Getting out to the opera...in Kingston, ON

Laura Whalen

David Pomeroy

Who says you have to hit the big city..or a movie theater to hear opera?  The Kingston Symphony will present Puccini's La Boheme in concert on Sunday, April 29 with some outstanding Canadian singers....The afternoon performance stars soprano Laura Whalen as Mimi and tenor David Pomeroy as Rodolfo and will be hosted by Canadian opera expert Iain Scott.

Soprano Laura Whalen is often noted for her command, precision, and elegance in operatic, orchestral and recital appearances throughout North America. Last season, she performed Mimi in Puccini's La Bohème with the Edmonton Opera, Bach's B minor Mass with the Vancouver Symphony, and Cecelia in the world premiere of Bramwell Tovey's The Inventor with the Calgary Opera. Whalen was honored to inaugurate Toronto's Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in the fall of 2006, appearing in The Ring as Rhinemaiden (Das Rheingold and Gotterdammerung) and Der Waldvogel (Siegfried), conducted by the late Richard Bradshaw.

Tenor David Pomeroy, who will play Rodolfo, is blessed with a rich voice and thrilling top notes. He has caught the attention of artistic directors internationally. The Newfoundland native recently made his Metropolitan Opera stage debut in the title role of Les Contes d'Hoffmann under the baton of James Levine. He had previously sung the role of Faust at the Metropolitan Opera in the Parks with the same company. Other credits include La Traviata in Vancouver, Macbeth in Edmonton, and Carmen in Ireland, Stuttgart, Victoria, Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Kansas City. He also sang Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly in St. Louis, Kansas City, Fort Worth, Connecticut, Detroit, Quebec, and Toronto.

The cast will also include Charlotte Corwin as Musetta, Bruce Kelly as Marcello, David Pike as Schaunard, and Giles Tomkins as Colline.

Tickets range in price from $45 to $75. You can purchase tickets at the Grand Theatre Box Office, 218 Princess Street, by phone at 613-530-2050 or online at www.kingstonsymphony.on.ca .

New Favourite Canadian Blogs...

Happy New Year everyone!  Like all Canadians (or at the least the ones covered in snow) it is that time of year to hunker down and enjoy the winter with a good book and a cup of something hot.  Or in my case, a good blog. Recently I have found two new blogs that are fun and informative.


All Time Coloratura reviews the opera scene in Toronto with a smart and funny voice. She blogged about tweeting and the opera last summer - she seems to bring voice to her generation (20-somethings) and their need to be social all the time (think FB, twitter, and even blogging!):

I have mixed feelings about this. It drives me nuts when I can see someone’s glowing smartphone screen from three rows away. If you’re really that bored, stay home, I usually think. And it’s been a while since I’ve attended a performance where at least one cell phone didn’t go off (followed by panicked attempts to silence it). The substance of Dylan Tweney’s tweets doesn’t do a whole lot to argue his case: he mostly tweeted plot details, which don’t really benefit from a live account (imagine live-tweeting the contents of a book). On the other hand, I think a new breed of discourse is emerging on twitter, and opera companies ignore it at their peril. Opera-listening can be enhanced by communal experience, whether it’s an appreciative nod to the friend sitting next to you after a particularly well-executed high note, or chatting with a fellow opera-lover while listening to a recording or watching a DVD. 

As the COC Social and Interactive Media Coordinator, Cecily maintains their blogs as well. Check them out!

The second blog is The Cardinal's Nest written by a Canadian singer who wants to talk about MONEY.  She writes in her first blog:

I want to talk about the thing in which I have not been educated. The thing that I have had to teach myself, or, find out the hard way. That thing? MONEY. THE BUSINESS of MAKING MONEY as an entrepreneur in Canada. More specifically, as a SINGER. Did your Music Degree supply you with a semester on that?  

SAVING MONEY in a financial climate that is ever changing. SAVING MONEY in an industry that is feast or famine. We all know it. We don’t talk about it. I’m fascinated, and slightly terrified of this topic but, it does no good sitting here alone in my thoughts.

She is funny, honest and addresses something I really believe we don't deal with as professionals ...not just singing professionals but ALL professionals that are educated in commerce and finance!


So...for 2011 I will be checking in with both the Coloratura and the Cardinal to read their thoughts on the opera world in Canada.  I hope you will too!

Singers of the Future - Operalia 2008

Operalia 2008 was a fantastic survey of up and coming singers on the world stage. Have a listen to the concert that was broadcast live by CBC Radio 2 from Montreal, Quebec last week. You can stream the finals here.


You can read more about the competition here.

Notice that we had a Canadian in the finals - bass-baritone Stephen Hegedus. Stephen holds a Master of Music in Opera from the University of Toronto. He is a member of Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal and has pursued further studies at the Banff Centre, the Britten-Pears Programme in Aldeburgh, England, and at the Centre for Opera in Sulmona, Italy. The 2008 recipient of the Herbert Cohen award for second place at the 32nd annual Lyndon Woodside Oratorio Solo Competition hosted by the Oratorio Society of New York, Stephen will make his Carnegie Hall debut in 2009 singing Bach’s Mass in B-minor with the Oratorio Society of New York.