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Home , Canadian Opera Company, Opera Lyra Ottawa, Wallis Giunta

Meet the Cast & Crew

Christopher Enns – Professor Hornsby/Set/Rami Born in Manitoba, tenor Christopher Enns is a new member of the COC Ensemble Studio. He holds his bachelor of vocal performance from the University of Manitoba, and recently graduated from the University of with a diploma in operatic performance. Recent performances include the title role in Candide, Ecclitico in Il mondo della luna, and Gonsalve in L’heure espagnole with the University of Toronto’s Division, Alfred in with Highlands Opera Studio and Gastone in La Traviata with Saskatoon Opera. Mr. Enns has also performed with the Toronto Summer Music Academy, Opera NUOVA, the Winnipeg Symphony and the Aldeburgh Connection. This season with the COC, he performs the roles of an American, a Glass Maker, and a Strolling Player in ; Tamino in the Ensemble Studio performance of ; and, Scaramuccio in .

Wallis Giunta – Molly Brown/Nephthys/Tahemet A native of , mezzo-soprano last performed with the COC as the Cretan Woman in the Ensemble Studio performance of and understudied the role of Mercédès in . Other operatic credits include Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Nancy in and Ernesto in Il mondo della luna. She has sung with the Ravinia Festival, , , the Regina Symphony, the Aspen Summer Music Festival and the Royal Conservatory Orchestra. Last season, Ms Giunta was winner of the Ottawa Choral Society New Discoveries Auditions, second prize winner at the Brian Law Opera Competition, received encouragement awards from the George London Competition and the National Council Auditions, and was a grant recipient of the for the Arts. This season with the COC, Ms Giunta performs the English Lady in Death in Venice and the Second Lady in both the mainstage and Ensemble Studio performances of The Magic Flute, and covers the roles of Nancy T’sang in and Angelina in .

Adrian Kramer – David Sands/Osiris/The Scorpions Baritone Adrian Kramer was born in Guelph, Ontario. Previously with the COC, he understudied the roles of Moralès and Le Dancaïre in Carmen, Japanese Envoy 3 in The Nightingale and Other Short Fables and Prince Yamadori and Yakuside in . He holds a bachelor of music from the of Music and a master’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied with Marlena Malas. Mr. Kramer previously sang Pelléas in Pelléas et Mélisande with Curtis Opera Theatre and Sid in Albert Herring with the Châteauville Festival. He has performed with Glimmerglass Opera, the Chautauqua Institution, Mendelssohn Club, and the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival. In 2005, he was the winner of the Juilliard Honors Recital Competition. This season he appears as the Hotel Waiter in Death in Venice and Papageno in the Ensemble Studio performance of The Magic Flute and is understudying roles in Death in Venice, The Magic Flute, Nixon in China, La Cenerentola and Ariadne auf Naxos.

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 coc.ca Isis & the Seven Scorpions Study Guide

10 Simone Osborne – Sally Smith/Isis Soprano Simone Osborne recently appeared with the COC in , Carmen and the Ensemble Studio performance of Idomeneo. Other credits include Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief (Wexford Opera Festival), the title role in Mignon (Music Academy of the West) and a dozen roles with the University of British Columbia’s Opera Ensemble. She has been a featured soloist with the symphony orchestras of Vancouver, Edmonton, Prince George, the North Bohemian Opera, and the West Coast Symphony, and has presented solo recitals for the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, the Hong Kong International Arts Festival and the Marilyn Horne Foundation in New York. Ms Osborne is a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition and a recipient of the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation and Jacqueline Desmarais Foundation grants. This season, Ms Osborne appears as a Strolling Player in Death in Venice, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Naiad in Ariadne auf Naxos and understudies Euridice in , all with the COC, and makes her Carnegie Hall recital debut.

Jacqueline Woodley – Sally Smith/Isis Soprano Jacqueline Woodley is a new member of the COC Ensemble Studio. She holds both her bachelor’s degree and a master in opera performance from McGill University and also trained at Opera NUOVA in Edmonton and for three years with the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv and Montreal. Ms Woodley’s past operatic roles include Lisette in La Rondine, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Serpina in La serva padrona, Despina in Così fan tutte and Belinda in . As a soloist, she has performed in Bach’s St. John Passion, Handel’s Messiah and Dixit Dominus, Fauré’s Requiem, Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore and Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio. This season with the COC, Ms Woodley performs the Lace Seller in Death in Venice and Papagena in the Ensemble Studio performance of The Magic Flute and understudies Amore in Orfeo ed Euridice.

Christopher Mokrzewski – Musical Director Born in Chatham, Ontario, former Ensemble Studio intern coach Christopher Mokrzewski was the musical director of the 2009/2010 Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour production of . Recently completing a master of music degree in piano performance and literature at the Eastman School of Music, he is also a gradu­ate of the vocal piano program at the Music Academy of the West and previously studied at The Royal Conservatory of Music. He was also the assistant conduc- tor and coach of La Cenerentola with the Bay View Music Festival, music director of Assassins and coach and accompanist for L’enfant et les sortilèges with Eastman Opera Theatre, and coach, accompanist, and assistant chorus master for with Mercury Opera Rochester. Other credits include coach, accompanist, and assistant chorus master­ for Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Mercury Opera Rochester, and coach and accompanist for Cendrillon, L’étoile, and Claudia Legare with Eastman Opera Theatre. He was the first prize winner of the 1999 Eastman School of Music International Young Artists Competition and has also been awarded first prizes at the Milosz Magin International Piano Competition and the Canadian Music Competition. Music at the University of Toronto.

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 coc.ca Isis & the Seven Scorpions Study Guide

11 Graham Cozzubbo – Director Originally from Calgary, where he spent two seasons at Alberta Theatre Projects as an Artistic Associate and co-founded New Century Stage, Graham Cozzubbo’s work encompasses theatre, opera and contemporary music theatre. Work in theatre includes productions of Krapp’s Last Tape for the DuMaurier World Stage and Soulpepper Theatre, staged readings of John Gabriel Borkman and When We Dead Awaken in for The Classical Theatre Conspiracy and Hart House Theatre in Toronto, the Canadian premiere of Welsh playwright Gary Owens’ Cancer Time for Toronto’s SummerWorks, and most recently the second instalment in the trilogy Canada Steel at Tarragon Theatre. He has directed for the opera companies of Calgary, Québec, Ed­ monton, Victoria, Houston, Toronto, and Cincinnati, and was the assistant artistic director of the Contemporary Opera program at Banff and directed the premiere of Henze’s El Cimarrón, and wrote and directed Erik Satie: The Velvet Gentleman. His work for young audiences features two works with the COC, The Brothers Grimm and the premiere of Isis and the Seven Scorpions in 2006. Recently he directed the first school tour in Opera Hamilton’s 30 year history,Hansel and Gretel. Mr. Cozzubbo has taught for the Banff Centre, Baltimore’s Peabody University, Humber College, Wilfrid Laurier University and the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto.

Brent Krysa – Designer

Lesley Abarquez – Stage Manager Lesley Abarquez returns to the COC after serving as stage manager for La Bohème, Die Walküre as part of the complete Ring Cycle, and the Ensemble Studio productions of /Renard, The Bear/Swoon, The Magic Flute and Dido & Aeneas/The Coffee Cantata. With the COC she also stage managed several Ensemble Studio School Tour productions including The Barber of Seville, Isis and the Seven Scorpions, The Brothers Grimm, The Magic Flute, and Hansel and Gretel. As assistant stage manager, Ms Abarquez has worked on numerous company productions including Madama Butterfly, Fidelio, The Barber of Seville, , Don Carlos, Wozzeck, Rodelinda, Die Walküre, Bluebeard’s Castle/, Billy Budd, Venus and Adonis, , Pelléas et Mélisande, Der fliegende Holländerand The Rape of Lucretia. She has also stage managed various productions with the University of Toronto Opera School, the Canadian Children’s Opera Company, Opera Mississauga, the Banff Centre for the Arts and Queen of Puddings Music Theatre Company. Ms Abarquez is a graduate of the University of Toronto.

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 coc.ca Isis & the Seven Scorpions Study Guide

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