Vancouver Opera’s production of West Side Story will certainly go down as a career highlight. One of those shows every few years or so that stick with you, that you feel change you in some way, that you wish you could perform again and again…a show that you’ll never forget. It was almost as if the planets aligned and created the perfect opportunity for something magical to happen…and it did! A great company to work for, a great production and creative team, the most amazing cast and the most perfect weather in Vancouver. What more else could you want? When the piece was written, it was almost as if the same thing had happened. The stars aligned and the perfect group of men got together to create this masterpiece; Bernstein, the music, Sondheim, the lyrics, Laurents, the script and Robbins, the choreography. Bernstein’s score is a brilliant piece of theatre on its own - full of energy, humour, sadness, youthful angst and passion. Add this with Jerome Robbins’ brilliant choreography and Sondheim’s lyrics, it’s a feast for the ears and eyes. Obviously, the audiences love it too. We had eight performances in one week and broke the single ticket sales record three times!

Playing Tony was certainly an amazing experience for me. I loved singing “Maria”, “One Hand, One Heart” and “Could Be, Who Knows”. Not only did I get to sing but also dance! Our choreographer, Tracey Flye, put Lucia and I in the dances and not that we did anything spectacular but we did have two crazy lifts and a few dance steps to learn. The dance steps were fine, it was the lifts that we worked pretty hard on. Lucia Cesaroni, our Maria, would run at me, jump up in the air and spin and I would have to catch her. I’m not sure what it’s called but it was fun to do, especially when it worked. But, our dancing wasn’t anything close in comparison to what the dancers had to do. I have SO much respect for them and the things they had to accomplish on a daily basis. When I wasn’t in a quick change or standing behind the set waiting for an entrance, I would watch the dancers perform from the wings. They were simply amazing…I wish I could list them all here! My hat’s off to all you guys!

On another note, I got to work with director, Ken Cazan, again! The last time we worked together was when I was at the University of Toronto for Britten’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. I hope I don’t have to wait that long to work with him again.

I killed two birds with one stone this year and made my singing debut with Les Violons du Roy in Mozart’s Requiem performing for the first time at the stunning Le Festival de Lanaudière in Quebec. I had heard so many wonderful things about the band and they certainly lived up to their reputation. Lanaudière was also a wonderful surprise. What a gem! It reminded me of Ravinia or Tanglewood in the US and the acoustics were fantastic. The picture, taken on my iPhone, doesn’t really do it justice but some of the audience sits on the grounds behind the blue seats. There were a lot of people with picnics enjoying themselves well before the concert began. We had rehearsals with conductor, Bernard Labadie, in Montreal and then traveled up to Joliette for the performance. The soloists for the concert were Hélène Guilmette, Anita Krause, myself and Tyler Duncan.

The Rogers Cup (Men’s games) was in town at the same time and at the hotel there were tennis players all over the place! I was hoping to run into Federer or Djokovic but to no avail. Not that I’m a huge tennis fanatic but it would have been cool to rub shoulders with those guys...perhaps some of their athleticism would have rubbed off on me?

One of the best summer festivals in Ontario is the Westben Festival in Cambellford, Ontario. They have a great variety of shows including Britten’s opera Albert Herring, a solo recital by Isabel Bayrakdarian, and Kelli Trottier and the Mushy Peas, just to name a few, all presented in the beautiful barn specifically built for concerts.

The concert I was involved with this year was titled “Send in the Sondheim” - both music and words which were written by him. I’ve never really sung Sondheim’s music but what an experience it was. Ok, so what I didn’t realize about Sondheim’s songs coming into this concert was that there are SO many words. Sondheim is a wonderful lyricist as well as composer who creates not only fantastic melodies but also witty and wonderful words - just so many words! It felt like it was taking forever to get them to stick in my head. We had a fantastic cast for the show: Donna Bennett, Gabrielle Prata, Robert Luongo, Brian Findley (on the piano), and two young artists Samantha Marineau and Mitchell Allanson.

Sondheim was the lyricist for West Side Story and we performed a set of songs. It was a great opportunity to perform a couple of the songs that I’ll be doing when I sing Tony for Vancouver Opera this fall.

I was honoured to be asked back to be involved in this year’s recording of Ukrainian Art Songs at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto (see July 4/09). It’s a multi-year project to record all the Ukrainian art songs of various composers and this year, they chose three composers: Січинський (Sichynskyi), Turkevych, and Людкевич (Lyudkevych). The seven songs that I worked on and recorded were wonderful pieces and the poetry was no exception either. I did have two favourites though - Finale and Черемоше, брате мій. You’ll have to wait until the CD is released to hear them. I’ll keep you posted.

This was my first time working with the Calgary Philharmonic and what a rockin’ concert it was. This was the closing concert of their season and on the program was Hindemith’s Mathis der Maler Symphony and Orff’s Carmina Burana. We performed the piece twice and on the first night, the Vancouver Canucks were playing the Boston Bruins for the Stanley Cup. All the players in the orchestra that weren’t needed for the Hindemith, the singers and some chorus members watched anxiously as the game was slowly winding up just as they were calling us to the stage for the second half. What a nail-biter! 0-1 Canucks.

The soloists for the concert were Leslie Ann Bradley, soprano, myself, doing the Roasted Swan bit, Aaron St. Clair Nicholson, baritone, and Yoav Talmi, conducting. The great thing about this concert is that I don’t have to use music since it’s only three lines of text repeated. It allows me to play with the character and have some fun up there. Might as well since I’m singing as high as I can possibly sing! I think this was the first time I’ve been to Calgary when it’s been warm. It always seems to be absolutely freezing...serves me right for going there in January.

Music Directors of the Aldeburgh Connection, Stephen Ralls and Bruce Ubukata, started a wonderful festival in the quaint town of Bayfield which has grown so much since I was last there in 2008! The festival includes recitals by established artists, emerging artists, masterclasses and school tours.

I was involved in two recitals this year, one being Schubert’s immense cycle Die Schöne Müllerin and a duet recital with colleague, Lucia Ceseroni. Die Schöne Mülllerin is a collection of 20 songs which tell the story of a young man who falls in love with a young lady, she in turn falls for a huntsman and breaks the young man’s heart. It’s a painful and emotional cycle and Schubert has beautifully crafted this piece with the ups and downs that come with love. I had last performed the cycle with Stephen as a last minute replacement for another colleague who had gotten sick and couldn’t perform his recital at the Arts and Letters club. This time around, Stephen and I were able to delve deeper into the piece and spend a lot more time on each song. I think he is SUCH a fantastic pianist and it’s always a pleasure to work with him!

The second duet recital was a collection of our favourite solos and duets ending with the Balcony Scene from West Side Story. A little bit of a plug for our show this fall as Lucia and I will be seen in West Side Story with Vancouver Opera! Check out this link for details!

After years of waiting for the opportunity to do Janáček’s “Diary of one who vanished”,my chance finally came with Off Centre Music Salon, run by Inna Perkis and Boris with a program called Lost in love...and sometimes Lust! I had originally heard about the piece from Carol Isaac. She said it would be a great fit and I put it on my ‘to do’ list. This was my first time singing in Czech and it was a bit overwhelming at first. There are so many words seemingly without vowels - how do you sing on a consonant? But, the cycle is really stunning and deserves to be heard over and over. And in actual fact, once you get your head around the Czech, it starts to make sense and isn’t so difficult after all. Coincidentally, Chicago Opera Theater, where I just left, coupled the Janáček with Schumann’s Frauenlieben und Leben. The Janáček piece, being quite a dramatic piece with stage directions written into the score, would be so fun to stage one day! (Janáček’s mug shot is seen to the left)

Chicago is a great city! A vibrant arts community, an amazing waterfront space, beautifully landscaped parks and historic buildings, it just seems to have it all. I always enjoy coming back to this city!

This trip was for Chicago Opera Theater’s production of Charpentier’s masterpiece, Médée - the last of three operas COT has produced centred around the theme of Medea, the sorceress who helps Jason get the golden fleece. In Charpentier’s opera, Médée is betrayed by Jason as he falls in love with King Creon’s daughter, Creuse, in Corinth, where Jason and Médée have come seeking refuge. Médée ends up kiling the King, Creuse, burning Corinth and if that wasn’t enough, she kills her own children just to exact her revenge on Jason. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned! He should have known better than to mess with a sorceress...

The period instrument band was led by Christian Curnyn (who also played one of the harpsichords) and the show was directed and costumed by James Darrah with sets by another Canadian, François-Pierre Couture. The casting was superb...Anna Stephany as Médée, Michaela Oeste as Creuse (seen with me in the photo), Evan Boyer as the King, Creon, and Paul LaRosa as the suitor, Oronte. The chorus was an integral part of the piece not merely just a stand-and-deliver chorus but acting as a Greek chorus commenting on the situation with body language, moving the action along and relating to all the characters highlighting their feelings toward them. From the ensemble, Jamie-Rose Guarrine played Cleone, Darik Knutsen was Arcas, and Leila Bowie was Nerine. It was a super show and it was so great to come back to this masterpiece!

I really enjoy teaching masterclasses! Especially when you get to go back to the same places and hear how the students have improved. I’ve had a really great relationship with York University and Catherine Robbin has been so kind as to invite me back numerous times. Every time I go back, the level of the singing makes leaps and bounds forward. It’s a testament to the great teaching the students are receiving. The other thing about masterclasses that I enjoy is the repertoire that you hear. I’ve heard so many great new pieces by modern composers and many pieces that I’ve never come across by standard composers. These sessions focussed on English song with pieces by Tiefenbach, Quilter, Greer and Duncan. Of course, my favourite composer, Britten, was on there too. Congrats to all the students on doing so well! See you next time.

Next in the concert line up was Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Vancouver Symphony, Bramwell Tovey conducting. This majestic piece has to be one of my favourites! Well, if I looked back, I’m sure I’ve said that about every piece but it’s certainly up there. We had two performances in the wonderful acoustics of the Chan Centre with the Trinity Western University Choir directed by Wes Janzen with Laura Whalen, Susan Platts, myself, and Greg Dahl as soloists.

On this trip, I also got to go on my first trip up to Whistler with my brother-in-law! We skied for two days spending one day on Blackcomb and another on Whistler. Our first day up there was glorious - full sunshine and hardly a cloud in the sky. The weather on the second day wasn’t as good and although there was poor visibility, blowing snow and it was really cold, it turned out to be a great day of fun skiing. I used to ski when I was a teenager but haven’t been able to go for so long and wasn’t sure how I was going to do. Richard is a fantastic skier and teacher so he was able to give me some pointers on how to improve my skiing. It was so much fun and what I found is that I really enjoy powder skiing rather than the groomed hills. Now, I didn’t attempt any black diamond hills but I’ve got gigs coming up and I need to keep my legs intact.

I performed my first Dichterliebe with William Aide at Toronto’s Arts & Letters Club on Valentine’s Day. This stirring cycle begins well but, unfortunately for the protagonist, it doesn’t end well. One of the most beautiful cycles in the repertoire, it tells of a young man (a knight in Heine’s original text) who falls for a maiden who loves someone else and eventually rejects him. Perhaps not the cheeriest subjects for Valentine's Day but the audience loved it nonetheless. I think one of the best parts of this piece is the piano postludes at the end of some of the songs, especially the last song. Bill played these with such emotion and pathos. We ended the evening with some additional Schumann songs (Schöne Wiege, Du bist wie eine Blume and Widmung) which ended the evening on a more positive note. Can’t wait to sing this cycle again!

Hi friends! My first blog of the new year and I’m so excited to be back! It’s been an exciting year so far beginning with Edmonton Opera’s production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail. It was billed as ‘James Bond meets I dream of Jeannie’ and that it was. Director Michael Cavanaugh wrote a very humourous and entertaining libretto for this show which had Belmonte as a James Bond-like character coming to rescue his beloved Constanze and secret agent friends Pedrillo and Blonde from the clutches of the Pasha Selim. This wonderfully zany production kept the spirit and heart of Mozart’s opera while updating the story line to include not only the James Bond aspect but also things like Facebook and YouTube. Our cast included Charlotte Corwin (Constanze), Carla Huhtanen (Blonde), Lawrence Wiliford (Pedrillo), Dean Elzinga (Osmin), David McNally (Pasha Selim) and yours truly as Belmonte with Peter Dala conducting the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

It so happened that Pavlo Hunka and the Ukrainian Art Song Project were in Edmonton for a CD release concert for the art songs of Yakiv Stepovyi at the Winspear Centre. I had recorded a trio for the CD and was able to go and hear the concert featuring Elizabeth Turnbull, Ben Butterfield and Pavlo. If you’ve never heard of the Ukrainian Art Song Project, click on the link to go to their website and check out what they are doing! They have taken on an ambitious project to record the art songs of Ukrainian composers, a few each summer. They have also made the scores available, for free, online!

On a completely different note, I watched the movie ‘Julie and Julia’ on the plane, I thought it would be fun to work through a cook book since I’m a pretty terrible cook. And since the place I was staying had the most gorgeous kitchen, I thought it would be a fun adventure (I chose Donna Hay’s ‘Off the Shelf’). I made a lot of great dishes, my two favourites being the Coconut Chocolate Tarts with Raspberries and the no fuss, easy to make Blueberry muffins.