Shannon's O Viva Rosa featured on BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3's program The Early Music Show featured 4 tracks from Shannon's most recent CD, O Viva Rosa: Francesca Caccini, in a program about the Caccini family. The BBC 3 site retains the audio for a week so you can listen HERE (ends Sunday, August 22nd).

'Brilliant' with Les Voix Baroques at Music at Sharon

"Soprano Shannon Mercer - singing better than I'd yet heard her - was the bright, supportive angel… a brilliant Filia ranging with skill and passion from the exuberant vivacity of Filia's first glad daughterly greeting to the tragic lamentation of her inevitable doom." (Globe and Mail, 5 July 2010)

NOT THE MESSIAH now out on DVD!

Missed your chance to see Shannon in Not the Messiah on the big screen across Europe in March? You can now catch her acclaimed performance as Judith on DVD. Filmed at London's famed Royal Albert Hall on October 2009, NTM is Monty Python genius Eric Idol's latest adventure.

Order now on amazon!

"The soloists perform with much gusto, effectively mugging through some of the more outlandish pieces." (Just Press Play, 13 June 2010)

"The soloists - William Ferguson, Shannon Mercer, Rosalind Plowright, Christopher Purves - are also good comic actors who hold their own with Idle, who serves as our guide and narrator (and even sings in a voice described as "tenorish")." (Kansas City Star, June 2010)

"Imparting a lovely, faux-classical vibe to the proceedings are four trained vocalists who share the fore with Idle, and they're up to the challenge of reinterpreting Python... William Ferguson (Brian) and Shannon Mercer (Brian's oblivious girlfriend, Judith) truly made me howl, especially in their horny duet, "Amourdeus" -- which sits wonderfully well in the cockeyed Python canon." (Huffington Post, 10 June 2010)

"The musical numbers are what really make this show work. All are executed well, with vocal talent from strong soloists: soprano Shannon Mercer, mezzo Rosalind Plowright, tenor William Ferguson and bass Christopher Purves." (DVDtown, 3 June 2010

"The performance was well done. The opera singers were fantastic and while singing these hilarious songs, they acted the part showing great facial expressions and most of all, Eric Idle definitely did a wonderful job as the Baritonish and John Du Prez doing a wonderful job in conducting the orchestra." (J!, 16 May 2010)

Shannon Stars In One-Woman Opera Love Songs at the prestigious Holland Festival

One of Canada's hottest young sopranos, Shannon Mercer makes her Netherlands debut in Ana Sokolovic's Love Songs, a one-woman virtuosic tour-de-force at the world-renowned Holland Festival on June 15 and 17. The presentation of Love Songs by one of Canada's premier contemporary opera companies, Queen of Puddings Music Theatre, marks the first time a Canadian opera company has staged a work at the prestigious and trend-setting performing arts festival.

Love Songs takes the audience on a whirlwind tour of love from sublime tenderness to the final profound, wild and cathartic Balkan keening. Love is explored in all its states and in many different languages -- love for one's mother, love between children, love for a daughter, love shattered by grief and most harrowingly, love for a lost brother.

For more information check out www.hollandfestival.nl

NEW CD OUT NOW!

Shannon's 6th recording for Analekta - O Viva Rosa - features the music of baroque Italian composer Francesca Caccini. Joining Shannon on the disc are Luc Beausejour (harpsichord), Sylvain Bergeron (lute, theorbo) and Amanda Keesmaat (cello).

The first reviews are in!

"Mercer sings 17 of the airs, canzonettas, madrigals and hymns with impeccable craft, brilliant voice, affecting emotion and tasteful ornamentation." (Toronto Star, 16 March 2010)

"[Caccini's] haunting slow air becomes piercingly immediate in this gorgeous performance by Ottawa-born soprano Shannon Mercer." (Globe and Mail, 22 March 2010)

Catalogue number:
Analekta FL 2 9966

NOT THE MESSIAH Hits the Big Screen

On March 25th, audiences across the UK and Ireland have the chance to catch Monty Python funnyman Eric Idle's Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy) in movie theatres. Inspired by Monty Python’s The Life of Brian and based on Handel’s infamous work, Not the Messiah was filmed in October 2009 at Royal Albert Hall. North American audiences hope it makes it across the pond!

CHECK OUT THE TRAILER FOR THE FILM OF NOT THE MESSIAH AT ROYAL ALBERT HALL IN LONDON

Shannon one of Toronto Star music critic John Terauds's Five Musicians of 2009

Click here to read John's list of musicians "who particularly warmed my heart with their talent, giving nature, humility and all-'round great contributions to Toronto's performing arts scene over the past year." (Toronto Star, 31 December 2009)

Listen to Baby Kintyre: A Serial Radio Opera on Saturday Afternoon at the Opera

Hear Shannon on CBC Radio 2's SATO in Baby Kintyre, a radio opera by composer Dean Burry to be broadcast in serial over five Saturdays starting November 7th. The opera takes its inspiration from a real 1920s Toronto household where a baby was wrapped in newsprint and buried between the floorboards of an attic on Kintyre Avenue, only to be discovered more than 80 years later. The cast also includes Krisztina Szabo, Giles Tomkins, and 11-year-old Eileen Nash from the Canadian Children's Opera Company, and an six-piece chamber ensemble under the direction of John Hess.

Once each episode has run, CBC will make it available on its website. Check back here for links!

DOUBLE ADISQ NOMINATION!

Wales ~The Land of Song and Gloria! Vivaldi and his Angels are up both for the ADISQ Award in the category of Album of the Year, Classical Vocal. The awards will be announced at a gala evening on October 26, 2009. Check back for news!

Mozart@254 concert with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Peter Oundjian

"Toronto singer Shannon Mercer has a rare combination of a pure, lyric soprano voice coupled with enough power to fill a large hall. On top of that, she deftly shaped the dramatic arc of this profession of undying love." (Toronto Star, 4 January 2010)

Rave reviews for Shannon's Messiah with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

"The standout was soprano Shannon Mercer, who not only has a luminous lyric voice, but who sings every word as if she truly means it. She made us want to rejoice greatly, and we were convinced that her redeemer really is alive. The size and acoustics of Roy Thomson Hall are not kind to the smaller, more lithe voices that are best at singing 18th century music, but Mercer fully overcame these obstacles." (Toronto Star, 17 December 2009)

"Feathery-voiced soprano Shannon Mercer and honey, warm mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó were their usual excellent selves." (Classical96.3, 20 December 2009)

NOT THE MESSIAH IN LONDON

"The two Americans from the original cast, Shannon Mercer as Judith and William Ferguson as Brian bringing the house down in their Amourdeus duet and bringing lyrical beauty to their duet in The Final Song." (View London, 26 October 2009)

"An operatic sex scene makes the form fit the content, is brilliantly performed by Shannon Mercer and William Ferguson (as Brian), and gets the ovation it deserves." (Times, October 24 2009)

Check out this YOUTUBE clip from the performance

Shannon wows once Again as Pamina in Opera Lyra Ottawa's The Magic Flute

"Ottawa soprano Shannon Mercer sang Pamina, Tamino's beloved. Along with her beautiful singing, she brought an interpretation to the role that suggested that she would be an ideal spouse for Tamino. The two of them, along with flutist Joanna G'froerer, created a sense of high seriousness, almost sacredness, in the fire and water scene. In this production, the scene was the emotional climax of the opera." (Ottawa Citizen, 14 September 2009)

Shannon Mercer brings her Pamina to Victoria

"Soprano Shannon Mercer beautifully expressed the shifting emotions of Pamina, a damsel in some distress..." (Monday Magazine, 23-29 April)

"Shannon Mercer's Pamina is tender, guileless and, in her moments of anguish, deeply moving." (Victoria Times Colonist, 18 April 2009)

Shannon "a lovely Pamina, often touching" in the Magic Flute

"The lead singers and the music itself were the saving of the evening. Soprano Shannon Mercer and tenor Colin Ainsworth were handsome and vocally appealing as the Princess Pamina and the Prince Tamino, the lovers elevated to a nominal wisdom by their fidelity and courage." (Globe and Mail, 1 November 2008)

"Indeed, there was much to smile about in Opera Hamilton's production. First and foremost, the singing. How Toronto soprano Shannon Mercer has blossomed since she last sang here five years ago. Beautiful tone, pure and steady, she was a delight in Pamina's plangent aria, Ach, ich fuhl's." (Hamilton Spectator, 1 November 2008)

Read about Shannon in the Hamilton Spectator