|
Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company unveiled its 2011/2012
season today at a press conference at the Four Seasons Centre
for the Performing Arts. The company’s 62nd season will be its
most innovative and captivating yet, featuring seven
productions, including one double bill, no fewer than four COC
premieres – two being performed for the first time in Canada –
and three new productions. The COC presents the Canadian
premieres of the 21st-century opera Love from Afar, by Finnish
composer Kaija Saariaho, and the 20th-century opera A Florentine
Tragedy, by Alexander Zemlinsky; Gluck’s
Iphigenia in Tauris will see its COC premiere as will
Semele, the first Handel opera
to be performed at the Four Seasons Centre, in a staging that
features an actual Ming Dynasty ancestral temple; a new
production of Rigoletto; the long-awaited returns of
Gianni
Schicchi and The Tales of Hoffmann; and an operatic favourite,
Tosca.
An extraordinary roster of artists will make their COC debuts in
the coming season: singers Andriana Chuchman,
Mark Delavan,
Susan Graham, Alan Held,
Quinn Kelsey, David Lomelí,
Dimitri
Pittas, John Relyea, Ekaterina Sadovnikova,
Russell Thomas,
Carlo Ventre, Erin Wall and
Katherine Whyte; conductors Rinaldo
Alessandrini and Paolo Carignani; and directors
Lee Blakeley,
Daniele Finzi Pasca, Zhang Huan
and Catherine Malfitano.
Returning artists include singers Jane Archibald,
Russell Braun,
Phillip Ens, Joseph Kaiser,
Lester Lynch, Julie Makerov,
Adrianne Pieczonka, David Pomeroy
and Krisztina Szabó;
conductors Sir Andrew Davis and Pablo Heras-Casado; and
directors Christopher Alden, Robert Carsen
and Paul Curran. All
performances take place in the company’s home, the Four Seasons
Centre for the Performing Arts, and feature the renowned COC
Orchestra and Chorus.
“The Canadian Opera Company’s job – the job of any opera company
– is to find the best way to express the essential truths that
lie at the heart of every opera,” says COC General Director
Alexander Neef. “It’s going to be very exciting to watch the
work of the artists we’re bringing to the COC unfold on our
stage, especially when they are matched with equally thrilling
productions. The COC has always been defined by its big
achievements, and the coming season will see us explore
repertoire we haven’t touched before.”
The Canadian Opera Company’s 11/12 season opens with the COC
premiere of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s lyric tragedy,
Iphigenia
in Tauris, featuring the world’s leading Iphigenia,
mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, in her much anticipated COC debut.
She comes to the COC having triumphed in the role with a
portrayal heralded for its “nobility and vibrant local beauty”
(Chicago Sun-Tribune) and “continuous dramatic power and musical
mastery” (Chicago Sun-Times). Graham is joined by two Canadian
singers who have gone on to international operatic stardom:
baritone Russell Braun (2008’s War and Peace, 2007’s The
Marriage of Figaro) as Iphigenia’s brother Orestes and COC
Ensemble Studio graduate tenor Joseph Kaiser as Orestes’ best
friend, Pylades. Rounding out the cast is Canadian soprano
Katherine Whyte, in her COC debut, who sings the role of
Iphigenia for one performance; Grammy Award-winner bass-baritone
Mark S. Doss (1999’s Il Trovatore) as Thoas, the Scythian king
who orders Orestes’ death; and Ensemble soprano Ileana
Montalbetti as the goddess Diana. Iphigenia in Tauris
was
Gluck’s greatest triumph, composing a score of refined,
classical beauty that lays bare the searing emotions of this
Greek tragedy. The heroine Iphigenia is rescued from imminent
death only to confront the tragic twist of fate of being
required to kill her long-lost brother. Canadian Robert Carsen,
who directs the company’s first Gluck opera, Orfeo ed Euridice,
this spring, returns to stage a production that has played to
great acclaim in London, Chicago, San Francisco and Madrid. The
young Spanish maestro Pablo Heras-Casado – making his Canadian
debut with the COC this February in Nixon in China – also
returns to conduct the COC Orchestra and Chorus. Iphigenia in
Tauris is a co-production between Lyric Opera of Chicago, Royal
Opera House Covent Garden and San Francisco Opera. The opera
runs for eight performances on Sept. 22, 25, 28, Oct. 1, 4, 7,
12 and 15, 2011, and is sung in French with English SURTITLES™.
The fall season continues with the return of Giuseppe Verdi’s
perennial favourite, Rigoletto, an opera last presented by the
COC in 2004. This new production is led by the innovative
creative team of COC Music Director Johannes Debus
conducting
the COC Orchestra and Chorus, American director Christopher
Alden (2010’s The Flying Dutchman) and the award-winning
Canadian designer Michael Levine (2006 Ring Cycle, 2002’s
Oedipus Rex, 1993’s Bluebeard’s Castle/Erwartung, 1990’s
Wozzeck, 1987’s Idomeneo). Rigoletto is an operatic tragedy of
Shakespearean dimensions brought to life by some of Verdi’s most
passionate and heartbreaking melodies. While the jester
Rigoletto aids in his master’s (the Duke of Mantua’s)
debauchery, it is the fool himself who pays the ultimate price
with the sacrifice of his own most precious and hidden love –
his daughter. A selection of the operatic world’s up-and-coming
singers are brought together for this production: American
baritones Quinn Kelsey, in his COC debut, and
Lester Lynch (2001’s Billy Budd) share the role of Rigoletto; his daughter
Gilda is sung by sopranos Ekaterina Sadovnikova, making her COC
debut in a role she recently sang for Royal Opera House Covent
Garden, and COC Ensemble member Simone Osborne (Pamina in the
COC’s The Magic Flute). Tenors Dimitri Pittas and
David Lomelí also make their first appearances with the COC as the Duke of
Mantua. Bass Phillip Ens (2010’s Aida, 2009’s Simon Boccanegra
and 2006’s Ring Cycle) returns as the assassin Sparafucile,
mezzo-soprano Kendall Gladen makes her company debut as
Sparafucile’s sister Maddalena and COC favourite bass Robert
Pomakov is Count Monterone. This new Rigoletto
is a COC
co-production with English National Opera. Rigoletto
is sung in
Italian with English SURTITLES™, and runs for 12 performances on
Sept. 29, 30, Oct. 2, 5, 8, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20 and
22, 2011.
The fire and passion of one of the most popular operas of all
times, Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, opens the COC’s winter season.
The company is bringing back its lavish 2008 production to
showcase internationally-renowned Canadian soprano Adrianne
Pieczonka in the title role. She portrays the famous opera
singer who is caught in a web of corruption, lust and betrayal
while trying to protect her lover, a revolutionary sympathizer,
from the blood-thirsty chief of police. Pieczonka, who appears
with the COC this spring in Ariadne auf Naxos, calls Tosca her
“dream role” and has drawn high praise for her portrayal since
making her role debut in 2008 (“She was radiant” says the Los
Angeles Times, “Adrianne Pieczonka outdid herself” writes the
San Francisco Chronicle and “Pieczonka’s Tosca is the
quintessential diva, rendering her signature arias with ease and
verve” describes SF Weekly). Alternating with Pieczonka as Tosca
is COC favourite Julie Makerov (2010’s The Flying Dutchman,
2008’s Rusalka). Tenors Carlo Ventre and
Thiago Arancam make
their COC debuts as Tosca’s lover, Cavaradossi, as do baritone
Mark Delavan as the evil Scarpia and bass-baritone
Christian Van
Horn as Angelotti. Bass-baritone Peter Strummer
(1993’s Tosca
and Le nozze di Figaro, 1987’s La forza del destino) returns as
the Sacristan. The role of Spoletta is shared by tenors David
Cangelosi, making his company debut, and COC regular
John
Kriter. Paolo Carignani, who has appeared at some of the world’s
finest opera houses, makes his company debut leading the COC
Orchestra and Chorus. Returning to direct the production that
brings the chapels, palaces and fortresses of 19th-century Rome
to life is Paul Curran, artistic director of Norwegian Opera.
This production of Tosca is a co-production with the Norwegian
National Opera and Ballet. Tosca runs for 14 performances on
Jan. 21, 25, 29, 31, Feb. 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 16, 21, 23
and 25,
2012, and is sung in Italian with English SURTITLES™.
The 2012 winter season continues with the Canadian premiere of
Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho’s Love from Afar, a haunting and
vivid musical creation that has become one of the most performed
and successful operas composed in the last 10 years. Visionary
director Daniele Finzi Pasca, best known for his work with
Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo and the creation of the closing
ceremonies of the XX Olympic Winter Games in Torino in 2006,
brings his signature style to a visually arresting new
production that uses innovative “cirque” techniques to conjure a
dreamlike atmosphere in which reality isn’t quite as it appears.
Love from Afar tells the story of a world-weary medieval
troubadour from France who journeys to meet a distant love, a
beautiful woman living in Tripoli. This new production features
an all-Canadian cast of voices both familiar and new to the COC
stage. Making his second appearance of the 11/12 season is
celebrated baritone Russell Braun as the troubadour Jaufré
Rudel. Calgary-born Erin Wall, one of the most exciting young
sopranos on the current operatic scene, makes her COC debut as
his faraway desire, Clémence. The enigmatic Pilgrim, who carries
messages of yearning between the two lovers, is sung by COC
Ensemble graduate mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó (Idamante in
2010’s Idomeneo). Leading the COC Orchestra and Chorus through a
lushly orchestrated score, built on an innovative combination of
traditional instrumental sections with electronics, is COC Music
Director Johannes Debus. Love from Afar
is a COC co-production
with English National Opera, where it premiered in July 2009,
and Vlaamse Opera, where it made its debut in September 2010. It
is sung in French with English SURTITLES™ and runs for eight
performances on Feb. 2, 4, 8, 10, 12, 14, 18 and
22, 2012.
The opening of the COC’s spring season will truly sparkle when
Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann
returns to the company
for the first time since 1988. COC Music Director Johannes Debus
once more leads the COC Orchestra and Chorus, conducting the
rich, melodic work that is Offenbach’s masterpiece. He’s joined
by English director Lee Blakeley, who makes his COC debut on the
heels of acclaimed productions for Minnesota Opera, Santa Fe
Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet, Scottish Opera, Vlaamse Opera and
Wexford Festival Opera. The opera follows the poet Hoffmann, a
writer of fantastical fables, as he spins dark reminiscences of
his failed attempts to find love. Making his COC debut in the
title role is American tenor Russell Thomas, one of the most
exciting vocal and dramatic talents on the international opera
and concert scene today. Also appearing as Hoffmann for two
performances is COC Ensemble graduate tenor David Pomeroy
(2009’s Madama Butterfly, 2006’s Faust) who recently made his
Metropolitan Opera debut in this role. A woman is at the heart
of each of the three stories that Hoffmann tells, and the COC
has brought together three outstanding sopranos for these roles:
Canadian Andriana Chuchman, in her COC debut, will be heard as
Olympia, the exquisite doll-like girl; Erin Wall, in her second
appearance for 11/12, portrays Antonia, the gentle artist; and
American Keri Alkema, also appearing with the company for the
first time, is the Venetian courtesan, Giulietta. The acclaimed
Canadian bass-baritone John Relyea makes his long-awaited COC
debut as Hoffmann’s four nemeses – Lindorf, Coppélius, Dr.
Miracle and Dapertutto – and COC Ensemble graduate mezzo-soprano
Lauren Segal (2011’s The Magic Flute and Nixon in China) returns
as Hoffmann’s companion Nicklausse and The Muse. Tenor Steven
Cole (2009’s Madama Butterfly) returns to sing the servants
Andrès, Cochenille, Frantz and Pitichinaccio. The Tales of
Hoffmann is a Vlaamse Opera production. It runs for nine
performances on April 10, 14, 18, 21, 27, May 3, 6, 8
and 14,
2012, and is sung in French with English SURTITLES™.
The 2012 spring season continues with a double bill of darkly
witty, one-act operas: Alexander Zemlinsky’s A Florentine
Tragedy and Giacomo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. These operas will
be presented in a new production by Catherine Malfitano
– one of
the world’s most acclaimed sopranos who also has turned to
directing – in her company debut. Sir Andrew Davis, who leads
the spring 2011 production of Ariadne auf Naxos, returns to
conduct. A Florentine Tragedy is a Canadian premiere and its
staging is a chance to discover a rare gem of the operatic
repertoire. Based on an unfinished play by Oscar Wilde, this
darkly satiric opera tells the tale of a merchant who discovers
his wife is having an affair with the Prince of Florence. Part
two of the double bill, Gianni Schicchi, is Puccini’s
tour-de-force comedy in which family members frantically scheme
to benefit their own greed when excluded from a wealthy
relative’s will. The two productions share singing-actor
bass-baritone Alan Held, making his company debut in the lead
roles of Simone (A Florentine Tragedy) and Gianni Schicchi, the
street-smart peasant hired to find a way around the will. German
soprano Gun-Brit Barkmin, winner of the Berlin Theatergemeinde’s
2002 Daphne Prize for best young actor, makes her COC debut as
Simone’s wife Bianca in A Florentine Tragedy
and as Nella in
Gianni Schicchi. German-Canadian tenor Michael König
also makes
his COC debut as Guido Bardi, the prince at the heart of A
Florentine Tragedy. Rounding out the cast of Gianni Schicchi
is
COC Ensemble soprano Simone Osborne, in her second 11/12
appearance with the COC, as Gianni’s daughter Lauretta; tenor
René Barbera, a 2008 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National
Council Auditions, making his company debut as Rinuccio,
Lauretta’s love; mezzo-soprano Barbara Dever (2010’s The Flying
Dutchman, 2008’s Eugene Onegin and Pelléas et Mélisande)
returning as the scheming Zita; Ensemble graduate tenor Adam
Luther is Gherardo; and bass Donato DiStefano
(Don Magnifico in
spring 2011’s La Cenerentola) is Simone, the patriarch of the
family. This will be the second time in the COC’s history that
Gianni Schicchi has been performed by the company; it was last
presented in 1996. The double bill of A Florentine
Tragedy/Gianni Schicchi runs for eight performances on
April 26,
May 2, 5, 12, 15, 18, 20 and 25, 2012.
A Florentine Tragedy is
sung in German and Gianni Schicchi is sung in Italian, both with
English SURTITLES™.
The COC’s 11/12 season closes with a production of George
Frideric Handel’s Semele. A COC premiere and the first Handel
opera to be performed at the Four Seasons Centre, Semele
is
directed and designed by famed Chinese sculptor and performance
artist Zhang Huan, who blends a Baroque aesthetic with the
splendour of China in a production the New York Times called
“scenically stunning, theatrically absorbing, musically
rewarding” and “a feast for the eyes.” The production’s
centerpiece is an actual Ming Dynasty ancestral temple, made out
of carved wood and salvaged by Huan from a small town in China.
He also incorporates dazzling and innovative visual effects
involving mirrors, puppetry, a Chinese dragon and artists that
sing while moving suspended through air. In the opera, a love
affair between the god Jupiter and the princess Semele goes
horribly awry when she sets her mind to become immortal. Nova
Scotia coloratura soprano Jane Archibald (making her COC debut
in spring 2011’s Ariadne auf Naxos) is the flighty, narcissistic
Semele. She leads a cast that includes American tenor William
Burden as Jupiter; COC Ensemble graduate mezzo-soprano
Allyson
McHardy (2009’s Madama Butterfly, 2008’s War and Peace and
Eugene Onegin) as both Jupiter’s jealous wife, Juno, and
Semele’s sister, Ino; soprano Katherine Whyte (fall 2011’s
Iphigenia in Tauris) as Juno’s messenger, Iris; American bass
Steven Humes, in his COC debut, portraying Semele’s father,
Cadmus, and the god of sleep, Somnus; and young countertenor
Anthony Roth Costanzo, a 2009 winner of the Metropolitan Opera
National Council Auditions, makes his COC debut as Athamas,
Ino’s love. Italian Baroque opera specialist Rinaldo
Alessandrini makes his COC debut conducting the COC Orchestra
and Chorus. Semele is a co-production of Théâtre Royal de la
Monnaie, Brussels and KT Wong Foundation. It is sung in English
with English SURTITLES™, and runs for eight performances on
May
9, 11, 13, 16, 19, 22, 24 and 26, 2012.
ENSEMBLE STUDIO PERFORMANCE OF SEMELE ON MAY 23, 2012
Experience the exciting young singers of the Canadian Opera
Company’s Ensemble Studio, as they perform Handel’s Semele
on
May 23, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. on the mainstage. This special
performance stars the Ensemble members with the full COC
Orchestra and Chorus under the direction of Semele’s conductor
Rinaldo Alessandrini and director Zhang Huan. For casting,
please visit the COC website at
coc.ca. Tickets are
accessibly priced at $22 and $55
per person. Prices include HST.
All repertoire, dates, pricing, productions, and casting are
subject to change without notice. For more complete casting and
creative team information, please see the Show Pages at
www.coc.ca.
The Canadian Opera Company will webcast the announcement of its
11/12 season live on coc.ca
on January 19, 2011 at 10 a.m.
from the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre in the Four Seasons
Centre for the Performing Arts. The webcast will be available
for streaming after the press conference.
For more information on the Canadian Opera Company’s 11/12
season, please visit coc.ca.
|
|
