I bought a new computer while I was performing in The Rake’s Progress in Victoria. Our 12 year old Mac had served us well but was dying a slow and painful death. It was time! The only problem was that the software for this blog program was on the old computer and when I wanted to update, I would have to do it through the very slow, old computer. I finally had a chance to get the software moved to my new computer so entires should be coming more frequently.

A few days before leaving for London for the Messiah performance, I received a frantic call from a member of the Arts & Letters Club who was looking for someone to fill in for another singer who was unable to perform their upcoming recital. (The Arts & Letters Club has been a fixture in Toronto for over a hundred years. Members of the club are people who are interested in, support, are involved with and love the arts and gather to listen to musicians, paint, sculpt and create. Illustrious past members of the club have been Robertson Davies, Vincent Massey, and Sir Ernest MacMillan.) Stephen Ralls and I were both free for the date but only had a couple hours to rehearse our chosen cycle, Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, before I left for London to sing in the Messiah. The day after the performances in London, Stephen and I stepped onto the stage with a packed house of very knowledgeable, attentive and eager listeners! It’s a wonderful group of people to perform for. But, it was really wonderful to perform the cycle with Stephen. Each time I sing the cycle, my own interpretation grows and deepens but Stephen brought another level to the work. His knowledge and experience with the cycle was truly inspiring. I’m really looking forward to doing the cycle again with him in the future! Perhaps not right after a sing of back to back Messiahs...

I always love singing Handel’s Messiah! It’s one piece I don’t think I’ll ever tire of hearing. This year, I joined the Fanshawe Chorus London and the Gerald Fagan Singers in their annual performances - one at Centennial Hall and the other at St. Peter’s Basilica, both in London. This year’s soloists were Leslie Fagan, Christina Stelmacovich and Alexander Dobson. It’s really quite amazing to move from the barn-like quality of Centennial Hall to the spectacular acoustics of St. Peter’s Basilica. It’s just so easy to sing in there.

After our rehearsal, Alex took us to Spageddy Eddy’s for dinner. In my three years at Western, I had never gone there for dinner and actually never ever heard of it. I was really good. The portions were huge and the spaghetti was ‘made-to-order’. You could choose whatever you wanted to be added to your pasta - I had meatballs and olives. Mmm! I also had a chance to visit with our good friend, Ted Baerg, and attend Sunday Morning service at Metropolitain United. It’s always nice to go back to London!

Olga Tcherniak, who Rachel and I met at the University of Western Ontario in our undergrad, invited us and pianist, Sue Black to come and perform a concert of Broadway hits for a concert series at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton. We sang selections from My Fair Lady, Gigli, Phantom of the Opera, Les Misérables, The Sound of Music, Camelot, Brigadoon and many others. Also on the program was dancer, Sarah Dowhun, who danced two numbers. My favourite piece has to be “Bring Him Home” from Les Misérables. I never tire of singing it!

After the Lillian Alling workshop in Vancouver, I took the red-eye flight back to Toronto so that I could be back in time to sing at Rexdale Alliance Church’s Christmas Banquet. The pastor’s wife, Shyamala Krishnan, had seen Rachel and I singing on People’s Church’s television program and invited us to join them. I thought I would be able to sleep for the four hour flight but that was quickly dismissed when a little girl, who was obviously overtired and uncomfortable, cried the whole way back. After a quick afternoon nap at home, we went to Rexdale for a quick sound check and then joined in an amazing dinner. We sang two sets of music including Shine On Us, You Raise Me Up, The Prayer and O Holy Night. It was a wonderful evening of food, music, and Christmas cheer! I also ran into an old friend from my elementary school, Andrew Prins, who was there with his jazz band. His sister, Anita, is married to my friend, Chad Louwerse, who was in the Rake’s Progress in Victoria and the Fille du Régiment in Edmonton. What a small world!

I made a return to one of my favourite opera companies to perform Tom in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress with Pacific Opera Victoria. It was truly a unique, magical and amazing show! The stars seemed to all have aligned to make this a once in a lifetime experience. From day one, we all knew that this was going to be a special production. It was conducted by Timothy Vernon, directed by Glynis Leyshon with the set design by Allan Stichbury, lit by Gerald King and costumes by Nancy Bryant. The set was very simple but effective with several arches each getting smaller as they went towards the back of the stage creating a forced perspective and the costume designs, in the style of the Regency period, really stood out against the modernistic backdrop. One of my costumes was based on the stylings of Beau Brummel.

The cast each were perfect for their roles: Lucia Cesaroni - Anne Trulove, Mia Lennox-Williams - Baba the Turk, Rebecca Hass - Mother Goose, Blaine Hendsbee - Sellem, Greg Dahl - Nick Shadow and Chad Louwerse - Trulove.

The role of Tom is a mammoth sing! Not only is he on the stage for about 90% of the show, but his music can also be quite challenging. I was a bit worried about vocal stamina when I started preparing the piece but quickly discovered that Stravinsky, either consciously or unconsciously, had paced the role of Tom brilliantly. Even though you are singing pretty much the whole time, he gives you vocal breaks where you can back off and save your voice for the big moments of unbridled singing. My favourite section of the opera is the Bedlam Scene in which Tom has become insane. In my opinion, it’s some of the most beautiful and heart-wrenching music ever written in opera.

We had amazing audiences for our five performances! Their energy could be felt on stage and it was a sheer joy to perform for them. As some people know, I don’t read reviews until the show is over and it was so great to know that the critics responded as our audiences had and had really enjoyed the show.

Last year, friends of ours took us to see Erich Kunzel conduct the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in the Pops concert. It was such a fun concert and through another friend of ours, Benoit Boutet, we got to meet Erich. I auditioned for him and he gave me a job on the spot. If only ever audition was like that! He hired me to sing a Lerner & Loewe/Rogers and Hammerstein concert which is probably as ‘Pop’ as this classical singer can get.

Unfortunately, Erich passed away this August of cancer and I never had the chance to sing with him. He will be remembered for his easy going personality, his immediacy with the audience and great humour. He will be sorely missed by many people! Erich’s right hand man, Steven Reineke, conducted the concert and I’m sure Erich was smiling down for it was a great concert!

We had three concerts and I sang great songs like “On the street where you live”, “Come to me, Bend to me”, and “You are sixteen going on seventeen”. I had two wonderful colleagues one of whom I’ve worked with before, Kathleen Brett and my new favourite Captain von Trapp, Daniel Narducci.

The Etobicoke School for the Arts was our exuberant chorus who got the house rockin’ every night. It was so fun to sing “Oh, when the saints” with them. I’ll remember it foroever!

I was supposed to sing the arias from La Fille du Régiment and Pearl Fishers for Off Centre Music’s fundraising concert but my voice hadn’t fully returned yet and I was singing like a baritone. So, instead of the two highest arias, I chose two of my lowest songs - “I have often walked down this street before” from My Fair Lady and “Drink to me only” by Roger Quilter. Stuart Hamilton hosted the evening and also singing arias on the program were my great colleagues Joni Henson, Vasil Garvanliev, Ryan Harper, Lindsay Barrett and the surprise guest, Isabel Bayrakdarian. I have to sing with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in four days so let’s hope it comes back!

Rachel and I returned to sing a concert for the Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Kitchener-Waterloo. It’s been a yearly event for us for the past 4 years, I believe. Not only were we so pleased to invite Nikki Smith, mezzo-soprano and Dane Wendell, baritone, both students at Wilfred Laurier University to join us for this concert but also the G&S Society Chorus. It made for a really fun evening! But, it wasn’t all G&S’s music on the program. We were given a list of songs that were requested of us to sing for the night and from that, we put together a program with opera, operetta and songs.

The only negative thing about the concert was that I started to feel sick by about intermission and it just got slowly worse from there on in. Luckily, I was able to sing the rest of the show but afterwards knew that the next few days were going to be rough. Oh, the perils of being a singer carrying your instrument around in your body. It’s affected by a lack of sleep, colds, flu, jet lag, muscle aches and whatever else life throws at you. Let’s hope this doesn’t last too long...

Jim Bourne and I had another opportunity to perform Schubert’s magical setting of Die Schöne Müllerin at York University. Catherine Robbin had been in attendance at the performance at the Elora Festival and asked us if we would be willing to perform it at York. The Tribute Communities Hall at York University is a wonderful, intimate space to perform. They are so lucky to have it!

One thing about being able to sing a piece over and over is the ability to take new risks and discover things in the piece you never realized were there. One of those discoveries actually happened on stage. There is a line in one of the first few songs that foreshadows the events of the end of the cycle and only as I was singing it did I realize what it alluded to. I love when that happens!

I was so happy with the performance and hope to have some of it up on You Tube soon...

The Royal Conservatory in Toronto had been closed at it’s Bloor St. location for the building and renovation of it’s new wing and main building for some time. They opened their new fantastic space including sound proof practice rooms, new office spaces, teaching areas, a wonderfully intimate performing space called the Conservatory Theatre, and this week, they finally opened the jewel of the building, the Koerner Hall. The Koerner Hall is a 1,140 seat venue has the been built with acoustics as top priority and it shows! I spoke to many people after the concert and no matter where they were sitting, the consensus was the same - the acoustics were amazing!

The Gala Concert opening the Koerner Hall featured many pieces specifically chosen to highlight the acoustics of the building. The concert was brought together by new Executive Director, Mervon Mehta. On the bill was the world premiere of R. Murray Schafer’s Spirits of the House, Weinberg’s Piano Quartet, Op. 18, Bernstein’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, Ligeti’s Etudes pour piano and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. The evening was conducted by Jean-Philippe Tremblay. Anton Kuerti was the piano soloist in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy along with soprano Erin Wall, mezzo Wallis Giunta, myself, and bass Robert Pomakov as soloists with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and the Royal Conservatory Orchestra.

The evening was a truly a gala event with many notable people in attendance including former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and his wife Aline, Bob Rae, TSO conductor Peter Oundjian, and COC General Director Alexander Neef. Here’s to many more wonderful performances in this great new facility!

Have I already said that I love singing Carmina Burana? Well, I really do! I know roasting swan isn’t the most beautiful music for the audience to hear but it really isn’t meant to be. It is the roasting swan, after all! It starts on a high ‘A’ and extends to a high ‘D’...the second half of the verse even begins on high C! It’s not for the faint of heart...

This was my second time singing Carmina with the Elora Festival and conductor, Noel Edison. We performed the two piano/percussion version as we had done the first time with much of the same people performing. The two pianists were James Anagnoson and Leslie Kinton, both from the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, Laura Whalen and Peter Barrett singing the soprano and baritone solos. It was a superb evening and it was so great to be back in the barn again.

(pictured is James Anagnoson, Laura Whalen, Peter Barrett and myself)

Pavlo Hunka has spearheaded a multi-year project to record the songs of Ukrainian composers. Each summer, one composer is chosen to record and all the writings from that composer are recorded. This summer, Яків Степовий (Yakiv Stepovy) was chosen and I was asked to sing alongside good friends, Krisztina Szabó and Elizabeth Turnbull in some really beautiful trios. I’m really looking forward to hearing the end result!

Rachel and I gave a short little concert from her brother’s condo building in downtown Vancouver in the second annual “Off the Balcony”. This free concert was Richard’s idea last year and it went so well that we decided to make it a yearly event, provided that we were in Vancouver.

Originally, he had told us that he wanted us to sing into the courtyard of his building from the balcony of his new condo for the clients of his practice, Synergy Chiropractic. We had never seen his condo before and assumed the courtyard in question was in the middle of the building. But, when we arrived, we saw that the courtyard was across the street. Not only would the clients be listening but also all the people who walked by and the neighbours in other buildings. We didn’t really know what to think. But, it turned out to be such a great event! For these concerts, we sing a bunch of opera arias and duets and do a couple musical theatre pieces as well. It’s all about cultivating new audiences for opera. There’s even some video clips on UTube from last year’s concert: The Prayer and Phantom of the Opera. I’ll upload this year’s when they are up.

This week, I joined soprano Laura Whalen, baritone Hugh Russell, conductor Bramwell Tovey, the Vancouver Symphony Orhestra, and the Vancouver Bach Choir and Children’s Chorus for two performances of Carmina Burana at the Orpheum Theatre. The whole show was so fantastic, especially the finale at the end of the show when the “O Fortuna” theme comes back and the orchestra surges to a finish. The choir and orchestra were right in the palm of Maestro Tovey’s hand. It was electrifying - I had goosebumps! Even though the tenor sits for about 30 minutes before he gets to sing and then has to sing painfully high for about three minutes, I really do love singing the Roasted Swan. I know that might be strange to some but it really is a fun piece to do. I even debuted with the Symphony as the Swan in 2005. Also on the program was Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms. I’ve been listening to and learning Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress for upcoming shows with Pacific Opera Victoria in the fall and I was fascinated by the similarity of the themes in both pieces. It also features my favourite instrument - the cello - as the only string section other than the double basses.

Another highlight of the trip was my first run on the sea wall around Stanley Park. I had always wanted to do it. I ran quite late at night and as I turned around the bend, the whole Lion’s Gate bridge was lit up. It was spectacular! As you run under the bridge you really get a sense of how high the bridge really is. It certainly made me forget the blister that was forming on my foot…

For three weeks this May, I was over in Göttingen, Germany. Göttingen is not a huge city but it boasts the fantastic International Händel Festival. I sang in two concerts performing in Hayes’ Ode to the memory of Mr. Handel and Charpentier’s Chant sur la mort de Joseph Haydn with Dominique Labelle, Thomas Cooley and Nicolas McGegan conducting. The concerts were so fantastic and the orchestra played splendidly. Even the audiences were great. I had never experienced clapping like that in Göttingen...it was relentless and eventually they all began clapping in unison. It’s a thrilling sound! We also traveled up to Hannover to sing some concerts in the Herrenhausen and recorded a CD for release in the fall.

I was also able to travel over to Berlin and visit Edmonton Opera’s Artistic Director, Brian Deedrick who was giving his yearly tour “Berlin with Brian” offered to the attendees of Edmonton Opera. My visit was very short but I was able to see Tannhäuser at the Opera House, see some of the museums, visit Checkpoint Charlie and see bits of the Berlin Wall. I was also blown away by the main train station in Berlin...it’s unbelievable! Berlin is a city is on my “visit again” list. It’s definitely a must-see!

This trip was a great opportunity to brush up on my German. It had been so long since I had been there that I thought I was not going to communicate but it came back really quickly. I had participated in a student exchange in 1993 for three months and studied German in University but when you don’t use it everyday, the immediacy of the language diminishes. But, I do sing a lot in German and it’s been a great way to keep my German active.

On Saturday, Amanda Johnston and I presented a recital of English music at the Heliconian Hall in Toronto. It was a recital in which a portion of the proceeds went to support “Free the Children”. Their aim is to free children from exploitation and poverty around the world.

I originally had wanted to do a Czech/Russian program but after looking at the Czech with a Czech friend of mine, I realized I needed a bit more time with the language than I had. So, I decided to look for music to go with two other cycles I had had in mind, Britten’s Holy Sonnets of John Donne and Tippett’s Boyhood’s End. It was a great opportunity to sing Derek Holman’s Death of Orpheus again (which I had premiered a few years ago) because it fit so nicely with the Britten and Tippett. I had heard Wendy Nielsen sing Louis Andriessen’s Beatles’ song arrangements (see the “Louis Andriessen” post below) and I loved them and Amanda found a great cycle by American composer Jake Heggie called Friendly Persuasions, which would be the Canadian premiere. It turned out to be a great 20th/21st Century program.

We really enjoyed performing the recital and loved every single piece we did. I especially loved the Tippett cantata. It was probably one of the hardest cycles on the program to learn but one of the most rewarding to sing when you know you’ve correctly sung all the rhythm and key changes. I almost wanted to sing it again as an Encore but it’s about 14 minutes long...perhaps a bit too long at the end of a big program.

The season closing concert for the Kitchener-Waterloo Philharmonic Choir and Symphony this year was Haydn’s Creation in recognition of the 200th Anniversary of his death with conductor Howard Dyck, Soprano Laura Whalen, Baritone Bruce Kelly and myself.

This magnificent work bubbles with humour, descriptive motives, and beautiful songs for the soloists and choir. Every time I perform this piece I am amazed by Haydn’s genius. The ambiguous orchestral description of chaos before the world was created is stunning with the thrilling chord change to C+ at “And there was light”. My favourite line this time was in Bruce’s solo describing the “falling snow” - so tender and soft.

Next season is Howard Dyck’s last season with the choir. He will have been there for 38 years. I have had the great pleasure of doing many concerts with Howard in various venues. He has always been a supportive colleague, a wonderful conductor and an inspirational man. I look forward to seeing what he’s going to get into next. I’m sure there’ll be no stopping him!

Pacific Opera Victoria mounted a beautiful production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Royal Theatre. Based on the architectural styles of Otto Wagner in Vienna, this production was created with that time period in mind especially, the old station at the Karlsplatz. Timothy Vernon conducted five of the six performance with Giuseppe Pietraroia conducting the last show, Glynis Leyshon directed our superb cast of performers, and John Ferguson designed the show. Since there are a lot of characters, I’ll just list them, in order of appearance:

Colin Ainsworth, Tamino
Lucia Cesaroni, First Lady
Leticia Brewer, Second Lady
Erin Lawson, Third Lady
Hugh Russell, Papageno
Aline Kutan, Queen of the Night
Michel Corbeil, Monostatos
Shannon Mercer, Pamina
Bruce Kelly, High Priest
Uwe Dambruch, Sarastro
Alexandre Sylvestre, First Priest / Guard
Joseph Schnurr, Second Priest / Guard
Marilyn Arsenault, Papagena

One of the most exciting things for me, besides the show, was running in my first 10K competition! I had been running about 7-8K while I was there and thought an extra 2 wouldn’t hurt. Friends of ours were already registered in the run so we thought we’d join them. It was a perfect day for running. It was cool but not cold, there was hardly any wind and the sun was out. The course started in Beacon Hill Park, made its way down along the ocean one way, back the other and right into downtown Victoria for the Finish Line. My time was 57:22. I’m now hooked and looking for my next race to run in.

Last night, I taught a Masterclass for some members of Pacific Opera Victoria’s chorus - Sam Marcaccini, Andrew Buckley, and Andrew Snyder. Sam sang O! du mein holder Abendstern from Tannhäuser, Andrew B sang Se vuol ballare from the Marriage of Figaro and Andrew S sang Dies Bildnis from Die Zauberflöte. They all did such a fantastic job! I also had an opportunity to get together a few days earlier to work for about an hour with each singer since 20 minutes in a masterclass is not usually enough time to work on everything.

The most interesting thing I find about masterclasses is that I learn so much about my own singing by teaching another singer. I find after I teach a masterclass or a lesson, I’m very aware of what I’m doing with my own instrument. But, one of the challenges I enjoy the most is trying to verbalize what I know about singing and my technique to someone else. It’s one thing to know how to sing yourself but then to put it into words is something completely different.

POV’s Executive Director, David Shefsiek, ended the masterclass with an Inside the Actor’s Studio-like question and answer session. It was so much fun to do and I was honoured to have been asked.

I had the great pleasure of having coffee with the Dutch composer, Louis Andriessen, in Vancouver to talk about a set of songs he wrote which I’ll be singing in a recital on May 16th in Toronto. Andriessen is in Vancouver for a week long string of concerts featuring his music with ‘Music on Main’.

It was a strange coincidence that brought this meeting about. During a rehearsal of the Magic Flute for Pacific Opera Victoria, I was chatting with Artistic Director and our conductor, Tim Vernon, about the recital and the music I had chosen for it and the interesting songs from Andriessen, who I had actually never heard of. He told me about Andriessen and his music. The next day, I took the paper that was outside my hotel room with me to rehearsal and there in the Arts Section was an article about Andriessen and the concerts he was involved with. I thought it would be great to meet him so Tim and our director, Glynis Leyshon, called up David Paye, the director of ‘Music on Main’. David set up a meeting for us and I flew over to Vancouver. It was so great to get a first hand account of the cycle, its history, how he wanted the piece to be performed and to get his permission to do them. He has reservations about giving the cycle out because he intended them to be performed a certain way and hasn’t published them for that very reason. I now hope I can live up to his expectations!

Last week, I sang Nadir in Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers produced by Edmonton Opera and held in the glorious Winspear Centre. I had sung the famous duet many times before and had sung Nadir’s aria “Je crois entendre encore” but never the whole opera and, truth be told, I had never listened to the opera until this production. What a beautiful opera it is! If you’ve never listened to it, go out and get a recording. It’s well worth the money.

The setting in the Winspear made it quite a magical night. We had a simple set of lava-like looking rocks falling into a black ocean with white curtains draped with some netting as the backdrop. The orchestra was behind the whole set with our wonderful Maestro Robert Dean projected on monitors around the auditorium. The chorus was up in the choir lofts up behind the orchestra.

We only had two weeks to mount this show but our director, Brian Deedrick, quickly sped us through the staging and giving us ample time to sink into our characters. Amy Hansen was the lovely Leila, Greg Dahl was the tormented Zurga, Andrew Stewart was the fierce Nourabad and I was Nadir. Since the chorus was not part of the action in this production we had 4 super Supers to be representatives of crowds of people.

I must say, the Winspear has to be one the best acoustics around to sing in. I’ve sung a few Messiahs and other concerts in there and every time I am amazed at how well the sound carries right to the back of the theatre. If only all concert venues were built like that!

Edmonton Opera hosted their annual Opera Gala at the Hotel MacDonald. The event was a fundraiser for Edmonton Opera and included such honoured guests as Mayor Stephen Mandel and MInister of Culture and Community Spirit, Lindsay Blackett.

The theme of the evening was based on the upcoming opera Les Pêcheurs de Perles (The Pearl Fishers) so everything, including the menu, was sea related. The hors d’oeuvres were a chilled seafood and vegetable presentation, the soup was called Nadir’s Dream (which is my character in the opera), the main course, called The Duet, was cinnamon chocolate dusted beef tenderloin and thyme grilled lamb chops with vegetables and mash potatoes, and to finish off the desert was a spectacular Sri Lankan vanilla and coconut ice cream with lemon sponge cake nestled in a chocolate scallop shell with white chocolate sea foam. Mmmm.

Not only were there fantastic prizes to be won and bought including chocolate covered pearls, a Tag Heuer watch, gift baskets and prizes but also, there was great entertainment which was the cast of Pearl Fishers! Amy Hansen, who plays Leila, Gregory Dahl, who plays Zurga, Andrew Stewart, who plays Nourabad, and myself sang our favourite pieces which included the famous duet “O font du temple saint” from the opera. At the end of the evening, Amy and myself were auctioned off to sing another piece raising approximately $4000 with a matching grant from the province. I ended off the evening singing “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables. What a night to remember!

We opened Donizetti’s La Fille du Régiment with great pageantry! They rolled out the red carpet, flanked by the Lord Strathcona's Horse Royal Canadian, for the French ambassador to Canada, His Excellency, Mr. François Delattre and other dignitaries. Edmonton Opera hosted a pre-performance reception for His Excellency, which included Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel, diplomats, and community leaders. Too bad we didn’t get to go but we did need to start preparing for the opera everyone was coming to see.

We had a fantastic cast! I know I always say it’s a fantastic cast but it really always is. If this one had been recorded, I would have bought it myself. Andriana Chuchman was the Daughter of the Regiment, Marie, Ted Baerg was Sulpice, Sonya Gosse was Marie’s mother, M. de Berkenfeld and Chad Louwerse was her sidekick, Hortensius. Rob Herriot directed and Peter Dala conducted.

Our set was actually used in 1974 for the same show in which Beverly Sills sang the role of Marie (check it out here). It made you feel like you were in some Disney show but I guess that matched the over-the-top antics that were happening on stage.

One of the most nerve-wracking but fun moments I had was a quick change that happened on stage. My first outfit was a simple peasant costume which was dressed over bright blue army pants. During the first part of my High C aria, the peasant shirt and vest was ripped off by the soldiers, leaving me in just my brown pants and no shirt, then the French flag was brought in front to cover me up after which I rip off my brown pants (which were tear-away pants - everyone needs a pair!). The men then brought me a soldiers jacket behind the flag and buttoned it up without the audience seeing. The other soldiers, meanwhile, were pretending to measure, cut and sew me a new outfit. Just as I begin the High C’s, my cap is given to me, the flag is taken away and I’m revealed as a soldier of the regiment. It worked like clockwork every night!

I love this role and can’t wait to sing it again!

Andriana Chuchman (Marie, in the Daughter of the Regiment) and I, helped out Brian Deedrick, Artistic Director of Edmonton Opera, cook a beautiful Risotto a la Champagne for CityTV here in Edmonton. Watch the video here!

I had the opportunity to sing the American and Canadian national anthems at the Edmonton Oilers game to a crowd of 16,000+. What an experience! I can sing a three hour opera without feeling the slightest bit nervous but ask me to sing two small anthems and watch me shake.

I arrived at 10am for my run through on the ice but had to wait until about 10:30 because they were having problems with the ice and had to keep flooding it. When the ice was finished, I walked out to centre ice, started the American anthem and forgot the words right after “Oh! Say can you see by the dawn’s early light”! After pulling myself together, I continued and sang the rest of both anthems without a hitch.

The game started an hour later, in which I spent every last second going over the words in my head. But, like an audition, the longer you wait to sing the more nervous you get. Surprisingly, about five minutes before I was to go on, I became really relaxed and thought to myself, “just enjoy this!”. They called my name on the loud speakers and I walked out, “Please welcome, Colin Ainsworth, national recording artist.” REALLY? That made me chuckle.

As I sang the American anthem, the words rolled of my tongue. No nervousness at all! I just took every moment in and enjoyed it. Then, what a proud moment it is to be able to lead a huge group of people in singing the Canadian national anthem. I picked a nice high key just so I could finish with a bang. It was awesome!

After singing, one of the ice groomers said to me, “You sounded like a one tonne bag of hammers; it was awesome!!” I think it was a good comment...

Today, the cast of Edmonton Opera’s production of La Fille du Régiment sang at the Opera Brunch held at the Chateau Lacombe Hotel. It was a fun and eclectic set of songs ranging from opera arias like “Una voce poco fa” and “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz” to Ukrainian and Newfoundland folk songs. After singing, we had our own brunch up on the top floor in the revolving restaurant with great views of Edmonton.

Ted Baerg and I sang the Pearl Fishers duet, which is my next show with Edmonton Opera. It feels like I’ve come full circle because Ted was and is the head of Opera at Western where I spent three years of my undergrad. It had been my first opera and his first year at the school. It was so great to sing with him! We had actually sung together in Glimmerglass in Le Portrait de Manon but it’s always great to sing with such a great singer and performer.

Rachel and I sang a concert for Opera Nuova’s Dinner Cabaret Series in downtown Edmonton at Normand’s restaurant. We sang a program of operatic arias and duets and musical hits including songs from La Traviata, La Boheme, My Fair Lady, Les Miserables, Pirates of Penzance, L’elisir d’amore and Susannah. We sang a set in between the various courses for the evening and of course, we ate just like everyone else so sometimes breathing for long lines was a challenge. But, the food was fantastic and so was the company. Check out us on You Tube here!

Rachel and I had the pleasure of entertaining at Chateau Windrush, the home of J.C. Pennie and Marilyn Field, in Hockley Valley on New Year’s Eve with Nathalie Doucet-Lalkens on the piano. We’ve come to know Marilyn through our work with DareArts. We sang one small teaser set and a larger second set for their friends and family in between the 5 course meal. Not only was it a chance for Rachel and I to sing our favourite arias and duets but also a chance to sing some new things. On the program was Drink to me only, Zueignung, Libiamo from La Traviata, Oh, is there not one maiden breast and Ah, leave me not to pine alone both from Pirates of Penzance, D’amor sull’ali rose from Il Trovatore, Una furtiva lagrima from L’elisir d’amore, Un di felice from La Traviata, Ain’t it a pretty night from Susannah, Dein ist mein ganzes Herz from Das Land des Lächelns, O soave fanciulla from La Bohème and our encore was The Prayer. The meal we had served was fantastic! On the menu was either beef wellington or salmon along with corn chowder soup with polenta, salad with goat cheese stuffed mushrooms, dessert and some fantastic wine! What a great way to start the New Year!