MONTREAL L’Opéra de Montreal is likely having a grand time selling tickets for its Carmen (May 4-13), but the real point of interest in Place des Arts this spring is Twenty-Seven (March 23-31). The opera by Ricky Ian Gordon (The Grapes of Wrath) and Royce Vavrek (Breaking the Waves) takes place at 27 Rue de Fleurus in Paris, where Gertrude Stein lived with Alice B. Toklas and hosted salon nights with the likes of Picasso and Hemingway.

I’m pleasantly surprised to see Twenty-Seven on Montreal’s season, and in a new production by Oriol Tomas; it’s a stylistic breath of fresh air, and with the organic and musical-theatre-inspired language of Gordon and Vavrek, it’s a great pick for first-time opera-goers.

– Jenna Simeonov, The Globe and Mail, 23 March 2019