Can music still soothe the savage sound bite? That was my quest this last fortnight, as I sought solace from non-stop Trumpapocalypse onslaught on "social" (why do they call it that when it's so decid...
02/07/2017 07:57 EST
Tim Matheson
The morning after watching Vancouver Opera's production of Hansel and Gretel , I awoke to news that Austria's far-right leader Norbert Hofer lost to left leaning liberal Alexander Van der Bellen. I le...
12/07/2016 12:27 EST
Eloy Alonso / Reuters
It was Ramadan, May 1988, and I was even more spaced out than usual, subsisting on a strange student diet of fig cakes and arroz y garbanzo. After an afternoon at the Prado, I found myself wandering one evening near the palacio de deportes and magically happened upon a Leonard Cohen en concierto esta noche sign. But what would I do? How would I ever afford a ticket?
11/17/2016 08:11 EST
Vancouver International Flamenco Festival
Is Vancouver a city without duende? For those unfamiliar with the term, a creative force evoked in the art of flamenco, I defer to Garcia Lorca -- the poet killed by right-wing Spanish civil war era assassins whose work seems ever more resonant in our time of vulgar demagogues and neo-liberal pretenders.
10/26/2016 09:59 EDT
The 18th century was a dangerous time to dance. I learned this along with other invaluable life lessons, at Early Music Vancouver's inaugural Bach Festival, now in its final glorious week. During a s...
08/12/2016 12:21 EDT
The Western world was not a safe place recently. At least not on most major news channels. The familiar became menacing: dancing at a nightclub with friends, deadly; a member of Parliament killed on t...
06/24/2016 04:45 EDT
Tim Matheson/Vancouver Opera
With the strains of Don't Cry for Me Argentina still fresh in my mind from Vancouver Opera's production of Evita, I am re-imagining the seminal 70's rock opera with a whole new American cast. Since Ev...
05/16/2016 11:58 EDT
Vancouver Opera/Tim Matheson
I can imagine a production of Butterfly where a variety of dictators in the vein of "the only thing worse than being an enemy of the U.S. is being a former ally" -- from the Shah of Iran to Saddam Hussein to Noriega to Bashar Assad- sing that poignant second act aria.
03/10/2016 04:12 EST
Vancouver Opera/Tim Matheson
I can imagine a production of Butterfly where a variety of dictators in the vein of "the only thing worse than being an enemy of the U.S. is being a former ally" -- from the Shah of Iran to Saddam Hussein to Noriega to Bashar Assad- sing that poignant second act aria.
03/10/2016 04:12 EST
Vancouver Opera
In light of recent announcements that the current government plans to sell off the CBC buildings across this land -- the very art of cultural commentary might not be long for this nation. As Harper slowly dismantles every political and cultural institution intrinsic to the Canadian way of life I wonder -- will the future Joni Mitchells, Leonard Cohens and Neil Youngs be left to fend for themselves?
10/09/2015 05:27 EDT
I wonder if any judge in late 19th-century Vienna ever asked a woman to remove her mask? And what exactly is Prime Minister Harper's position on masked balls, those dens of iniquity where identities a...
03/06/2015 04:12 EST
As I took in the opening night of Vancouver Opera's Don Giovanni on the weekend, I realized there was something vaguely familiar about the libertine protagonist. The unrepentant sociopath whose conque...
03/04/2014 03:40 EST
My suggested New Year's resolution for 2014? Let's spend less time spying on each other and more time waltzing. I came to this profound conclusion at the annual Salute to Vienna - a pure unadulterated...
01/06/2014 06:06 EST
In this centenary year of composer Benjamin Britten, I recall my first exposure to his complex, beautiful and technically challenging music. I was a 13-year-old alto - taller and darker than almost ev...
12/06/2013 04:33 EST
Vancouver Opera's Tosca is a true celebration of life. Despite the unhappy ending that all opera lovers know, there is such unbridled passion, joy and humour -- not to mention some really fabulous cos...
10/31/2013 08:02 EDT
The body of Margie Gillis is an interpretive canvas. Emotions spill out like colours as she quivers through her dance, alive with joy and sorrow, pain and power, imbued with the full palette of life....
10/25/2013 04:40 EDT
Scene I -- late at night on a laptop near you...a 40 something woman is typing... OK God, (or Facebook, or the NSA, or same thing maybe?) OK, so here's the thing... I think I've really "done" the whol...
09/09/2013 11:50 EDT
1958 was the beginning of the economic and social campaign by the Communist Party of China that aimed to transform a largely agrarian economy into a communist society through rapid industrialization and collectivization. The campaign led to the Great Chinese Famine, tens of millions of deaths and was followed by Chairman Mao's cultural revolution in 1966.
08/14/2013 05:56 EDT
This is a story that begins at an absinthe tasting, and ends with bad hippy dancing, halfhearted fireworks and an absent national anthem. It is not for the faint of heart and contains many middle-aged...
07/12/2013 11:58 EDT
For a city by the sea -- a port town that enthusiastically believes in its own "world-class" status -- Vancouver is a shockingly segregated place, a study in emphatic delineations. Despite half its po...
05/14/2013 02:20 EDT
