David Leigh News

Enjoy a first look at the 'mind-bending' new production of Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI, on now at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts!​​​​​​​

Experience Don Giovanni as never before with a breathtaking new production. Discover the thrilling tale of love, lust, and revenge in this iconic opera.

Even though I was very young, I still remember the tension in the air at school and at home during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. And just today, news of the current Cold War going on between Russia and the rest of the world regarding Ukraine, with even Elon Musk warning the world about possible nuclear war breaking out. So it seems very fortuitous that Peter Knell and Stephanie Fleischmann have created a heart-stopping experience set in a submarine during the crisis of 1962. Their new opera ARKHIPOV is based on the true story of the man who saved humanity from nuclear annihilation during a tipping point between Russia and the United States in the Cuban Missile Crisis. But what motivated them to create an opera about such a terrifying moment in world history? I decide to speak with them and find out.

Part film installation, part oral history documentary, and part found-sound collage, The New Vocal Club is based on interviews and film recorded between 2021 and 2022 with local groups and communities including PKAVS, St Johnstone FC and local choirs. The resulting collage of film, free jazz, Gaelic song and textiles creates a sonic tapestry of voices.

If you’ve ever wanted to experience Mozart’s work live, there’s no time like the present to do so in Toronto. The Canadian Opera Company has brought their acclaimed production of THE MAGIC FLUTE back - delayed after a few years of theatre shut-downs, but better late than never in the case of this fantastical, funny, and thought-provoking story.

The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will return to Toronto this May, celebrating 70 years of delighting audiences at the Canadian Opera Company. The fantastical opera centres on the timeless search for wisdom, truth, and love, following Tamino as he sets out with hilarious bird-catcher Papageno to rescue the kidnapped Princess Pamina.

Raehann Bryce-Davis’s Brown Sounds is a joyous celebration of  Black art, Black bodies, and Black consciousness that we watch on our way to the Bay Area. Bryce-Davis is currently singing Verdi and Wagner at Glimmerglass.

On Wednesday, April 21, We begin this week’s tour with one of the Los Angeles Opera website’s most popular “Living Room Recitals.” Soprano, Latonia Moore sings with pianist Roberto Berrocal. After the recital, we leave for NYC. On arrival, we go to Shut Up and Eat, a most generous Toms River restaurant that offers a discount to patrons in pajamas. 

For the first time in decades, a fully staged production of Richard Wagner's Parsifal will be presented in Canada, opening the Canadian Opera Company's monumental 2020/2021 season with a company premiere at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Cast with more than 100 singers, an orchestra of 110 musicians, and a nearly six-hour run-time, this journey of one knight's quest for the Holy Grail offers Canadian audiences a rare opportunity to experience Wagner's thrilling final masterpiece in Toronto, in a celebrated COC co-production directed by François Girard.

Washington National Opera's (WNO) 2020-2021 season offers an ambitious mix of sweeping political epics and intimate stories of interpersonal relationships, centered on human pursuits of justice, power, and love. Led by General Director Timothy O'Leary and Artistic Director Francesca Zambello, WNO announces the six mainstage titles in the 2020-2021 season: Fidelio, Nixon in China, Boris Godunov, Rigoletto, Così fan tutte, and La bohème.

Leave everyday life in Puget Sound behind this January and step into the splendor of 1800s Russia. Seattle Opera's Eugene Onegin will offer audiences lush orchestrations by Tchaikovsky, elegant ballroom dances, grand sets, and period costumes worthy of The Last Czars on Netflix. 

After a 15-year wait for music lovers, Puccini's Turandot returns to the Canadian Opera Company in a striking new production from visionary director Robert Wilson at the Four Season Centre for the Performing Arts. Princess Turandot has a fierce reputation that precedes her royal name thanks to a high-stakes challenge she has issued: answer her three riddles correctly and win her hand in marriage. Answer incorrectly and pay dearly a?" with your life. As a steady stream of admirers land face-to-face with the executioner, Prince Calaf takes on the deadly game and has a mystery of his own for Turandot to solve. Turandot runs for nine performances on September 28, October 4, 9, 15, 17, 19, 23, 25, 27, 2019.

On July 27, 2019, Santa Fe Opera added a new work to the operatic canon with its world premiere of THE THIRTEENTH CHILD by Danish composer Poul Ruders and American librettists Becky and David Starobin. The production was  co-commissioned and co-produced by Santa Fe Opera and the Odense Symphony Orchestra.

San Francisco Opera's 2019 Summer Season opens with Georges Bizet'sCarmen June 5-29 at the War Memorial Opera House. Presented in American director Francesca Zambello's acclaimed staging, which has been mounted by Opera Australia, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and Norwegian National Opera, the opera features American mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges in her first professional performances of the title role and American tenor Matthew Polenzani assuming the role of Don Jose for the first time. Romanian soprano Anita Hartig makes her San Francisco Opera debut as Micaela and American bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen is the bullfighter, Escamillo. In his first opera engagement with the Company, conductor James Gaffigan leads the cast and San Francisco Opera Orchestra.

The Santa Fe Opera's General Director Robert K. Meya today announced repertory and casting for the company's exciting 64th Season in 2020. On the panel joining Meya for the announcement were the President of the Board of Directors Susan G. Marineau, Andrea Fellows Walters, Director of Community Engagement, and Cori Ellison, the company's first, recently appointed Dramaturg.

San Francisco Opera's 2019 Summer Season opens with Georges Bizet's Carmen June 5 29 at the War Memorial Opera House. Presented in American director Francesca Zambello's acclaimed staging, which has been mounted by Opera Australia, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and Norwegian National Opera, the opera features American mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges in her first professional performances of the title role and American tenor Matthew Polenzani assuming the role of Don Jos for the first time. Romanian soprano Anita Hartig makes her San Francisco Opera debut as Mica la and American bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen is the bullfighter, Escamillo. In his first opera engagement with the Company, conductor James Gaffigan leads the cast and San Francisco Opera Orchestra.

Beginning June 5 and continuing through the 29th, San Francisco Opera presents a trio of extraordinary lyric works Georges Bizet's Carmen, George Frideric Handel's Orlando and Anton n Dvo k's Rusalka featuring powerful leading women in the title roles. Spanning three centuries and sung in French, Italian and Czech, the 2019 Summer Season repertory will occasion the Company debuts of four conductors, including two women, in productions that are new to the War Memorial Opera House stage. Some casting updates for the repertory were announced today and additional casting of supporting roles will be released at a future date.

With a mix of new and traditional takes on opera, Seattle Opera unveils a 2019/20 Season that offers something for everyone. Audiences will experience new-to-Seattle productions of Rigoletto, Cinderella, and Eugene Onegin; the company premiere of Charlie Parker's Yardbird; and the return of a beloved classic, La boh me.

On October 13, 2018, the Canadian Opera Company presented the highly anticipated world premiere of Hadrian by composer Rufus Wainwright and librettist Daniel MacIvor. The opera recounts the epic love story of Roman Emperor Hadrian and his young lover, Antinous. Erased by history, their story is reclaimed for the 21st century by its creators in a star-studded production from renowned Canadian director Peter Hinton. Hadrian runs for seven performances through October 27, 2018.

On October 13, 2018, the Canadian Opera Company presented the highly anticipated world premiere of Hadrian by composer Rufus Wainwright and librettist Daniel MacIvor. The opera recounts the epic love story of Roman Emperor Hadrian and his young lover, Antinous. Erased by history, their story is reclaimed for the 21st century by its creators in a star-studded production from renowned Canadian director Peter Hinton. Hadrian runs for seven performances through October 27, 2018.