Totalitarian Opera Glasses

Hello and Welcome to the Totalitarian Opera Glasses!

What I love about opera is that it captures in sound the experience of freedom and servitude, subjectivity and dehumanization. Through the ineffability of classical music, it explores fundamental questions about the relationship between art, society, and the modern state—a century ago, and today.

I write about my passion for opera told through the lens of totalitarianism, laced with personal anecdotes and my observations of the world during the last six years. Recently, I have indulged in writing shorter political commentaries rather than full operas due to the alarming and increasing infringement on our civil liberties. My desire is to tell personal stories through the lens of an opera, but also to add my voice to what has become an inescapable trap of political, social and economic decline in Canada, my beloved country that I call home.

My hope is that you enjoy it, that it provides something to relate to, despite the pain of these years and that it inspires you to see more operas, learn more about the stories in the operatic canon, become curious and experience the joy of classical music, or simply develop a more discerning taste for it.

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