Table of contents for Spring 2016 in Opera Canada

At the opening session of Opera America’s May conference in Montreal, attended by representatives of Canadian and U.S. companies, Simon Brault, Director and CEO of the Canada Council for the Arts, welcomed delegates and spoke of the Council’s priorities. Following is an edited transcript of some of his remarks: “Recently, our new government announced it will double our budget over five years. Such a major and tangible vote of confidence for public funding of professional arts did not happen in our country since the creation of the Council, almost 60 years ago, and makes Canada an exception right now in the world. This announcement means that by 2021, the Council will be providing $310 million to artists and organizations per year. Obviously, well targeted public funding of the arts is…

Bass-baritone Stephen Hegedus arrives for our meeting eyes bright, with a warm expression. But he’s more tired than his looks would suggest. “My daughter was, like, ‘Daddy, can you build this 170-piece Lego?’ earlier today,” he says with a smile. “And I said, ‘It’s five in the morning! Please, can you do something else? I’m going to lie on the couch’.” The 36-year-old Toronto native has indeed enjoyed a hectic schedule over the past year, working with Toronto’s Opera Atelier, Opera Columbus, Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival, the Vancouver Bach Choir, Pacific Opera Victoria and the Minnesota Orchestra. He also did a memorable turn last December in Toronto as part of Against the Grain Theatre’s decidedly unorthodox version of Handel’s Messiah directed by stage director and company co-founder Joel Ivany.…

IN CHARACTER WITH BRETT POLEGATO In a profession notorious for its impermanence, in which a singer can be flying high one day only to disappear the next seemingly without a trace, Brett Polegato qualifies as a veteran. Still on the right side of 50, the baritone will celebrate a quarter century in front of the public next year, a long time in any singer’s life. Few of his contemporaries are still in the business full time, and a number have transitioned into a less hectic life as teachers. Since his debut as Mozart’s Figaro for Opera Atelier in 1992, Polegato has gone on to develop an enviable international career, singing in such major centres as La Scala, the Teatro Colón and Opéra de Paris, as well as across Canada and…

Compiled by B. Krsek. Legend: C: conductor; D: stage director; Des: designer; Ctms: costumes; Lght: lighting; Chor: choreographer; *new production; **world premiere; ***national premiere; Op: opening date; M: matinée. Information correct as of Jun 15, 2016. Programs subject to change. Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site (Baddeck, NS). bellsofbaddeck.com. 902-295-2069. The Bells of Baddeck (Burry/MacDonald). Mus. D: Calvert; D: Mekler. Tomkins, Higgins, Walker/MacKenzie, van Wyck, Enns Cathcart, Jones, Sirett, Arsenault, Angelo. Jul 2-Aug 2. Banff Summer Arts Festival (Banff, AB). 403-762-6301 or 800-413-8368. banffcentre.ca. No One’s Safe. D: Ivany. Jul 07, 09. The Rape of Lucretia (Britten). D: Curran. Jul 14, 15, 17M. Brott Music Festival (Hamilton, ON). 905-525-7664. brottmusic.com. Popera. Jul 07. Viva la Diva. C: Brott. Choquette. Jul 10. Le nozze di Figaro (Mozart). D: Aster. Vaculik, Nunez,…

After a brief visit to North America this spring—including a week volunteering at the WildRescue rabbit sanctuary just outside of Dallas—mezzo Wallis Giunta headed back to Leipzig, where she took up a Fest contract last fall. A highlight of her initial season with Oper Leipzig was Angelina in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, a very successful role debut that marked her first bel canto opera, first Rossini and first title role assignment. Other appearances range from Mozart’s Cherubino (“my sixth Figaro production, so it’s become a bit of a calling card”) to Gounod’s Siébel to Wagner (Rossweise and Flower Maiden). Other highlights in the season include her debut with Teatro dell’Opera di Roma (Tiffany in John Adams’s I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky), singing Paquette in…

Honours and Awards Costume designer Camellia Koo is the 2016 recipient of the 10th-anniversary, $20,000 Virginia and Myrtle Cooper Award in Costume Design, administered by the Ontario Arts Foundation. Based in Toronto, Koo has been on the creative team for productions by Canadian Opera Company, Tapestry Opera, Against the Grain Theatre, Edmonton Opera, Vancouver Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria and Minnesota Opera, among many other theatre and music-theatre companies. Opera.ca, the national association for opera in Canada, has awarded its 2016 National Opera Directors Recognition Award to Bernard Stotland, who has worked on the board of Opéra de Montréal for almost 15 years. A chartered accountant by profession, Stotland first got involved with OdeM when he proposed, designed, funded and helped implement an opera education program for youth. Still in action…

On the impetus to shift gears in Vancouver “I think the company was responding to the fact that traditional audiences for traditional formats of opera have been declining all over North America— and actually not just North America.” Opera Canada: It came as something of a shock when one of our best-established opera companies suddenly announced it was shifting from its traditional mainstage season to a festival format. You’ve had experience with both models, from your time with Opéra de Montréal to your current position at Verbier. Can you share your perspective on Vancouver’s move? Kim Gaynor: Well, to put it in the context of where I’m coming from, the first thing I’d like to say is that what Vancouver Opera is really doing is a festival within a season,…

Starting at 1 p.m. EST unless otherwise stated CBC Opera Festival Jun. 25 La damnation de Faust Berlioz Opéra national de Paris C: Jordan; Koch, Kaufmann, Terfel, Crossley-Mercer Jul. 2 Mefistofele Boito Bayerische Staatsoper C: Welber; Pape, Calleja, Opolais, Grotzinger, Borghini, Babajanyan July 9 Roméo et Juliette Gounod Teatro Real, Madrid C: Plasson; Yoncheva, Alagna, Tagliavini, Martin-Royo, Crebassa, Alvaro, Atxalandabaso, Montague Jul. 16 Andrea Chénier Royal Opera, Covent Garden C: Pappano; Kaufmann, Lucˇic´, Westbroek, Graves, Plowright Jul. 23 La clemenza di Tito Mozart Théâtre des ChampsÉlysées, Paris C: Rhorer; Streit, Gauvin, Lindsey, Boulianne Jul. 30 Un ballo in maschera Verdi Bayerische Staatsoper C: Mehta; Beczała, Keenlyside, Harteros, von der Damerau, Fomina Aug. 6 Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg Wagner Bayerische Staatsoper C: Petrenko; Koch, Kaufmann, Jakubiak, Fischesser, Conners, Rieger, Kranzle Aug.…

CDs L’AIGLON HONEGER /IBERT Decca: 478 9502 L’Aiglon (The Eaglet) premiered in March, 1937, co-composed by Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert. The libretto by Henri Cain was based on the 1900 play of the same title by Edmond Rostand, which had been conceived as a vehicle for Sarah Bernhardt. This 2-CD set, the first complete recording of the work, was recorded live in March, 2015, at Montreal’s Maison symphonique. It is the first product of a revived relationship between the Decca label and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (MSO) under current Music Director Kent Nagano. A five-act operetta lasting just over 90 minutes, L’aiglon tells the tragic story of the only son of Napoleon Bonaparte by his second wife, Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria. Dubbed the Duke of Reichstadt by the Hapsburg…

Lucia Cesaroni Italian-Canadian soprano lucia Cesaroni may be poised for a big breakthrough. She has caught the ear—and, I dare say, the eye—of Los Angeles Opera Music Director James Conlon, who engaged her to sing Susanna this June in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at Festival de Dui Monde in Spoleto, Italy. It will be her professional debut in a country to which she feels a very close connection. Although she grew up in the Toronto suburbs and studied at University of Toronto, her family roots lie in the Abruzzo, which she tries to visit annually. It also shows in her passion for engaging the Italian community around the Greater Toronto Area in the city’s opera scene. She and her husband, tenor Adrian Kramer, have demonstrated this by performing in…

This diverse collection of recent reissues all show some of the company Canadian artists kept in the 1960s and 1970s. The Pentatone Carmen is a remastering of the 1972 DGG release (quadraphonic, for those who remember the format) that was based on a Met production with Marilyn Horne in the title role and Leonard Bernstein conducting. It proved controversial, not least for the perceived eccentricities of Bernstein but also for the edition used. Interestingly, the rerelease seems to have triggered a more positive reappraisal of what is undeniably a very theatrical performance with a distinguished cast (James McCracken is Don José, Tom Krause is Escamillo). Canadian soprano Colette Boky is Frasqita in the equally distinguished supporting crew of bandits. The Bayreuth Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg documents opening night in July…