The Canadian Opera Company presents seven operas every season. That’s not a lot, so it’s heartening that every single production unveiled this morning for the 2013-14 season counts in some significant way.
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
General director Alexander Neef — in concert with his team — continues to honour the great pool of talented singers available within short commuting distance of the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
The company is also deftly balancing the popular with the less known, and giving a fresh twist to the operas the city’s diehard fans might otherwise find a bit too commonplace to appreciate.
The season opens with a new, John Caird-directed production of the old-favourite La Bohème (a co-production with Houston Grand and San Francisco Operas). Its 12 performances start on Oct. 3 with a cast that includes notable young Canadians, including Joyce El-Khoury (as Musetta — and who sings Mimi in four performances, a very unusual casting choice) and baritones Phillip Addis and Joshua Hopkins.
Bohème will run in rep with Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, which gets seven performances with music director Johannes Debus and director Neil Armfield. Ben Heppner is contracted to sing the title role. Among the rest of the cast, we see the welcome return of former Torontonian Roger Honeywell.
Mozart favourite Così fan tutte kicks off the 2014 new year with 10 performances starting Jan. 18 — with one of those dedicated to members of Ensemble Studio. It’s a new COC production that looks, from early sketches by designer Debra Hanson, like it’s taking a whimsical period twist on the costumes.
Atom Egoyan will direct and Debus will conduct a cast of first-rate young Canadian singers, as well as the great Sir Thomas Allen as Don Alfonso.
A modern-dress version of Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera opens an eight-performance run on Feb. 2, 2014. The fabulous cast includes Adrianne Pieczonka as Amelia and contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux as Ulrica.
The balance of the season is all about COC premieres.
After a long absence, Handel returns to the Canadian Opera Company on Apr. 5, in its first production of the English-language Hercules. This co-production with Chicago Lyric Opera is directed by Peter Sellars and featuries an excellent non-Canadian cast of Handel specialists, including Alice Coote and Dejanira and David Daniels as Lichas. British Period-minded conductor Harry Bicket will lead the music.
Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux opens on Apr. 25, 2014. in a rented production from Dallas Opera that looks a lot like what we saw in Maria Stuarda a couple of seasons ago. The big attractions are local: soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, mezzo Allyson McHardy and baritone Russell Braun.
The season closes with a Seattle Opera rental of Massenet’s Don Quichotte, which runs for seven performances in May, 2014. It’s a chamber opera with rich music that will be handled by Johannes Debus. This is a non-Canadian cast with Hawaiian bear Quinn Kelsey backing up Ferrucio Furlanetto and Ekaterina Gubanova’s COC débuts.
The only unresolved, long-standing issue with a COC season continues: There is no Canadian work on the schedule. Neither is there a 21st century opera in the new season. I guess it’s still play-safe time with the finances.
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
