program - Canadian Opera Company

Transcription

PROGRAM
WINTER 2016
SIEGFRIED
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
CONTENTS
4
Making
the arts
accessible.
HIS LIFE, HIS WORK,
HIS CRAZY SCHEDULE
Johannes Debus,
COC Music Director
6
7
NEWS FROM THE COC’S
ANNUAL GENERAL
MEETING
“This is our reply to violence:
to make music more intensely,
more beautifully, more devotedly
than ever before.”
Leonard Bernstein
BIOGRAPHIES
Who’s Who at the COC this
Winter
16
WHAT’S PLAYING:
SIEGFRIED
22
SIEGFRIED, MEMORY
AND IDENTITY
24
GET TO KNOW...
STEFAN VINKE
25
UP IN THE AIR
WITH THE COC!
28
BACKSTAGE AND
BEYOND
30
WHAT’S PLAYING:
THE MARRIAGE
OF FIGARO
36
HOLDING A MIRROR UP
TO NATURE
Jane Archibald and Erin Wall
on The Marriage of Figaro
BMO Financial Group is proud to sponsor the Canadian
Opera Company’s Student Dress Rehearsals and
Pre-Performance Opera Chats.
A MESSAGE FROM
GENERAL DIRECTOR
ALEXANDER NEEF
38
DARKNESS AND JOY
41
OPERA’S NEXT
GENERATION
Exploring the humanity of
Claus Guth’s Figaro
44
OPERA: FACES AND
WORDS
46
MANY THANKS
54
PATRON INFORMATION
AND POLICIES
Acknowledging our
many supporters
COC Program is published three times a
year by the Canadian Opera Company. All
rights reserved. Reproduction in whole
or in part without written consent is
prohibited. Contents copyright Canadian
Opera Company. Direct all advertising
inquiries to [email protected].
Program edited by Claudine Domingue,
Director of Public Relations; Kristin
McKinnon, Assistant Publicist; and, Gianna
Wichelow, Senior Manager, Creative and
Publications. Layout by Gianna Wichelow.
All information is correct at time of
printing. Photo credits are on page 53.
First of all, it gives me great pleasure
to announce that our exceptional
music director Johannes Debus has
extended his contract with the COC to
the end of the 2020/2021 season.
In January and February, two
extraordinary COC productions grace
the mainstage, both conducted by
Johannes, who will be making his
Siegfried debut.
This production also stars the
world’s most renowned Siegfried,
Stefan Vinke in his first Canadian
performances, and the incomparable
Christine Goerke, making her role
debut.
Our new Marriage of Figaro is a
production originally created by the
Salzburg Festival. Directed by the
renowned Claus Guth and starring
our own wonderful Jane Archibald,
Russell Braun and Erin Wall, we are
very pleased that this acclaimed
production now belongs to us.
The Marriage of Figaro is a
particularly poignant opera that truly
exemplifies the values of freedom of
speech and expression. Mozart’s opera
(and the comedy by Beaumarchais
it is based on) is among the earliest
pieces in the operatic canon to
deal with the ideas and values that
have recently come under attack in
Paris, Beirut, San Bernardino and
other places around the world. At
the COC, we feel it is important to
not only reflect on the impact of
these attacks, but also to honour
our Canadian values of freedom,
respect for cultural differences, and a
commitment to social justice. We are
proud of providing a cultural space
in this country where people are
free to gather, create art and express
opinions—freedoms not granted in
many places around the world.
Opening night of Figaro will include
a special presentation by the COC
Orchestra of the National Anthem at
the top of the performance, and a few
brief remarks from me to dedicate the
production of The Marriage of Figaro
to the Canadian values we hold so
dear.
Every new calendar year at the COC
begins with a season announcement.
For the third year in a row, our
subscribers were part of the
excitement at the 2016/2017 Season
Launch Celebration last week,
becoming the first to hear about our
upcoming line-up of productions. In
addition to our beloved classics, Tosca
and The Magic Flute, the majesty of
Götterdämmerung, and superb new
productions of Norma and Ariodante,
we are presenting, in collaboration
with Canada’s National Arts Centre, a
new production of Louis Riel to help
mark the country’s 150th birthday. I’m
sure you agree that 16/17 is a season
worth celebrating! (Please refer to the
insert within this program for more
information).
Finally, over the past year, COC staff
and volunteers have been looking
further ahead into the future and
embarked on an extensive strategic
planning process called COC365.
At the heart of the new mission
and vision for the company is
our unequivocal belief in artistic
excellence, and, in the next five
years, we will turn our dreams and
ideas into concrete plans to help
our large, multi-faceted, and everevolving company grow even better
and stronger. With COC365, we will
bring the transformative experience of
opera to our local, national, and global
audience every day of the year. You
won’t want to miss a moment of it!
CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY 2015/2016
3
JOHANNES DEBUS,
COC MUSIC DIRECTOR
HIS LIFE,
HIS WORK,
HIS CRAZY
SCHEDULE
BY CLAUDINE DOMINGUE
We caught up with our busy maestro
as he prepares to conduct both operas
this winter run.
it again, and I might have a different
answer, but right now I’m very happy
about it!
Johannes, how do you perform
two operas back-to-back? Isn’t it
exhausting?
Do you do a lot of preparation the
day you conduct?
Well, first of all, an instrumentalist
wants to play, a singer wants to sing
and conductor wants to conduct,
so it’s actually great when you have
performances back-to-back. Yes,
admittedly, it could have been a
“lighter menu.” But, I’m fortunate to
have two of the greatest composers in
the operatic repertoire, Wagner and
Mozart, and I find so much energy and
inspiration in that music. Both operas
are such masterpieces that you don’t
think about how exhausting it might
be. Ask me after the run if I would do
4
Yes and no. I do need some time
to prepare, to get into the “zone.” I
need this moment—and of course,
for Siegfried and Figaro it’s a longer
moment because the works are long—
to mentally go through the piece. I
also try to reflect on what happened
in the performance before and what
I have to do better, or maybe what I
want to do differently this time.
Do you prepare for some pieces
differently?
For an opera like Siegfried, I try
to understand the “structure” of
the piece—the architecture of each
act—trying to somehow connect the
very beginning with the very end,
and by doing that, build this arc over
the whole evening. For something
like Figaro, I try to capture the
“atmosphere” of the piece. Also, as
always in Mozart you are trying to deal
with the emotions of the characters.
Mozart is a composer of the soul and
what the soul is going through, so, I
have to know what state of mind each
character is in at each moment, and
then try to connect with it. Those
kinds of things are going through my
mind in preparation for each opera.
So, yes, in answer to your question,
there is preparation. I can’t just jump
into the pit, look at the score and say,
“Oh well, it’s Figaro, it’s Siegfried
tonight!” and start. It doesn’t work for
me.
Both winter operas are pretty long,
Siegfried particularly. How do you
and the musicians get through
them?
What have you been up to since
Pyramus and Thisbe closed, and
what does the rest of your season
look like?
Wagner conductors are always revered
for their stamina and strength, but, in
fact, I think sometimes it’s far more
exhausting to conduct a Verdi opera
than to follow the natural flow of
Wagner’s music. It’s so well written
for all the instruments that everyone
loves to play it. Wagner, even though
he loved to write longer operas, was
extremely clever in terms of pacing of
the piece. Each act has maybe one real
climax. As the conductor you have to
know where those climaxes are, and
you work towards them and try not to
exhaust yourself and everyone else too
early. If you understand that, then it’s
not as difficult to get through as one
might imagine.
In November, I did a very special
concert with the San Diego Symphony,
in which the symphony collaborated
with the city’s art museum. After that
I made my debut with the National
Arts Centre Orchestra, conducting the
world premiere of a new piece by Ana
Sokolovic*. Then I spent some time in
Berlin studying the winter operas. In
the middle of the Siegfried and Figaro
run, I have a concert with the Royal
Conservatory Orchestra on February
12, which we kind of squeezed into
my crazy schedule. I was released
from the spring run here because I
got an offer from my old theatre in
Frankfurt to do a production of The
Cunning Little Vixen. I’m a real lover
of Janácek’s music and I’m also very
happy to be back in Frankfurt and
reconnect with my old “opera family.”
v
How can Verdi be more difficult to
conduct than Wagner?
I think it was Daniel Barenboim
who said that Verdi is always in the
present and Wagner is always in the
development of something, of getting
somewhere. Another conductor said
Verdi’s music is vertical and Wagner’s
is horizontal. This means that Verdi’s
operas force you to jump start your
engine at the very beginning and
that requires a lot of energy. And you
have to keep that motor going at high
speed for the whole opera. That might
be a reason that you sweat a little bit
more during a Verdi opera than you do
in a Wagner opera.
In a way I was really lucky that I could
spend a long time in Frankfurt and it
became a kind of home for me. When
I left Frankfurt, I came here and found
a new beautiful home. I have to say
that I’m very, very grateful for that,
and I have to remind myself how good
things turned out for me!
On January 13, 2016, at the public
launch of the COC’s 2016/2017
season, General Director Alexander
Neef announced that a new contract
for Johannes Debus extends his
tenure with the Canadian Opera
Company through to June 30, 2021.
Last year, your son was born the
same day as a performance of Die
Walküre. How did you get through
that run?
Noah was born at 12:45 in the
afternoon, and the performance
started at 6:30 that evening. I have no
clear memories of that performance;
I know that I was on an adrenaline
high. I knew I had to conduct that
night and I can’t rationalize it… I knew
that I had to do it somehow for this
little creature, for this little wonderful
being… It was a very memorable night,
that’s for sure.
*Ana Sokolovic has been commissioned to
compose a new opera for the COC for the
2019/2020 season. La Reine-Garçon will have
a libretto by Quebec playwright Michel Marc
Bouchard from his play of the same name.
Claudine Domingue is Director of
Public Relations at the COC.
Maestro moments: In rehearsal for the world
premiere of Pyramus and Thisbe, Johannes with
director Christopher Alden (top) and tenor Owen
McCausland (third image from the top).
Johannes Debus is generously
underwritten by George and Kathy
Dembroski
5
WELCOMES, FAREWELLS...
AND THREE REAL OPERA HEROES
BY NIKITA GOURSKI
At the COC’s Annual General Meeting
on October 22, 2015, General Director
Alexander Neef welcomed Timothy
Loftsgard and Yael Woodward as new
members to the Board of Directors,
and paid special tribute to Mr. Tony
Arrell, who stepped down as Chair after
serving his three-year term.
“During those three years, Tony has
been the COC’s biggest champion,
an energetic leader, and a thoughtful
mentor to us all,” Mr. Neef said at the
event. “We can’t thank him enough and
I am very happy that he remains on the
Board.”
Long-time COC supporter and Board
member Colleen Sexsmith transitions
from her role as Vice-Chair to Chair
of the Board, while Justin Linden
transitioned and took up the duties of
Vice-Chair.
Mr. Neef also announced the retirement
of several Board members: Mark
Appel, Rob Brouwer, Stewart Burton,
Adam Froman, Stephen Marshall,
Nick Mutton, and Michele Symons,
noting their incredible enthusiasm and
unwavering generosity to the company.
Together they represent nearly four
decades of board service, and have had
a tremendous cumulative impact on the
COC, steering the organization from
a role of national importance to one of
international renown.
BIOGRAPHIES
WHO’S WHO
AT THE COC
THIS WINTER
Last but not least, Mr. Neef also
unveiled new appointees to the Life
Trustees Council, a recognition society
comprising philanthropic and artistic
leaders whose efforts have been integral
to the company’s transformative history
of accomplishment. Arthur Scace, Rob
Collins, and David Stanley-Porter were
all welcomed into the prestigious
Life Trustees Council.
Life Trustees Council Appointments
MR. ARTHUR R. A. SCACE
For nearly 20 years, Mr. Scace has served the COC in a variety of capacities, including Past President and Chair
of the COC’s Board of Directors, Co-Chair of the COC’s Capital Campaign Cabinet—Four Seasons Centre, and
President of the Canadian Opera House Corporation (COHC). As President of the COHC and Co-Chair of
the Capital Campaign Cabinet, he was instrumental in helping the COC with the building of the Four Seasons
Centre. He was also an inspiring champion of the new opera house, leading numerous personal tours of the
building site to potential donors and advocating for the investment required for the project to succeed.
MR. J. ROB COLLINS
Intimately involved with every aspect of the company’s administration for almost two decades, Mr. Collins
has been a generous supporter and advocate for the COC. In particular, his guidance during the construction
of our opera house has been superlative. Mr. Collins chaired countless board and committee meetings,
attended dozens of cultivation events, solicited scores of prospective donors and made numerous site visits.
During his two-year term as President of the COC (2004-2006), he not only participated in the conversion
of a parking lot into a world-class opera house, but also presided over the board’s supervision of the COC’s
operations, including fundraising and world-class productions.
DR. DAVID STANLEY-PORTER
Dr. Stanley-Porter has been an inspiring educator for the COC since the early 1980s, bringing neighbours, coworkers, and friends to this company in huge numbers and supporting the operatic art form by broadening
its audience. Through his Opera Courses and Opera Tours, he has enriched the opera experience for
thousands of people. He graciously donated the funds constituting his salary back to the company, catalyzing
more than $2 million in revenues for the COC. He has also been an enthusiastic individual donor, supporting
the company’s wide-ranging operations through major gift donations, including Capital Campaign,
production underwriting of modern operas, artist sponsorship, and annual giving through his Golden Circle
membership.
6
WOLFGANG ABLINGER- JANE ARCHIBALD
Soprano (Truro, NS)
SPERRHACKE
Tenor (Zell am See, Austria)
Susanna,
Mime, Siegfried
The Marriage of Figaro
COC DEBUT
RECENT
Herod, Salome (Vienna State Opera
and Opernhaus Zürich)
Hauptmann, Wozzeck (Teatro all Scala
and Opernhaus Zürich)
The Prince, Lulu (Bayerische
Staatsoper)
Monostatos, The Magic Flute (Dutch
National Opera)
UPCOMING
Loge, Das Rheingold (Opera North)
Mime, Das Rheingold (Staatsoper im
Schiller Theater)
Pollux, Die Liebe der Danae (Salzburg
Festival)
COC DEBUT
Zerbinetta, Ariadne auf Naxos, 2011
RECENT
Zerbinetta, Ariadne auf Naxos (Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden)
Konstanze, Die Entführung aus dem
Serail (Théâtre des ChampsElysées, Festival d’Aix en
Provence)
Queen of the Night, The Magic Flute
(Opéra national de Paris)
UPCOMING
Cunégonde, Candide (Hamburger
Symphoniker, Hamburg)
Donna Anna, Don Giovanni (Theater
an der Wien)
MEREDITH ARWADY
Contralto (Kalamazoo, MI, USA)
Erda, Siegfried
COC DEBUT
Death, The Nightingale and Other
Short Fables (COC at BAM, 2011)
RECENT
Zita, Gianni Schicchi (Los Angeles
Opera)
Aunt Hannah Watkins, Emmeline
(Opera Theatre of Saint Louis)
Schwertleite, Die Walküre (Houston
Grand Opera)
UPCOMING
Erda and First Norn, Ring Cycle (Oper
Frankfurt)
Erda, Siegfried (Houston Grand
Opera)
DEREK BATE
GORDON BINTNER
Siegfried
Count Almaviva,
Bass-baritone (Regina, SK)
Assistant Conductor
(Toronto, ON)
COC DEBUT
Conductor, Carmen, 1979
RECENT
Pyramus and Thisbe (with Lamento
d’Arianna and Il combattimento di
Clorinda e Tancredi), COC
Bluebeard’s Castle/Erwartung, COC
Die Walküre, COC
Conductor, The Student Prince
(Toronto Operetta Theatre)
UPCOMING
Carmen, COC
(Ensemble Studio performance)
COC DEBUT
Customs Official, La Bohème, 2013
RECENT
Figaro, The Marriage of Figaro
(Manitoba Opera)
Don Basilio, The Barber of Seville
(COC Ensemble Studio
performance)
Guglielmo, Così fan tutte (Milwaukee
Symphony Orchestra)
UPCOMING
Papageno, The Magic Flute (Michigan
Opera Theatre)
Araldo, Otello (Salzburg Easter
Festival)
7
KARINE BOUCHER
RUSSELL BRAUN
MICHAEL COLVIN
JORDAN DE SOUZA
JOHANNES DEBUS
Susanna,
Count Almaviva,
Basilio,
Siegfried and The
Marriage of Figaro
Soprano (Quebec City, QC)
COC DEBUT
Kate Pinkerton, Madama Butterfly,
2014
RECENT
Berta, The Barber of Seville (COC)
Mimì, La Bohème (Jeunesses
Musicales)
Miss Pinkerton, The Old Maid and the
Thief (Opéra de Montréal)
Annina, La Traviata (Opéra de
Montréal)
Inez, Il Trovatore (Opéra de Montréal)
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Baritone (Georgetown, ON)
COC DEBUT
Servant, Der Rosenkavalier, 1990
RECENT
Pentheus, Les Bassarids (Teatro
dell’Opera di Roma)
Lescaut, Manon (Metropolitan Opera)
Don Giovanni, Don Giovanni (COC)
UPCOMING
Micaëla, Carmen (COC)
UPCOMING
Soloist, Brett Dean’s Songs of Joy
(Toronto Symphony Orchestra)
Soloist, Brahms’ Vier Ernste Gesänge
(Stuttgart Radio Symphony)
The Man, Senza Sangue (Göteborgs
Symfoniker)
Louis Riel, Louis Riel (COC)
SASHA DJIHANIAN
Barbarina,
Soprano (Montreal, QC)
COC DEBUT
Annio, La clemenza di Tito, 2013
RECENT
Zerlina, Don Giovanni (COC)
Pedro, Don Quichotte (COC)
Susanna, The Marriage of Figaro
(Opera Lyra)
UPCOMING
Frasquita, Carmen (COC)
Fiordiligi, Così fan tutte (Opéra de
Massy and Opéra de Reims)
Tenor (Toronto, ON)
COC DEBUT
Count Almaviva, The Barber of Seville,
1999
RECENT
L’Aumônier, Dialogues des Carmélites
(Dutch National Opera)
Rodolphe, Guillaume Tell (Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden)
Peter Grimes, Peter Grimes (English
National Opera)
Herod, Salome (Northern Ireland
Opera)
Conductor (Feb. 23 and 25) /
Assistant Conductor (Toronto, ON)
COC DEBUT
Assistant Conductor, Dialogues des
Carmélites, 2013
RECENT
Assistant Conductor, La Traviata, Un
ballo in maschera, La Bohème
(COC)
Conductor, Verdi's Requiem (Ottawa
Symphony)
Conductor, Mass in B Minor, St.
Matthew Passion, St. John Passion
(Ensemble Caprice)
Conductor, M'dea Undone (Tapestry Opera)
COC Music Director (Berlin,
Germany/Toronto, ON)
COC DEBUT
War and Peace, 2008
RECENT
National Arts Centre Orchestra
San Diego Symphony
Pyramus and Thisbe with Lamento
Tancredi e Clorinda (COC)
Aspen Chamber Symphony (Aspen
Music Festival)
The Tales of Hoffmann (Bregenz
Festival)
UPCOMING
Duke of Cornwall, Lear (Opéra
national de Paris)
The Painter, Lulu (English National
Opera)
UPCOMING
Conductor, Rocking Horse Winner
(Tapestry Opera)
Conductor, Romeo and Juliet (National
Ballet of Canada)
Assistant Conductor, Franco Faccio's
Amleto (Bregenz Festival)
UPCOMING
The Cunning Little Vixen (Oper
Frankfurt)
The Marriage of Figaro (Komische
Oper Berlin)
PHILLIP ENS
DONNA FEORE
DAVID FINN
EMILY FONS
Fafner, Siegfried
Siegfried
Siegfried
Cherubino,
Bass (Winkler, MB)
Choreographer (Stratford, ON)
COC DEBUT
Don Fernando, Fidelio, 1991
COC DEBUT
Red Emma, 1995
RECENT
Jorg, Stiffelio (Metropolitan Opera)
Claggart, Billy Budd (Glyndebourne
Festival and Houston Grand
Opera)
Fafner, Das Rheingold and Siegfried
(Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden)
RECENT
Director/Choreographer, The Sound
of Music, Crazy for You, Fiddler on
the Roof (Stratford Festival)
Creative Producer/Director, Dear Life
and I Lost my Talk (National Arts
Centre)
Director, Mendelssohn’s A
Midsummers Night Dream,
National Arts Centre
UPCOMING
Ramfis, Aida (L’Opéra de Montréal)
King Mark, Tristan and Isolde
(Musiktheater im Revier)
UPCOMING
Director/Choreographer, A Chorus Line
(Stratford Festival)
Lighting Designer (Mill Valley,
CA, USA)
COC DEBUT
Venus and Adonis, 2001
RECENT
Hänsel und Gretel (Dutch National
Opera)
The Marriage of Figaro (Opera
Australia)
Roméo et Juliette (Deutsche Oper
Berlin)
UPCOMING
Così fan tutte (Opera Australia)
Tannhäuser (Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden)
Mezzo-Soprano (Milwaukee, WI,
USA)
COC DEBUT
RECENT
Prince Orlofsky, Die Fledermaus (New
Orleans Opera)
Ruby, Cold Mountain (Santa Fe
Opera)
Rosina, The Barber of Seville (Opera
Theatre of St. Louis)
UPCOMING
Rosina, The Barber of Seville (Lyric
Opera Baltimore and Pittsburgh
Opera)
Soloist, Crescendo at White River
State Park (Indianapolis Opera)
Stéphano, Roméo et Juliette (Santa
Fe Opera)
9
JEAN-PHILIPPE
FORTIER-LAZURE
Tenor (Kitchener-Waterloo, ON)
Don Curzio (main cast)
Don Basilio
COC DEBUT
Count Almaviva, The Barber of Seville
(Ensemble Studio Performance,
2015)
RECENT
Giuseppe, La Traviata (COC)
Pelléas, Pelléas et Mélisande (Nova
Scotia Opera Company)
Chevalier de la Force, Dialogues
des Carmélites (Atelier d’Opéra,
University of Montreal)
AVIVA FORTUNATA
FRANÇOIS GIRARD
The Countess,
Director, Siegfried
Soprano (Calgary, AB)
COC DEBUT
Fiordiligi, Così fan tutte (Ensemble
Studio performance, 2014)
RECENT
Annina, La Traviata (COC)
Berta, The Barber of Seville (COC)
Helmwige, Die Walküre (COC)
Song Prize Finalist, 2015 BBC Cardiff
Singer of the World
UPCOMING
Clotilde, Norma (COC)
(Montreal, QC)
COC DEBUT
Oedipus Rex with Symphony of
Psalms, 1997
RECENT
Parsifal (Metropolitan Opera)
Boychoir (Informant Films)
Zarkana (Cirque du Soleil)
UPCOMING
Waiting for Godot (Théâtre du
Nouveau Monde, Montreal)
The Hunting Gun (Tokyo)
War Requiem (Opéra de Lyon)
UPCOMING
Remendado, Carmen (COC)
CHRISTINE GOERKE
Soprano (Valley Stream, NY,
USA)
Brünnhilde, Siegfried
ALLISON GRANT
Assistant Director (Toronto, ON)
COC DEBUT
Brünnhilde, Die Walküre, 2015
COC DEBUT
Choreographer/Assistant Director,
Queen of Spades, 2002
RECENT
Turandot, Turandot (Metropolitan
Opera)
Elektra, Elektra (Boston Symphony
Orchestra)
Brünnhilde, Die Walküre (Houston
Grand Opera)
RECENT
Director, The Magic Flute (Hawaii
Opera Theatre)
Director/Choreographer, The Marriage
of Figaro (Sarasota Opera)
Director/Choreographer, Roméo et
Juliétte (Vancouver Opera)
UPCOMING
Brünnhilde, Siegfried (Houston Grand
Opera)
Turandot, Turandot (Opera
Philadelphia)
Brünnhilde, Ring Cycle (Metropolitan
Opera)
UPCOMING
Director, The Hobbit (Canadian
Children’s Opera Company)
Director/Choreographer, Company
(Music Theatre on the Thames)
Image credit: SEAN GALBRAITH, Palace Theatre, 2014
MARILYN GRONSDAL
CLAUS GUTH
ALAN HELD
Siegfried
Director,
The Wanderer, Siegfried
Associate Director (Toronto, ON)
COC DEBUT
Director, La Bohème, 2009
RECENT
Assistant Director, Pyramus and
Thisbe with Lamento d’Arianna
and Il combattimento di Clorinda e
Tancredi (COC)
Co-director, Madama Butterfly
(Saskatoon Opera)
Assistant Director, Bluebeard’s Castle/
Erwartung (COC)
Associate Director, Die Walküre (COC)
UPCOMING
Assistant Director, Maometto II (COC)
(Frankfurt, Germany)
COC DEBUT
RECENT
Der Rosenkavalier (Oper Frankfurt)
Fidelio (Salzburg Festival)
Líncoronazione di Poppea (Theater
an der Wien)
Salome (Deutsche Oper Berlin)
UPCOMING
Rigoletto (Opéra national de Paris)
Juliette (Staatsoper Berlin im Schiller
Theater)
Bass-Baritone (Washburn, IL,
USA)
COC DEBUT
Simone/Schicchi, A Florentine
Tragedy/Gianni Schicchi, 2012
RECENT
Orest, Elektra (Opéra de Montréal)
Kurwenal, Tristan und Isolde
(Bayerische Staatsoper)
Don Pizarro, Fidelio (San Francisco
Symphony)
UPCOMING
Wotan, Ring Cycle (Washington
National Opera)
Jochanaan, Salome (Staatsoper Wien)
SANDRA HORST
ULI KIRSCH
Cherubim,
Chorus Master (Toronto, ON)
COC DEBUT
Norma, 1998
RECENT
La Traviata (COC)
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SIEGFRIED
BY RICHARD WAGNER
Drama in Three Acts w Libretto in German by Richard Wagner
First performance: Festspielhaus, Bayreuth, August 16, 1876,
the Second Day of the Ring Cycle
COC PRODUCTION
Last performed by the COC in 2006
January 23, 27, 30, February 2, 5, 11, 14, 2016
Sung in German with English SURTITLES™
THE CAST
(in order of vocal appearance)
Mime.............................................................. Wolfgang Ablinger-SperrhackeD
Siegfried...................................................... Stefan VinkeD***
The Wanderer............................................ Alan Held
Alberich........................................................ Christopher PurvesD****
Fafner........................................................... Phillip Ens
Forest Bird.................................................. Jacqueline Woodley^
Erda............................................................... Meredith Arwady
Brünnhilde................................................... Christine Goerke**
The Bear...................................................... George Molnar
Conductor................................................... Johannes Debus*
Director........................................................ François Girard
Associate Director................................... Marilyn Gronsdal
Set and Costume Designer.................. Michael Levine
Lighting Designer.................................... David Finn
Choreographer.......................................... Donna Feore
Stage Manager.......................................... Cynthia Toushan
SURTITLES™ Producer........................... Gunta Dreifelds
Performance time is approximately five hours, with two intermissions
Production originally made possible by Kolter Communities
*Johannes Debus is generously underwritten by George & Kathy Dembroski
**Christine Goerke’s performance is generously sponsored by Jack Whiteside
***Stefan Vinke’s performance is generously sponsored by an anonymous donor
****Christopher Purves’ performance is generously sponsored by
Kristine Vikmanis and Denton Creighton
D
COC Debut ^ Graduate of COC Ensemble Studio
Program information is correct at time of printing. All casting is subject to change.
GO SCENT FREE: In consideration of patrons with allergies, please avoid wearing
strongly perfumed beauty products and fragrances.
Christian Franz in the title role of the COC’s 2005 production of Siegfried.
16
17
Synopsis
PRELUDE – ACT I
Scene i:
Mime the Nibelung knows he must repair the shattered
sword Nothung if he wants to reclaim the Ring from Fafner
the dragon. The sword rightfully belongs to Siegfried, the
boy Mime has raised from infancy without knowledge of
other people or of fear. Siegfried returns home from the
forest with a bear. He loses patience with Mime and grabs
him by the throat, demanding that Mime fix the sword. Mime
sobs in frustration at being unable to fix Nothung.
Scene ii:
The Wanderer enters Mime’s home. He challenges Mime
to a battle of riddles; the winner can claim the loser’s life.
Winning handily, The Wanderer spares Mime and tells him
that a man who has never learned fear will forge the sword,
and it will be that man who takes Mime’s life.
Scene iii:
Siegfried enters to check on the progress of Nothung, but
Mime can think of nothing but The Wanderer’s prophecy.
Mime tells Siegfried that he must fight Fafner, the giant, who
has taken the Rhinemaiden’s gold and turned himself into
a dragon, but Siegfried refuses to fight without his sword.
Siegfried himself sets to work on the sword. As Siegfried
successfully re-forges Nothung, Mime makes plans to poison
him after his battle with Fafner.
Director’s Notes
instinctively, he puts his fingers in his mouth. After tasting
the blood, he discovers he can understand the bird’s song.
The Forest Bird tells him to take only the magical helmet
(Tarnhelm) and the Ring. Siegfried disappears into the cave.
Scene iii:
Timidly returning to the mouth of the cave, Mime finds a
defiant Alberich waiting for him. The dwarves begin to argue
over who will get Tarnhelm and the Ring. They fade into the
background while Siegfried speaks again to the Forest Bird,
who tells him that Mime is false and shouldn’t be trusted.
Mime walks toward Siegfried and offers him a drink for his
thirst. Because of the spell cast by Fafner’s blood, Siegfried
hears Mime’s murderous thoughts. With one swing of
his sword, Siegfried strikes Mime dead. Lonely, Siegfried
wonders how to proceed. The Forest Bird tells Siegfried of a
bride up on a mountain, guarded in her sleep by a ring of fire.
Only one who has no fear can fight the flames and wake her
from sleep. Siegfried starts out for the mountain.
INTERMISSION
INTERMISSION
ACT III
Scene i:
The Wanderer wakes the earth goddess Erda from her long
slumber. Erda cannot help him, as her power is declining.
The Wanderer finally admits that Erda was right about her
predictions regarding the end of the world. He allows her to
return to her slumber.
ACT II
Scene i:
Alberich the Nibelung waits at the mouth of Fafner’s cave for
the moment he can seize the Ring. The Wanderer approaches
Alberich and tells him he has come to witness what happens
next. The Wanderer calls to Fafner in his cave and leaves
Alberich to his fate.
Scene ii:
The Wanderer intercepts Siegfried at the foot of Brünnhilde’s
mountain. Believing this is his last chance to end the
destruction, he blocks Siegfried’s way with his spear, but
Siegfried shatters it. The Wanderer’s power now completely
gone, he gathers the pieces of his spear and disappears into
the darkness.
Scene ii:
Alberich hides as Mime and Siegfried reach Fafner’s cave.
Mime describes the ghastly Fafner; his poisonous drool, his
twisting tail, his merciless heart. Siegfried is not afraid, and
demands Mime leave. Once Mime is out of sight, Siegfried
begins to reminisce about his parents, imagining his mother
is speaking to him through a Forest Bird. With a flute, he
mimics the bird’s song. Fafner appears. They fight; Siegfried
and Nothung make quick work of the shocked Fafner.
As Fafner dies, he tells Siegfried about the Ring’s curse.
Siegfried accidently touches Fafner’s blood, which burns;
Scene iii:
Siegfried climbs the mountain, flames all around him. He
sees a warrior lying sleeping. As he approaches, he sees that
the warrior is, in fact, the bride the Forest Bird told him about.
Enchanted by her beauty, Siegfried wonders how to wake her.
Fear consumes him as he reaches down for a kiss. Brünnhilde
awakes, and asks for his name. They marvel at the wonder of
their meeting, and proclaim their love. Brünnhilde realizes
she has lost her immortality, but chooses to remain with
Siegfried, though it may mean her death. They joyously vow
to go to their deaths together.
18
Everything seems to have been said about Richard
Wagner’s Ring of the Niebelung. From Nietzsche to Jung
and Freud, from Mahler to Shaw, Donington, Magee,
a remarkable number of scholars and thinkers from
all fields have commented on the work. Still today, in
Wagner Societies around the world and in intellectual
circles, the discussion continues. It is hard to think
of another piece that has captured music and theatre
lovers’ imaginations so completely. And yet, despite
the various essays and countless interpretations,
including the composer’s own, The Ring has resisted all
attempts to define it. During the 20 years Wagner took
to compose it, his entire worldview shifted and he even
sometimes contradicted himself when commenting on
his masterpiece. The Ring’s reach is larger than anyone’s
grasp and the life that lies beneath it speaks in its own
voice.
Within The Ring, Siegfried remains the most abstract of
the four operas and this is what first attracted me to it. It
holds a very special place in the Ring Cycle. The audience
comes to the theatre with the foreknowledge of Das
Rheingold and Die Walküre—it is a memory play of sorts
where the spectator already knows what the hero does
not which allows Wagner to make the most powerful use
of his famous leitmotif structures.
Above: Christian Franz starred as Siegfried and Robert Künzli as Mime in
the COC’s 2005 production of Siegfried.
The mythical sources of Siegfried, as well as the whole
cycle, its pre-Freudian symbolism and its musical
complexity perfectly illustrate the revolution Wagner’s
‘music drama’ wrought in the operatic world. In much
the same way that Beethoven transformed symphonic
My gratitude goes out to the late Richard Bradshaw for the
invitation to be part of this incredible journey he and the
COC undertook more than a decade ago.
music, Wagner made emotions and inner thoughts the
landscape of his work. And this is exactly where we started—
by exploring the introspective nature of the piece in the
hopes of hearing its true voice shine through.
François Girard
IN MEMORIAM: MARIA RADNER
Last March, the COC was among many opera companies around the world greatly shocked and
saddened by the untimely death of German contralto Maria Radner.
Ms. Radner made her COC debut in 2009 in The Nightingale and Other Short Fables, and was
scheduled to sing this winter at the COC as Erda in Siegfried. Only in her early 30s, she had
already built an international career singing a wide range of alto repertoire, particuarly renowned
for her performances in works by Wagner, Mahler and Strauss.
Ms. Radner died on March 24, 2015, along with her partner Sascha Schenk and their infant son,
Felix, when Germanwings Flight 9525 crashed near the French alps.
19
Orchestra
VIOLIN 1
Marie Bérard, Concertmaster
The Concertmaster’s chair has been
endowed in perpetuity by Joey and
Toby Tanenbaum
Aaron Schwebel, Associate
Concertmaster
Jamie Kruspe, Assistant Concertmaster
Anne Armstrong
Sandra Baron (leave of absence)
Bethany Bergman
Hua-Chu Huang**
Hiroko Kagawa*
Nancy Kershaw
Boris Kupesic*
Dominique Laplante
Yakov Lerner
Renée London*
Jayne Maddison
Neria Mayer
Aya Miyagawa
VIOLIN II
Paul Zevenhuizen, Principal
Csaba Koczó, Assistant Principal
Laura D’Angelo*
James Aylesworth
Jennie Baccante*
Christine Chesebrough*
Corey Gemmell*
Elizabeth Johnston
Sarah Kim*
Yada Lee**
Alexey Pankratov*
Sonia Shklarov*
Louise Tardif
Marianne Urke (leave of absence)
Sonia Vizante*
Joanna Zabrowarna
VIOLA
Keith Hamm, Principal
Joshua Greenlaw, Assistant Principal
Carolyn Blackwell*
Katrina Chitty*
Catherine Gray*
Sheila Jaffé
Chau Luk*
Rory McLeod*
Nicholaos Papadakis*
Laurence Schaufele*
Beverley Spotton
Yosef Tamir
Meagan Turner**
CELLO
Bryan Epperson, Principal
Alastair Eng, Associate Principal
Paul Widner, Assistant Principal
Maurizio Baccante
Naomi Barron*
Drew Comstock**
Peter Cosbey*
Bryan Holt*
Olga Laktionova
Marianne Pack*
Elaine Thompson
BASS
Alan Molitz, Principal
Robert Speer, Assistant Principal
Nick Davis*
Tom Hazlitt
Paul Langley
Eric Lee*
Doug Ohashi**
Reuven Rothman*
Robert Wolanski*
FLUTE
Douglas Stewart, Principal
Leslie Newman
Maria Pelletier
PICCOLO
Shelley Brown
Maria Pelletier
OBOE
Mark Rogers, Principal
Jasper Hitchcock
Lief Mosbaugh
ENGLISH HORN
Lesley Young
CLARINET
James T. Shields, Principal
James Ormston
Michele Verheul
BASS CLARINET
Colleen Cook
BASSOON
Eric Hall, Principal
William Cannaway
Elizabeth Gowen
CONTRA BASSOON
Elizabeth Gowen
HORN
Mikhailo Babiak, Principal
Sarah Sutherland, Assistant Principal*
Janet Anderson
Roslyn Black*
Jessie Brooks*
Erin Cooper-Gay*
Bardhyl Gjevori
David Quackenbush*
Gary Pattison
WAGNER TUBAS
Roslyn Black*
Bardhyl Gjevori
David Quackenbush*
Gary Pattison
TRUMPET
Robert Grim, Principal
Michael Fedyshyn*
Robert Weymouth
MUSIC STAFF
Eric Weimer (Head of Music Preparation)
Anne Larlee
Jennifer Szeto (Ensemble Studio Intern
Coach)
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
Derek Bate
FIGHT DIRECTOR
James Binkley
ASSISTANT CHOREOGRAPHER
Stephen Cota
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERS
Stephanie Marrs
Joanna Barrotta
ASSISTANT LIGHTING DESIGNERS
Andrea Nelson
Davida Tkach
WALLY RUSSELL LIGHTING INTERN
Wesley McKenzie
DANCERS
Matthew Armet
Alexandra Herzog
Galen Johnson
Bonnie Jean Jordan
Chad McFadden
Jason Sermonia
UNDERSTUDIES
Siegfried
Clay Hilley
Mime
Michael Colvin
Alberich
Robert Pomakov
Erda
Megan Latham
Forest Bird
Karine Boucher
BASS TRUMPET
David Pell*
TROMBONE
Charles Benaroya, Principal
Ian Cowie
BASS TROMBONE
Herbert Poole
Megan Hodge*
CONTRABASS TROMBONE
Megan Hodge*
TUBA
Scott Irvine, Principal
TIMPANI
Michael Perry, Principal
Trevor Tureski
PERCUSSION
Trevor Tureski, Principal
Chung Ling Lo*
Ryan Scott*
HARP
Sarah Davidson, Principal
Sanya Eng*
BACKSTAGE HORN
Mikhailo Babiak
LIBRARIAN
Wayne Vogan
ASSISTANT MUSIC LIBRARIAN
Ondrej Golias
STAGE LIBRARIAN
Paul Langley
PERSONNEL MANAGER
Ian Cowie
*extra musician
**Orchestra Academy member
Right: Susan Bullock was Brünnhilde in the COC’s 2006 production of Siegfried.
20
21
SIEGFRIED, MEMORY,
AND IDENTITY
BY STEPHAN
BONFIELD
When we first meet the hero Siegfried,
we encounter a man-child-demigod
trying to learn about his own past and
identity from someone who can tell
him very little about either. What the
unscrupulous Mime does know, he
buttresses with untruths in a petulant,
fitful manner, claiming to be both
Siegfried's father and mother, so as to
use him for his own sinister purposes
to acquire the Ring.
We may not realize it right away, but
our first encounter with Siegfried is
with someone whose very human
qualities we know all too well,
recognizable from earlier stages in
our own lives—naïveté, innocence,
manipulability—in short, someone with
an underdeveloped identity.
When we begin to seek first awareness
of our own identities we start with who
our parents are. Unlike Siegfried, most
of us are fortunate enough to know our
parents' identities, and even to know a
lot about our own heritage. Knowing
our past becomes a guarantor for
taking first firm steps toward knowing
ourselves.
But for Siegfried, the basic first step
toward taking action in the world is
hampered by his disconnection from
his own past. He knows nothing of the
events we saw in the previous music
drama Die Walküre, nothing of his
parents Siegmund or Sieglinde, nor of
his infamous grandfather Wotan, who
now seeks truth about the fate of the
gods and the world disguised as The
Wanderer. Above all, Siegfried knows
nothing of fear itself, that great human
attribute that makes us cautious in
our tentative first steps toward selfknowledge.
22
Wagner presents Siegfried's lack of
knowledge about his own identity in
revealing, metaphorical fashion. The
hero, for all his strength and eventual
indomitability in battle, still remains a
mystery to himself, something like how
the human race discourses with its own
obscured past by trying to seek clues
to its own evolutionary emergence.
Humanity is symbolized in the
personage of Siegfried, emerging
nascent, fresh and new in the primeval
world, which Wagner describes in
darkest primordial woodwind hues as
the curtain rises on the forested cave of
our hidden unconscious origins.
Siegfried was
Wagner’s artistic
representation of the
emergence of human
consciousness.
Wagner liked to say that his earliest
understanding of Siegfried could be
seen in "each throbbing of his [own]
pulse, each effort of his muscles as
he moved," and in him, he "saw the
archetype of man himself." Siegfried
was Wagner's artistic representation
of the emergence of human
consciousness.
Furthermore, Wagner composed
Siegfried when Germany was itself
emerging as a nation during a time of
great political upheaval; struggling to
life; flexing a newly-unified, muscular
national identity, and likewise, the
composer came to envision humanity
in much the same way, being birthed
from the cosmic undergrowth
into a visibly new thicket of life.
Siegfried's character also stands as a
representation of humanity birthed
into fledgling self-awareness, emerging
from a primordial past, long-ago
forgotten.
Siegfried is descended from the gods
but does not know it. Even when told
something of his past by Brünnhilde at
the end of the opera, he seems to lack
the fundamental curiosity to explore
this cosmic relationship further. He
even forgets the meaning of fear he
learned when he first encountered
Brünnhilde. Siegfried seems to have
lost his way in understanding his own
lineage, a vital piece of information
needed to establish a connection with
the past, his own present identity, and
an emotionally secure path toward
responsible future action. In other
words, cut off from memory of his past,
and lacking an emotionally mature
present, Siegfried lacks the profound
conscious self-awareness necessary to
construct his own future.
Wagner appears to be making the
interesting but astonishing assertion
that somewhere along the way, we too
forgot, or worse, became oblivious to
the notion that, like Siegfried, we were
descended from some transcendently
creative power. Wagner often wrote of
Greek epic heroes who were descended
from gods themselves and in Siegfried,
seems to suggest that in our mythopoetic understanding of our own
origins we have forgotten that we too
were stamped from a similar forge of
eternal fire.
Much like Siegfried, who cannot even
recognize his own grandfather, Wotan,
king of the Norse pantheon, we also
seem to reside in a sort of collective
amnesia, cut off from our past origins,
and still seeking clues as to our present
identity as human beings. When
Wotan, disguised as The Wanderer
confronts his grandson to ask
whether he knows who he is, Siegfried
impertinently answers that he doesn't
much care, and essentially tells the
Ruler of the Gods to stop speaking in
useless riddles and to get out of his
way. He over-runs The Wanderer and
splits his spear, smashing the old-world
order, destroying any connection with
the past and effectively securing the
eventual doom of the gods in the next
music drama Götterdämmerung.
Siegfried (Christian Franz) slays Fafner in the COC’s 2005 production of Siegfried.
Much has been written about this epic
moment, often described as a cost
borne of colossal human ignorance.
Humanity, in its rush to overthrow its
gods because of the imperturbable
need to move forward, effectively
guarantees its own inevitable
destruction by sequestering the past
into ignorance, dooming the human
race to repeat its mistakes. When
we lose memory of both our past
and our identity, we ensure our own
fall into ignorance and destruction,
just as surely as Siegfried does
when his naïveté tragically betrays
him in Götterdämmerung and he is
treacherously slain.
And herein lies the point of Wagner's
central message in Siegfried. As
Siegfried forges his sword—a bold
metaphor for the creation of his
new and heroic identity—so we too
as a civilization must forge identity
and memory together, based on an
unstoppable love that thirsts for the
knowledge of our origins. For Wagner,
anything less meant being cursed by
a loveless Will to blind power, like
Alberich's curse on the Ring. If we
remain naïve to this evil tendency of
human nature, then like Siegfried, we
ensure our own destruction.
How can we escape such a fate? To
find out, we will have to return next
season for Götterdämmerung.
Stephan Bonfield is a frequent speaker
at the COC and other opera companies
across Canada and is the opera and
ballet critic for The Calgary Herald
and Edmonton Journal.
The COC production of Siegfried was
originally made possible by Kolter
Communities
23
Cappuccino, Riesling, and
some advice for Siegfried...
GET TO KNOW...
STEFAN VINKE
UP IN THE AIR WITH THE COC!
One sign of having made it as an opera singer is
encountering the (pleasant) problem of a demanding travel
schedule. Indeed, the world’s leading opera professionals
are essentially nomads, living out of a suitcase for long
stretches of the year and spending nearly as much time
airborne as they do on the ground at the world’s major
opera centres.
To be an opera singer—or a conductor, or a director, or a
designer—is to be a frequent flyer.
From an organizational perspective, a world-class opera
company like the Canadian Opera Company needs to book
a lot of flights, becoming something of an international hub
where artists from near and far converge to collaborate in
the preparation and performance of what is arguably the
world’s most complex art form.
With so much airfare to cover, travel represents a significant
portion of our annual operating costs. For this winter run
of Siegfried and The Marriage of Figaro alone, the COC
is booking approximately 233,000 kilometers of air travel.
(That’s roughly six times the circumference of the Earth!)
So it is fantastic news that the COC’s existing relationship
with our preferred credit card, TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite
Privilege* Card, is entering a new chapter with support
from Montreal-based company Aimia, which manages
the Aeroplan loyalty program in Canada. Aeroplan’s
Beyond Miles program makes it possible for you to easily
donate your Aeroplan Miles to participating charitable
organizations, including the COC.
By donating your Aeroplan Miles to the COC, you can
help us continue bringing the very best Canadian and
international artists to Toronto.
Donate your Aeroplan Miles today to help bring acclaimed
Canadian and international artists to Toronto
The TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite
Privilege* Card is the perfect travel
companion. Earn Aeroplan Miles
faster, and get privileges designed to
make your journey more rewarding.
As the Primary Cardholder, you
will enjoy the following benefits on
flights operated by Air Canada®,
Air Canada rouge® or under the
Air Canada express® banner: one
complimentary first checked bag1,
priority check-in and priority
boarding1 and four annual One-Time
Guest Access Benefits1 to an Air
Canada Maple Leaf Lounge™ when
you travel using an Aeroplan flight
reward redeemed using miles from
your Aeroplan account. Plus, you will
receive a Welcome Bonus2 of 25,000
miles.
All COC patrons who purchase a
subscription on their TD® Aeroplan®
Visa Infinite Privilege* Card will be
eligible to receive an exclusive
complimentary COC seat upgrade
(subject to availability)3.
Learn more about this offer and
apply, visit: td.com/privilege.
To donate your Aeroplan Miles,
please visit www.milesforcoc.com.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
® The Aeroplan logo and Aeroplan are registered trade-marks of Aimia Canada Inc.
® The TD logo and other trade-marks are the property of The Toronto-Dominion Bank.
1
Conditions apply. All Air Canada benefits are fulfilled in whole or in part by Air Canada or its designated affiliates or other third parties, and are subject to change at any time.
With the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card, Air Canada Priority Travel Services (the complimentary first checked bag, priority check in and priority boarding) apply
whenever the Primary Cardholder travels on a flight operated by Air Canada, Air Canada rouge or under the Air Canada express banner. Flights operated by other airlines are
not eligible. To access these benefits, the Primary Cardholder must include their Aeroplan Number on their reservation at time of booking, or redeem their Aeroplan flight reward
(defined as a Fixed Mileage Flight RewardTM or Market Fare Flight RewardTM) using miles from their Aeroplan account. To access these benefits, the Primary Cardholder may
be required to show their TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card to the Air Canada agent. The Primary Cardholder will also receive four (4) Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge
One-Time Guest Access Benefits once every calendar year (January 1 - December 31). The Primary Cardholder may access an Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge, where available
and pending space availability, upon presentation of an active TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card with a valid, same-day boarding pass for travel using an Aeroplan flight
reward, only, on flights operated by Air Canada, Air Canada rouge or under the Air Canada express banner. To access this benefit, the Primary Cardholder must redeem their
Aeroplan flight reward (defined as a Fixed Mileage Flight Reward or Market Fare Flight RewardTM) with miles from their Aeroplan account. Access is subject to Air Canada Maple
Leaf Lounge terms and conditions and may not be available due to unforeseen circumstances. Please allow two (2) weeks from receiving your Card for these Air Canada benefits
to be activated. Additional conditions apply and are outlined on aircanada.com/tdbenefits.
2 Welcome
Bonus of 25,000 Aeroplan Miles (“Welcome Bonus Miles”), will be awarded to the Aeroplan Member account associated with the TD Aeroplan Credit Card Account
(“Account”) only after the first Purchase is made on the Account. If you have opened an Account in the last 6 months, you will not be eligible for this offer. We reserve the right to
limit the number of Accounts opened by, and the number of Welcome Bonus Miles awarded to, any one person. Please allow up to 8 weeks after your first Purchase is posted to
your Account for the Welcome Bonus Miles to be credited to your Aeroplan Member account associated with your Account. Offer may be changed, withdrawn or extended at any
time and cannot be combined with any other offer unless otherwise stated. Welcome Bonus Miles are not eligible for Aeroplan status.
3
The Toronto-Dominion Bank and its affiliates are not responsible for the seat upgrade offer (“Seat Upgrade”). To be eligible for the Seat Upgrade you must purchase your
2016/2017 Canadian Opera Company (COC) subscription with your TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card by April 30, 2016. Cardholders are entitled to one Seat Upgrade per
subscription, up to a maximum of four subscriptions, for a single performance. If you qualify, you will receive information on how to upgrade your seat with your COC subscription
tickets. The COC will also contact you by telephone in August 2016 and assist you with upgrading your seat for a performance between October 6, 2016 to May 20, 2017 as part of
the 2016/2017 season subscription. Seat Upgrades are granted on a case-by-case basis and are subject to availability. Account must be in good standing at the time you upgrade
your seat. A Seat Upgrade has no cash value and is non-transferable. The COC reserves the right to modify these terms and conditions at any time.
24
25
OPERA INSIGHTS
FREE EVENTS THIS SPRING
REGISTRATION BEGINS TUES. APRIL 5, 2016 AT 10 A.M. ONLINE OR BY PHONE.
Visit coc.ca/OperaInsights for more information.
Carmen danza!
Tues. April 19, 2016, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
Put on your dancing shoes and join Ritmo Flamenco’s Anjelica Scannura and flamenco guitarist Roger Scannura
as they take you on a journey deep into the heart of Spain’s rich dance culture. All levels of dancers are welcome!
Reconstructing Rossini
Wed. April 27, 2016, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
Rossini’s Maometto II went through several dramatic revisions early in its performance history. Join the team
responsible for the new critical edition of the opera as they lead us on a fascinating journey of rediscovery.
Presented in partnership with the Center for Italian Opera Studies, University of Chicago.
Rossini Master Class
Mon. May 2, 2016, 7 – 8:30 p.m.
Listen in as singers from the COC’s Ensemble Studio join Maometto II conductor Harry Bicket to unravel the
complexities of Rossinian bel canto vocal style in this public master class.
DON’T FORGET OUR WINTER 2016 EVENTS!
SUPPORTING TORONTO’S GROWING ARTS
C O M M U N I T Y T O D AY, A N D F O R E V E R
Siegfried from Scratch | In Conversation: Christine Goerke | Figaro Bootcamp
LIMITED PLACES MAY STILL BE AVAILABLE! Go to coc.ca/OperaInsights to register.
As Naming Donor of the Four Seasons Centre
SUMMER OPERA CAMPS
One hot Monday last summer, a group
of teenagers gathered in a sunlit room
on the Queen Street side of the Four
Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
It was the first day of the COC’s Summer
Opera Camps after a two-year hiatus.
Most of them had never met, but over
the next few days these talented young
people conceived, wrote, composed,
designed, staged, rehearsed, and, finally,
performed an opera. They were guided
by the remarkable Chris Thornborrow
(composer), Jen Johnson (drama and
movement specialist), and Sonja Rainey
(designer). Their imaginative and moving
opera, Speak Stand Change, dense with
ideas, emotions, and beautiful melodies,
received a standing ovation.
Each Monday a new group of young people
entered the space and by the end of each
week they had created and performed an
original opera. In the process participants
formed friendships; learned each other’s
amazing talents as singers, designers, and
composers; and discovered new strengths
and interests of their own.
We are delighted to bring Summer Opera Camps back this coming July! Once
again, participants in grades 1 to 12 will be given the rare experience of playfully
exploring opera as both creators and performers, and will get a glimpse into the
magnificent world of opera.
For more details, please visit coc.ca/Camps. Registration opens in January.
26
for the Performing Arts, we are proud to be a
lifelong friend of the fine arts experience for the
patrons here and from around the world.
ENJOY THE PERFORMANCE
fourseasons.com
BACKSTAGE AND BEYOND!
9
8
7
Here is a look at some of our recent activities, many shared with our wonderful
COC donors, including parties, galas, and backstage meet-and-greets with artists.
2
1
3
11
10
4
5
6
12
1 Happy winners Lauren Eberwein (mezzo-soprano, Second Prize),
Emily D’Angelo (mezzo-soprano, First Prize and Audience Choice
Award), and Bruno Roy (baritone, Third Prize), pose for a picture
after our annual Centre Stage: Ensemble Studio Competition Gala.
The event raised approximately $450,000 (net) in support of young
artists and brought nearly 1,000 people together to discover and
celebrate Canada’s emerging opera voices.
4 COC General Director Alexander Neef and soprano Sondra
8 Nada Ristich, Director of Corporate Donations at BMO, and
5 COC Board Member Michael Gibbens and his wife Julie
Lassonde enjoy drinks prior to Centre Stage alongside Canadian
Opera Foundation Chair Phil Deck.
Alexander Neef attend a Working Rehearsal Dinner for our
new production of La Traviata, underwritten in part by BMO.
These donor-attended events feature a dinner in the Henry
N. R. Jackman Lounge, an intimate Q&A session with the
production’s creative team, as well as a sneak peek at a portion
of a working rehearsal.
2 Production underwriter Gail Appel with Canadian composer
6 Young superheroes hard at work designing and making their
9 The hundreds of thousands of honey bees who live on
3 Ensemble Studio graduate, bass Robert Gleadow, his wife Yvonne
7 The COC showed its solidarity with the Toronto Blue Jays,
Barbara Monk Feldman and director Christopher Alden toast the
Canadian world premiere of Pyramus and Thisbe.
Schut, and baritone Quinn Kelsey at opening night party of La
Traviata.
28
Radvanovsky at a video shoot in the fall, where Sondra spoke about
returning to the COC to sing Norma during the 2016/2017 saeson.
13
own capes as part of the public performance of the new Glencore
Ensemble Studio School Tour production of Operation Superpower.
hanging a huge banner in the front window of the Four Seasons
Centre for the fall run. The Jays didn’t win the World Series, but we
know they will in 2016!
the roof of the Four Seasons Centre won a sweet victory!
Beekeeper Fred Davis entered the bees’ honey into the Royal
Agricultural Winter Fair’s amber honey category and took first
place! You can buy this award-winning honey at Four Seasons
Centre bars during performances.
10 Alexander Neef and COC Board Chair Colleen Sexsmith
provide four-hand piano accompaniment during a rendition
of “O Tannenbaum” at Cocktails & Carols, the annual Golden
Circle Holiday Party.
14
11 Aaron Sheppard, Lesley Abarquez, Erica Iris Huang and
Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure hit the road during last November’s
Glencore Ensemble Studio School Tour.
12 Opera Club members attended the Season-Opening Party at the
Four Seasons Centre.
13 Sandra Corazza, COC costume supervisor, at the “La Traviata
and the History of the Ball Gown” event, part of the new free Opera
Insights series. This event featured a spectacular array of gowns,
including many lent from some of the world’s most stylish women.
14 Ticket services manager Andrea Salin and chief
communications officer Steve Kelley joined the rest of the
Communications team to celebrate the holidays with a cooking
class in a professional kitchen. In all, 16 delicious dishes were
prepared in four hours!
29
THE MARRIAGE
OF FIGARO
BY WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
Opera Buffa in Four Acts w Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, after Pierre-Augustin
Caron de Beaumarchais’ comedy, La folle journée, ou Le mariage de Figaro
First performance: Burgtheater, Vienna, May 1, 1786
NEW COC PRODUCTION
Production created by the Salzburg Festival
Last performed by the COC in 2007
Sung in Italian with English SURTITLES™
Conductor..................................................................................................... Johannes Debus*
Jordan de Souza (Feb. 23 and 25)
Director.......................................................................................................... Claus GuthD
Associate Director..................................................................................... Aglaja NicoletD
Set and Costume Designer.................................................................... Christian SchmidtD
Lighting Designer...................................................................................... Olaf WinterD
Video Designer........................................................................................... Andi A. MüllerD
Choreographer............................................................................................ Ramses SiglD
Chorus Master............................................................................................. Sandra Horst^****
Stage Manager............................................................................................ Jenifer Kowal
SURTITLES™ Producer............................................................................. Gunta Dreifelds
Performance time is approximately three hours and 30 minutes, with one intermission
Generously underwritten in part by Sarah Billinghurst Solomon
and Howard Solomon in memory of Gerard Mortier
THE CAST (in order of vocal appearance)
February 4, 7, 9, 13, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 2016
Figaro, Count Almaviva’s valet.............................................................. Josef WagnerD
Susanna, Countess Almaviva’s maid, engaged to Figaro........... Jane Archibald
Bartolo............................................................................................................ Robert Pomakov
Marcellina...................................................................................................... Helene SchneidermanD
Cherubino, a page...................................................................................... Emily FonsD
Count Almaviva.......................................................................................... Russell Braun**
Don Basilio, a music-master................................................................... Michael Colvin^
Countess Almaviva.................................................................................... Erin Wall
Antonio, the gardener........................................................................... Doug MacNaughton^
Don Curzio, counsellor-at-law............................................................... Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure†***
Barbarina, Antonio’s niece...................................................................... Sasha Djihanian^
Cherubim....................................................................................................... Uli KirschD
*Johannes Debus is generously underwritten by George & Kathy Dembroski
**Russell Braun’s performance is generously sponsored by Earlaine Collins
***Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure’s performance is generously sponsored by Margaret Harriett
Cameron and the late Gary Smith
****Sandra Horst and the COC Chorus are generously underwritten by Tim and Frances Price
D
A scene from the COC’s new production of The Marriage of Figaro (Salzburg Festival, 2011)
30
COC Debut ^ Graduate of COC Ensemble Studio
31
THE CAST (in order of vocal appearance)
Ensemble Studio Performance: February 22, 2016
Figaro, Count Almaviva’s valet.............................................................. Iain MacNeil†
Susanna, Countess Almaviva’s maid, engaged to Figaro............ Karine Boucher†**
Bartolo............................................................................................................ Robert Pomakov
Marcellina...................................................................................................... Megan Latham
Cherubino, a page...................................................................................... Jacqueline Woodley^
Count Almaviva.......................................................................................... Gordon Bintner†*
Don Basilio, a music-master................................................................... Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure†*****
Countess Almaviva.................................................................................... Aviva Fortunata†***
Antonio, the gardener........................................................................... Doug MacNaughton^
Don Curzio, counsellor at law............................................................. Aaron Sheppard†D****
Barbarina, Antonio’s niece................................................................... Sasha Djihanian^
Cherubim....................................................................................................... Uli KirschD
Generously underwritten in part by Roy and Marjorie Linden
*
Gordon Bintner’s performance generously sponsored by Marcia Lewis Brown
**
Karine Boucher’s performance generously sponsored by Colleen Sexsmith
***
Aviva Fortunata’s performance is generously sponsored by COVC Jean A. Chalmers Award
****
Director’s Notes
With The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart
created a world theatre of human
passions that testifies to the elemental
force of eroticism. All forms of love
and desire are found in this opera, and
the four generations of characters—
presented in exemplary fashion—are
completely torn between morality,
desire and impulse. In Figaro, Mozart
not only allows all kinds of intense
human passions but also portrays
how they can get out of control and
escalate to extremes, thus setting his
opera far apart from the comedy by
Beaumarchais.
Aaron Sheppard’s performance is generously sponsored by Tony & Anne Arrell
Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure’s performance is generously sponsored by Margaret Harriett
Cameron and the late Gary Smith
*****
D
COC Debut † Current member of the COC Ensemble Studio ^ Graduate of COC Ensemble Studio
That was why I wanted, on the one
hand, to follow the characters into
their darkest psychological depths,
but at the same time leave space for
exploring the utopian moments in
Mozart’s music, which for me are so
special in the score of Figaro. An
invented character, a kind of Eros
angel, indicates this confusing other
dimension that pervades the opera. He
always appears when the characters
find themselves in situations that
are diametrically opposed to their
intentions when guided by reason.
Claus Guth, Salzburg, 2011
MUSIC STAFF
Rachel Andrist (Head Coach)
Michael Shannon
Hyejin Kwon (Ensemble Studio Intern Coach)
Jennifer Szeto (Ensemble Studio Intern Coach)
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR
Jordan de Souza
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Allison Grant
FIGHT DIRECTOR
James Binkley
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERS
Tiffany Fraser
Kate Porter
ASSISTANT LIGHTING DESIGNERS
Andrea Nelson
Davida Tkach
Wally Russell Lighting Intern
Wesley McKenzie
A scene from the COC’s new production of
The Marriage of Figaro (Salzburg Festival, 2011)
32
UNDERSTUDIES
Susanna
Countess Almaviva
Count Almaviva
Figaro
Cherubino
Marcellina
Don Basilio
Don Curzio
Karine Boucher
Aviva Fortunata
Gordon Bintner
Iain MacNeil
Jacqueline Woodley
Megan Latham
Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure
Aaron Sheppard
33
This page: Simon Keenlyside as
Count Almaviva and (opposite)
Marlis Petersen as Susanna
in The Marriage of Figaro
(Salzburg Festival, 2011).
34
Synopsis
Orchestra
ACT I
Susanna informs her fiancé
Figaro that the Count is
making advances to her.
Figaro leaves intent on
revenge. Bartolo and
Marcellina enter, the latter
baiting Susanna because she
wants Figaro for herself,
while Bartolo is still
smarting at Figaro for
making a fool of him in
the past. They leave and
Cherubino enters, seeking
advice from Susanna
because, after being caught
dallying with the gardener’s
niece, he is to be sent away.
He hides himself as they
hear the Count approaching.
The Count, too, is forced
to hide as Don Basilio
enters. Basilio mentions
Cherubino’s crush on
the Countess to Susanna
and the enraged Count
reveals himself. He informs
them that he is sending
Cherubino away, at which
point he finds the hidden
page. Furious, he swears to
get rid of Cherubino with a
military commission. Figaro
returns with celebrating
townsfolk and asks the
Count to unite Susanna and
him in marriage. The Count
postpones the proceedings.
chamber, claiming Susanna
is inside trying on her
wedding dress. The Count
leaves with the Countess to
get a crowbar. Susanna hides
herself in the locked inner
chamber and Cherubino
escapes through the
window. Upon their return,
the Countess decides to
confess everything to her
husband and is shocked
when Susanna exits the
locked room. The Count
begs forgiveness for his
suspicions. Figaro arrives
to gather up the group
once more for the wedding.
He is followed by Antonio
who reports that someone
jumping from the Countess’
balcony has crushed his
flowers. After prompting
from the women, Figaro
claims it was he who jumped.
The gardener shows him
Cherubino’s dropped
commission, which Figaro
claims he was holding
to get the Count’s seal.
Marcellina, Bartolo and
Basilio enter, and the Count,
still suspicious, hears their
claim that Figaro is obliged
to marry Marcellina to pay
off an outstanding debt.
VIOLIN I
Marie Bérard, Concertmaster
The Concertmaster’s chair has
been endowed in perpetuity by
Joey and Toby Tanenbaum
Aaron Schwebel, Associate
Concertmaster
Jamie Kruspe, Assistant
Concertmaster
Anne Armstrong
Sandra Baron (leave of absence)
Bethany Bergman
Catherine Cosbey*
Nancy Kershaw
Dominique Laplante (leave of
absence)
Yakov Lerner
Jayne Maddison
Neria Mayer
ACT II
Susanna tells the Countess
that she and Figaro have a
plan to teach the Count a
lesson: Susanna will set up a
rendezvous with the Count,
but will send Cherubino in
her place, disguised as a girl.
The page enters with a song
of love for the Countess and
a commission letter that the
Count forgot to seal. They
hear the Count approaching
and quickly hide Cherubino
in an inner chamber and
Susanna elsewhere in the
room. The Count is instantly
suspicious. The Countess
refuses to unlock the inner
ACT III
Susanna agrees to meet
the Count in the garden.
The Count then overhears
Susanna tell Figaro that
his legal troubles will soon
be over. He is furious at
the apparent deception.
Marcellina and Bartolo,
their attorney Don Curzio
in tow, confront Figaro,
who tells them that being
of noble birth—though
stolen away by thieves as an
infant—he can only marry
with the consent of his
family. As proof, he reveals
his birthmark. Marcellina
and Bartolo recognize the
INTERMISSION
mark as belonging to their
son, and the three joyfully
reunite. Susanna rejoins
them, having secured the
money from the Countess to
pay off Figaro’s debt. At first
angry, Susanna is overjoyed
at the news. Everyone is
happy except the Count, who
is sure he’s still being played.
The Countess dictates a
letter from Susanna to the
Count. She plans to surprise
her husband in the garden
herself. Figaro returns to
once more gather everyone
for the wedding. During the
dancing, Susanna slips the
Count her letter.
ACT IV
In the garden, Figaro
meets the gardener’s niece
Barbarina, who the Count
has entrusted to return the
brooch Susanna pinned to
the letter. Figaro assumes
Susanna is cheating on him,
and invites Bartolo and
Don Basilio to join him for
her public humiliation. As
they leave, the Countess
and Susanna appear,
each dressed as the other.
Cherubino is also in the
garden meeting with
Barbarina. He spies the
Countess and, thinking she
is Susanna, leans in to kiss
her. Instead he kisses the
Count, who swats Figaro.
The Count declares his
love for Susanna, who is
really the Countess, while
Figaro tells the Countess,
who is really Susanna, about
the tryst. Susanna forgets
to disguise her voice, and
Figaro figures out it is she
under the Countess’s cloak.
Their embrace is noticed by
the Count, who is about to
expose them when his wife
takes off her own disguise.
Almaviva is shamed and
apologizes to his wife for
both his jealousy and his
infidelity. They all return to
the celebration.
VIOLIN II
Paul Zevenhuizen, Principal
Csaba Koczó, Assistant Principal
James Aylesworth
Elizabeth Johnston
Lynn Kuo*
Aya Miyagawa
Louise Tardif
Marianne Urke
Joanna Zabrowarna
VIOLA
Keith Hamm, Principal
Joshua Greenlaw, Assistant
Principal
Carolyn Blackwell*
Sheila Jaffé
Beverley Spotton
Yosef Tamir
CELLO
Bryan Epperson, Principal
Alastair Eng, Associate Principal
Paul Widner, Assistant Principal
Maurizio Baccante
Olga Laktionova
Elaine Thompson
BASS
Alan Molitz, Principal
Robert Speer, Assistant Principal
Tom Hazlitt
Paul Langley
FLUTE
Douglas Stewart, Principal
Shelley Brown
OBOE
Mark Rogers, Principal
Lesley Young
CLARINET
James T. Shields, Principal
Colleen Cook
BASSOON
Eric Hall, Principal
Elizabeth Gowen
HORN
Mikhailo Babiak, Principal
Gary Pattison
TRUMPET
Robert Grim, Principal
Robert Weymouth
TIMPANI
Michael Perry, Principal
CONTINUO PIANO
Michael Shannon*
IN MEMORIAM:
BRUCE SCHAEF
On January 2, 2016, the
COC lost a beloved friend.
Baritone Bruce Schaef was
a 30-plus-year member
of the COC chorus and a
loyal subscriber and donor.
From COC chorus master Sandra Horst:
In addition to being a wonderful singer and
captivating performer Bruce will be remembered
for his fabulous, ever-present smile and positive
approach to life. It was sheer joy to see Bruce
in chorus rehearsals struggling with memory
or complicated staging or dance steps, yet still
flashing that beautiful smile and refusing to give
up... an inspiration to me and everyone he worked
with!
Words cannot express the sense of loss we are
all feeling and he will be sorely missed. He was
adventurous, courageous, resilient in adversity,
talented, empathetic, selfless, and a true friend to
so many.
LIBRARIAN
Wayne Vogan
ASSISTANT MUSIC LIBRARIAN
Ondrej Golias
STAGE LIBRARIAN
Paul Langley
PERSONNEL MANAGER
Ian Cowie
* extra musician
Chorus
SOPRANOS
Lindsay Barrett
Alexandra Lennox-Pomeroy
Eve Rachel McLeod
Katie Murphy
Jennifer Robinson
Teresa van der Hoeven
TENORS
Vanya Abrahams
Stephen Bell
Taras Chmil
Sam Chung
Sean Clark
Stephen Erickson
MEZZO-SOPRANOS
Susan Black
Sandra Boyes
Erica Iris Huang
Laura McAlpine
Marianne Sasso
Cindy Won
BARITONES/BASSES
James Baldwin
Bruno Cormier
Michael Downie
Jason Nedecky
Jan Vaculik
Gene Wu
35
HOLDING A
MIRROR UP
TO NATURE
JANE ARCHIBALD
AND ERIN WALL
DISCUSS
TACKLING THE
ROLES OF
SUSANNA AND
THE COUNTESS,
AND THE
ENDURING
RESONANCE OF
MOZART’S FIGARO
BY NIKITA
GOURSKI
JANE ARCHIBALD
This page: Genia Kühmeier as the Countess.
Next page: Marlis Petersen as Susanna. Both
images are from the COC’s new production
of The Marriage of Figaro when it was
staged at the Salzburg Festival in 2011.
36
ERIN WALL
Speaking by telephone from her home
in Halifax, Nova Scotia, soprano Jane
Archibald is looking for the right words
to describe Mozart’s The Marriage of
Figaro. “‘Masterpiece’ doesn’t really
do it justice,” she says. “I would hazard
a guess that for anyone who sings
professionally, discovering this opera
for the first time... It’s a ‘before Figaro’
and ‘after Figaro’ scenario.”
Even by the lofty standards of Mozart’s
oeuvre, which includes The Magic
Flute, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte,
The Marriage of Figaro stands apart as
a pinnacle achievement: possibly the
best opera ever written.
“My heart still beats faster every time
I hear the overture,” says Canadian
soprano Erin Wall (Clémence in Love
from Afar and Antonia in The Tales
of Hoffmann, both 2011/2012), who
portrays the Countess in the COC’s
new production of the opera. “I still
have to fight off the tears onstage when
I hear ‘Contessa, perdono’ [in which
the Count apologizes to his wife for his
failures as a husband]. To me it’s one of
the greatest moments in all opera.”
In a similar vein, Jane calls Figaro
her “favourite Mozart opera,” and
recalls how thrilled she was to be
offered the part. She has sung the role
of Susanna—Figaro’s fiancée and the
object of the Count’s extracurricular
attentions—only once before, a decade
ago with the Chicago Opera Theater.
“It’s been simmering on the back
burner for 10 years,” she says, noting
that her life has changed radically in
the interim. She is now married and a
mother, so “maybe aspects of Susanna
that are more knowing, more mature
will come to the fore.”
For Jane, who is known to COC
audiences for her mastery of roles
requiring high-wire vocal acrobatics
and exquisite ornamentation—recall
her rendition of Zerbinetta in Strauss’
Ariadne auf Naxos (spring 2011) or the
title role in Handel’s Semele (spring
2012)—Susanna’s music represents a
significant departure. “This is not one
of my bread and butter roles, where
I sing as many notes as possible, as
quickly as I can, and as high as I can,”
she notes. But while Mozart’s tempos
and vocal writing demand fewer
show-stopping fireworks, they offer
“these moments of beautiful calm.
Susanna’s aria “Deh vieni” [in Act IV]
is stunning in its simplicity,” says Jane.
“She drops down to the low notes, to
the chest voice, and there’s something
so assured and calm in that moment.
For most of the opera she’s been at the
whim of just about everyone else, but
at this moment, she’s in control. Time
slows down.”
Both Jane and Erin agree that Mozart
continues to delight and engage us
because the material is so universal
and timeless. “The marriage that’s
in trouble, the boss who’s a jerk, the
power of attraction and how people act
(or don’t act) on those impulses. These
are universal elements,” Erin says.
Stock characters
emerge as real
people: flawed and
conflicted, with music
that enacts the full
range and ambiguity
of their human
experience.
Indeed, Figaro is—quite possibly—the
first opera in music history written
about us, which is to say, ordinary
people. Serious operatic works in the
18th century drew their subject matter
from mythological or Biblical sources,
relegating the ordinary affairs of men
and women to the merely comic genre
(opera buffa).
Figaro, but they had never seen
them represented the way Figaro
and Susanna are, transcending their
cartoonish antecedents in opera buffa;
audiences had never seen characters
like the Count and Countess, who defy
their genealogy as predictable stock
characters to emerge as real people:
flawed and conflicted, with music that
enacts the full range and ambiguity of
their human experience.
“I love the Countess,” Erin says.
“Her music is exquisite, and full of
challenges, but an absolute delight
to sing. She is so relatable, so human,
and so easy to sympathize with. She
finds herself in a situation that is
uncomfortable and sad, but she doesn't
just sit around moping—she wants
her husband [the Count] back, and
she spends the majority of the opera
working to make this happen, going
to some fairly extreme measures.
She’s smart, and almost always one
step ahead of her husband. Of all
the Mozart roles I’ve sung, it’s my
favourite.”
Portraying the Countess’ husband is
COC favourite, baritone Russell Braun.
“We’ve sung together a lot over the
last couple of years,” Erin says. “He is
a wonderful musician, and I find he’s
always open to discussion and truly
interested in collaboration. We’ve
sung two operas together, Dido and
Aeneas and Love from Afar, but in
those instances, our characters never
sang together in ensembles and didn’t
interact a great deal. Figaro will be
very different, so I’m looking forward
to that.”
Moreover, the COC’s new production—
originally conceived at the Salzburg
Festival as part of the celebrations
surrounding Mozart’s 250th birthday
and hailed for opening “a new
perspective on an opera that is
normally staged as a lightweight,
turbulent farce” (Zeit Online)—gives
Erin the opportunity to explore the
Countess’ role even more substantially.
Watching the production on DVD, she
was intrigued by the “dark and serious
psychological current running through
it, balanced with whimsical elements.
The relationship between the Count
and Countess is far more interesting
in this production—she seems much
more tortured and neurotic, and their
relationship is quite charged and
intense, whereas in many stagings the
Count has simply lost all interest in her
and is cold and distant.”
The Count and Countess ultimately
experience an understanding and the
opera ends with a jubilant finale, but
Mozart weaves a thread of uncertainty
into the whole. His genius is as much
about giving us a taste of perfection
as it is about recognizing the sad
sweetness of life, the instability of love,
which is why the moments of musical
transcendence in the opera fade almost
as quickly as they are drawn.
“Life. Love. It’s ephemeral,” Jane
notes, “the way you come to recognize
the perfection of a moment only
when its edges are already kind of
disappearing.”
Nikita Gourski is Development
Communications Officer at the COC.
The breakthrough of Figaro was to
examine ordinary human relationships
within the conventions of comic
opera, but to exceed the limitations
of that genre, to offer a sophistication
of musical writing and character
development that was, in an important
way, brand new. An 18th-century
opera audience had seen common
people depicted on stage prior to
37
DARKNESS AND JOY:
EXPLORING THE HUMANITY
OF CLAUS GUTH’S FIGARO
BY GIANMARCO SEGATO
Claus Guth’s production of The
Marriage of Figaro has had a
lengthier gestation period than most.
It premiered at the 2006 Salzburg
Festival, was quickly revived there in
2007 and 2009, and culminated in the
German director staging all three of
Mozart’s collaborations with librettist
Lorenzo da Ponte at the 2011 festival
(Don Giovanni being added in 2008
and Così fan tutte in 2009). Initially,
Guth resisted Mozart’s iconic comedy,
questioning whether it was possible
for him to confront the dangerous
elements in a work whose music
he had enjoyed with “uncontrolled
excess”* while growing up. It was the
Salzburg production’s first conductor,
Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who managed
to shift Guth’s focus away from
Figaro’s distractingly glittery musical
delights towards its intelligent,
witty exploration of real, human
relationships—the very elements that
pushed comic opera beyond its more
formulaic, slapstick Italian commedia
dell’arte roots.
From this emerged an interpretation
that relocates the action from 18thcentury Andalusia to fin-de-siècle
Central Europe by way of the intense,
modernist stage dramas of Ibsen and
Strindberg, and the films of Ingmar
Bergman.
Uli Kirsch as Cherubim and Marlis Petersen
as Susanna from the COC’s new production
of The Marriage of Figaro when it was
staged at the Salzburg Festival in 2011.
Guth’s concept for his Figaro was by no
means static, enmeshed as it became
with his simultaneous stagings of Don
Giovanni and Così fan tutte. He began
to identify fascinating crossovers
and linkages between specific
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W W W. S T IC A N A D A . C O M
Guth notes a prevailing pessimism
that pervades Mozart’s world view—
in Figaro it has not yet completely
taken over and so, “the more amusing
elements are roughly equal to what
frightens and depresses human
beings.”* Darkness is always rumbling
just beneath the surface, even in
unexpected places like the opera’s
grand finale. In most stagings, this
moment is an excuse for general
rejoicing despite the betrayals, both
real and perceived, that have preceded
it. Guth “found it rather attractive to
add to this slightly mad jubilation,
something rather like slightly
hysterical laughter in view of the
abyss.”*
This production’s most striking
directorial intervention comes in the
form of a non-speaking character,
Cherubim, costumed exactly like
the page, Cherubino. His silent,
trickster-like presence (he has been
portrayed by dancer and champion
unicyclist Uli Kirsch in all iterations
of the production) functions a lot like
the personification of Love/Eros in
early Baroque opera; he is invisible to
the other characters and frequently
manipulates them, pushing them
together or pulling them apart. Guth’s
Cherubim symbolizes the engine
which drives Mozart’s complex musicodramatic creation: Eros (love/lust),
and therefore expands and magnifies
the real Cherubino’s function. Within
Figaro’s world, the randy young page
stands apart as the only character not
yet shoehorned into a clearly defined
societal role; as one who wears his
heart on his sleeve and manages to
remind the women (the Countess,
Susanna and Barbarina) of their buried
sexual desires. As such, he is deemed
If the happiness of Figaro’s all-too
recognizably human characters is not
a complete and outright lie, it is at the
very least, deeply conflicted.
* From an interview with Claus Guth by Monika
Mertl in the 2011 Salzburg Festival house
program
Gianmarco Segato is Adult Programs
Manager at the COC.
The COC production of The Marriage
of Figaro is generously underwritten
in part by Sarah Billinghurst Solomon
and Howard Solomon in memory of
Gerard Mortier
HIGH NOTES GALA
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International
an agent of chaos and his symbolic
threat is dispensed with when Guth has
him killed by his alter-ego, Cherubim,
at the end of the opera.
character types within the Mozart/
da Ponte trilogy. For example, Guth
came to view Figaro’s philandering
Count Almaviva as a double for the
womanizing anti-hero, Don Giovanni.
Accordingly, he portrays the Count as
a middle-aged, sex-obsessed roué who
despite carrying on an affair with his
wife’s maid, Susanna, still struggles
to maintain a degree of bourgeois
domesticity. He constantly mops his
sweaty brow with a white handkerchief,
panic-stricken he will be caught in the
act.
for MENTAL HEALTH
JEAN STILWELL | RICHARD & LAUREN MARGISON | LUBA GOY
RON KORB | MERCEDES CHEUNG | BALLET JORGEN | AND FRIENDS...
April 28, 2016 | Tickets $35-$65 | 905.787.8811 | rhcentre.ca
Moving forward on higher notes
highnotesavante.ca | 416.605.8915
COC Board of Directors
OFFICERS
Ms. Colleen Sexsmith, Chair
Mr. Justin Linden, Vice-Chair
Mr. Paul A. Bernards, Treasurer
Mr. John H. Macfarlane,
Secretary
Mr. Alexander Neef, General
Director
(ex officio)
Mr. Robert Lamb, Managing
Director
(ex officio)
MEMBERS
Mr. Tony Arrell
Ms. Nora Aufreiter
Ms. Marcia Lewis Brown
Ms. Helen Burstyn
Mr. Philip C. Deck
Mr. Peter M. Deeb
Mr. George S. Dembroski
Mr. William Fearn
Mr. David Ferguson (ex officio)
Mr. Michael Gibbens
Mr. Peter Hinman
Dr. Linda Hutcheon
Ms. Carolyn Jarvis
Mr. Jeff Lloyd
Mr. Timothy Loftgard
Ms. Anne Maggisano
Ms. Judy Matthews
Mr. Jonathan Morgan
Ms. Frances Price
Mr. J. Allen Smith
Mr. Philip S. W. Smith
Mr. Paul B. Spafford
Ms. Kristine (Kris) Vikmanis
Mr. Graham Watchorn
Mr. John H. (Jack) Whiteside
Ms. Yael Woodward
Canadian Opera Foundation Directors
Mr. Tony Arrell
Mr. Jonathan Bloomberg
Mr. J. Rob Collins
Mr. Philip C. Deck, Chair
Mr. Gary Grad
Mr. Christopher Hoffmann
COC Opera Guilds
Brantford Opera Guild
David M. Cullen, President
Kingston Opera Guild
Grace Orzech, President
London Opera Guild
Ernest H. Redekop, President
Muskoka Opera Guild
Dr. Hans Heeneman, President
Northumberland Opera Guild
Thais Donald, President
Oakville Opera Guild
Maureen (Mo) Crossman, President
Sudbury Opera Guild
Dianne Moore, President
Western New York Opera Guild
Dorothy K. Piepke, President
For more information, visit coc.ca/Guilds.
Ms. Colleen Sexsmith
Mr. David Spiro, Secretary
Credits and
Acknowledgments
OPERA’S NEXT GENERATION
The COC is committed to fostering the
development of the next generation
of opera stars and the future looks
bright! In 2016, we look forward to
welcoming several young artists to our
two prestigious training programs, the
COC Ensemble Studio and the COC
Orchestra Academy.
The COC Ensemble Studio, Canada’s
premier training program for young
opera professionals, welcomes seven
outstanding artists for the 2016/2017
season: sopranos Danika Lorèn and
Samantha Pickett, mezzo-sopranos
Emily D’Angelo, Lauren Eberwein
and Megan Quick, baritone Bruno
Roy, and pianist Stéphane Mayer. The
seven artists join the Ensemble Studio
in August 2016 and become part of
an illustrious program that, since its
inception in 1980, has launched the
careers of over 215 Canadian singers,
opera coaches, mainstage directors and
conductors.
D’Angelo, Eberwein and Roy were the
top prize winners this past November at
the COC’s fifth annual Ensemble Studio
Competition, a vocal showcase of young
artists vying for a spot in the program.
Pickett is a fellow 2015 competition
finalist, and Lorèn and Quick are
two singers who impressed the COC
artistic administration during the
preliminary auditions for the Ensemble
Studio this past fall. These new artists
join four returning members of the
Ensemble Studio for the 16/17 season:
soprano Karine Boucher, tenors Aaron
Sheppard and Charles Sy, and pianist
Hyejin Kwon.
On January 6, the COC Orchestra
Academy returned for its third year and
five student musicians were immersed
in this three-week intensive training
program: cellist Drew Comstock,
violinist Hua-Chu Huang, violinist
Yada Lee, bassist Doug Ohashi, and
violist Meagan Turner. Led by COC
Music Director Johannes Debus,
and developed in collaboration with
The Glenn Gould School at the
Royal Conservatory of Music and the
University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music,
the COC Orchestra Academy offers its
student musicians professional insight,
mentorship and experience in the
pursuit of a career in an opera orchestra.
As part of the Academy experience,
students are featured in multiple public
performances, including the opening
night of Siegfried on January 23.
The Canadian Opera Company would like
to thank all those who volunteer both on a
daily basis and for special events with the
company.
Michael Cooper, Official Photographer
Musical excerpts provided
by Universal Classics
16/17
ENSEMBLE
STUDIO
KARINE BOUCHER
Soprano
The COC is a member of Opera America,
Opera.ca and TAPA.
EMILY D’ANGELO
Mezzo-soprano
LAUREN EBERWEIN HYEJIN KWON
Mezzo-soprano
Pianist
DANIKA LORÈN
Soprano
SAMANTHA PICKETT MEGAN QUICK
Soprano
Mezzo-soprano
BRUNO ROY
Baritone
CHARLES SY
Tenor
AARON SHEPPARD
Tenor
DREW COMSTOCK
Cello
YADA LEE
Violin
DOUG OHASHI
Bass
MEAGAN TURNER
Viola
The COC operates in agreement with
Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.
The COC operates in agreement with I.A.T.S.E.,
Local #58, Local #822, Local #828.
Supernumeraries
STÉPHANE MAYER
Pianist
SIEGFRIED:
John Allemang
Matt Bernstein
Liz Birss
Marie Colucci
Jackie Doig
Mark Garlin
Art Grierson
Doug Hamilton
Ward Jardine
David Johnston
Gerald King
Graham Leather
Jim Lucas
Colleen Mathieu
Ian McIntosh
Vladimir Pajovic
Ryan Reeve
Yuan Ren
Patrick Stepien-Scanlon
Kim Twohig
Jim Vanderlip
Jim Warrington
Jamie Whitaker
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO:
Isobel Arseneau
Annie Harsfai
Ella McCollum Siegfried
Amelia Mendoza
Isla Parekh
Chiara Urban
2016
ORCHESTRA
ACADEMY
HUA-CHU HUANG
Violin
41
Administration and Staff
Costume Supervisor
Sandra Corazza
ALEXANDER NEEF, General Director
Costume Co-ordinators
Chloe Anderson
Cassandra Spence
Managing Director
Robert Lamb
Music Director
Johannes Debus
EXECUTIVE OFFICE
Executive Assistant to the General
Director
Marguerite Schabas
MUSIC AND ARTISTIC
ADMINISTRATION
Director of Music & Artistic
Administration
Roberto Mauro
Contracts Manager
Karen Olinyk
Company Manager
Olwyn Lewis
Chorus Master
Sandra Horst
Assistant to the Music Director
Derek Bate
Scheduling Manager
Kathryn Garnett
Production Assistants
Caitlyn Albanese
Kaitlyn Smith
PRODUCTION
Director of Production
Peter W. Lamb
Production Manager
Lee Milliken
Technical Director
Chuck Giles
Associate Technical Director
Barney Bayliss
Lighting Co-ordinator
Daniele Guevara
Assistant Technical Directors
Autumn Coppaway
Melynda Jurgenson
Head Electrician
Janice Fraser
Assistant Electrician
Joel Thoman
Head of Sound
Bob Shindle
Assistant Sound
Craig Kadoke
Head Carpenter
Paul Watkinson
Assistant Carpenter
David Middleton
Orchestra Personnel Manager
Ian Cowie
Head Flyman
David Alexander
Music Librarian, Coach
Wayne Vogan
Head of Properties
Daniel Graham
Assistant Librarian
Ondrej Golias
Core Crew
Scott Clarke
Doug Closs
Terry Hurley
Paul Otis
Music Staff
Rachel Andrist (The Marriage of
Figaro)
Anne Larlee (Siegfried)
Michael Shannon (The Marriage
of Figaro)
Eric Weimer (Siegfried)
Scene Shop Co-ordinator
Amy Cummings
Head Scene Shop Carpenter
David Retzleff
COC ENSEMBLE STUDIO AND
ORCHESTRA ACADEMY
Assistant Scene Shop Carpenter
Andrew Walker
Director, COC Ensemble Studio
and Orchestra Academy
Nina Draganic
Head Scenic Artist
Richard Gordon
Head of the Ensemble Studio &
Coach
Elizabeth Upchurch
Head Vocal Consultant
Wendy Nielsen
COC Ensemble Studio
Gordon Bintner
Karine Boucher
Jean-Philippe Fortier-Lazure
Aviva Fortunata
Andrew Haji
Hyejin Kwon
Iain MacNeil
Aaron Sheppard
Charles Sy
Jennifer Szeto
42
Assistant Head Scenic Artist
Carolina Valenzuela
Rehearsal Head Technician
Scott Williamson
Properties Supervisor
Guy Nokes
Resident Properties Builder/
Co-ordinator
Stephanie Tjelios
Resident Properties Buyer/
Co-ordinator
Kathy Frost
Costume Assistants
Natassia Brunato
Christina Del Monte
Resident Tailor
Sue Furlong
Assisted by
Gulay Cokgezen
Karen Hancock
Rebecca Zimmerman
Additional Costumes by
Industry Costumes
Martino Nyugen
Avril Stevenson
Additional hats by
Kaz Chopcian
Additional Painting and Dyeing by
Marjory Fielding
Head of Wardrobe
Nancy Hawkins
Wardrobe Assistant
Leslie Brown
Wig & Make-up Supervisor
Sharon Ryman
Head of Wig & Make-up Crew
Cori Ferguson
Production Co-ordinator
Shawna Green
SURTITLES™ Producer
Gunta Dreifelds
SURTITLES™ Editor
Zane Kaneps
SURTITLES™ Assistants
Olwyn Lewis
John Sharpe
Supernumeraries Co-ordinators
Analee Stein
Elizabeth Walker
ADVANCEMENT
Chief Advancement Officer
Christie Darville
Executive Assistant to the Chief
Advancement Officer
Elizabeth Scott
Manager, Government Relations
Amy Mushinski
Foundation Development
Janet Stubbs
Director of Development
Stephen Gilles
Senior Manager, Advancement
Operations
Peter Hussell
Senior Manager, Events &
Engagement
Tracy Abergel
Properties Builder/Co-ordinator
Tracy Taylor
Senior Development Officer,
Events & Engagement
Erin Koth
Properties Builders
Carolyn Choo
Wulf
Development Officer, Events &
Engagement
Alexandra Folkes
Stewardship
Emma Noakes
Annual Programs & Patron
Engagement
Natalie Sandassie
Co-ordinator, Annual Programs &
Patron Engagement
Brianna Chase
Co-ordinator, Annual Programs &
Patron Engagement
Eileen Hanratty
Friends of the COC
Victor Widjaja
Individual Giving Co-ordinator,
Friends of the COC
Soojin Ahn
Institutional Gifts
Francesco Corsaro
Partnerships
Sarah Heim
Development Communications
Officer
Nikita Gourski
Donations Database Officer
John Kriter
COMMUNICATIONS
Chief Communications Officer
Steve Kelley
Director of Public Relations
Claudine Domingue
Senior Manager, Creative &
Publications
Gianna Wichelow
Media Relations Manager
Jennifer Pugsley
Associate Manager, Digital
Marketing
Meighan Szigeti
Assistant Manager, Marketing &
Customer Service
Eldon Earle
Digital Marketing Co-ordinator
Kiersten Hay
Assistant Publicist
Kristin McKinnon
EDUCATION AND OUTREACH
Associate Director, Education &
Outreach
Katherine Semcesen
Program Manager, Free Concert
Series
Claire Morley
TICKET SERVICES
Ticket Services Manager
Andrea Salin
Assistant Ticket Services Manager
Nikki Tremblay
FOUR SEASONS CENTRE FOR
THE PERFORMING ARTS
Director, Four Seasons Centre for
the Performing Arts
Alfred Caron
Group Sales Co-ordinator
David Nimmo
Associate Director, Business
Development
Elizabeth Jones
Ticket Services Supervisor
Lillian Fung
Business & Events Co-ordinator
Shannon Churm
Ticket Services Supervisor
Maureen Gualtieri
Administrator
Jennifer Toulmin
Ticket Services Representatives
James Baldwin
Ernest Cayemen
Nick Davis
Aurelie Dufour
Anna Kay Eldridge
Peter Genoway
Cat Haywood
Karla Kampars
Manda Kennedy
Keith Lam
Megan Miles
Kevin Morris
Rafael Renderos
Paulina Saliba
Kat Smiley
Darcy Stoop
Manager, Front of House
Julia Somerville
CALL CENTRE
Call Centre Manager
Richard Paradiso
Call Centre Representatives
Dona Arbabzadeh
Catherine Belyea
Denis Lam
Margaret Terry
FINANCE AND
ADMINISTRATION
Director of Finance &
Administration
Lindy Cowan, CPA, CA
Human Resources Manager
Lorraine O’Connor, CHRP
Finance Manager
Amalie Vanderzwet, CPA, CA
General Accountants
Florence Huang
Zoran Orlic (FSCPA)
Accounting Clerk
Vera Brjozovskaia
Payroll Accountants
Jovana Bojovic
Jeanny Won
Manager, IT Services
Steven Sherwood
Database Reporting Specialist
Brad Staples
IT Services Assistant
Tony Sandy
Adult Programs Manager
Gianmarco Segato
Archivist, Joan Baillie Archives
Birthe Joergensen
School Programs Manager
Vanessa Smith
Receptionist/Switchboard
Katarina Božovic
Children & Youth Programs
Co-ordinator
Amber Yared
Mailroom Clerk/Courier
Branka Hrsum
Manager, Food & Beverage
Brigitte Lang
Assistant Manager, Patron
Services
Kim Hutchinson-Barber
Patron Services Supervisors
Karol Carstensen
Stuart Constable
Jamieson Eakin
Christine Groom
Lori MacDonald
Melissa McDonnell
Evan Steingarten
Sophia Wiens
Rosemary Williams
Kimberly Wu
Patron Services Leads
Grace Cacciatore
Amelia Smart
Kate Werneburg
BUILDING SERVICES
Associate Director, Facilities
Management
Joe Waldherr
Assistant Manager, Operations
Christian Coulter
Maintenance Assistants
Ryszard Gad (COC)
Branislav Peterman (COC)
Julian Peters (COC)
James Esposito (FSCPA)
Enrique Covarrubias Cortes
(FSCPA)
Piotr Wiench (FSCPA)
Security Supervisor
Dave Samuels
Security Officers
George Balyasin
Abdi Gulleed
Natalia Juzyc
Usman Khalid
Nicholas Martin
Kathleen Minor
Heather Reid
Building Operators
Dan Bisca
Dan Popescu
Adrian Tudoran
Eurest Services Supervisor
Paula Da Costa
Eurest Services Team
Jennifer Barros
Malaku Godana
Nash Lim
Jimmy Pacheco
Sugey Torres
OPERA:
FACES &
WORDS
In an ambitious,
large-scale work,
portrait photographer,
President’s Council
member, and COC
subscriber Veronika
Roux-Vlachova,
turns her camera
on internationally
acclaimed opera
singers to explore
the many sides of an
artist’s personality.
BY NIKITA GOURSKI
Two winters ago, Veronika RouxVlachova was at a performance of Così
fan tutte—a work about the dissolving
boundaries between authenticity and
deception—when a line in the libretto
prompted a series of ruminations:
during an aria, who is the true self?
The performer as she is on stage,
embodying a role? Or the individual
as she is in “real life,” beyond the
proscenium? And how do these two
selves interact through the text of an
opera?
These questions continued to percolate,
and prompted Ms. Roux-Vlachova to
undertake an ambitious photography
project called Opera: Faces & Words.
For the duration of our winter run, the
COC is proud to showcase a portion
of this ongoing project at the Four
Seasons Centre for the Performing
Arts. A business strategist and portrait
photographer with a multinational
practice operating out of Toronto, New
York, and Paris, Ms. Roux-Vlachova has
spent several months photographing
opera singers, producing a series of
double-portraits: one in which the
subject is situated and attired formally,
as a performer, and one in which we
glimpse another side of them, their offstage selves. The paired photographs
reveal not only subtle shift in selfpresentation, but also the continuities
of an artist’s multi-sided essence.
Ms. Roux-Vlachova also requested
that each singer provide an aria that is
personally meaningful to them, and the
text is included alongside the paired
photographs. In combining words and
images to enhance our understanding
of the subject, Ms. Roux-Vlachova
was inspired by works like Miroirs
autoportraits (1973), a collaboration
of French photographer Édouard
Boubat and the writer Michel Tournier,
presenting photographs of French
authors and the authors’ descriptions of
their photographs.
SPRING SIZZLES
AT THE COC!
To date, Ms. Roux-Vlachova has taken
portraits of 14 singers, and the COC
presents a selection of six during the
winter run. Moreover, Opera: Faces &
Words is highlighted in the Winter 2016
issue of Opera Canada.
Ms. Roux-Vlachova hopes to continue
her work with this venture, adding more
subjects, and perhaps revisiting them
after five, 10, or 15 years, to incorporate
temporality into our evolving
perception of the people who bring
opera to life.
To learn more about the
ongoing photo project, visit
operafacesandwords.com.
Nikita Gourski is Development
Communications Officer at the COC.
TICKETS
FROM
$50
Lauren Segal, mezzo-soprano
44
Andrew Haji, tenor
Allyson McHardy, mezzo-soprano
Don’t miss a single moment of the COC’s spring line-up, from the vocal
pyrotechnics of superstar bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni in Rossini’s
Maometto II to the heat and passion of Bizet’s Carmen.
Tickets start at $50 and subscribers can purchase extra tickets at
their already reduced subscription rate.
Visit coc.ca/Tickets or call 416-363-8231 or 1-800-250-4653.
45
Life Trustees Council
The Life Trustees Council salutes the leaders of the COC community whose efforts have been integral to the company’s artistic
evolution and transformative history of accomplishment.
Earlaine Collins
J. Rob Collins
David Ferguson (Chair)
Jerry and Geraldine Heffernan
Ben Heppner
Henry N. R. Jackman
Adrianne Pieczonka
Arthur R. A. Scace, C. M.
David Stanley-Porter
E. Louise Morgan Society
MEMORIAL AND HONORARY DONATIONS
The COC expresses its sincere appreciation to all donors who have made memorial and honorary donations.
In Memory of
Tony Andrejicka
Richard Bradshaw
Clarice Carson
Norman Coxall
Shelagh and Nicholas Goldschmidt
Dr. Wilfred Stephan Goodman
C. Roy Horney
Anthony C. J. Humphreys
Patricia Johnson
William G. Mitchell
Marjorie Pepper
Emily Rankin
John Henry Rogers
Martin Ruckpaul
Darco Seifert
Joan Watson
In Honour of
Ms Anne Maggisano
Judy & Wilmot Matthews*
Hon. Margaret Norrie McCain***
John & Esther McNeil****
Don McQueen &
Trina McQueen, O.C. **
John McVicker & B. W. Thomas****
Delia M. Moog***
Jonathan Morgan & Shurla Gittens**
Sue Mortimer in memory of
Clive Bennett Mortimer****
Donald O’Born***
Peter M. Partridge****
Mr. Tim & Mrs. Frances Price****
Ms R. Raso****
David Roffey & Karen Walsh****
Barrie D. Rose & Family***
J. Allen Smith &
Katherine Megue-Smith
Philip & Maria Smith**
Stephen & Jane Smith****
Marion & Gerald Soloway**
David E. Spiro***
Ryerson & Michele Symons
Kiersten Taylor & Tim Loftsgard
Riki Turofsky & Charles Petersen**
Ms Kristine Vikmanis &
Mr. Denton Creighton****
The Youssef-Warren Foundation****
Margaret Harriett Cameron****
Sharon & Howard Campbell**
Cesaroni Management Limited***
Frank Ciccolini Jr.****
The Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson*
Mr. & Mrs. William J. Corcoran***
Lindy Cowan† & Chris Hatley***
Brian J. Dawson***
Peter Deeb*
Dr. Jeanne Deinum****
Angelo & Carol DelZotto***
Carol Derk & David Giles**
Mrs. Shirley Diamond & Family****
Peter & Anne Dotsikas**
Jeffrey Douglas
Vreni & Marc Ducommun***
Mr. Albert D. Dunn*
Joseph Fantl & Moira Bartram**
Mr. & Mrs. Fraser M. Fell****
Margaret & David Fountain****
Ms Lindsay Dale-Harris &
Mr. Rupert Field-Marsham****
Dr. & Mrs. Wm. O. Geisler***
Ann J. Gibson****
Rose & Roger Goldstein****
Michael & Anne Gough****
Dr. Noëlle Grace &
Mr. Morris Shohet****
Ronald & Birgitte Granofsky****
Douglas & Ruth Grant*
John & Judith Grant**
Al & Malka Green**
John Groves & Vera Del Vecchio****
Dr. Albert Haddad
George & Irene Hamilton****
Scott & Ellen Hand***
Mr. Harquail & Dr. Sigfridsson*
Maggie Hayes**
Hon. & Mrs. Paul Hellyer****
Michiel Horn & Cornelia Schuh****
Ken Hugessen & Jennifer Connolly**
Dr. Melvyn L. Iscove***
Mr. Robert C. Jefferies****
Ms Elizabeth Johnson**
Alexandra Jonsson
Dr. Joshua Josephson &
Ms Elaine Lewis****
Lorraine Kaake****
The Patrick & Barbara Keenan
Foundation****
James & Diane King**
Dr. Elizabeth Kocmur****
Kimberley Fobert &
Robert Lamb†****
Mr. Philip Lanouette**
John B. Lawson, C.M. Q.C. ****
Mr. J. Levitt & Ms E. Mah**
Daniel & Janet Li**
Peter H. Lunney*
James & Connie MacDougall****
Mr. Jed MacKay****
Mrs. R. MacMillan ****
Dr. Colin McGregor Mailer****
Mrs. J. L. Malcolm*
Dr. & Mrs. M. A. Manuel*
Frederick J. Marker &
Anne W. Dupré
Fernando Martinez-Caro
Dr. & Mrs. Donald C. McGillivray****
Paul & Jean McGrath****
Ronan McGrath & Sarah Perry*
June McLean****
Mr. Ian McWalter*
Mr. Ulrich Menzefricke****
Bruce & Vladka Mitchell*
Charlie Andrews
Nora Aufreiter
Walter and Anneliese Blackwell
Walter and Lisa Bowen
Earlaine Collins
Rob Collins and Janet Cottrelle
Ronald Cooper
John Freund
Julie and Michael Gibbens
Ruth Watts–Gransden
Anitta Lantos
Justin Linden
Vivian Rosenberg
Mischi Schwertzer
As of January 5, 2016
The E. Louise Morgan Society was created to reflect the vision and commitment of its founder and the members who have created a
legacy of leadership, passion and philanthropy in support of the goals of the Canadian Opera Company.
Each of these donors has contributed a cumulative total of more than one million dollars over the past 15 years. Their support is
critical to the company’s success and we are forever indebted to their commitment and generosity.
Tony and Anne Arrell
The Estate of Dr. Larry M. Agranove
ARIAS: Canadian Opera Student Development Fund
The Gerard & Earlaine Collins Foundation
The late John A. Cook
The Estate of Horst Dantz and Don Quick
Jerry and Geraldine Heffernan
Kolter Communities
The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation
Roger D. Moore
E. Louise Morgan
Tim & Frances Price
Colleen Sexsmith
Joey & Toby Tanenbaum
Anonymous (3)
Major Gifts and Special Projects
The COC offers its sincere thanks to the individuals listed below for their extraordinary support.
PRODUCTION
UNDERWRITERS
Demonstrating their leadership
and generosity, these donors
have underwritten the COC’s
mainstage productions.
ENSEMBLE STUDIO
SUPPORTERS
Encouraging the next
generation of artists, these
donors support the COC
Ensemble Studio.
June Shaw and the late
Dr. Ralph Shaw
Jack Whiteside
Brian Wilks
Anonymous (2)
$500,000 +
Jerry & Geraldine Heffernan
The Catherine and Maxwell
Meighen Foundation
Colleen Sexsmith
$1,000,000
Peter M. Deeb
GENERAL PROGRAM
SUPPORTERS
Providing general program
support is critical to the COC’s
artistic mission.
$100,000 – $499,999
Mark & Gail Appel
Paul Bernards
David Roffey & Karen Walsh
$25,000 – $99,999
Ethel Harris & the late
Milton E. Harris
Hal Jackman Foundation
Barbara Keenan
Roy and Marjorie Linden
The Stratton Trust
W. Garfield Weston Foundation
PERFORMANCE AND ARTIST
SPONSORS
The following donors extend
their generous support
to individual artists and
productions
$100,000 +
George & Kathy Dembroski
Jack Whiteside
$50,000 – $99,999
Sarah Billinghurst Solomon &
Howard Solomon
$25,000 – $49,999
Earlaine Collins
Françoise Sutton
Anonymous (1)
Up to $24,999
Peter & Hélène Hunt
Robert Sherrin
Kristine Vikmanis &
Denton Creighton
46
$100,000 +
The Slaight Family Foundation
Up to $24,999
ARIAS: Canadian Opera
Student Development Fund
In honour of Walter and
Anneliese Blackwell
Marcia Lewis Brown
Margaret Harriett Cameron and
the late Gary Smith
Earlaine Collins
Ninalee Craig
Catherine Fauquier
Patrick Hodgson Family
Foundation
Alexandra Jonsson
Jo Lander
Tom C. Logan
Dr. & Mrs. Donald C. McGillivray
Roger D. Moore
Colleen Sexsmith
Dr. David Shaw
$1,000,000+
Tim & Frances Price
Anonymous (1)
$100,000+
Anne & Tony Arrell
$25,000 – $50,000
Simon Nyilassy
Up to $24,999
Bruce C. Bailey
James & Christine Nicol
Gretchen & Donald Ross
ENDOWMENT SUPPORT
Making a gift to the
Endowment ensures the longterm stability for the COC and
its artists.
$100,000 +
Hon. Henry N. R. Jackman
$25,000 – $99,999
The Bennett Family Foundation
Dr. Rodney C. Ellis
John B. Lawson C.M., Q.C.
Michael W. & Wanda Plachta
Endowment Fund
Janet Stubbs
Up to $24,999
June McLean
Anonymous (1)
LEGACY AND BEQUEST GIFTS
The COC honours the memory
of the following patrons whose
vision and generosity has
provided lasting support.
Estate of Horst Dantz and
Don Quick‡
Estate of Anne Margaret
Delicaet
Estate of Marion Gertrude Farr‡
Estate of Egon Homburger‡
Estate of Eluned J. MacMillan
Estate of Vida Peene
Estate of J.M. (Doc) Savage‡
Estate of Helen Allen Stacey
Estate of James Drewry
Stewart
Estate of Jeanie Irwin Walker
Estate of Marion Caroline
Wilson‡
Anonymous‡
‡ designates funds directed to the COC’s
Endowment
Individual Giving
Annual Support
GOLDEN CIRCLE
GOLD, $50,000 +
Anne & Tony Arrell****
Cecily & Robert Bradshaw*
David G. Broadhurst**
In memory of Gerard H. Collins****
Jerry & Geraldine Heffernan****
The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen
Foundation****
Colleen Sexsmith***
Anonymous (1)
SILVER, $25,000 – $49,999
Mark & Gail Appel***
Paul Bernards***
Barbara Black**
Philip Deck & Kimberley Bozak***
Michael Gibbens & Julie Lassonde*
Douglas E. Hodgson****
Rennie & Bill Humphries****
Ronald Kimel &
Vanessa LaPerriere****
Susan Loube & William Acton**
James & Christine Nicol
Jack Whiteside***
Anonymous (1)
BRONZE, $12,500 – $24,999
Dr. & Mrs. Hans G. Abromeit****
Ms Nora Aufreiter*
Mr. Philip J. Boswell****
Walter M. & Lisa Balfour Bowen****
Susanne Boyce &
Brendan Mullen****
Marcia Lewis Brown*
Stewart & Gina Burton*
Helen Burstyn & Family
Wendy M. Cecil & Jack Cockwell****
Dr. John Chiu in memory of
Yvonne Chiu, C.M.****
Stephen Clarke & Elizabeth Black**
The Max Clarkson Family
Foundation****
J. Rob Collins & Janet Cottrelle****
Sydney & Florence Cooper**
Ninalee Craig***
Mr. & Mrs. Leslie Dan***
Jean Davidson & Paul Spafford****
David & Kristin Ferguson****
George Fierheller****
Lloyd & Gladys Fogler***
Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts***
Robert Fung**
The Hon. William C. Graham &
Mrs. Catherine Graham****
Ira Gluskin &
Maxine Granovsky Gluskin***
Ethel Harris & the late
Milton Harris****
William & Nona Heaslip
Foundation****
Mr. Peter Hinman &
Ms Kristi Stangeland
Michael & Linda Hutcheon****
Justin S. Linden*
Jeff Lloyd & Barbara Henders*
Bernhard & Hannelore Kaeser****
Bobby & Gordon MacNeill**
PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL
TRUSTEE, $7,500 – $12,499
à la Carte Kitchen Inc.
Margaret Atwood &
Graeme Gibson***
Mr. & Mrs. Avie Bennett****
Marilyn Cook*
Bud & Leigh Eisenberg***
Andrew Fleming**
Peter & Shelagh Godsoe**
Chris Hoffmann & Joan Eakin**
J. Hans Kluge**
Paul Lee & Jill Maynard****
Anne Lewitt**
Jerry & Joan Lozinski****
Mr. & Mrs. J. S. A. MacDonald****
Amy & John Macfarlane*
Kathleen McLaughlin &
Tim Costigan*
Dr. Judith A. Miller***
Douglas L. Parker****
Annie & Ian Sale*
Dr. David Shaw**
Françoise Sutton***
Carol Swallow***
PATRON, $3,750 – $7,499
Sue Armstrong****
Ron Atkinson & Bruce Blandford****
Mona H. Bandeen, C. M. **
Henk Bartelink in memory of
Oskar & Irmgard Gaube***
Dr. Frank Bartoszek &
Mr. Daniel O’Brien****
Dr. Thomas H. Beechy****
Mr. & Mrs. Eric Belli-Bivar***
Dr. Catherine Bergeron***
Tom Bogart & Kathy Tamaki**
Dr. David & Constance Briant****
Dr. Jane Brissenden &
Dr. Janet Roscoe****
Mrs. Donna Brock***
Alice Burton***
Dr. M. L. Myers & the late
Dr. W. P. Hayman***
Dr. Shirley C. Neuman**
Eileen Patricia Newell***
Sally-Ann Noznesky****
Simon Nyilassy*
E. Oliana & A. Iu***
Janice Oliver***
Keith & Brenda Ottaway***
The Ouellette Family Foundation
Julia & Liza Overs****
Dr. & Mrs. William M. Park****
John & Gwen Pattison**
John & Carol Peterson***
June C. Pinkney****
Polk Family Charitable Fund**
Julian & Anna Porter
Margrit & Tony Rahilly****
Mrs. Richard Gavin Reid**
Douglas L. Ludwig &
Karen J. Rice***
Rob & Penny Richards***
Margaret A. Riggin*
Gordon Robison & David Grant*
Judy & Hy Sarick****
Sam & Esther Sarick****
Helen & John Scott**
June Shaw & the late
Dr. Ralph Shaw****
Allan & Helaine Shiff****
David & Hilary Short***
Hume Smith****
Dr. Harley Smyth &
Carolyn McIntire Smyth**
Philip Somerville*
Cameron Rusaw &
Anne-Marie Sorrenti
Dr. John Stanley &
Dr. Helmut Reichenbächer***
Wayne Stanley & Marina Pretorius*
David Stanley-Porter****
Doreen L. Stanton****
Janet Stubbs†**
Wendy J. Thompson****
Anthea Thorp****
Ian Turner***
Sandra & Guy Upjohn***
Dita Vadron & James Catty**
Donald & Margaret Walter****
Hugh & Colleen Washington**
William R. Waters****
Ruth Watts-Gransden****
Dr. Virginia Wesson***
Mr. Brian Wilks*
Ms Lilly Wong*
Mrs. Richard Wookey****
Linda Young*
Helen Ziegler***
Susan Zorzi**
Sharon Zuckerman****
Anonymous (4)
MEMBER, $2,250 – $3,749
D. C. Adamson-Brdar****
Donna & Lorne Albaum**
Mr. & Mrs. Roberto &
Nancy Albis***
Clive & Barbara Allen****
Mr. Thomas & Mrs. Claire Allen**
Dr. D. Amato & Ms J. Hodges****
Anne-Marie H. Applin***
Valerie Armstrong****
Philip Arthur & Mary Wilson*
Virginia Atkin***
47
Mr. Jeff Axelrod &
Dr. John Goodhew
K.R.I. Bailey*
John Bailey**
James C. Baillie**
Marilyn & Charles Baillie****
Andrew & Cornelia Baines****
Janice A. Baker****
Richard J. Balfour****
Karen & Bill Barnett*
Alice & Tom Bastedo***
Ms Marie Bérard†***
Nani & Austin Beutel****
Dody Bienenstock**
John & Mandy Birch*
Douglas Birkenshaw &
Ginger Sorbara
Anneliese & Walter Blackwell****
Ian & Janet Blue***
John & Ila Bossons**
Mr. W. Bowen &
Ms. S. Gavinchuk†****
Mr. Stephen Bradley
Mrs. Carolyn Bradley-Hall &
Mr. William Bradley***
Mrs. Richard Bradshaw***
Rob & Teresa Brouwer**
Brian Bucknall &
Mary Jane Mossman****
Christopher & Elizabeth Buller
Thomas J. Burton**
Maureen Callahan & Douglas Gray**
Ken & Denise Cargill**
Brian & Ellen Carr****
Gail Carson****
Drs. Carol & David Cass
Lee Chambers
Prof. Alfred L. Chan &
Mr. Michael Farewell***
Dr. & Mrs. Albert Cheskes***
John D. Church
Dr. Howard M. Clarke***
Edward Cole & Adrienne Hood***
Brian Collins & Amanda Demers*
Tony & Elizabeth Comper*
Murray & Katherine Corlett****
Anita Corrigan***
Dr. Lesley S. Corrin****
Bram & Beth Costin
Gay & Derek Cowbourne**
Mary & John Crocker****
Ruth & John Crow***
Mary Beth Currie & Jeff Rintoul
Carrol Anne Curry***
Dr. & Mrs. Michael & Ute Davis**
Michael & Honor de Pencier****
Charles Dennis & Steve Kelley†
Mr. & Mrs. A. J. Diamond*
J. DiGiovanni*
Olwen & Frank Dixon**
Sandra Z. Doblinger**
Ms Petrina Dolby***
Dr. James & Mrs. Ellen Downey**
Bernita Drenth
Marko Duic and Gabriel Lau****
William & Gwenda Echard****
Jean Patterson Edwards**
Wendy & Elliott Eisen****
Jordan Elliott & Lynne Griffin*
Christoph Emmrich & Srilata Raman
Dr. & Mrs. John Evans***
Fabris Inc.*
George A. Farkass**
Mrs. Rosario de Wit-Farro***
Darren Farwell
Catherine Fauquier***
Bill Fearn & Claudia Rogers****
Lee & Shannon Ferrier****
William & Rosemary Fillmore***
David & Wendy Flores-Gordon*
Goshka Folda*
J. E. Fordyce****
Robert & Julia Foster**
Mrs. Ingrid Fratzl
Rev. Ivars Gaide &
Rev. Dr. Anita Gaide***
Judy & David Galloway
Ann Gawman***
Dr. Barry A. Gayle****
Susan Gerhard**
The Honourable Irving Gerstein &
Mrs. Gail Gerstein**
Ben & Sarah Glatt****
48
Dr. Eudice Goldberg*
Aviva & Andrew Goldenberg**
Dr. Fay Goldstep &
Dr. George Freedman**
Deanna A. Gontard****
Tina & Michael Gooding***
Wayne A. Gooding****
Bryan Grant
Mr. Finn Greflund & Mrs. M. Ortner**
Mr. Carmen &
Mrs. Vittoria Guglietti**
Ellen & Simon Gulden****
James & Joyce Gutmann****
Dan Hagler & Family***
Mrs. Pamela Hallisey
Francess G. Halpenny****
Mr. Adrian J. Hamel
Beverly Hargraft**
Michael Harris & Carol Rak**
Paul & Natalie Hartman*
Caroline Helbronner***
Jacques & Elizabeth Helbronner***
Thea Herman & Gregory King***
William E. Hewitt***
Pamela Hoiles
Richard & Donna Holbrook****
Sally Holton****
Ms Judith Hull
In memory of
Anthony C. J. Humphreys****
Peter & Hélène Hunt****
Eva Innes & David Medhurst*
Elliott Jacobson & Judy Malkin**
Lynne Jeffrey****
Laurence Jewell**
The Norman & Margaret Jewison
Charitable Foundation****
In Memory of Patricia Johnson**
Dr. Albert & Bette Johnston**
Joyce Johnston***
Miriam Kagan
H. L. Katarynych***
Dr. Joel Keenleyside****
David W. & Sheryl L. Kerr*
Joseph Kerzner & Lisa Koeper****
Inta Kierans****
Ellen & Hermann Kircher****
Mr. Martin Kirr &
Ms Suzanne McCuaig*
Mr. Douglas Klaassen**
Michael & Sonja Koerner***
Valarie Koziol*
William & Eva Krangle****
Richard T. La Prairie*
Elizabeth & Goulding Lambert***
Jo Lander****
The Hon. Dennis Lane, Q.C. &
Mrs. Sandra Lane****
M. J. Horsfall Large**
Marc Lebeau & Guylaine Lefebvre
Dr. Connie Lee***
Linda Lee & Michael Pharoah****
Neal & Dominique Lee**
Dr. Richard Lee &
Mr. Gary Van Haren**
Alexander & Anna Leggatt***
Joy Levine***
Mr. Peter Levitt & Ms Mai Why***
Mr. Kejun Liang
L. Liivamagi & Dr. D. N. Cash*
Marjorie & Roy Linden****
Dr. & Mrs. W. G. Lindley****
Janet & Sid Lindsay***
Anthony J. Lisanti***
Tom C. Logan*
Dr. Vance Logan****
Jonathan &
Dorothea Lovat Dickson**
Dr. & Mrs. Richard Mackenzie****
Tom MacMillan****
Macro Properties Ltd. **
Mr. A. Mafrici****
R. Manke****
Mr. & Mrs. R. Gordon Marantz****
Roberto Mauro† & Erin Wall
Mrs. Ettore Mazzoleni***
Diane McArthur
Dr. & Mrs. John A. McCallum****
Darcy & Joyce McKeough*
Mr. Brent Mclaughlin
Don McLean & Diane Martello
Guy & Joanne McLean****
M. E. McLeod****
Mr. Timothy McNicholas*
Mark & Andrea McQueen****
Shawn McReynolds &
Elaine Kierans*
Dr. Don Melady &
Mr. Rowley Mossop***
Eileen Mercier****
Lee Milliken† &
Doug MacNaughton**
Patricia & Frank Mills***
Dr. & Mrs. Steven Millward**
Florence Minz
Audrey & David Mirvish***
Dr. David N. Mitchell &
Dr. Susan M. Till***
Mr. Donald Mitchell
Eva Mocarski*
Mr. Robert Morassutti****
Alice Janet Morgan***
Ms Rosalind Morrow**
Drs. Christopher & Pippa Moss***
Gael Mourant &
Caroline Hubberstey*
Mr. Joseph Mulder**
Marilyn & Amy Mushinski†
Matt & Debbie Mysak***
David & Mary Neelands***
Dr. Steven Nitzkin****
Dr. James &
Mrs. Valda Oestreicher***
Marwan Osseiran
Eileen & Ralph Overend*
Clarence & Mary Pace**
Dr. & Mrs. N. Pairaudeau****
Lee Parsons*
Dr. Roger D. Pearce***
Dr. A. Angus Peller*
John & Penelope Pepperell*
Dr. R. G. Perrin**
M. J. Phillips****
Robin B. Pitcher****
Wanda Plachta****
Mr. & Mrs. Domenic Porporo**
Mary Jean & Frank Potter***
Georgia Prassas****
Ms Jill Presser & Mr. John Duffy*
Alan & Gwendoline Pyatt
Dr. Mark Quigley****
Stephen Ralls & Bruce Ubukata***
The Carol & Morton Rapp
Foundation****
Lola Rasminsky & Bob Presner
Dr. Reza Rastegar
C. Edward Rathé****
Kenneth F. Read****
Grant L. Reuber****
Mrs. Gabrielle Richards**
Carolyn Ricketts****
Ms Nada Ristich*
Emily & Fred Rizner**
Clara Robert*
Steve & Richa Roder
Dr. Michael & Mary Romeo****
John & Hannah Rosen*
Mrs. Gertrude Rosenthal****
Ken & Helen Rotenberg**
Rainer & Sharyn Rothfuss****
The Roux Family
Drs. Orest & Maureen Rudzik****
David A. Ruston***
Ms Sharon Cookie Sandler****
Mallory Morris Sartz &
John Sartz****
Go Sato****
Bruce Schaef****
Fred & Mary Schulz**
Dr. Marianne Seger****
Carol Seifert & Bruno Tesan***
Robert & Geraldine Sharpe****
Milton & Joyce Shier****
Dr. Bernie &
Mrs. Bobbie Silverman**
Rod & Christina Simpson
In memory of Dr. Bernard Slatt*
Dr. & Mrs. Jeremy Sloan**
Jay Smith & Laura Rapp*
Ms Muriel Smith & Mr. Eric Ojala****
Dr. Joseph So***
John & Ellen Spears****
Martha E. Spears***
Rosemary Speirs
Ms Gillian Stacey
Oksana R. Stein***
John D. Stevenson****
James H. Stonehouse**
William Siegel & Margaret Swaine**
Eric Tang & Dr. James Miller**
Peter A. Roy & Leah Taylor Roy
Tesari Charitable Foundation**
Mr. Ronald L. W. Till****
Elizabeth Tory****
Mr. Alex Tosheff*
Dr. R. B. Van Winckle*
Dory Vanderhoof & Rosalind Bell**
Edmond & Sylvia Vanhaverbeke****
Stefan Varga & Dr. Marica Varga*
Dr. Yvonne Verbeeten**
Dr. Helen Vosu & Donald Milner****
Richard & Nathalie Wachsberg*
Elizabeth & Michael Walker***
Peter Webb & Joan York****
Dr. Bogomila Welsh**
Ms Eleanor Westney**
Melanie Whitehead***
Elizabeth Wilson &
Ian Montagnes****
Gregory Wilson
Robert Elliott & Paul Wilson**
John Wright & Chung-Wai Chow*
Dr. Jackson Wu &
Dr. Viviana Chang*
Ms June Yee**
Morden Yolles****
Walter Zwig****
Anonymous (25)
FRIENDS OF THE COC
SUSTAINING FRIENDS
$1,600 – $2,249
Carol & Ernest Albright****
Gail Asper & Michael Paterson
Iivi Campbell****
Jayne & Ted Dawson****
Mr. Steven D. Donohoe****
Ricardo Gomez-Insausti*
Mr. James Hamilton*
Bill Heaslip****
Frieda and Vern Heinrichs
Mr. Josef Hrdina*
Mr. Sumant Inamdar**
Dr. Paul & Mrs. Marcia Kavanagh
Duncan & Sondra Lear
Mrs. Mary Liitoja****
Georgina McLennan****
Barbara & Peter Pauly**
Norbert & Elizabeth Perera****
Ms Joan Sinclair**
David Smukler & Patricia Kern**
The Sorbara Group of
Companies****
Georgina S. Steinsky
Ms Peg Thoen**
Dr. M. Lynne Thurling &
Dr. John Treilhard***
Vernon & Beryl Turner****
Gordon Waugh****
F. Whittaker**
Carole & Bernie Zucker***
Anonymous (2)
ASSOCIATE FRIENDS
$1,100 – $1,599
Michael & Janet Barnard**
Michael Benedict &
Martha Lowrie****
Don Biderman****
Darlene & Peter Blenich*
Ms Marlene Bohn*
Dr. Wendy C. Chan*
Patricia Clarke**
Robert D. Cook**
Mr. Neil Crawford*
Mr. Stuart Davidson*
Mr. Darren Day***
Mr. Rohan D’souza
Dr. Christine Dunbar**
Howard & Kathrine Eckler***
Lawrence Enkin**
R. Dalton Fowler****
John H. Galloway****
Mr. Osvaldo &
Mrs. Joanne Girimonte
Alison Girling & Paul Schabas**
Roy & Gail Harrison****
THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 2016
FOUR SEASONS CENTRE
FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
TICKETS $100
coc.ca/wine
6 p.m. Cocktail Reception
& Silent Auction
7:30 p.m. Ensemble Studio
Performance & Live Auction
For donations and tickets, please contact
Tracy Abergel at 416-306-2305 or
[email protected]
SAVE THE DATE
OPERANATION
TH U RS DAY, MAY 1 9, 201 6
J O I N U S FO R N O RTH AM E R I C A’ S B I G G E ST O PE R A PART Y !
O PER ANATIO N .C A
Ms Alison Harvison Young &
Mr. Herman J. Wilton-Siegel*
Sylvie Hatch****
David Holdsworth & Nicole Senécal*
Richard & Susan Horner****
James Hughes***
Mr. David Hutton***
Mr. Kazik Jedrzejczak****
Ms Suanne Kelman &
Dr. Allan J. Fox**
Dr. & Mrs. L. A. Kitchell****
Murray & Marvelle Koffler****
Andrew & Harriet Lyons
P. Anne Mackay****
Mrs. Janet Maggiacomo**
Karen & Craig**
Mary McClymont****
Janina Milisiewicz****
Mr. David Milovanovic &
Dr. Cinda Dyer
Mr. Carl Morey****
Sean O’Neill & Victoria Cowling****
Justice Michael & Susan Phelan
Ms Victoria Pinnington***
Brayton Polka
Mr. Andrew Prodanyk
Dr. Peter Ray****
Dr. Shelley Rechner****
Robert & Dorothy Ross***
Amye & DeeAnn Hagler Sagar
Mr. Michael Samborsky**
William & Meredith Saunderson****
Dr. Anabel M. Scaranelo
Ms Elisabeth Scarff****
Dr. & Mrs. W. K. Stavraky***
Mr. Paul Steep & Ms Anne McNeilly*
Norma & George Steiner****
Mr. & Mrs. David G. Trent****
Dr. Peter Voore****
Ms Virginia Wai
Nina & Norman Wright***
Anonymous (5)
CONTRIBUTING FRIENDS
$700 – $1,099
Dr. I. L. Babb Fund at the Toronto
Community Foundation****
Karen & Bill Barnett*
Peter & Leslie Barton**
Mrs. Lynn Bayer***
Mr. N. Beilstein & Mr. A. Lee
Catherine Belyea+
Jeniva Berger****
Anthony Bird****
Staunton Bowen
Mary Brock & Brian Iler****
James E. Brown*
Ms Judith Burrows***
Ms E. Burton***
Mr. Bill Cameron**
Mary Campbell****
Betty Carlyle****
Jack A. Carr****
Mark Cestnik & Natercia Sousa****
Geoffrey & Bilgi Chapman****
Harold Chmara & Danny Hoy****
Joe T. R. Clarke****
William Cowan & Elodie Fourquet**
Sylvain Crozon
Peter and Elly Daniels
Anita Day
Don DeBoer & Brent Vickar***
Mr. Michael Disney*
Wendy Drahovzal
Ms Eleanor L. Ellins****
Susan Elliott
Joe & Helen Feldmann***
Brian A. Ferguson****
Dr. James Ferguson
Bruce & Mary Fillier
Russell Finch
Tom Flemming****
Jennifer & Frank Flower***
Angelo Furgiuele & Family*
Douglas G. Gardner****
Mr. M. Gerwin & Mrs. J. Rutledge**
Dr. Wilfred S. Goodman****
Les & Marion Green****
Dr. & Mrs. Voldemars Gulens****
Dr. & Mrs. Brian & Cynthia Hands****
Sandra Hausman**
Mrs. Hana Havlicek-Martinek*
50
W. L. B. Heath****
Dr. Paul Cooper & Mr. David Hiebert
In memory of Pauline Hinch**
Dr. Ivan & Mrs. Diana Hronsky****
In loving memory of
Joyce Whitney Hughes*
Mr. Chris Ibey***
Xiao Jiang
Douglas & Dorothy Joyce****
Lilian Kilianski+ & Brian Pritchard*
Mai Kirch****
June Knudsen****
Mr. & Mrs. I. P. & O. M. Komarnicky***
Adrian Kos & Olga Repryntseva
Mr. Christopher J. Kowal*
Dr. Milos Krajny****
Ms Eva Kukiel*
Gediminas P. Kurpis****
Mr. James R. Lake****
Harry Lane***
Alan & Marti Latta****
Giles le Riche &
Rosemary Polczer***
Mr. Tom Le Seelleur**
Mr. Martin Leistner
Claus & Heather Lenk*
Yakov Lerner*
Gil & Dorota Lorenson
Ms Elizabeth Lorimer*
Dr. Francois Loubert*
Deidre Lynch & Thomas Keirstead*
David Macfarlane
Kathy Marton*
Dr. Lynn McAslan
Mary McGowan****
Jil McIntosh**
Mr. Bruce McKeown****
Dr. & Mrs. Martin &
Deborah McKneally**
Sylvia McPhee****
Janis Medland*
Dr. Alan C. Middleton***
Randy Mills*
Kamini & Lynne Milnes*
John Mogan*
Frank & Anne Moir***
Peter Naylor
Larry Nevard
Ms Cristina Oke***
Karen Olinyk†*
Mr. Vlad Ovchinnikov &
Mrs. Lesia Menchynska*
Joan Pape****
Mr. James C. Pappas****
Mr. Joseph & Mrs. Letizia Paradiso***
Dr. Wadermar A. Pieczonka****
Ed & Beth Price***
Robert Radke
James Rausch
Marat Ressin
Mr. Jason Roberts***
Ms Virginia Robeson**
Patti & Richard Schabas**
Front Desk Ltd./Toby Schertzer
Valerie Schweritzer & Chris Reed****
Marlene Pollock Sheff*
Mrs. Pamela Smith***
John Spears****
Phil Spencer****
Helga & Klaus Stegemann***
Pavel and Vera Straka***
Ms Grace Szczerbowski
Anna Talenti****
Larry & Judy Tanenbaum****
Ria Tietz****
Dr. Claude Tousignant**
Dr. Nancy F. Vogan****
Mr. Wayne Vogan+****
George Vona & Lark Popov**
Angela & Michael Vuchnich****
Mr. John M. Welch****
James & Margaret Whitby****
Joan Williams****
Mr. Takahiro Yamanaka
David A. Young
Ms Iris Zawadowski*
Yvonne Zhang
Anonymous (10)
The Encore Legacy
The Encore Legacy is the planned
giving program of the Canadian
Opera Company.
Planned giving is making the
decision today to provide a gift for
the Canadian Opera Company that
may not be realized until after your
lifetime.
Gifts planned today, that will
ultimately affect your estate, allow
you to make a statement of support
that will become a lasting legacy to
the COC.
The Canadian Opera Company
gratefully acknowledges and thanks
the following individuals who have
included the COC in their estate
planning:
Marie Agay
Susan Agranove & Estate of
Dr. Larry M. Agranove
Ken R. Alexander
Isobel Allen
Ms Sandra Alston
Ms Ann Andrusyszyn
Callie Archer
Renata Arens & Elizabeth Frey
Mrs. Rosalen Armstrong
Ron Atkinson & Bruce Blandford
Mr. L. H. Bartelink
J. Linden Best & James G. Kerr
Mr. Philip J. Boswell
David Bowen
Marnie M. Bracht
Gregory Brandt
Ms Cindy Breslin-Carere
Brian Bucknall &
Mary Jane Mossman
Dita Vadron & Jim Catty
Mrs. Ann Christie
Earl Clark
Stephen Clarke & Elizabeth Black
The Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson
Brian Collins & Amanda Demers
Earlaine Collins
David H. Cormack
Ninalee Craig
Anita Day & Robert McDonald
Ann De Brouwer
Helen Drake
Yvonne Earle
Carol Fordyce
Rowland D. Galbraith
Douglas G. Gardner
Ann J. Gibson
Tina & Michael Gooding
Michael & Anne Gough
Donald I. F. Graham
L. A. Grover
Colin Gruchy
David G. Hallman
George & Irene Hamilton
Joan L. Harris
William E. Hewitt
James Hewson
John R. Higgins
Mr. Kim Yim Ho &
Walter Frederic Thommen
Douglas E. Hodgson
Matt Hughes
Michael & Linda Hutcheon
Elaine Iannuzziello
Dr. Ingrid Jarvis
Lynne Jeffrey
Ann Kadrnka
Ben W. Kizemchuk and
Lauren Oberson
Kathryn Kossow
Jo Lander
Marjorie & Roy Linden
Tom C. Logan, A.R.C.T.
Ms Lenore MacDonald
Dr. Colin M. Mailer
R. Manke
Tim & Jane Marlatt
Mr. Shawn Martin
Margaret McKee
Sylvia M. McPhee
John McVicker & B. W. Thomas
Dr. Alan C. Middleton
Eleanor Miller
Sigmund & Elaine Mintz
Donald Morse
Sue Mortimer
Mr. & Mrs. James D. Patterson
Mervyn Pickering
Gunther & Dorothy Piepke
Wanda Plachta
Ms Georgia Prassas
K. F. Read
Dr. John Reeve-Newson
John & Norma Rogers
Mrs. Margaret Russell
Sharon Ryman†
Cookie & Stephen Sandler
Fred & Mary Schulz
John & Helen Scott
Claire Shaw
R. Bonnie Shettler
William Siegel & Margaret Swaine
David E. Spiro
Dr. D. P. Stanley-Porter
Doreen L. Stanton
Drs. W. & K. Stavraky
Lilly Offenbach-Strauss
Janet Stubbs†
Ann Sutton
Ronald Taber
Susanne Tabur
Mrs. Ann C. Timpson
Riki Turofsky & Charles Petersen
Tony & Mary van Straubenzee
N. Suzanne Vanstone
Marie-Laure Wagner
Hugh & Colleen Washington
William R. Waters
Marion York
Tricia Younger
Anonymous (39)
.
15 16
®
SEASON
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART’S
.
15 16 SEASON
LUST.
LOVE.
LOSS.
Opera Tours Donors
$700 +
From March to December, 2015
Ms E. Burton***
William & Rosemary Fillmore***
Janice Oliver***
Joan Pape****
Rainer & Sharyn Rothfuss****
Melanie Whitehead***
Ms June Yee**
Corporate
Matching Partners
The Canadian Opera Company
gratefully acknowledges the
following organizations that have
matched gifts by their employees:
FERGUSON HALL
GIUSEPPE VERDI’S
LA TRAVIATA
FRI • MAR 11, 2016 • 8PM
SUN • MAR 13, 2016 • 2PM
MORSANI HALL
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART’S
DON GIOVANNI
FRI • APR 8, 2016 • 8PM
SUN • APR 10, 2016 • 2PM
MORSANI HALL
2015•2016 Festival Sponsors and Underwriters:
Helen Torres Foundation; Dr. Zena Lansky and Mr. Warren Rodgers;
Dr. Yi-Hwa Outerbridge and Mr. Felix Cannella, Jr.; Charlene and
Mardy Gordon; Mary Ann and Brad Morse; Greenberg Traurig, P.A.;
Florida Health Care News/Dr. Barry Levine and Gina d’Angelo;
Raymond James; Neiman Marcus
STRAZ CENTER
IT’S GRAND OPERA AT ITS GRANDEST!
The above Individual Support Gifts were
made as of January 5, 2016
* five to nine years of support
** 10 to 14 years of support
*** 15 to 19 years of support
**** 20 or more years of support
† COC administration, chorus or orchestra
member
‡ Endowment
Despite the staff’s extensive efforts to
avoid errors and omissions, mistakes can
occur. If your name was omitted, listed
incorrectly or misspelled, we apologize for
any inconvenience this may have caused.
We would appreciate being notified of
any errors at 416-847-4949.
FRI • FEB 19, 2016 • 8PM
SUN • FEB 21, 2016 • 2PM
@
Canadian Tire Corporation Limited
IBM Canada Ltd.
Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc
Goodman & Company, Investment
Counsel Ltd.
FM Global Foundation
Tickets and dining: 813.229.STAR (7827)
Outside Tampa Bay: 800.955.1045
Group Sales (10+ get a discount): 813.222.1018
OPERATAMPA.ORG
Photo of Cecilia Violetta López by Vanessa Preziose Photography
ANDREA BOCELLI
Presented by the Florida Opera Festival
THU • FEB 11 • 7:30PM
AMALIE ARENA
COSÌ FAN TUTTE
IL VOLO
SUN • MAR 6 • 7:30PM
MORSANI HALL
Il Volo and Andrea Bocelli are not part of the season ticket package.
2015/2016 Corporate Sponsors and Foundation Supporters
BMO Financial Group Pre-Performance Opera Chats
BMO Financial Group Student Dress Rehearsals
Verdi’s La Traviata generously underwritten in part by
Official Automotive Sponsor
of the COC at the FSCPA
Presenting Sponsor
of SURTITLESTM
Presenting Sponsor
Opera Under 30,
Operanation, and Centre Stage
Supporter of Ensemble Studio and Centre Stage
Official Canadian Wine
of the COC at the FSCPA
Program Sponsor
After School Opera Program
Preferred Credit Card
TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege*
Glencore Ensemble Studio School Tour
Production Sponsor
Rossini’s Maometto II
Preferred Hospitality Sponsor
Production Sponsor
Bizet’s Carmen
Preferred Dry Cleaner
GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
$100,000 +
The Peter Cundill Foundation
The Slaight Family Foundation
HOSTING SPONSORS
Drake One Fifty
Nota Bene Restaurant
$50,000 – $99,999
The Hal Jackman Foundation at the
Ontario Arts Foundation
PREFERRED PIANO PROVIDER
Steinway Piano Gallery Toronto
$10,000 – $49,999
Audrey S. Hellyer Charitable Foundation
Barrick Gold
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Burgundy Asset Management Limited
Creeds Dry Cleaning
Davies Ward Philips Vineberg
Goldman Sachs
Great-West Life Assurance Company
J.P. Bickell Foundation
Linden and Associates
McCarthy Tetrault
Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
Shangri-la Hotel
The Chawkers Foundation
The Lloyd Carr-Harris Foundation
The Mclean Foundation
$5,000 – $9,999
Local 58 Charitable Benefit Fund
Mill St. Brewery
Shinex Window Cleaning Inc.
The George Cedric Metcalf Charitable
Foundation
The Hope Charitable Foundation
Torres Coffee
Unit Park Holdings Inc.
$2,500 – $4,999
Calgary Foundation – Hicks Memorial
Fund
Canada Council for the Arts – Vida Peene
Fund
Milgram & Company Ltd
Tesari Charitable Foundation
Unit Park Holdings Inc.
$1,000 - $2,499
D’avignon Freight Services Inc.
Gill Ratcliffe Foundation
Jarvis & Associates
Judith Teller Foundation
Loch-Sloy Holdings Limited
O’Shanter Development Company Ltd
The Powis Family Foundation
PREFERRED FLORISTS
Bloom The Flower Company
Quince Flowers
CENTRE STAGE: ENSEMBLE
STUDIO COMPETITION 2015
Platinum Supporters
Peter M. Deeb
Mercedes Benz
RBC and RBC Foundation
Opera Under 30 Sponsor
TD Bank Group
Competition Supporter
Hal Jackman Foundation
Gold Sponsors
Brookfield Asset Management
Philip Deck & Kimberley Bozak
Linden & Associates
Scotiabank
OPERANATI0N 2015
Presenting Sponsor
TD Bank Group
Dinner Sponsor
Hampton Securities
Preferred Fragrance
REVEAL by Calvin Klein
Jewellery Partner
Maison Birks
Partnering Sponsor
Burgundy Asset Management
Contributing Sponsors
Bloomberg
Bonnie Shore
Canaccord Genuity
Element Financial Corp.
Torkin Manes LLP
Event Supporters
BT/A
Chairman Mills
Mill St.
Perrier
Quince Flowers
Ryan Emberley Photography
10tation Event Catering
The Knot Group
The Room
Toronto Life
Trius Wines
Wellington Printworks
J.P. Wiser’s ® Canadian Whisky
Lot No. 40™ Canadian Whisky
Pike Creek™ Canadian Whisky
Jameson® Irish Whiskey
The Glenlivet® Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Aberlour® Single Malt Scotch Whisky
Beefeater® Gin
SEASON LAUNCH CELEBRATION
2016
Lead Sponsor
TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card
FINE WINE AUCTION 2015
Presenting Sponsor
Graywood Group
Partnering Sponsors
Element Financial
Gillam Group Inc.
RR Donnelley Canada Inc.
Supporting Sponsor
Geoffrey Pennal of CIBC Wood Gundy
Wine Sponsor
Trius Wines
Catering
10tation Event Catering
Cheese Sponsor
The Cheese Boutique
Auctioneer
Stephen Ranger Fine Art Valuation
& Consultancy
The Canadian Opera Company gratefully acknowledges the generous support through operating grants from these government agencies and departments:
OPERATING SUPPORT
ENSEMBLE STUDIO
an Ontario government agency
un organisme du gouvernement de l’Ontario
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country.
Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi $153 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des
Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.
\
SPECIAL PROJECT FUNDING
For many programs and special initiatives undertaken each year by the Canadian Opera Company, we gratefully acknowledge project funding from:
Department of Canadian Heritage
52
Employment and Social Development Canada
PHOTO CREDITS
COVER: R. Fraser Elliott Hall, photo: Lucia Graca, 2014. PAGE 3: Alexander Neef, photo: bohuang.ca. PAGE 4: Johannes Debus, photo: bohuang.ca. PAGE
5, photos: Chris Hutcheson. PAGE 7: Stage door of the Four Seasons Centre, photo: COC. PAGES 16 to 23, photos: Michael Cooper. PAGE 24: photo
courtesy of Stefan Vinke. PAGE 26, top: Anjelica Scannura in performance at the Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, 2015, photo:
Chris Hutcheson; bottom: Summer Opera Camp, photo: COC. PAGES 28 and 29: 1: Michael Cooper; 2, 4: Chris Hutcheson; 3: Joey Lopez; 5: IKONICA; 6:
Inna Yasinka; 7. 14: COC; 8: Jeff Higgins Photography; 9: Courtesy of Fred Davis; 10: Sam Gaetz; 11: Jennifer Szeto; 12: Henry Chan; 13: Karen E. Reeves;
PAGES 30 to 39: photos: Monika Rittershaus. PAGE 45, left: Luca Pisaroni in the title role of Maometto II (Santa Fe Opera, 2012), photo: Ken Howard;
right: Rinat Shaham and Alain Coulombe in Carmen (COC, 2010), photo: Michael Cooper. PAGE 54: A bar at the Four Seasons Centre, photo: Joey Lopez
53
Food and Beverage Service
We are pleased to offer, for the convenience of all our patrons, a pre-order system for
intermission purchases. Our pre-order system is designed to decrease your wait time at
the bar during intermisison and we invite you to make use of it at every COC performance.
Bars are located throughout the Isadore and Rosalie Sharp City Room’s many levels.
Food and beverages are not permitted in R. Fraser Elliott Hall.
Patron Information and Policies
COAT AND PARCEL CHECK
To uphold the safety of the building, oversized bags and parcels
may be prohibited from entering R. Fraser Elliott Hall. Patrons
attending COC performances are now eligible for complimentary
parcel check. Coat check is located in the Lower Lobby, where
the following services are also available: booster seats, back
supports, infrared hearing-assistive devices and rental of
binoculars, on a first-come, first-served basis.
GO SCENT FREE
In consideration of patrons with allergies, please avoid wearing
ETIQUETTE
Patrons are reminded that R. Fraser Elliott Hall is an extremely
lively auditorium and that all audience noise will be accentuated
and audible to other patrons. Turn off all electronic devices,
avoid talking, coughing, humming, moving loose seats, kicking
the backs of seats, rustling programs, and unwrapping candies
or cough drops. Please remain in your seat until the performance
has completely ended and the house lights have been turned on.
ELECTRONIC DEVICES
The use of mobile and smartphones and all other electronic
devices is extremely disruptive and is strictly prohibited during
performances. If a patron has an emergency and needs to be
contacted during a performance, he or she should contact
Patron Services for assistance before the performance.
CAMERAS/RECORDING DEVICES
The use of cameras, video cameras or sound-recording
devices of any kind is prohibited in R. Fraser Elliott Hall during
performances. If you’d like to get a picture inside the auditorium,
do so before the performance begins. However, the design
and direction of the production is restricted under intellectual
property law, so patrons must have the permission of the COC
to take pictures of the production’s set or the stage before or
during performances. Be sure to take a look at our Facebook
page for official photos of our productions!
LATECOMERS
In the interest of safety and for the comfort of all patrons
and performers, latecomers may not enter the auditorium or
be seated unless there is a suitable break in the performance
(usually intermission). Patrons leaving the auditorium during
the performance or returning late after intermission may not be
readmitted or may be accommodated in an alternate viewing
location.
CHILDREN AND BABES-IN-ARMS
All patrons, including children, must have a ticket for
the performance. All children must be seated next to an
accompanying adult. Young children should be able to sit quietly
throughout the performance. If unable to do so, children and
their accompanying adult will be asked to leave the auditorium.
Babes-in-arms will not be admitted.
54
MEDICAL EMERGENCIES AND FIRST AID
A house doctor is present at all performances. Please contact an
usher if medical services are required.
LOST AND FOUND
During performances please speak with an usher or visit
Patron Services at the Coat Check in the Lower Lobby.
Following performances, please e-mail [email protected]
or call 416-342-5200 for information.
TICKET SERVICES
Canadian Opera Company subscriptions and individual tickets
are available through COC Ticket Services
ONLINE:
coc.ca
BY PHONE: 416-363-8231 or long distance 1-800-250-4653
Monday to Friday – 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday – 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
IN PERSON: Four Seasons Centre Box Office
145 Queen St. W.
Monday to Saturday – 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. or through
first intermission
Sunday (performance days only) – 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
or through first intermission
The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts Box Office also
services ticketing needs for The National Ballet of Canada and all
other Four Seasons Centre events.
GROUP SALES
Groups of 10 or more enjoy savings on regular individual ticket
prices. For more information or to reserve seats call
416-306-2356.
PARKING
There is parking on a first-come, first-served basis for about 200
vehicles underneath the Four Seasons Centre. The entrance is
located on the west side of York Street, south of Queen Street.
Additional parking is conveniently located just steps away in the
Green P lot underneath Nathan Phillips Square. For directions
visit greenp.com.
FOUR SEASONS CENTRE FACILITY TOURS
Tours of the Four Seasons Centre include backstage access! For
more information, visit fourseasonscentre.ca.
BMO FINANCIAL GROUP PRE-PERFORMANCE OPERA CHATS
COC Education and Outreach staff and guest speakers offer free,
insightful chats about the stories, music and background of all
COC productions, 45 minutes prior to each performance in the
Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.
SPECIAL EVENTS AND CATERING
The Four Seasons Centre is available for rental for all of your
presentation, meeting or special events needs, with spaces
accommodating from 20 to 2,000 people and full catering
services. For further details visit fourseasonscentre.ca or call
416-342-5233.
488university.com
A Daimler Brand
Take centre stage.
Mercedes-Benz Canada and the showstopping 2016 GLE are proud
to be the Official Automotive Sponsor of the Canadian Opera Company
at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.
© 2016 Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc.

program - Canadian Opera Company

Transcription

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