About Opera Canada

Opera Canada

Opera Canada is a quarterly music magazine published in Toronto, Ontario, by Opera Canada Publications. Founded in 1960, it is the oldest continuously published arts magazine in Canada and, in the 1990s, was considered one of the three major opera publications in the English-speaking world, alongside Britain's Opera and America's Opera News. It is an independent magazine, separate from the Canadian Opera Company. The current editor is Elizabeth Bowman; former editors include Wayne Gooding. The magazine carries the ISSN 0030-3577.

Overview

Opera Canada covers the full range of its art form: performance reviews, feature articles, interviews, news, and profiles of Canadian and international opera artists. It regularly publishes critical reviews of opera productions and recordings, and it highlights achievement in Canadian opera through its annual Opera Canada Awards — known as the Rubies, named in honour of founding editor Ruby Mercer — which recognize outstanding contributions by artists, administrators, and builders in the Canadian opera sector.

The magazine's national mandate shapes its coverage: with a nominating committee representing various geographic regions, the Rubies consider opera makers across the country, and the magazine's reviews and features span companies from Vancouver Opera and Pacific Opera Victoria to Edmonton Opera, Opéra de Montréal, and the Canadian Opera Company, alongside coverage of Canadians singing abroad — at houses including San Francisco Opera and Turin's Teatro Regio.

History

In 1960, Opera in Canada was established in Toronto by Ruby Mercer — herself an opera singer — as a publication for the 300 members of the Canadian Opera Guild. The publication was meant to be a link between the Guild's members and its readers. Mercer served as editor and publisher until 1990, three decades at the helm that defined the magazine's character. In 1963, the publication's name was changed to Opera Canada.

The magazine was quarterly from 1960 to 1974. In 1975, six issues were planned but only five appeared; quarterly publication resumed and continued from 1976 to 2004. Five issues per year were published from 2004 for a period, before the magazine reverted to quarterly publication once again. Over its lifetime it has had three publishers: the Canadian Opera Guild (1960–1966), the Canadian Opera Association of Toronto (1966–1974), and Opera Canada Publications thereafter.

Mercer's own contributions to Canadian opera writing extended beyond the magazine: her 1976 book The Tenor of His Time: Edward Johnson of the Met chronicled the Guelph-born tenor who became a Metropolitan Opera star and then the company's general manager for fifteen years — a biography informed by Mercer's personal experience working with Johnson at the Met, where her perspective as a singer gave her rare insight into his artistry. Longtime editor Wayne Gooding subsequently guided the magazine through subsequent decades, and Elizabeth Bowman took the editor-in-chief role more recently, announcing in her spring-issue Editor's Notebook that a recent number would be her final issue at the helm — a transition the magazine framed with gratitude for her service in promoting and preserving the art form.

The magazine's longevity is inseparable from the growth of opera in Canada itself. When Mercer founded it in 1960, professional opera in Canada was still young; over the following decades, companies were founded and grew across the country, a generation of Canadian singers achieved international careers, and the magazine documented it all — the seasons, the debuts, the controversies, the milestones. Its claim to be the oldest continuously published arts magazine in Canada rests on an unbroken run through the economics that felled many arts publications, sustained by a devoted readership within the opera community.

Content

Each quarterly issue offers a mix anchored by the magazine's regular departments. "Notebook" sections carry news and commentary from the Canadian opera world; "Take Note" listings track where Canadian singers are performing, at home and internationally. Feature articles profile artists, directors, and administrators; interviews go behind the scenes with the people making opera; and critical reviews assess productions and recordings. The annual Rubies issue is a centrepiece: once the honourees are finalized, the editor commissions writers to create feature pieces on each recipient, introducing readers to the artists, administrators, and builders being honoured.

The magazine has also been a platform for developing arts writing: it has partnered with the Canadian Opera Company on a mentoring program that gives emerging arts writers enrolled in journalism school the opportunity to see and review opera — and to write about productions at the National Ballet of Canada, concerts at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and presentations at Soulpepper Theatre — nurturing the next generation of critics for an art form that depends on informed coverage. For many participants, the program provides a first experience of opera itself, let alone of writing about it, and the mentors involved have described watching young writers discover both the art form and their own critical voices as one of the most rewarding aspects of the work.

Coverage & Audience

Opera Canada serves Canada's opera community — audiences, artists, administrators, donors, and students — as well as general readers interested in classical music and the performing arts. Its national mandate means its coverage extends across the country's regional companies, and its tracking of Canadians abroad connects the domestic scene to the international opera world. The magazine is available in print by subscription and through digital newsstand platforms such as Zinio, which carries current issues including the Fall 2026 number.

Its audience includes the dedicated core of opera-goers who sustain Canada's companies, the artists and professionals who make up the industry, and the philanthropists and volunteers whose support keeps the art form alive. For this community, the magazine functions as both chronicle and forum — recording the season's achievements and debating the art form's future. The Rubies awards amplify that function: by honouring artists, administrators, and builders each year, the magazine helps define what excellence in Canadian opera looks like and ensures that contributions beyond the stage — the administrators and builders — receive public recognition alongside the singers.

Ownership

Opera Canada is published by Opera Canada Publications, an independent publisher based in Toronto, Ontario. It is editorially independent and separate from the Canadian Opera Company — a distinction the magazine has maintained throughout its history, even during the years when the Canadian Opera Association was its publisher. Founded by Ruby Mercer in 1960 under the Canadian Opera Guild, it passed through the Canadian Opera Association's stewardship before becoming the responsibility of Opera Canada Publications. The current editor is Elizabeth Bowman; Wayne Gooding is a former editor. Its independence, maintained across more than six decades and three publishing arrangements, underpins its critical authority: its reviews are those of an outside observer, not a house organ.

Digital Presence

The magazine's website, operacanada.ca, publishes the Editor's Notebook, news, and information about subscriptions, the Rubies awards, and current issues. Digital editions are available through Zinio. Its history — from Ruby Mercer's 1960 founding through the name change, the publisher transitions, and the editorial successions — is documented in its Wikipedia entry, in the magazine's own editorials, and in the archives of Canadian arts journalism, where its reviews have been cited for decades. The ISSN 0030-3577 marks its continuous registration as a periodical across more than sixty years of publication.

Awards & Recognition

The Opera Canada Awards, nicknamed the Rubies after founder Ruby Mercer, were established in 2000 through an endowment from Mercer's estate to honour outstanding individual achievement in Canadian opera, on stage and behind the scenes. The first recipients included Maureen Forrester, Stuart Hamilton and John Cook. The 2020 edition was staged as a free digital gala, honouring conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan, tenor Michael Schade and tenor Edward Johnson.