Halifax Summer Opera Festival 2023
The supportive summer performing experience.
We’re very much looking forward to this Saturday’s Opera Scholarship fundraiser, Opera on the Arm, on July 9 from 4 to 7 pm. Enjoy music, food, drink in this garden party to celebrate HSOF’s 12 season!
Performers include:
Tara Scott
Maureen Batt
Jennifer Farrell
Nina Scott-Stoddart
Patrick Simms
Jon-Paul Décosse
Tickets are available in advance online at TicketHalifax or you can reserve them by emailing Nina.
Because of participant illness and late withdrawals we have just had the soprano roles of Rodelinda, Lauretta and La Ciesca open up. I can offer a good scholarship for these. I still have a few roles for men and mezzos, too, especially for tenors (Rinuccio, Gherardo, Ferrando), baritones (Marco, Guglielmo) and basses (Don Alfonso, Betto). Please email me directly with your resume and a covering letter or email: ninascottstoddart@gmail.com.
Update June 11: Thank you for all your applications! I was quite overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of interested and lovely singers and I’m trying to sort through them as quickly as I can. Rodelinda is gone and I’m going to make an offer for Lauretta tomorrow. Still working out La Ciesca and Nella. Thanks, too, to all the men — my apologies for taking a couple of days to sort through it.
Nina – June 11
Join us for an elegant and musical garden party in a beautiful private home on Halifax’s North West Arm. Food, drink, lots of singing and other delights await you as you support the scholarship fund for the Halifax Summer Opera Festival and Workshop, now launching its 12th season!
Confirmed performers are:
Tara Scott, pianist
Lynette Wahlstrom, pianist
Jennifer Farrell, soprano
Jon Paul Décosse, bass baritone
Andrew Pickett, countertenor
Nina Scott-Stoddart, contralto
Charitable receipts will be issued for $70 of this ticket price.
Tickets are available at TicketHalifax
Countertenor Andrew Pickett is well known to Nova Scotia audiences for his rare and specialized voice. This month, music lovers will have an opportunity to hear him perform beautiful ultra-high male arias in “A Countertenor at the Opera” at the Music Room on Friday, February 26, in a benefit concert for the Halifax Summer Opera Festival.
Accompanied by collaborative pianist Lynette Wahlstrom, Pickett will take the audience on a journey through four centuries of opera, from the early days of the castrati superstars to contemporary works written for countertenor. The programme will feature works by composers such as Purcell, Handel, Monteverdi, Mozart, Gluck, Benjamin Britten, Jonathan Dove, and Canadian composer Elizabeth Raum.
The recital will take place Friday, February 26, 7:30 pm at The Music Room, 6181 Lady Hammond Road, Halifax. Tickets are $30 and are available online through Ticket Halifax or at the door. Seating is very limited! All proceeds go toward scholarships to allow young performers to attend the Halifax Summer Opera Festival.
Here is a link to the Facebook event if you’d like to pass the word along.
We still have some wonderful roles from standard repertoire available for this year’s Halifax Summer Opera Festival as we start a second round of auditions! Our operas this year are Gianni Schicchi/Suor Angelica, Handel’s Rodelinda and Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte.
All second round auditions will be via digital upload or Skype.
If you have already applied and are still interested in singing with us then you don’t need to apply again. Just drop Nina a line at admin@halifaxsummeroperafestival.com
You can find the list of currently available roles here (we’ll keep it updated as offers are made and accepted).