Ottawa Citizen • 2023
Joshua Hopkins Sings for His Sister Nathalie Warmerdam
A new piece that baritone Joshua Hopkins envisioned as a tribute to his sister, Nathalie Warmerdam, one of the victims in the 2015 triple murder in Renfrew County, will finally have its in-person world premiere in Ottawa this week. Songs for Murdered Sisters is a song cycle composed by Jake Heggie, with text by Margaret Atwood, that features Hopkins performing with the NAC Orchestra, under the direction of Alexander Shelley.
While a beautifully shot film of the stripped-down chamber version (piano and voice) was created during the pandemic, Hopkins has been looking forward to working with the full orchestra for a long while. “I’m filled with anticipation about all of it,” Hopkins said in a recent interview. “It’s this incredibly deep journey through loss and grief, with this reckoning and enlightenment at the end. I think all of the new colours that the different instruments will bring to the texture of the piece are going to make it such a deeper experience than one can hear on the piano.”
Toronto Star • 2023
Honouring Opera Baritone Joshua Hopkins’ Sister
Joshua Hopkins, the internationally acclaimed Canadian baritone, was about to go into a rehearsal with Opera Lyra in Ottawa when he got a phone call that upended his existence.
On Sept. 22, 2015, in the course of a few hours, a man named Basil Borutski went on a deadly rampage in Renfrew County, west of Ottawa, and murdered three women, all former intimate partners. One of them was Hopkins’ much beloved older sister, Nathalie Warmerdam. It was not long after receiving the news that Hopkins knew he had to take action, to manage his own grief and to honour not only Nathalie’s memory but those of so many other women who’ve fallen victim to the violent rage of jealous former partners.
The result, five years later, was an emotionally powerful and at the same time beautiful song cycle called “Songs for Murdered Sisters,” eight new poems by the iconic Canadian author Margaret Atwood set to music by Jake Heggie, one of America’s most renowned composers.
The Globe and Mail • 2023
Orchestral Debut of Songs for Murdered Sisters
On the morning of September 22, 2015, in a rural community in the Ottawa Valley, Basil Borutski murdered three of his ex-partners in their homes. Among his victims was Nathalie Warmerdam, older sister of Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins.
The opera singer was in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre when he learned of the tragedy. When the call came in, he was about to go onstage as Figaro for the orchestra rehearsal of The Barber of Seville. “It was so harrowing to be able to comprehend how she was taken from this world,” he says. “It’s still impossible to really understand how it can be so instant and how life can be extinguished so instantly and so violently.”
The senseless tragedy of her death inspired him to use his voice as a “conduit” to honour her memory – and that of Carol Culleton and Anastasia Kuzyk, the two other women murdered that day. Songs for Murdered Sisters, an endeavour seven years in the making, comes to fruition on Thursday at the NAC, where Hopkins will take the solo role in the orchestral premiere.
SFO Behind The Voice • 2021
This Is Not A Story
The drip of broken pipes echoes in the empty hall. Plaster peels from the wall. And from down a marble staircase, yellowed from disuse, a man appears, dressed all in black. He walks into the long shadows of Oakland’s 16th Street Station, a decaying Beaux-Arts thoroughfare, when his progress is stopped. In front of him sits what appears to be an empty chair. But for the man, baritone Joshua Hopkins, it symbolizes so much more. "Who was my sister?" Hopkins starts to sing in short, fractured lines: "Is now an empty chair. Is no longer there. She is now emptiness. She is now air."
The words he sings come from Booker Prize-winning writer Margaret Atwood. The music, from composer Jake Heggie. But the story? The story is Hopkins's. It is his and the story of thousands of families who lose loved ones to domestic and gender-based violence.
BBC World • 2021
Outlook
In 2015, Nathalie Warmerdam was murdered by her ex-partner. She was one of three victims that day; he also killed two other former partners, Anastasia Kuzyk and Carol Culleton. Basil Borutski was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison in 2017. Now as a way to deal with his grief, Nathalie's brother, opera singer Joshua Hopkins, has released a group of songs, known as a song cycle, in memory of his sister. With words by the writer Margaret Atwood and music by composer Jake Heggie, Joshua says he wants to use his voice to raise awareness about violence against women.
Opera Canada • 2021
Conversations
In this series of candid conversations pairing notable Canadian singers, administrators, conductors, and designers, you'll get an insider's look into the opera Industry's past and present.
In the spring, Gerald Finley, one of the most acclaimed bass-baritones of his generation, spoke with one of Canada's leading young baritones, Joshua Hopkins, about their respective career trajectories, Europe vs. North America, and how they both got their musical starts growing up in the Ottawa region.
CBC • 2021
This Is My Music
Baritone Joshua Hopkins presents his favourite recordings.
Please note: this episode is available online for listeners in Canada; for listeners outside Canada, it is available via the CBC Listen app.
Opera News • 2021
Light in the Darkness
ON SEPTEMBER 22, 2015, Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins was on his way to a rehearsal at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre when he received a devastating call: his sister, Nathalie, had been murdered in her home in Canada’s Renfrew County in a rampage by her ex-boyfriend, Basil Borutski. The murders of Nathalie and two other women are among the worst cases of domestic violence in Canadian history.
This tragedy inspired Hopkins to act—to honor Nathalie and the two others whose lives had been senselessly cut short, and to honor all women—“sisters”—who have suffered as a result of pervasive and often unnamed domestic abuse. With the support of Daphne Burt, manager of artistic planning at the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Patrick Summers, artistic and music director of Houston Grand Opera, Hopkins spent five years conceiving and developing Songs for Murdered Sisters, a song cycle co-commissioned by the two companies, with new music by Jake Heggie and original poems by Margaret Atwood.
BBC • 2021
The Cultural Frontline
Joshua Hopkins is an award-winning Canadian baritone who is using his voice to call out violence against women, after the loss of his sister in 2015. Joshua tells Sophia Smith Galer how collaborating with Booker Prize winning author Margaret Atwood on Songs for Murdered Sisters offers consolation, while opening up conversation about gender-based violence across the world.
Interlude • 2021
Artists: Joshua Hopkins
Canadian Baritone Joshua Hopkins has developed a career as one of the leading young singers of his generation, performing regularly at the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Growing up in a family where musical theatre was the order of the day, he found his way into opera through an encounter with Haydn’s Creation, inspiring him to study at McGill University. Since then, he has gone on to grace opera stages both nationally and internationally, recently making his debut as Harlequin in Ariadne aux Naxos at the Edinburgh International Festival.
In 2015, Joshua’s sister was killed by an ex-partner who murdered her and two other women on the same morning. This horrendous event inspired Songs for Murdered Sisters, a collaboration between Joshua, composer Jake Heggie and author Margaret Atwood. A filmed performance was made, the restrictions on live shows making an in-person premiere impossible, and Joshua talks to me about this project, as well as his early career and current relationship to art and music.
Chatelaine • 2021
A Musical Tribute To Victims Of Gendered Violence
Houston-based opera singer Joshua Hopkins happened to be in Ontario, rehearsing for The Barber of Seville, when he got the worst call imaginable. His sister, Nathalie Warmerdam, had been murdered, just an hour west of where he was standing.
“I just felt like the world was spinning and nothing was real anymore,” he says now about September 22, 2015, the day Warmerdam was fatally shot by her former partner, Basil Borutski, who had killed two other women, Anastasia Kuzyk and Carol Culleton, before coming for her. Hopkins is grateful that he was at least able to grieve with his family in Petawawa, Ont. And he still took to the stage at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre just days after his sister died, slipping into character as a means to escape reality. The audience responded with heartfelt applause.
Pembroke Observer • 2021
Petawawa native wins first JUNO Award
Baritone Joshua Hopkins, who grew up in Petawawa, has won the JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral for his recording of Massenet: Thaïs. Sharing the impressive honour with Hopkins are the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and conductor Sir Andrew Davis, Erin Wall, Andrew Staples, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and Nathan Berg who were all part of the winning recording.
“I am deeply honoured to receive my first JUNO Award for Thaïs, a project that took a giant leap of faith in my operatic singing career,” Hopkins said. “I share this honour with all of the brilliant musicians who performed so gloriously on the stage of Roy Thomson Hall in November 2019, when this live recording was captured over two nights. I also share this accolade with my incredible wife Zoe, who as an inspirational partner and muse, never fails to unearth my full artistic potential.”
Opera Canada • 2021
Shop Talk
What’s an onstage memory that you’ll have forever?
“In 2009, I sang one of my favourite roles, Papageno, with Opera Lyra Ottawa at the National Arts Centre. I’ll never forget the dramatic incident that took place in the audience during one of the performances, at the end of Papageno’s third aria, in which he almost commits suicide. An audience member was so convinced I would take my life, in desperation they left their seat on the orchestra level and ran to the front row of the top balcony, several metres above the stage. This daring individual proceeded to climb over the front of the balcony in an attempt to rescue me, even though I was already in the midst of my love duet with Papagena. From the stage, I heard a distracting commotion in the audience, but the show went on. After the show, I learned that thankfully someone in the lower balcony had grabbed hold of the dangling ‘rescuer’s’ legs and pulled them to safety. I was very grateful the individual wasn’t hurt.”
Lyric Lately • 2021
Spotlight On
Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins is a man of many voices —master of Mozart, bel canto, French repertoire, and exceedingly challenging contemporary works. Effortlessly adapting his velvety instrument to the demands of every style he takes on, he invariably impresses not just with his voice and the terrific technique behind it, but also probing, thoughtful interpretations that mark him as one of today’s truly outstanding artists.
At Lyric, where Hopkins has already shown such remarkable versatility, it’s a delightfully comic role that will mark his return to the company in 2021/22. He’ll portray the incorrigibly boastful sergeant Belcore in Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love, a wonderful vehicle for both his elegant bel canto style and his vibrant stage presence.
Opera Warhorses • 2018
Rising Stars
Wm: I ask my interviewees their earliest memories of music and of opera. What were yours?
JH: My parents didn’t listen to classical music, but they were actively involved in the community music scene, so my earliest exposure must have been jazz, concert band arrangements and Christmas classics.
Wm: Where did you grow up and in what ways were your parents involved in the music scene?
JH: I grew up in the small city of Pembroke, Ontario, which is an hour and a half drive west of Ottawa in Canada. My dad was a high school teacher (who taught at my high school) and his subjects were Physics, Chemistry and, yes, Drama. The house in which I grew up was an idyllic setting for my formative years, situated on an acre of property along the shoreline of the majestic Ottawa River. There was never a dull moment.
Artsfile • 2017
Q&A
Q. We haven’t spoken since you appeared in The Barber of Seville with Opera Lyra two years ago. I’m sure you have been busy but can you give us a quick run down?
A. I have been rather busy. After singing Barber in Ottawa, I had the great pleasure of revisiting The Little Prince with Houston Grand Opera. The Pilot is a role I had performed with HGO when I was still in their young artist program in 2004. Directly after those performances, I sang one of my favourite roles also with HGO, Il conte Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, which I reprised in another production this past Fall with Washington National Opera. Last March I returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago to perform Mercutio in Bartlett Sher’s production of Roméo et Juliette and this past summer I very happily returned to Santa Fe Opera to sing Olivier in Strauss’s Capriccio, my sixth appearance with the company.I thought I’d have a bit more free time this season, but unprecedentedly I was asked to step in for two different roles! The first was as Valentin in Faust last Fall with Houston Grand Opera (a role I hadn’t performed in eight years) and the second was what I’m currently working on in Amsterdam, The New Prince. So yes, my schedule has been very busy.
Ludwig van Toronto • 2017
Artist in Focus
As a youngster growing up in Pembroke Ontario, Joshua Hopkins would burst into strains of “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables while walking his dog in the evening, doing his best imitation of Canadian singer Colm Wilkinson, the famous Jean Valjean. “I was 12 at the time, and I figured nobody could hear me, only my dog!”
He told me that funny story back in 2008 when I interviewed him for a “Debut” article in Opera Canada. It certainly didn’t take the young Josh long to have a human audience, eager to hear his beautiful baritone.
What’s On Stage • 2014
Glyndebourne’s New Argante
The Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins undertakes the key role of the Saracen king Argante in Glyndebourne’s revival of Rinaldo in Robert Carsen’s left-field production from 2011. Hopkins has sung to critical acclaim throughout North America at opera houses including the New York Met, Canadian Opera Company, Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Vancouver Opera and Dallas Opera. His awards include the Verbier Festival Academy’s 2008 Prix d’Honneur and the 2006 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.
Handel’s Rinaldo is an opera with no fewer than four counter-tenors. As the only baritone among the leading roles, it’s up to you to provide the ballast. Does your role as Argante give you a chance to shine?
It certainly does. My first musical entrance is to fanfare, with brass instruments blazing. ‘Sibillar gli angui d’Aletto’ is a powerful and exciting aria, which immediately highlights both the extensive vocal range of Argante and shows off some spectacular vocal gymnastics through long coloratura passages. Despite Argante being the ‘baddie’ of the opera displaying brutish behaviour in public, he is also given the chance to show his more sensitive side when he is alone on stage, for example during his second, lyrical aria, ‘Vieni, o cara’.
Opera News • 2012
Opera’s Next Wave
Time stopped in Zankel Hall this past January 19, when baritone Joshua Hopkins sang Samuel Barber’s “A Green Lowland of Pianos” at Marilyn Horne’s annual “The Song Continues” gala. The Barber piece isn’t a masterpiece, but Hopkins’s performance made it glow as if it were. Hopkins delivered all the goofy charm of Barber’s melody and Czeslaw Milosz’s text in his firm, honeyed baritone — an instrument that never sounds forced or hurried, whether he’s singing in an intimate recital hall or reaching the Fifth Ring of the vast David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center.
Hopkins is a dynamite performer. He sings a snappy Papageno, a deft Barbiere Figaro, and he created a tender, compassionate portrait of the tormented Junior in New York City Opera’s 2010 premiere of A Quiet Place. Unlike many fine opera singers, however, Hopkins is equally at home in a recital program — unaffected, relaxed and completely musical. It’s a pleasure to listen to him.
La scena musicale • 2010
Flying High
Even in the crowded field of up and coming Canadian singers, Joshua Hopkins stands out. He combines a beautiful lyric baritone with solid technique and innate musicality, used with grace and discerning taste. A fine actor, Hopkins’ engaging stage persona has made him popular with stage directors and audiences. A native of Pembroke, Ontario, Hopkins studied voice with William and Dixie Neill at McGill University. Early successes include prizes at the José Carreras Julián Gayarre Singing Competition, Plácido Domingo’s Operalia, ARD Musikwettbewerb (Munich), George London Foundation, Canada Council’s Sylvia Gelber Foun- dation prize, and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. Important engagements have come his way— Papageno opposite French diva Natalie Dessay’s first Pamina at the Santa Fe Opera, a role he reprised last summer, together with a devilishly funny Sid in Albert Herring, which drew critical raves. An impor- tant milestone last season was Hopkins’ Met debut as Ping in Turandot, seen live by satellite worldwide as part of the Met’s Live in HD. This fall, Hopkins takes on the role of Junior in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place at the New York City Opera, directed by Christopher Alden. Hopkins makes his home in Houston with his wife and fellow singer Zoë Tarshis.
Opera News • 2010
Sound Bites
Joshua Hopkins returns to Santa Fe Opera this month for a repeat of his cheeky, streetwise Papageno in Tim Albery’s 2006 production of The Magic Flute, and for his first Sid in a new staging of Albert Herring. As eager as he is to revisit Mozart’s bird-catcher — a role made to order for his firm, trim baritone and snappy, sure-footed comic style — Hopkins is especially hungry to explore the challenges of Britten’s droll slice of life in an English village. Hopkins became a Britten enthusiast in 2007, when he studied the title role in Billy Budd in London, in preparation for covering it at Houston Grand Opera; he later was Junius in Central City’s 2008 Rape of Lucretia. “From a singer’s standpoint, Britten is certainly challenging, but he’s also incredibly helpful. Once you get to know the text and your own notes — no small thing — then you’re free to explore the way Britten’s music reflects the subtext of what his characters are singing. The psychology of the characters is laid out in the landscape of the music and in the way Britten sets the text. Billy’s soliloquy, ‘Look! through the port comes the moonshine,’ is such an easy piece to connect to emotionally, because Britten gives his singer so much to work with.”