The easiest way to summarize the world premiere of the new opera Hadrian at the Four Seasons Centre on Saturday night is this: These clothes have no emperor. The Canadian Opera Company has created a fabulous production of singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright’s second try at the art form. The chorus was strong and the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra was in fine, high-definition form under music director Johannes Debus. If this art form were only about spectacle, everyone involved could be congratulated for creating something resplendent, clearly inspired by 19th-century grand opera. Wainwright’s score is a patchwork quilt of every possible style of art music from the mid-19th century to the present day.

Source: thestar October 14, 2018 17:19 UTC