Table of contents for Winter 2025 in Opera Canada

“Holding to the ground as the ground keeps shifting.” From 2015 through 2024, I was CEO of SK Arts. I had grown up in the suburbs of Toronto and never lived outside of Ontario, and I picked up stakes and moved to Regina. One of the real blessings of living on Treaty 4 territory was learning about Indigenous cultures and history. I grew up in a time when Indigenous history was not mentioned in Canadian history classes, which began when European settlers arrived in North America. When I moved to Saskatchewan, I was tasked with building stronger relationships with Indigenous peoples and communities, and I hope that I did it by listening far more than I spoke. And many people – Elders, artists, colleagues – gave me gifts of their…

“The first time I sang it I was in my undergrad at the University of Toronto. When Canadian baritone Alexander Dobson was learning his first Don Giovanni, he put together a group of local singers and cast me as Masetto and Commendatore. Robert Gleadow sang Leporello, and when I saw him, I thought ‘I want to do that someday.’” He covered and sang the role of Commendatore in a concert version of Don Giovanni for the Banff and National Arts Centres, but this past spring Li finally had the opportunity to sing Leporello at Opéra de Royaume in Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean. There was a twist, though – they performed it in French translation. “We didn’t have supertitles, so they made a translation to help local audiences understand. Leporello barely leaves the stage,…

“Opera is storytelling in its most complete form,” Deepa Johnny says, “and it also feels like the most heightened way to tell a story.” Johnny loves to tell stories – funny, serious, contemplative and with a beautiful and memorable sound. Canadian Opera Company audiences will have the chance to see the award-winning mezzo-soprano in February 2026 when she makes her COC debut as Rosina in The Barber of Seville, running at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. From there she makes her Opéra national de Paris debut in two new productions, as Kasturbai in Satyagraha (1980) by Philip Glass and as Dejanira in the never-previously-staged 1707 work Ercole Amante by Antonia Bembo. “Opera is storytelling in its most complete form,” she says, “and it also feels like the…

Cream always rises to the top. Persistence helps too. BARITONE JOSHUA HOPKINS was in the final year of his master’s degree in music at Montreal’s McGill University in 2003 when he made it to the semifinals of the legendary Metropolitan Opera voice competition. On the Met stage in New York, however, his voice faltered from the after-effects of a virus, and he did not move on. But all was not lost. “What’s great about the Met,” says Hopkins, “is that they offer a scholarship to all the finalists who make it to the stage.” The catch is that, to get the full amount, singers must return twice to New York to sing for Met casting managers and administrators “so they can keep tabs on how your development is going.” Hopkins…

AUDIO Mozart: L’Enlèvement du Sérail OPÉRA ROYAL CHÂTEAU DE VERSAILLES SPECTACLES, CVS154 THE 2024 RECORDING FROM Château de Versailles Spectacles of the Opéra Royal’s production of Mozart’s L’Enlèvement du Sérail is unusual in a couple or respects. First, it’s the rarely given French version of Die Enftführung aus dem Serail. Secondly, although the various versions of this recording are drawn from the same live performances, the physical and digital offerings are different. The physical version has a standard-resolution audio recording on two CDs coupled with a DVD video; there’s no Blu-ray option. The digital version offers standard and hi-res (96kHz/24bit) uncompressed options plus MP3 audio but no video, although there is a comprehensive digital booklet. I listened to the hi-res audio and haven’t seen the DVD. The French version is…

JANUARY Opéra national de Paris Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux sings the role of Erda in Sieg fried at the Opéra national de Paris from January 17th through 31st. operadeparis.fr Opernhaus Zürich Ema Nikolovska, mezzo-soprano, appears as everybody’s favourite pageboy, Cherubino, in Le nozze di Figaro at Openhaus Zürich beginning on January 24th and playing – appropriately – through Valentine’s Day. opernhaus.ch Calgary Opera The beloved handcrafted magic of the Old Troup Puppet Workshop is featured in Calgary Opera’s production of Hansel and Gretel, running January 31st through February 6th with Carolyn Sproule and Simone Osborne as the titular children. calgaryopera.com FEBRUARY Vancouver Opera Vancouver Opera’s production of Così fan tutte (February 7-15) features a full cast of Canadian singers: Jamie Groote, Alex Hetherington, Tracy Dahl, Owen McCausland, Clarence Frazer and…

A CELEBRATION, ACCORDING TO THE dictionary, is an “act of celebrating; act of praising or extolling; the act of observing with appropriate rites or ceremonies.” Although there are always times when a quiet celebration is in order, celebrations in general are festive occasions enjoyed to the full only when neighbours and friends join in the festivities. Such a one is the American Bicentennial Celebration. Many years have gone into the preparation of the event that was widely heralded by the release of the film 76 a couple of years ago. Its producers were hopeful that it might prove to be sufficiently successful to act as a sort of theme song, as it were, for the great year itself. A few less ambitious efforts have also been introduced during the past couple…

Sometimes it can feel like musical theatre singers and opera singers are on opposing teams. In fact, to secure a fest (permanent) job in a small or mid-sized house in Germany, it is often an asset to be comfortable singing in different styles and speaking on stage. For Kim Mattice Wanat, founder of NUOVA Vocal Arts in Edmonton, crossover between the genres has always been important. “I find it very easy to marry the two worlds,” she says. “NUOVA’s mission remains to bridge the gap between academia and the professional world of opera and musical theatre, but NUOVA Vocal Arts reaches further to involve the community and is now also creating outreach that starts at a much younger age.” An Edmontonian through and through, Mattice Wanat was already in love…

Every spring like clockwork, Manitoba Underground Opera (MUO) emerges from the frozen Prairie loam to push boundaries with re-imagined opera classics, often staged in surprising “found space” venues including former marbled banks and wildly flamboyant nightclubs lit by mirror balls. Co-founded in 2008 by current artistic director Brendan McKeen and mezzo-soprano/stage director Brenna Corner, the company was birthed as a labour of love. The two, then University of Manitoba Desautels Faculty of Music students, yearned to create their own autonomous ensemble that would provide career-building opportunities for budding opera singers, including the opportunity to perform with live orchestra. “We called it SLOW, which stood for Student-Led Opera Workshop,” the affable Moose Jaw-born McKeen says over the telephone. The cheeky acronym was created to differentiate it from more typical, professor-led ensembles…

UP NEXT Preparing my new opéra Clown(s), which premieres in January with the Opéra de Montréal. What excites you about working in opera? As a composer, I find it exciting to dig into this amazing artistic form. I’m also fascinated by what drives us to make art: opera was born of the desire to tell a story through music in a theatrical context. Film arrived 300 years later and stole the “crown of art” from opera, but they both use all the artistic and technological knowledge of their time. For opera, though, music remains the heart of the story. Through music, emotions pass from the body of the performer to the body of the audience. That’s why opera is still relevant! By opening all the senses, opera communicates the depths of…

Editor’s Note: This article was commissioned and written before the cancellation of the planned premieres of Indians on Vacation at Edmonton Opera and Against the Grain Theatre. Opera Canada is choosing to print the article because we believe that it tells an important story about developing a new work, and we wanted to honour the Indigenous voices – including that of the writer of the article, director and dramaturg Yvette Nolan – involved in its development. “So we’re in Prague,” my partner and I keep saying to each other. It’s the first thing Bird says in Ian Cusson and Royce Vavrek’s new opera, Indians on Vacation, and so naturally, each time we arrive at a location or come upon sight that appears in the opera, the Peeing Statues or the…