Inside Vancouver Opera

Gregory Dahl is back. Two years after telling us “air is everything,” one of Canada’s great baritones joins host Ashley Daniel Foot mid-run as Baron Scarpia, the devout, impeccably dressed and utterly terrifying police chief at the heart of Puccini’s Tosca . It’s a candid, funny and surprisingly tender conversation. Greg talks about growing up in a family woodwind quartet, getting laid off as a mu...

wenty-four hours. One escaped prisoner. A villain who controls the city. And a twist so cruel it still shocks audiences more than a century later. When Puccini’s Tosca premiered in 1900, critics called it lurid. Audiences couldn’t get enough. Now it looks like something else entirely: the blueprint for the modern thriller. In this episode, Jane Potter breaks down the tricks Puccini used to keep au...

There are few characters in opera quite like Floria Tosca: a celebrated singer, a passionate lover, a woman of faith, and someone whose world collapses in under a day. Host Ashley Daniel Foot sits down with internationally acclaimed Lebanese-Canadian soprano Joyce El-Khoury, who sings the title role in Vancouver Opera’s new co-production with Pacific Opera Victoria. They talk about her grandfather...

Maestro Jacques Lacombe has extended his tenure as Vancouver Opera’s Music Director for three more seasons. Ahead of Puccini’s Tosca , host Ashley Daniel Foot sits down with him to talk about power, listening and the music between the notes. Jacques remembers assisting Leonard Bernstein in Vienna in his final year. He recalls watching Carlos Kleiber conduct Der Rosenkavalier and seeing Herbert von...

Marion Newman is a mezzo-soprano, a teacher, and the voice you hear on CBC's Saturday Afternoon at the Opera . Kwagiulth and Stó:lō, born in Bella Coola and raised in Sooke, she spent more than twenty years in Toronto before coming home to teach voice at the University of Victoria, where she once studied piano. Recorded in her office at UVic, this conversation moves from a piano lesson in a ca...

In February 1948, an eighteen-year-old Jean Orr danced Giselle in Ottawa — the first full production this country had ever seen, with a full orchestra in the pit. She went on to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and decades later became a founder and the first president of Ballet BC. Ashley Daniel Foot sat down with her in her West Vancouver living room, alongside Joshua Beamish, who has just founded Bal...

Stage Manager Theresa Tsang celebrates 30 seasons with Vancouver Opera. Every performance you have ever seen at Vancouver Opera, every blackout, every curtain, every entrance, every burst of light exactly on the downbeat happened because one voice on a headset in the dark said a single word, ‘go.’ She says it hundreds of times a night. She has said it for 30 seasons across almost 100 productions....

Stanis Smith has spent his career designing the spaces people move through — airports, terminals, thresholds. This September, he becomes Board Chair of Vancouver Opera. He's also a clarinettist who self-produced a chamber music album of Brahms and Nino Rota. He's the person who will tell you, with complete conviction, that Frank Lloyd Wright was wrong: the mother art isn't architecture...

Soprano Jonelle Sills came into the world already steeped in music — her mother Desiree sang through her entire pregnancy. In this Mother's Day conversation, the two of them sit down together for the first time to talk about gospel choirs and opera stages, about coming to Canada with nothing, about the voice Jonelle wanted to keep only for herself, and about what it means to watch someone you...

Today we're joined by a legendary member of the Vancouver Opera Chorus, Don Wright. We discuss his family's legacy, the life of a chorus singer, the importance of opera in education, and memorable moments from a lifetime in the art form. Full Article Episode Credits: Don Wright - Chorister, Vancouver Opera Chorus Ashley Daniel Foot - Host & Creator, Inside Vancouver Opera Mack McGillivray - Pr...

Mimì is one of opera's most beloved heroines. Gentle. Luminous. Dying beautifully in a Parisian garret while the orchestra swells around her. She was also, in Henri Murger's source novel, a fickle, materialistic flirt her lover described as being "wedded to a thunderstorm." A gadabout. Complicated. Inconvenient. Not particularly easy to mourn. Puccini made a decision. You've...

Maestro Jonathan Darlington on Puccini, broken batons, being mistaken for Richard Gere in Italian lifts, and why La Bohème will undo you — every time. Jonathan Darlington led Vancouver Opera for nearly twenty years. He's since conducted at the Vienna State Opera, the Semperoper Dresden, the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Swedish Opera, and the Nürnberger Symphoniker, where he's now Chief Conductor....

Today we are joined by the Vancouver Opera Orchestra's Principal Harpist, Janelle Nadeau. In this episode we explore the versatile and ancient art of the harp, Janelle's journey with the instrument, and the unique beauty of live performance. Full Article Episode Credits: Janelle Nadeau - Principal Harpist, Vancouver Opera Orchestra Ashley Daniel Foot - Host & Creator, Inside Vancouver...

She walks onto the stage, acknowledges the audience, and gestures toward the piano. There is no one there. Soprano and pianist Rachel Fenlon has spent the last several years doing something almost unthinkable in classical music — accompanying herself. Singing and playing at once. Not as a gimmick, but as a complete artistic philosophy that has taken her from Vancouver to Berlin to the stages of Eu...

Nicole Lamb is Vancouver Opera’s Director of Artistic and Production. For the last few seasons, she’s been one of the key people deciding what you see on stage and how it all comes together, from season planning and artistic teams to the thousand invisible choices about budget, time, and people that make an opera actually happen. Full Article Episode Credits: Nicole Lamb - Guest, Director of Artis...

Veteran Canadian journalist  Paul Wells  joins  Inside Vancouver Opera  for a wide-ranging conversation about journalism, politics, and the role the arts play in shaping public life. For decades, Wells has been one of the country’s most thoughtful political writers, known for his long-form analysis and deep historical perspective on Canadian politics. In this conversation, he reflects on his early...

Brandon Thornhill joins Inside Vancouver Opera during Black History Month to discuss Ebony Roots , his concert celebrating 300 years of Black music. From spirituals to Soul, he reflects on identity, opera, representation, and what it means to sing Black history in Vancouver.

Today we’re joined by Canadian composer Dean Burry , whose operas for young audiences have been performed across Canada and beyond. His works include The Brothers Grimm , The Hobbit , and today’s focus, The Brementown Musicians , an immersive opera created especially for elementary students. Full Article Episode Credits: Dean Burry - Guest Ashley Daniel Foot - Host, Inside Vancouver Opera Mack McG...

In this special episode we delve into the intricate dynamics of Così fan tutte and its portrayal of women. We explore the role of Despina as a voice of realism amidst the comedic facade and how the opera reflects societal attitudes towards women and relationships during the Enlightenment era. Full Article Episode Credits: Jane Potter - Writer and Narrator Mack McGillivray - Audio Editor Ashley Dan...

A behind-the-scenes conversation with costume designer  Donnie Tejani , who brings the world of  Così fan tutte  to life for  Vancouver Opera . We explore how costumes shape character, how disguise functions in Mozart’s comedy, what happens inside a modern costume shop, and how designers balance artistry, budgets, and practicality in today’s opera landscape.

Tracy Dahl discusses her illustrious career as coloratura soprano, her role as Despina in Così fan tutte , and evolution of vocal techniques. Full Article Episode Credits: Tracy Dahl - Guest Ashley Daniel Foot - Host, Inside Vancouver Opera Mack McGillivray - Producer, Inside Vancouver Opera

In this episode we're joined by music journalist Kevin Ng and Vancouver Opera's Jane Potter to explore the complexities of Mozart's most dangerous comedy, Così fan tutte . Full Article Episode Credits: Kevin Ng - Guest Jane Potter - Guest Barry Ekko - Artwork Ashley Daniel Foot - Host, Inside Vancouver Opera Mack McGillivray - Producer, Inside Vancouver Opera

Mozart’s Così fan tutte is often described as light, mischievous, even trivial. But sit with it — really sit with it — and it reveals itself as one of opera’s most psychologically perceptive works. In this episode of Inside Vancouver Opera , host Ashley Daniel Foot is joined by stage director Rob Herriot and Vancouver Opera’s Associate Music Director and conductor Les Dala to explore a distinctly...

Some people shape culture from center stage, others shape it by showing up early, staying late, and standing just out of the light. Our guest today has built a life inside that second kind of work. Bruce Munro Wright is a former chair of Vancouver Opera, the Vancouver Opera Foundation, and the Vancouver Art Gallery. He is a nationally important collector of Canadian art and a recipient of the Orde...

In this conversation, Amanda Burrows, Executive Director of First United and new Board Member of Vancouver Opera, discusses her journey through the arts and social justice. She emphasizes the interconnectedness of art and advocacy, the importance of community involvement, and the resilience of the Downtown Eastside. Learn More Episode Credits: Ashley Daniel Foot - Host, Inside Vancouver Opera Mack...