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YOUNG CANADIANS WIN BIG AT NORTH AMERICAN OPERA COMPETITION
By COC StaffPosted in COC at Large
Canadian opera talent took centre stage this weekend as three of the country’s most promising young artists claimed top prizes at the George London Foundation Awards Competition in New York City. Soprano Lauren Margison and mezzo-sopranos Rihab Chaieb and Emily D’Angelo each took home $10,000 USD alongside three other American winners.
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LEADING WITH LOVE: Ahmed Moneka’s Journey from Baghdad to Toronto
By Taylor LongPosted in The Abduction from the Seraglio
Ahmed Moneka portrays the prayer leader in the COC’s The Abduction from the SeraglioIn Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, a group of Europeans are abducted by pirates and sold to a Turkish harem, forcefully introduced to a world “where everything goes right to left, not left to right.” For Ahmed Moneka, who plays the prayer leader in our production, the experience of having one’s entire life turned upside down is all too familiar. The actor faced a similar crisis in 2015 when he was forced to abandon his native Iraq and start a new life in Canada.
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To err is human
By Jane Archibald (COC Artist-in-Residence)Posted in Notes
DISPATCHES FROM THE OPERA WORLD
Jane Archibald, illustration by Arpanaa Das
Guest Writer
SOPRANO JANE ARCHIBALD
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“To err is human,” as the saying goes, and opera singers are as human as anybody else, despite attaining Olympian high notes. In this issue, our Artist-in-Residence reflects on the surprisingly liberating experience of making mistakes on stage, as well as the seemingly unavoidable blight of all live performers: the wardrobe malfunction. New in this issue, we’ve teamed up with Toronto-based visual designer Arpanaa Das for a series of illustrations inspired by Jane's stories.
