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2 weeks ago | 
theoperaqueen.com | Catherine Kustanczy
Anyone who has ever seen John Daszak live in performance isn’t likely to forget the experience. The British tenor brings to mind Goethe’s quote that “(g)reat passions are diseases without hope (Große Leidenschaften sind Krankheiten ohne Hoffnung)” (Maxims and Reflections, No. 23).
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2 months ago | 
theoperaqueen.com | Catherine Kustanczy
Schubert, Mahler, Brahms, Schumann, and Liszt are names known and celebrated within the world of lieder; Christian Immler and Helmut Deutsch are hoping to add a few more to the list. The celebrated bass baritone and collaborative pianist are set to release Be Still My Heart (Alpha Classics) featuring the music of Robert Gund (1865-1927) and Wilhelm Grosz (1894-1939), two composers whose oeuvres have been largely overlooked.
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2 months ago | 
theglobeandmail.com | Catherine Kustanczy
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2 months ago | 
theoperaqueen.com | Catherine Kustanczy
“Die Zeit, die ist ein sonderbar Ding,” ponders Die Marschallin early in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier; indeed time and its passage are phenomena keenly felt by a great many these first four weeks of 2025. Time can sometimes pass too quickly, a cause for alarm (“Manchmal hör’ ich sie fliessen – unaufhaltsam”); time can also slow to a snail’s pace, a water’s drop, a faucet that only pours tepid. “Welcome to the 87th day of January!” one contact wryly wrote in a recent note.
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Jan 19, 2025 | 
theglobeandmail.com | Catherine Kustanczy
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Oct 26, 2024 | 
theoperaqueen.com | Catherine Kustanczy
Every day for the past two weeks I have told myself, “Today’s the day I’m going for a walk in the woods” and then darkness falls, and I’m still sitting at my computer, writing or grading, or lying down nursing poor health, or dusting for the billionth time, and I think: maybe tomorrow. Tomorrow comes, and the cycle repeats.
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Oct 15, 2024 | 
theoperaqueen.com | Catherine Kustanczy
Where do music and joy meet? Where can they meet, especially in sad or difficult circumstances? I came away from a recent conversation with Fleur Barron and Axelle Fanyo pondering these questions. The mezzo soprano and soprano, respectively, are front and centre on Adriana Mater, the second opera by Kaija Saariaho, recorded in San Francisco in 2023 and released in a world premiere recording by Deutsche Grammophon in late August of this year.
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Sep 25, 2024 | 
theglobeandmail.com | Catherine Kustanczy
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Sep 9, 2024 | 
theoperaqueen.com | Catherine Kustanczy
Autumn is nigh, and with it one hopes for a respite from summer’s brutal heat. The temperatures of the season in the Northern Hemisphere were the hottest on record for the second straight year, according to a report by Copernicus, the climate change service for the European Union. With the start of the slow drive to winter comes the opening of the classical/opera season, and a related and different (if no less noticeable) kind of chill.
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Aug 2, 2024 | 
theoperaqueen.com | Catherine Kustanczy
There’s a simultaneous abundance and lack to summer. Yes, there’s light and heat, but lately I can be found working (or trying to work) in a darkened kitchen – barefoot, makeup free, messy-haired – listening intently to live broadcasts from Bayreuth, occasionally glancing through blinds to a barely-green garden and rows of sleepy doves parked in the shade.
