Welcome to Parlando! My name is Cecily Carver, and I'm the Social and Interactive Media Co-ordinator for the Canadian Opera Company. I hope you'll find this blog useful for learning interesting facts and stories about our productions, keeping up to date with performances and events, and exchanging opinions with your fellow opera-lovers.

A few words about me: I was born in the mountains of British Columbia, but I lived in Calgary, Edmonton, and New York City before finally settling permanently in Toronto in 2008. The first "opera" I attended was a performance of The Pirates of Penzance as a little girl (performed by the Rossland Light Opera), but I really fell in love with opera as an Edmonton teenager and since then have been an enthusiastic opera patron everywhere I've lived. Professionally, I've always been a "techie" and only experienced the opera as a listener and patron. This means that being behind the scenes is very exciting for me, and I hope to be able to bring some of that excitement to you!

We at the COC have a lot of interesting things coming up in the next few months, including our new production of Aida, Yoshi Oida's acclaimed 2007 production of Death in Venice from the Aldeburgh festival, Ben Heppner in recital, and supporting events like Opera 101 at the Drake Hotel and the COC Book Club. I hope to bring you lots of pictures, interviews, facts, and guest posts to make your experience of these events richer and more fun.

I invite you to bookmark this page or subscribe to the blog's RSS feed to make sure you never miss a post, and introduce yourself in the comments!