Original Review by Nathalie Methot from Info Culture.
L’Opéra de Québec lance sa 30 ème saison en nous présentant un des plus célèbres opéras de tous les temps, Madama Butterfly.
Cet opéra en trois actes, composé au début des années 1900 par Giacomo Puccini, raconte l’histoire déchirante d’une belle geisha, Cio-Cio-San, qui tombe éperduement amoureuse d’un lieutenant de la marine américaine, de passage à Nagasaki, le lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton. … Continue Reading
Madame Butterfly,
le 19/10/2013 – Opéra de Québec
Louis Bilodeau
photo: Louise Leblanc
Comment jeter un regard frais sur Madame Butterfly, qui verse trop souvent dans l’imagerie traditionnelle et quelque peu mièvre d’un Japon figé dans le temps et dont l’intrigue laisse bien peu de marge de manœuvre au metteur en scène ? C’est le défi que l’homme de théâtre Jacques Leblanc s’est lancé pour cette nouvelle production de l’Opéra de Québec qui s’avère très réussie sur le plan scénique et dont la principale originalité est de situer la maison de Cio-Cio-San sur une toute petite île bâtie sur pilotis. … Continue Reading
Monday Magazing/Brent Schaus
Regular opera-lovers will thoroughly enjoy Pacific Opera Victoria’s production of Puccini’s Tosca. More importantly, POV provides a moving, fun and accessible production that will appeal to opera “newbies.” By curtain call, smiles and laughter flowed from stage to audience and back. Tosca serves as a wonderful ending to the 2012-2013 season, imbuing the popular melodrama with shades of wit and feeling.
In Rome, circa 1800, Floria Tosca loves the artist Mario Cavaradossi. Cavaradossi is painting a portrait of the Madonna in a church. While working, Cesare Angelotti rushes in seeking asylum (the authorities want him for resisting the party in power). The painter recognizes Angelotti, and agrees to help hide him. Tosca, visiting Cavaradossi in the church, hears other voices and suspects him of being unfaithful. Meanwhile, Baron Scarpia, the sadistic Chief of Police, tracks Angelotti to the church. Instead, he finds the artist and arrests him for harbouring a criminal. Scarpia uses this as leverage to manipulate Tosca into bedding him. She agrees to sleep with Scarpia if he releases Cavaradossi. By this time, the web of Scarpia’s deceit is so strong that four of the opera’s principle characters die by show’s end. … Continue Reading
In Puccini’s Tosca, Pacific Opera Victoria finds an über-dramatic note to end its season on. If you like your opera straight up (read: full of deceit, bloodshed and big arias) get thee to the Royal for Amiel Gladstone’s sharp but classic staging of a bonafide operatic thriller. … Continue Reading
The Coastal Spectator/Andrea Routley
What comes to mind when you hear the word, “opera”? Viking horns and yellow braids? How about “Italian opera”? Sopranos in velvety robes, collapsing under the weight of their own agony? Lust, murder, star-crossed sort of thing?
Then you’re probably thinking of Tosca, one of Puccini’s most famous operas, which first premiered in Rome in 1900. It has often been dismissed by critics, but the singers, director, production designer, instrumentalists, and the many others involved in Pacific Opera’s production, as well as the audience which packed house at the Royal Theatre on Saturday, feel differently. … Continue Reading
AMY SMART / TIMES COLONIST
APRIL 3, 2013
No one knows better than maestro Joey Pietraroia that Tosca is a good opera for beginners.
As a saxophone student at McGill University in the 1980s, Pietraroia caught the dramatic second act of Puccini’s classic production performed by the Metropolitan Opera on TV. In that moment, he began reconsidering his career path in favour of something new: conducting. … Continue Reading
Conductor Joey Pietraroia chats with Joni Henson (Tosca) and Director Amiel Gladstone on the patio of Zambri’s Restaurant about the upcoming Pacific Opera production of Tosca. April 4 – 14th at the Royal Theatre.
By Colin Cayer – Monday Magazine
A hilarious good time flowed through the packed Stewart Theatre for the weekend opening of The Little Sweep/Let’s Make An Opera.
A co-production of Pacific Opera Victoria and The Belfry theatre, Little Sweep breaks new ground in combining both a play and an audience-participating opera in one.
Soprano Charlotte Corwin was flawless throughout and her acting in the first act as a school teacher/vixen drew great laughs. Giles Tompkins, originally nervous about acting without music, delivered comical and confident performances as both an actor and opera star. … Continue Reading
Elli Bunton described her set and costume designs for Pacific Opera Victoria’s Madama Butterfly as ”impressionistic,” but it was more than that: impressionism became the overarching concept for the entire production, visually and musically.
Stylistically influenced by shoji screens, rice paper, pink cherry blossoms and clean, unfussy lines, Bunton’s not-at-all naturalistic sets nevertheless suggested a quintessentially timeless Japanese backdrop to Puccini’s poignant drama. The pastel hues, beige, pale green and grey-shifted dramatically under Gerald King’s fluid lighting, while stage director Francois Racine’s Butoh-influenced style of stage movement enhanced the Japanese ambience further. … Continue Reading
The vibrant, rising young Canadian soprano Marie-Josée Lord makes her solo recording debut with a selection of personal favorites from her repertoire, including Summertime and My Man’s Gone Now from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Sì, mi chiamano Mimi from Puccini’s La Bohème, La mamma morta from Giordano’s Andrea Chenier, and the world premiere recording of Le Monde est stone (Opera version) from the Luc Plamondon/Michel Berger blockbuster Starmania. … Continue Reading