featuring powerful tenor Clifton Forbis in the title role, and Jake Heggie's modern classic Dead Man Walking, with charismatic bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch as Joseph De Rocher, will be presented in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Vancouver, BC ~ Vancouver Opera is pleased to announce the lineup for its 2016-2017 season, featuring Vancouver Opera Festival 2017: a landmark experience of events, performances, art and entertainment.

Five talented singers, one skilled pianist and one up-and-coming stage director will be the latest group to receive specialized industry training, one-on-one coachings and exclusive performance opportunities when the third year of Vancouver Opera's Yulanda M. Faris Young Artists Program commences in September 2014.

Nico Muhly's opera Two Boys will have its North American premiere at the Met October 21, in a production conducted by David Robertson and directed by Bartlett Sher. The two-act opera, which features a libretto by award-winning playwright Craig Lucas, is loosely based on true events and follows a lonely detective whose investigation of a seemingly simple crime draws her into a complex web of online intrigue. Alice Coote sings the role of Detective Inspector Anne Strawson and Paul Appleby sings Brian, the 16-year-old boy at the center of her investigations. Sher's staging, a co-production with English National Opera, premiered in London in 2011. Check out a sneak peek below!

Nico Muhly's opera Two Boys has its North American premiere at the Met tiday, October 21, in a production conducted by David Robertson and directed by Bartlett Sher. The two-act opera, which features a libretto by award-winning playwright Craig Lucas, is loosely based on true events and follows a lonely detective whose investigation of a seemingly simple crime draws her into a complex web of online intrigue. Alice Coote sings the role of Detective Inspector Anne Strawson and Paul Appleby sings Brian, the 16-year-old boy at the center of her investigations. Sher's staging, a co-production with English National Opera, premiered in London in 2011.

On Monday, November 11, the Metropolitan Opera Guild's 79th Annual Luncheon presents "Welcome Home, Jimmy!" to salute music directorJames Levine on his triumphant return to the Met podium. A perennial highlight of the opera season, the luncheon will bring together a host of artists who have collaborated with the preeminent conductor over the course of his long and celebrated Met tenure, as well as opera fans and an array of New York's society, business, and civic leaders. "Welcome Home, Jimmy!" will feature musical tributes by Dolora Zajick, "a mezzo in a class by herself" (New York Times); Thomas Hampson, "America's foremost baritone" (International Herald Tribune); and Grammy Award-winning bass-baritone Eric Owens, all accompanied by the Met's Director of Music Administration, Craig Rutenberg. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Guild's education programs in New York City and throughout the country.

Nico Muhly's opera Two Boys will have its North American premiere at the Met October 21, in a production conducted by David Robertson and directed by Bartlett Sher.

On Tuesday, September 24, the Arnold & Marie Schwartz Gallery Met will open Laurie Simmons'sTwo Boys, a new exhibition presented in conjunction with the North American premiere of Nico Muhly's opera of the same name. Simmons has created 4 original photographs for the show, which will be on display in Gallery Met through January 15, 2014. The opera Two Boys, which explores identity and desire in the shadowy world of the Internet, opens at the Met on October 21 in a production directed by Bartlett Sher and conducted by David Robertson.

The Canadian Opera Company has closed another successful opera season by recording an average attendance of 90% for 2012/2013. A total of 114,133 patrons attended the 61 performances of the company's seven mainstage productions this season in the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts: Verdi's Il Trovatore, Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus, Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Richard Strauss's Salome and Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites.

The Canadian Opera Company closes its 2012/2013 season with a production of Francis Poulenc's operatic masterpiece, Dialogues des Carmelites, described by Variety as "subtle, yet gut-wrenching." Internationally renowned Canadian director Robert Carsen returns to the COC for a third consecutive season to direct a cast of 161 performers, led by three Canadian opera stars: Isabel Bayrakdarian, Adrianne Pieczonka andJudith Forst. COC Music Director Johannes Debus makes his fourth conducting appearance of the 12/13 season leading his first Dialogues des Carmelites. He conducts the COC Orchestra and Chorus through what is considered to be Poulenc's most haunting score and a work that contains one of opera's most devastating and unforgettable final scenes. Dialogues des Carmelites is sung in French with English SURTITLES. Last performed by the COC in 1997, the opera returns to the company for eight performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on May 8, 11, 14, 17, 19, 21, 23 and 25, 2013.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2013-14 season will feature many of the world's greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Berg's Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2013-14 season will feature many of the world's greatest singers, conductors, and theater artists in 26 operas, including six new productions, of a varied repertory that ranges from the Baroque era to the 21st century. Met Music Director James Levine will return to the Met podium for the first time in two years, conducting three operas with which he has long been associated: a new production of Verdi's final masterpiece Falstaff, Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, and Berg's Wozzeck. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi will be conducting two operas in the 2013-14 season, Rossini's La Cenerentola and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.