Opera Theatre

Amplified Opera Named Disruptor-in-Residence at the Canadian Opera Company

By Alice G. Collins 12 months ago
Amplified Opera Named Disruptor-in-Residence at the Canadian Opera Company

The Canadian Opera Company welcomes Toronto-based Amplified Opera to the COC Academy as part of the company’s newly developed Disruptor-in-Residence program. The two-year residency will offer resources and support to the emerging opera company during the critical transition period from start-up to established organization, as well as share valuable learnings about digital content creation in the current cultural climate. The artistic collaboration aims to support increased equity, diversity, and inclusivity within the arts through workshops and training for fellow artists and activities that foster greater community engagement.

“The idea for this program evolved organically from the COC’s Company-in-Residence,” says COC Deputy General Director Christie Darville. “We are proud to support emerging opera creators through our COC Academy. As a national performing arts organization, it is our responsibility to boost the voices of those that regularly challenge artistic norms, practices – and us. In naming Amplified Opera our Disruptor-in-Residence, we are

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Elijah Moshinsky, Met Opera Director With Fanciful Touch, Dies at 75

By Alice G. Collins 12 months ago

His anti-picture-book concept, with a stark set, proved a more effective fit for the vocally powerful, dramatically volatile Mr. Vickers. The production (which can be seen on video) and Mr. Vickers’s performance, were triumphs, and changed the general understanding of the opera.

The next year, Peter Hall, the director of the National Theater in London, invited Mr. Moshinsky to direct a production of Thomas Bernhard’s play “The Force of Habit,” which Mr. Moshinsky described in the BBC interview as a comedic parable in which a “group of circus performers try to play Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet, but can’t.” The production was a dismal failure, running for just six performances.

But that same year Mr. Moshinsky found his footing with an acclaimed production of Berg’s “Wozzeck” for the Adelaide Festival, presented by the Australian Opera (now Opera Australia). Over subsequent years he directed more than 15 productions for the

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Jefferson’s Opera House Theatre Players to reschedule annual Chocolate Sunday event | News

By Alice G. Collins 12 months ago

JEFFERSON — Jefferson’s Opera House Theatre Players announced last week the community theater organization will cancel its annual “Chocolate Sunday” event fundraiser set for Feb. 14 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The theater’s only fundraising event of the year, “Chocolate Sunday,” will now be rescheduled to some time in mid-April, OHTP Director Marcia Thomas said.

“The new and old board members met recently and discussed the idea of trying to go ahead with the previously scheduled and traditional date of Feb. 14, but ultimately decided it was better to be a bit more prudent at this time, due to rising cases of the COVID-19 virus in the county,” she said.

The organization is looking to reschedule the chocolate judging contest event until mid-April, when the number of local cases will hopefully decline due to the administration of vaccines and combined efforts of social distancing.

“Chocolate Sunday,” is an annual

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HGO’s Concert of Arias | Houston Press

By Alice G. Collins 12 months ago

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Imagine you are a young singer, hoping for a career in opera and you’ve worked hard enough, been good enough and had enough stamina to reach the finalist stage of a competition where you’ll be performing before a theater jammed with opera lovers.

But now instead of facing a live audience at your big moment, you are instead greeted with facsimiles of people: 2D cardboard cutouts filling the seats as you sing two arias in the course of the evening before a panel of judges. The rewards are still the same — recognition, prize money, possible accepted into a respected training program — but the ambience, well it’ll be a bit different.

This Friday, Houston Grand Opera’s 2021 Concert of Arias will air live but virtually as HGO like

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