Bathroom Divas: So You Want to Be an Opera Star? is a Canadian television singing competition, which aired on Bravo! Canada for two seasons in 2006 and 2007. [1] Produced by Kaleidoscope Entertainment and directed by Mike Ward, the series was a competition for amateur opera singers, whose winner got to perform live with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in a show at Roy Thomson Hall. [2]
The principal judges were Mary Lou Fallis and Tom Diamond, who were joined by Gary Relyea and Michael McMahon in the first season, [3] and Liz Upchurch and Daniel Lichti in the second. [4] Various notable figures in Canadian opera performance and production, including Measha Brueggergosman, Richard Margison, and Stuart Hamilton, also appeared on the program as guest judges. [2]
The first season was won by Elton Lammie, [5] and the second season was won by Elaine Jean Brown. [6] Other competitors were Emili Loisier, Sonja Anderson, Sonja Gustafson, Gail Malcolm and Sergio Restagno in the first season, [2] and Phillip Holmes, Laura Landauer, Robyn Hefferton, Donna Jacobs and Paul Abelha in the second. [7]
Sarah Brightman is an English classical crossover soprano singer and actress.
Canadian Idol is a Canadian reality television competition show which aired on CTV, based on the British show Pop Idol. The show was a competition to find the most talented young singer in Canada, and was hosted by Ben Mulroney. Jon Dore was the "roving reporter" for the first three seasons. Elena Juatco assumed the role for season four, Dave Kerr had the role in season five and Jully Black in season six.
Renée Lynn Fleming is an American soprano and actress, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Fleming has been nominated for 18 Grammy Awards and has won five times. In June 2023, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced that Fleming would be one of the five artists recognized at the 2023 Kennedy Center Honors, which she received in December 2023. Other notable honors won by Fleming have included the Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur from the French government, Germany's Cross of the Order of Merit, Sweden's Polar Music Prize and honorary membership in England's Royal Academy of Music. Unusual among artists whose careers began in opera, Fleming has achieved name recognition beyond the classical music world. In May, 2023, Fleming was appointed by the World Health Organization as a Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health. On April 9, 2024, Penguin Random House published Fleming's anthology Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness, a collection of essays about the health benefits of music and the arts, by scientists from leading research institutions, practitioners, educators, arts leaders, musicians, artists and writers.
Thomas Bernard Heppner is a renowned Canadian tenor and broadcaster, now retired from singing, who specialized in opera and other classical works for voice.
Measha Brueggergosman–Lee is a Canadian soprano who performs both as an opera singer and concert artist. She has performed internationally and won numerous awards. Her recordings of both classical and popular music have also received awards.
Camilla Ella Williams was an American operatic soprano who performed nationally and internationally. After studying with renowned teachers in New York City, she was the first African American to receive a regular contract with a major American opera company, the New York City Opera. She had earlier won honors in vocal competitions and the Marian Anderson Fellowship in 1943–44.
Mary Lou Fallis is a Canadian opera singer. She performs both serious opera roles and comedic shows as the character Primadonna, a satirical take on popular stereotypes of opera divas. Her recordings are listed on her personal web site.
Melissa O'Neil is a Canadian actress and singer. In 2005, O'Neil won the third season of Canadian Idol. As an actress, she is known for her roles as Two / Rebecca / Portia Lin in the science fiction series Dark Matter and as Officer Lucy Chen in the police procedural drama series The Rookie.
Top Chef is an American reality competition television series which premiered on Bravo in March 2006. The show features chefs competing against each other in culinary challenges. The contestants are judged by a panel of professional chefs and other notables from the food and wine industry, with one or more contestants eliminated in each episode. The show is produced by Magical Elves Productions, the company that created Project Runway.
Deborah Joy Voigt is an American dramatic soprano who has sung roles in operas by Wagner and Richard Strauss.
The Canadian Children's Opera Company is a large choral group based in Toronto. The company consists of five divisions of approximately 240 boys and girls aged 6 to 19. The Principal Chorus has about 50 choristers, and they participate as the children's chorus in productions by the Canadian Opera Company (COC). The current music director is Teri Dunn.
Joyce DiDonato is an American opera singer and recitalist. A coloratura mezzo-soprano, she has performed operas and concert works spanning from the 19th-century Romantic era to those by Handel and Mozart.
Project Runway Canada Season 1 is the first season of Project Runway Canada, a reality competition show for fashion designers that is part of the Project Runway franchise. It aired in late 2007 on the Slice channel, which had relaunched earlier that year. The season received critical acclaim, and won the 2008 Gemini Award for Best Reality Program or Series. Project Runway Canada gave Slice one of its most successful series since the launch of its new branding.
Laura Landauer is a Canadian actress, singer and comedian best known for her impersonation of Céline Dion.
Luann de Lesseps is an American television personality, singer, model, and author. She is best known as an original cast member of the Bravo reality television series The Real Housewives of New York City, featuring in the first 13 of 14 seasons since its 2008 premiere. In 2018, she began headlining "Countess and Friends", a cabaret show of her own making.
Leonid Mykolaiovych Skirko was a Canadian bass-baritone opera singer of Ukrainian origin.
Canada's Got Talent (CGT) is a Canadian television reality talent show, which debuted on the Citytv network on March 4, 2012. It is part of the global Got Talent franchise.
Jamie Barton is an American mezzo-soprano. She won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in June 2013. She is also the winner of the 2015 Richard Tucker Award.
Robert Stuart Hamilton, CM, Hon. LL.D, A.R.C.T. was an award-winning Canadian accompanist, vocal coach, and opera producer based in Toronto. He was a well-known advocate of post-Baroque French opera. He was recognized nationally for his work as the longtime quiz master for CBC Radio's Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, he taught opera repertoire and diction at the University of Toronto.
The second season of Canada's Got Talent, a reality television series, premiered on March 22, 2022, on Citytv. Unlike America's Got Talent, it has only an audition round, semi-finals and a finale. Jeanick Fournier, a singer from Saguenay, Quebec, won.