There's only a week left of our 2012/2013 season and we have three spectacular productions running almost every day at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts! The critics are raving about our spring season, which is full of obsessive desires and gut-wrenching devotion. Read what they are saying and watch our exclusive behind-the-scenes videos for each production!

Atom Egoyan's dramatic interpretation of Strauss's dark opera was described as "one of the dark jewels of the Canadian Opera Company" and that the third time must be a charm because Stage Door said "if you have seen this production before, you will find that it has only grown in richness of interpretation".

With knock-out performances by Erika Sunnegårdh who performed with "power and beauty" and Richard Margison who sang "magnificently" in his role debut, the music left the Toronto Sun saying that "under the baton of Johannes Debus, the COC Orchestra is on hand to give a finely-etched and sensitive reading of Strauss’s complex score." Read more critical acclaim for Salome here.

Salome runs until Wednesday May 22, 2013. Learn more and buy tickets here.

Watch our Inside Opera video about the Dance of the Seven Veils below.

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Director David Alden brought his dark vision of Donizetti's bel canto classic to the Four Seasons Centre and the production was described as "searingly intense" and "offered us a fresh and splendid approach" to the opera. 

Anna Christy was hailed as "subtle, clear, immensely powerful" and "spectacular" while tenor Stephen Costello was called "strong, earnest and vocally dazzling as lover Edgardo". Baritone Brian Mulligan wowed with his "ferocious, angry, intense and captivating" performance,  the COC chorus was lauded for strength and vibrancy, while John Terauds said that conductor Stephen Lord "made magic with Donizetti’s score, expertly shifting tempos and adding breaths in this rich dramatic stew." Read more critical acclaim for Lucia di Lammermoor here.

Lucia di Lammermoor runs until May 24, 2013. Learn more and buy tickets here.

Go behind the scenes of Lucia di Lammermoor in our Inside Opera video below.

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NOW Magazine calls Dialogues des Carmélites one of the "COC's best productions", and the Toronto Sun says that "Carsen creates operatic magic. This is a work of such simple, soaring beauty that one suspects Poulenc has rarely been better served."

As the First Prioress, Judith Forst was described as "thrillingly brilliant", Adrianne Pieczonka was applauded for being "in glorious form", while Isabel Bayrakdarian was an "ideal Blanche de la Force". The Toronto Star said that "the major hero of the evening is Robert Carsen, who once again proves he is a master at bringing issues of spirituality onto the stage and making them real and gripping" and The Globe and Mail raved that "the members of the COC orchestra, under the direction of Johannes Debus, were really the musical stars of the evening. Every phrase, every dramatic turn of the score was rendered impeccably – a bravura performance."

Dialogues des Carmélites runs until May 25, 2013. Learn more and buy tickets here.

See what audiences have to say about our production below.

Photos: All photos by Michael Cooper unless otherwise indicated: Top row (l – r): Anna Christy as Lucia, Erika Sunnegårdh as Salome, Isabel Bayrakdarian as Blanche (photo: Chris Hutcheson); Salome image: A scene from the COC’s 2013 production; Lucia di Lammermoor image: Anna Christy as Lucia and Nathaniel Peake as Arturo in the COC’s 2013 production; Dialogues des Carmélites image: A scene from the COC’s 2013 production.