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Arts

This Canadian Opera Company’s Costumers Are Making Masks for Marginalized Communities

Forced to cancel its season for COVID-19, Vancouver Opera has found new purpose.

Arts

How Two Opera Unknowns Transformed Pink Floyd’s Seminal Concept Album

The story of a fragile rock star finding redemption was meant to open this year’s Vancouver Opera Festival.

Photo by Karen Tregillas.

Arts

Simone Osborne

Soprano messiah.

The Vancouver-born soprano gained international acclaim after winning the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions at 21, making her one of the youngest victors.

MONTECRISTO Blog: Sweeney Todd at the Vancouver Opera

Arts

Sweeney Todd at the Vancouver Opera

The mechanics of revenge.

There are sharp, shiny things coming to the stage at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre April 25 through May 3, when the Vancouver Opera debuts its first-ever production of Stephen Sondheim’s complex musical drama Sweeney Todd.

MONTE Blog: Carmen

Arts

Bizet’s Business

Carmen<em> is big box office.</em>

There are certain iconic masterworks in the opera firmament that are the reason opera companies can still exist. Near the top of that list has to be French composer Georges Bizet’s Carmen.

MONTECRISTO: Craig Tomlinson Harpsichords

Arts

Craig Tomlinson’s Harpsichords

One man's heartstrings.

Constructing harpsichords has been Craig Tomlinson’s passion for the past 35 years, but the instrument long precedes him. The harpsichord’s plucked strings and exterior embellishments typify the sound and opulence of the Renaissance and Baroque periods.

MONTECRISTO Magazine: Vancouver Opera In Schools

Arts

Vancouver Opera in Schools

Opera on the road.

From the Powell Street markets to the shacks of Slocan City, Naomi’s Road tells the story of nine-year-old Naomi, her Japanese-Canadian family, and their journey from their home in Vancouver to an internment camp during the Second World War.

MONTECRISTO Magazine: Carmen at Expo 86

Arts

Carmen at Expo 86

Outrage at the opera.

Vancouver Opera’s infamous Carmen performance at Expo 86 was a controversial reinterpretation of Bizet’s classic. Lively and funny, it seemed designed to wake people up and shake them out of their expectations of seeing yet another standard Carmen, almost a cultural cliché.

MONTECRISTO Magazine: James Wright and Vancouver Opera

Arts

James Wright and Vancouver Opera

High note.

Now entering, remarkably, its 50th year, the Vancouver Opera has survived and is stronger now than ever. That is thanks in no small part to the efforts and passion for the genre evinced by general director James Wright.