COME FROM AWAY – REVIEW OF 2026 PRODUCTION AT GRAND THEATRE, LONDON

Reviewed by James Karas

The numbers 9/11 may mean almost nothing to most people around the world but they are embedded in the consciousness of Americans as a reminder of the events of September 11, 2001. Most of them would remember precisely where they were when they heard about the attack on the two towers of the World Trade Centre. Almost three thousand people were killed by the attacks and the United States declared an all-out war on terrorism. 

One can hardly imagine a pleasant consequence of the terrorist attacks, but there is one in Canada. All planes were ordered to land immediately and 38 of them landed in Gander, Newfoundland. A town of 9000 found itself with 7000 visitors from numerous airlines. The townspeople reacted with simultaneous and unbelievable acts of humanity, and gathered all their resources to welcome and care for the unexpected visitors.

That encounter of distress and decency on a massive scale, gave Irene Sankoff and David Hein the idea of writing a musical about the event called Come From Away. The musical opened in 2015, fourteen years after the terrorist attacks. It was a hit and was produced around the world. It became a legendary success and continues to be produced almost 25 years after the tragic events of 9/11.

The redoubtable Grand Theatre of London has produced the musical using an all-Canadian cast. That alone deserves a round of applause when one considers the number of road  productions that have been seen across Canada. 

The cast of Come from Away. Photo: Dehlia Katz

Come From Away has twelve actors  that play a variety of roles. We start with the residents of Gander, a quiet town that goes about its business until news of something horrific filters through. It is 9/11 and 38 planes land in its large airport. The twelve townspeople change chairs and become passengers on a plane that is forced to sit on the tarmac for hours.

The townspeople go into high gear preparing to receive, house, feed and take care of 7000 people. There is comedy as they try to figure out what to get. Medications, tampons, food for pets including monkeys, sleeping accommodations and…and…

The musical is written through and performed at a brisk pace. The dozen or so musical numbers are performed by the company except for several solos. The titles tell the story of the stranded passengers and the townspeople. “38 Planes,” “Blankets and Bedding, “28 Hours/Wherever We Are” (the time spent in the plane after landing), “Phoning Home,” “Screech” (the local moonshine).

There is humour like trying to find translators for the international guests. Anyone speak Moldovan? The Mayor (Darrin Baker) leads with “Welcome to the Rock”. There is the Black man (Joema Frith) who is sent to take people’s barbecues and bring them to a central location. You do that where he comes from, he tells us, and they will shoot you! And Hannah (Divine Brown) whose son is a firefighter in New York and she finds out that he is one of the victims in the Twin Towers. She sings the solo “I am here.” Nick (Steven Gallagher) and Diane (Lori Nancy Kalamanski) find romance and sing “Stop the World”

Then there is Janice (Kelly Holiff) the cub reporter, nervous and lost on her first assignment, the police officer Oz (Sheldon Elter), the teacher Beulah (Darlene Spencer). It is difficult to remember all the roles the cast took but I give equal praise to all. But there is also a knock. Newfoundlanders have a beautiful, lilting accent all their own. Unfortunately I did not hear any of it although there appeared to be some attempts at it. The Creative Team lists four dialect coaches and with an international group of visitors they may have had their hands full.

The set by Scott Penner consists of chairs pinned to all sides of the stage from floor to ceiling on a dark background. The only props are chairs and a couple of tables and that is all that is needed.

Director Julie Tomaino maintains a lively pace with some pauses in the face of tragedy. The comedy is intrinsic to the situation such as trying to buy all that maybe needed. How about tampons? Back to the drug store. Baby food? Oh, yes, back to…

Tomaino has chosen to have most singing and band playing at fortissimo volume. This was unnecessary and at times it seemed inappropriate. Less volume for tragic events would be more appropriate.

The nine thousand residents of Gander looked after and entertained 7000 visitors from around the world for five days back in 2001. The Grand Theatre of London entertained us almost 25 years after the tragic events of 9/11 thanks to Irene Sankoff and David Hein.
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Come From Away by Irene Sankoff and David Hein (Book, Music and Lyrics) opened on May 1 and continues until May 31, 2026, at the Spriet Stage of the Grand Theatre, 471 Richmond St. London, Ontario. www.grandtheatre.com/

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto 

EUGENE ONEGIN – REVIEW OF 2026 LIVE IN HD FROM THE MET PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The bad news is that New York’s Metropolitan Opera has a deficit of $30 million for the 2025 -2026 season that nears its end. The good news is that we are still able to see some Live from the Met in HD transmissions. The latest one was Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in a revival of Deborah Warner’s 2013 production. It represented the 165^th performance of the opera at the Met.

The production boasts a first-rate cast with soprano Asmik Grigorian as Tatiana and baritone Iurii Samoilov as Onegin. Tatiana is the young, impressionable girl living on the family estate, mostly reading books. She goes for a walk with the dashing Onegin and falls passionately in love with him. We do not see the walk. Tatana wants to tell Onegin that she loves him so she spends a night composing a letter to him. Alas, Onegin rebuffs her, ever so politely.

She grows up, marries a decent aristocrat and in the end sends Onegin packing when he tries to get her to leave her husband. She may love him but she will not betray her husband,

That is the role that Grigorian must fulfil. The letter scene is the heart of the opera and         she delivers the fears, doubts, love and passion demanded. She sings beautifully and communicates all those emotions to the audience.

Asmik Grigorian, Maria Barakova, Iurii Samoilov, and Stanislas de Barbeyrac. 
Photo: Evan Zimmerman / Met Opera

Samoilov has all the traits of a jerk but he comes out better than that perhaps because he appears to have matured. He dumped the innocent Tatiana and killed his friend in a duel after acting abominably towards him but we see him repentant.  There he is. Samoilov has a marvelous voice and he gives us a vocally splendid and theatrically credible Onegin.

Tenor Stanislas de Barbeyrac sings the sympathetic role of the tragic poet Lenski, Onegin’s friend and dueling victim as well as Olga’s betrothed. He is decent but jealous and challenges Onegin to a duel. He sings the beautiful farewell aria with surpassing passion and beauty.

Tatiana’s sister Olga is sung by mezzo-soprano Maria Barakova. She is not a diehard romantic like her sibling and flirts with Onegin causing the duel. A fine performance. The lesser roles of Filippyevna (Larissa Diadkova), Prince Gremin (bass-baritone Alexander Tsymbalyuk) are sung splendidly.

Unfortunately, I cannot give the same praise to the set designed by Tom Pye and some of the blame must go to producer Deborah Warner unless she had no input in it. The opera is set on a large and wealthy estate. The opening scene takes place in an outside structure of the estate. It has dirty windows and I have no idea what Tatiana and Olga are doing there or what the building is supposed to be. The peasants enter through there so it can’t be part of the house but I did not like the drab look.

The second and all-important letter scene is set in Tatiana’s’ bedroom. There is no bed and she is writing the letter on the floor. I have no idea why. The ballroom in the house on the estate is not much better.

On to the palace of Prince Gremin, Tatiana’s husband. We have Greco-Roman columns (they always look impressive) but hardly beautiful, there is no ceiling and it looks like we are out in the open with a blue sky on top.

Maestro Timur Zangiev conducted Met Orchestra and Chorus in Tchaikovsky’s lush and beloved score.

Eugene Onegin by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (libretto by the composer and K. S. Shilovsky after Pushkin) was shown Live in HD on May 2, 2026, at the Cineplex Theatre, Shops at Don Mills, Toronto and other theatres across Canada. Encore showing on May 16, 2026. For more information go to: www.cineplex.com/events

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

HOW TO CATCH CREATION – REVIEW OF 2026 SOULPEPPER PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

How to Catch Creation is a complex and at times complicated play by Christina Anderson. It is set in San Francisco and deals with the ambition and problem of creating a legacy such as painting, writing, or getting and raising a child. All the characters are  Black and the emphasis is on queer women and it is a paean to Black literature especially by Black queer women.

The play opens with Griffin (Daren A. Herbert), a gay man, announcing that he wants a kid. He spent 25 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit and wanting to adopt a child in his late forties has a sad and comic ring to it. Without financial wherewithal, a prison record and no partner, he is not considered as a suitable candidate for adoption or finding a surrogate. He is an avid reader and has read all the works of G.K. Marche (Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah), a prolific lesbian writer. Griffin is a promoter of lesbian writers and can rhyme off the names of many of them. 

His friend Tami (Amanda Cordner) is a lesbian painter and an administrator in a college admissions department. She is responsible for Stokes (Dante Prince), an aspiring painter, not being admitted to her school. He has been refused admission by 13 institutions and he is, understandably, at the end of his rope. Stokes’s girlfriend Riley (Germaine Konji) makes a cold call to Tami to ask the reason for her refusal to admit Stokes. By happenstance, Tami and Riley are attracted to each other and become lovers.

Riley is a tech expert and works part time in a computer repair store. She has some musical talent as well. Stokes works in an art gallery and while suffering from painter’s block decides to become a writer.

Natalie (Shakura Dickson) is a graphic textile artist in a relationship with G.K. but they have their issues too including infidelity. 

Daren A. Herbert and  Amanda Cordner. Photo by Dahlia Katz. 

All the characters want to “catch creation.” Adopt a child, paint, write a novel, fulfill an inner craving. But the ultimate creation and legacy is probably a child. Griffin pursues that end doggedly but Riley, Stokes and Natalie achieve it despite themselves. Riley becomes pregnant by Stokes accidentally and Natalie is impregnated by a former boyfriend. I will not disclose how things are worked out. 

As I said, the play is set in 2014 but there are scenes that take place in 1966, 1967 and 1988. Anderson inserts split scenes where the action takes place in two places or time periods simultaneously. Two actors converse in 2014 and another two converse in 1966. Unfortunately, these scenes proved to be confusing despite some help from the playwright in telling us in passing about the dates. We see G.K and his lover Natalie talking in 1966 (young) and in 2014 (not so young). There are numerous scenes, almost vignettes, that do not help with development with the plot strands that Anderson includes in the play.

There are head-scratching coincidences. Griffin and Stokes meet,  Tami tells Griffin about Stokes without naming  him and  Riley calls Tami while Stokes is with Griffin.

The big timespan and the numerous complications and plot coincidences create a problem for the actors who need to jump from one generation to the next and the brief scenes.

The set by Teresa Przybylski shows an apartment seating room on the left and an office  desk and chairs on the right. In the middle and above are spokes of light creating a dome and moveable structures again made of light spokes below. The light spokes changed colours but I could not follow the reason amid the complicated plot.

The play tackles the great themes of leaving a legacy and just as importantly the issue of writing by Black lesbian women. Except for Griffin having a prison sentence for a crime he did not commit, the people in the play are intelligent, erudite and talented and away from the racism and injustice that we hear about them in the news.  There is considerable humour as well as dramatic scenes. I commend the six actors for their work despite difficulties presented by the plot. Director Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu keeps the action and frequent scene changes going but there is not much more she could do to provide clarity.

This is How to Catch Creation’s Canadian premiere at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in a co-production by Soulpepper, Obsidian Theatre and Nightwood Theatre.
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How To Catch Creation by Christina Anderson opened on April 30 and continues until May 17, 2026, at The Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Tank House Lane, Toronto, Ontario. www.soulpepper.ca.

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto.

BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE AND ERWARTUNG – REVIEW OF 2026 REVIVAL OF LEPAGE PRODUCTIONS

Reviewed by James Karas

The Canadian Opera Company in 1993 produced two infrequently staged operas, namely Bela Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Arnold Schoenberg’s ERWARTUNG. The director of both works was the inimitable Robert Lepage. The productions were reprised in 2015 and eleven years later they are back at the Four Seasons Centre with Francois Racine as the revival director.

Both one-acters are twentieth century operas and are a long way from Verdi and Puccini. Duke Bluebeard brings his new wife Judith to his dark and formidable castle. Before the curtain rises, they walk across the stage; he is dressed in a blue uniform and she is walking behind him in a trailing bridal gown. Then Set and Costume designer Michael Levine shows the newlywed couple in the long walls of the dark castle and the Duke asks her if she wants to go back to her family and her betrothed.

They address each other affectionately and she insists that she wants to stay because she loves him. She will change the cold castle into something warm, she says. She notices seven doors that are locked and wants to open them all.

American bass-baritone Christian van Horn is an upright and sonorous Bluebeard who is clearly hiding something but he expresses his love for Judith and tries to dissuade her from opening the seven doors that are represented by projected lights that resemble keyholes.

Karen Cargill and Christian van Horn in Bluebeard's Castle. 

Photo: Michael Cooper

Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill as Judith is a woman in love who has given up everything to be with Bluebeard. She will not be dissuaded from opening the mysterious doors and she stays in the castle despite the dreary milieu and the frightful sights that she encounters upon opening the seven doors. 

We watch the revelations as they appear when the doors are opened. The Torture Chamber, the Armory, the Treasury, The Secret Garden, The Kingdom, the Lake of Tears and finally The Silent Wives. Different colors of lights flash through the doors, the contents are covered in blood and tensions are rising  about Bluebeard’s true character. We fear that Judith’s demand to see what is behind every door without understanding the dangers that are perhaps all too obvious could end in tragedy. The music varies from dissonant and discordant to martial, to shimmering, to expansive, to funereal and finally to hushed horror as Judith joins the procession of Bluebeard’s three former wives as they all march towards eternity.

Cargill gives a superb performance, revealing Judith’s strength in insisting on finding the truth and her failure to realize the abyss that she is walking into. She expresses both strength and naivete and we follow her thoughts and development while listening to  her vocal prowess and beauty.

Lepage controls the conduct of the characters and maintains the macabre atmosphere and fearful situation with Hitchcockian finesse. A brilliant production.

ERWARTUNG (it means expectation) is described as a one-act expressionist monodrama for a solo soprano and a large orchestra. The soprano, called simply The Woman, in this production is Anna Gabler and her partner is the COC Orchestra conducted by Johannes Debus.

For half an hour, we follow the Woman through a gamut of  emotions, states of mind and crises. There is darkness and a long wall. She is in a forest looking for her lover. We see a man in a white coat, there is cot or is it a hospital bed on the stage? Is she hallucinating? She is looking for her lover and finds a body. Is it her dead lover? Her love turns to hatred and jealousy – did her lover have a mistress? She experiences exaltation, fear, horror and anguish. We are not sure of her mental state nor of what she is seeing.

Anna Gabler in ERWARTUNG. 

Photo: Michael Cooper

Schoenberg’s music is atonal, complex and I have heard nothing like it before. It is the second time  that I am seeing this opera and the denseness of the music and the plot, the quick changes in the conduct of the Woman, from possible hallucination to outright madness to whatever one can imagine is out of this world.

I can only express admiration for the performance of the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra under the baton of Johannes Debus and Lepage’s take on the monodrama.     

Bluebeard’s Castle and ERWARTUNG may not be your regular operatic fare but if you see them, you will not soon forget them. You might find yourself having a great night at the opera.      _________________________

Bluebeard’s Castle by Béla Bartok and ERWARTUNG by Arnold Schoenberg opened on April 25 and will be performed seven times until May 16, 2026, at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario.  www.coc.ca

 James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

THE DIVISION - REVIEW OF 2026 PRODUCTION AT CROW’S THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

The Division is a stunning play written and directed by Andew Kushnir. It is a family saga, more specifically the search by Kushnir of the story of his grandfather Petro Kushni. Petro was a talented watchmaker and he gave Andrew an intricate pocket watch. Petro fought in World War II in Ukraine when he was a young man and emigrated to Canada. Andrew had wonderful memories of his beloved grandfather and when he died, he wrote a eulogy about him in The Globe and Mail. Someone sent a letter pointing out that Petro was a member of the murderous SS Waffen in Ukraine and may have participated in the holocaust of Jews and Poles during the war.

That startling comment sent Andrew in search of his grandfather’s past and more specifically his membership in the SS Waffen also known as the Galicia Division. which was made up of Ukrainian volunteers serving under German officers.

The play has a cast of five actors, Karl Ang, Ivy Charles. Mariya Khomutova, Daniel Maslany and Alon Nashman. Maslany plays Andrew Kushnir. The other four of this incredibly talented group play numerous roles of people in his family and that he met in his research. Kushnir opens and  structures the play round the writing of a letter to his nephew who is only three years old. He is writing the letter today intending it to be read about 15 years later when his nephew is of age.

The drama unfolds  from before World War II in Ukraine with the extended Kushnir family history  to life in Canada and Andrew’s subsequent search for information about Petro. The actors take on roles of family members right up to his interview with an elderly Polish couple, played beautifully by Mariya Khomutova and Alon Nashman.  They are living outside Liverpool, England. The  man of 97 years and his wife are frail and decent people and in a long and moving scene recall atrocities including the mass murders of Polish people by Ukrainians. The reason: hatred.

The cast of the Division: Karl Ang, Ivy Charles, Daniel Maslany, 
Mariya Khomutova & Alon Nashman. Photo by Dahlia Katz

There is no doubt that Petro was a member of the 1st Division of the Ukrainian National Army but as the letter writer to the Globe and Mail noted it is better known in the West as German 14 Waffen Division SS Galizien. Andrew does not uncover any evidence of his grandfather’s involvement  in mass murders.

Kushnir, as the author and director of the play, writes about himself. His family and his search about his grandfather. He asks if Ukraine will still exist as a nation fifteen years from now and if Ukrainians can ever forgive Russia for its current atrocities against his country. The Ukrainians had every reason to hate the Russians before World War II. During the 1930’s Stalin deliberately set out to destroy millions of Ukrainians because they did not cooperate with his collectivization plans. The actions that he took to destroy the national aspirations of the people has been rightly classified as a genocide. Was it ten million or four million? What is the difference?

In the 19^th century, Russia forbade the teaching of Ukrainian in Ukraine in order to suppress their nationalist aspirations and make them Russians. The famine and the suppression of Ukraine were within recent memory during World War II. Is it probable that the young Ukrainians including the 17-year old Petro Kushnir volunteered to join the 1^st Division of the Ukrainian National Army as a statement about how he felt about Russia and not as an expression of support for Hitler?  They probably knew very little if anything about the holocaust. Did Germany look like a good ally against monstrous Russia?

Sim Suzer and Niloufar Ziaee provide intelligent designs for the small playing area with only several pieces of furniture and projections of maps to illustrate points of interest.

The play is powerful, moving and captivating. Andrew Kushnir has honored his grandfather, his family and Ukraine while spitting at Putin and Russia. He has won a significant badge of honor. He is not allowed to set foot in Russia.

The Division written and directed by Andrew Kushnir in a production by Project: Humanity & Pyretic Productions in association with Crow’s Theatre will run until May 17, 2026, at Crow’s Theatre Studio, 345 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.  http://crowstheatre.com/

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto.

MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL - REVIEW OF 2026 PRODUCTION AT THE CAA ED MIRVISH THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL by John Logan is back at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre about seventeen months after its last opening at the same venue. I guess you can’t put a good thing down. It has an almost  different cast and the same boisterous performance that audiences expect.

The formula for success seems simple. Give them glitz, glitter, loud music, louder music and louder still. Never let quiet moments last long but bring on the dancers, send in the ensemble, turn on the lights and sound show and keep the audience enthralled. Hoots and howls, please. Show beautiful women dancing the cancan, the one where they throw their skirts to the face and reveal what men want women to reveal. Add beautiful dresses and a love story. Make sure the audience expresses its approval with screams at the end of the major numbers. Now you have a spectacle and a hit.

The Moulin Rouge club in 1890 has a spectacular show starring the gorgeous Satine (Gabriela Carrillo). The ebullient Harold Zidler (Robert Petkoff) is the master of ceremonies and the club has singers, dancers and acts  to please all the upper crust and others of Paris. Unfortunately, it lacks money. The unscrupulous Duke of Monroth (Aaron C. Finley) has lots of it and he is prepared to buy it and the people that work there. He is more specifically interested in Satine, including and perhaps especially her body.

Robert Petkoff and the Company of the 2025 touring production of 
MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL. 
Photo: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.

Toulouse-Lautrec (Alex Nicholson)  and Santiago (Danny Birgos) want to put on a show and they meet Christian (sung by understudy Luke Monday in the place of Ryan Vasquez), an innocent-abroad American, who is a singer and composer and wants to make it in Paris. They arrange for him to sing/audition for Satine. She is expecting  the Duke and thinks that Christan is the randy Duke who wants her body. A series of double-entendres follow as when she asks Christian to sit and he says he prefers to stand. She bends over expecting coitus. He wants to sing standing. Hilarious scene. 

The love between Christian and Satine will continue until the end of the musical with the usual zigzags of passion, separation, betrayal and eternal love. The disgusting Duke will persist in his lechery. Santiago and Toulouse-Lautrec as well as Harold will experience the ups and downs of running a club but the plot will never interfere with the ingredients of a spectacular musical outlined above.

The songs that decorate the show are all borrowed from other composers and for many people they have the benefit of familiarity. The voices are at least adequate and at the orchestral volumes and other shenanigans of the show you are not allowed much time (nor are the singers) to display vocal beauty but we do get some vocal prowess in an uphill battle with the instrumentalists.

The acrobatic and erotic dances with the rich display of gorgeous bodies dressed to show it are a major component of the spectacle. Choreographer Sonya Tayeh does stunning work in the dance routines.

Derek McLane scenic design is (I have to use the same word) spectacular.

Catherine Zuber’s costumes from the dancers to the samples of haute couture are marvelous. Lighting and sound, the number of behind-the-scenes creative people is breathtaking and with the finely coordinated spectacle at hand, there is no surprise in that.

Director Alex Timbers has a huge and complex show to put together and pass on to others to manage and the number of people involved is awesome. So is the result.      
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Moulin Rouge! The Musical  by John Logan (book) opened on April 23 and  continues until May 10, 2026, at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria St. Toronto, Ontario. www.mirvish.com

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE – REVIEW OF 2026 OPERA ATELIER PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

I consider Opera Atelier a beacon of civilization on Toronto’s horizon. It has produced baroque operas since 1985 and it has taken its productions around the world. Versailles, Seoul, Glimmerglass, Houston, Potsdam, Tours, Japan are some of the places where they have been invited.  

This  year it is producing Debussy’s Pelleas et Melisande, a twentieth century opera that they had to reengineer to fit the venue, style and demands of the work. You will see a twentieth century opera that maintains a connection with the Baroque era.

How? you may well ask. Opera Atelier provides the text of a lecture by Dr. Christopher Bagan that is thoroughly informative. Dr. Began takes a twentieth-century opera and looks at it “through the eyes of the Couperin, Charpentier, and Rameau” all good French composers of the Baroque era. He wants to make the opera suitable for Koerner Hall’s specific acoustics and aesthetics. And to make sure that happens he “seamlessly interweaves short instrumental works by Charpentier and Rameau directly into the Debussy score.” In other words, Opera Atelier retains its connection with Baroque opera with a twentieth century item on the menu. That may be classified as having your cake and eating it too.

The venue for this production is the elegant Koerner Hall which is suitable for smaller works and a smaller orchestra. An orchestra of about sixty is too big for the hall but fourteen players fit simply fine. The opera calls for scenes by a spring in a park, scenes in a palace as well as a visit to the palace vault. Director Marshall Pynkoski and Set Designer Gerard Gauci leave much to the imagination with a minimalist, brilliant production. Gauci produces beautiful sketches that are projected on the stage.

That is not all. With Jeanette Lajeunesse Zingg on the Artistic team and the Artists of the Atelier Ballet, we are treated to gorgeous ballet sequences. The twelve members of the troupe, the women dressed gorgeously, perform magnificently. The dancer playing Eros is spectacular but is not specifically credited in the program. Kudos to the dancers and Costume Designer Michael Gianfrancesco.

Meghan Lindsay and Antonin Rondepierre. Photo: Bruce Zinger

Soprano Meghan Lindsay, a veteran of Opera Atelier productions, gives a stunning performance as the mysterious Melisande. Hers is the toughest role in the opera and she sings with beautiful intonations and vocal flourishes. Tenor Antonin Rondepierre, a rising star in early music, sang with poise, control and vocal beauty. There is a scene where Mélisande sings from a tower window with Pelleas outside reminiscent of the  balcony scene in Romeo and Juliette. The two also spend part of a night together. These are scenes of surpassing beauty and sensuality.

Soprano Measha Brueggergosman-Lee as Genevieve displayed her lush voice and stage presence again, albeit in a relatively small role. We want more.

Bass-baritone Douglas Williams sang the heavy Golaud who loses Melisande to his brother Pelleas. He is presented as unlikeable but that is no reflection on Williams’ singing and stage presence. It was fine.

Bass-baritone Philippe Sly made his debut with Opera Atelier as King Arkel, the old and tolerant ruler facing tough decisions and baritone Parker Clements made his debut with Opera Atelier as the doctor.     

Claude Debussy tells us that his only opera is “A Lyric Drama in five acts and twelve scenes” and from its premiere in 1902, it has been a challenging work to stage and appreciate. Its complex symbolism, impressionistic music and lack of any memorable melodies were not a good recipe for a runaway hit. Opera Atelier, with the help of Dr. Began, has found the formula for a successful production.

Opera Atelier Founding Co-artistic Directors Marshall Pinkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse  Zingg have been enriching Toronto with their productions for forty one years. May I repeat that Toronto would be a culturally poorer city without them.
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Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy was performed from April 15 to 19, 2026 at Koerner Hall, TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning, 273 Bloor Street West, Toronto. https://www.operaatelier.com/

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto.