Loreena McKennitt expands The Mask and Mirror with four-disc Definitive Edition
Loreena McKennitt’s The Mask and Mirror Definitive Edition is a four-disc set containing two CDs, a DVD and an audio Blu-ray.
Photo credit: uDiscover Music
Canadian singer-songwriter Loreena McKennitt returns to The Mask and Mirror this week with a four-disc Definitive Edition that combines a remaster of her 1994 album with unreleased concert material, archival interviews and new surround mixes. Quinlan Road releases the set on Oct 9, 2026, continuing the 30th-anniversary project McKennitt began around the album in 2024.
The set includes two CDs, a DVD and an audio Blu-ray, along with a 32-page hardback booklet. Jeff Wolpert of Desert Fish in Toronto mastered the release and produced new Dolby Atmos and 5.1 mixes. The archive material includes a restored 1994 Mountain Stage radio concert; a previously unreleased 30-minute promotional performance filmed at Stratford’s Avon Theatre; McKennitt’s 1994 Words and Music interview; and a remastered version of the 1995 PBS documentary No Journey’s End. The package also includes more than an hour of narrated material, including a new essay by McKennitt.
McKennitt has described the Definitive Edition as a way to revisit the sources and ideas behind the album, whose songs drew on Celtic, Spanish and Moroccan influences, and the set leans heavily on archival material alongside its new audio treatment. The Mask and Mirror was her fifth studio album; McKennitt’s current release materials describe it as an international breakthrough, while her Awards & Honours page lists the album as four-times platinum in Canada.
McKennitt established Quinlan Road in 1985. The independent label and management company is wholly owned and operated by her and is based in Stratford. Several parts of the package are rooted in Ontario: the previously unreleased concert film was shot at the Avon Theatre, and Wolpert completed the new mastering work in Toronto. Universal Music Canada is promoting the Canadian release, and UMUSIC is selling the set.
McKennitt is taking the album back on the road immediately after release. Her Canadian run begins Oct 13, 2026 in Moncton and continues through 19 performances in 13 eastern Canadian cities before wrapping Nov 2, 2026 in Montréal. Stops include Fredericton, Charlottetown, Saint John, Halifax, Ottawa, Québec City, Saguenay, Sherbrooke, London, Kitchener and Toronto. The concerts are structured in two sets: selections from across her catalogue first, followed by The Mask and Mirror performed in album order. Caroline Lavelle, Brian Hughes, Hugh Marsh, Dudley Phillips and Robert Brian are the announced band.
The release follows The Visit Definitive Edition, issued in 2021, and continues McKennitt’s current archival series. For listeners who already own The Mask and Mirror, the new material is concentrated in the unreleased performances, restored documentary material, interviews and surround mixes; for those following the tour, the package arrives four days before the first Canadian date.
Royal Winnipeg Ballet opens its 2026–27 mainstage season at Winnipeg’s Centennial Concert Hall on Oct. 8 with Stravinsky Stories, a double bill that brings Alexei Ratmansky’s The Fairy’s Kiss to the company alongside the world premiere of a new Firebird by choreographer Houston Thomas.