OPERA NEWS
News
Dora Nominations for Louis Riel
The Canadian Opera Company’s production of Louis Riel has been nominated in multiple categories for the 2017 Dora awards, including Peter Hinton for Outstanding Direction, Russell Braun for Outstanding Male Performance and Outstanding Ensemble Performance.
As Julie Riel in Harry Somers’ Louis Riel at the Canadian Opera Company with Johannes Debus conducting
“Russell Braun (As Riel) was extremely powerful all evening. As was Allyson McHardy as Riel’s mother, adding the lustre of her beautiful mezzo-soprano to the powerful maternalism of her character.” (Globe and Mail, April 21 20170)
Photos
About
A unique vocal colour and commanding stage presence are the hallmarks of performances by mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy. Hailed by Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle as “a singer of enormous imagination and versatility”, she has appeared with the Paris Opera, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Chicago Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Glyndebourne Festival, San Francisco Opera, Boston Symphony, Canadian Opera Company, Warsaw Philharmonic and Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse. Adam Fischer, Seiji Ozawa, Jeremy Rohrer, Kent Nagano, Emmanuelle Haim, Bernard Labadie, Ludovic Morlot, Carlos Kalmar and Jesus Lopez Cobos are among the conductors with whom she has collaborated for performances of works such as L’enfant et les sortileges, La clemenza di Tito, Das Rheingold, Dream of Gerontius and Messiah.
Latest Album
Handel: Messiah
Music of the Baroque Orchestra
Recorded live in November 2021, Handel’s Messiah features the Music of the Baroque Chorus and Orchestra and soloists Sherezade Panthaki, soprano, Allyson McHardy, mezzo-soprano, Brian Giebler, tenor, and Matthew Brook, bass-baritone under the direction of Nicholas Kraemer.