canadian opera company
iPhoto caption: Christian Van Horn and Karen Cargill in 'Bluebeard's Castle.'
REVIEW: COC’s Bluebeard’s Castle/Erwartung is a hypnotic exploration of light
Rather than retread the ground of an overall analysis, I’d like to zoom in on an element that particularly interested me: Simonovitch Prize-winning designer Robert Thomson’s expressionistic lighting for Bluebeard’s Castle, which nicely enriches the opera’s ambiguous psychological landscape.
iPhoto caption: Members of the company of 'Rigoletto.' Photo by Michael Cooper.
REVIEW: COC’s elegantly bleak Rigoletto is no laughing matter
As Rigoletto wept, I became distracted by a lone petal belatedly descending from above. An accident, certainly, but one that offered a reminder of opera’s unpredictable magic: that, even among the grandest of designs, a performance’s final form depends upon these ephemeral moments one calls fate.
iPhoto caption: Iestyn Davies as Orfeo (right, facing away) in the Canadian Opera Company's production of Orfeo ed Euridice, 2025. Photo by Michael Cooper.
REVIEW: The COC’s Orfeo ed Euridice plunges starkly into its mythical dilemma
Though I won’t spoil it here, I will note that the twist subverts narrative and thematic expectations and reveals the production’s true emphasis: its desire to underscore the fact that, despite mortal weakness, love triumphs all.
iPhoto caption: Sophia Walker and Gord Rand in 'Slave Play.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Slave Play sparks debate — so we reviewed it twice
To mark the Canadian premiere of this influential satire, Intermission is honouring the play’s divisive reputation by presenting a pair of reviews written independently of one another.