Southern Ontario Lyric Opera / Critiques

Since its inception in 2015, the Southern Ontario Lyric Opera (SOLO), under the leadership of Artistic Director Sabatino Vacca, has been a welcome addition to the musical life of Burlington and beyond. This performance of La Traviata, staged in the acoustically friendly, 700-seat Burlington Performing Arts Centre (BPAC), marked SOLO’s return to in-person, fully staged opera after the COVID crisis. SOLO has tackled this Verdi gem once before, in September 2016, in a semi-staged performance at the BPAC. It just so happens that there’s a terrific, young Violetta in Canada right now: Karoline Podolak. The Toronto-born Polish Canadian has won several major singing competitions, among them First Prize and Audience Choice Price at the Canadian Opera Company‘s Centre Stage Ensemble Studio Competiton last fall (and a graduate of Opéra de Montréal‘s prestigious Atelier Lyrique). I attended the event at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, and she was the clear winner with a voice that stood out amongst a strong field. Her calling card? “Sempre libera” in Act 1 of La Traviata.