THE MAGIC FLUTE GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG PROGRAM WINTER 2017 Great opera lives here. Proud sponsor of the Canadian Opera Company’s 2016/2017 Season. 16-2463 Canadian Opera Company Program Ad_Ev1.indd 1 2016-10-18 11:54 AM CONTENTS A MESSAGE FROM GENERAL DIRECTOR 4 WHAT’S PLAYING: ALEXANDER NEEF THE MAGIC FLUTE 10 FLUTE FLASHBACK Developing emerging talent is a 65 YEARS OF MAGIC priority at the COC, going back 14 GET TO KNOW to 1980 when General Director ANDREW HAJI Lotfi Mansouri established the Ensemble Studio. Since then, more 16 WHAT’S PLAYING: GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG than 220 artists have gone through the program and call the COC 22 GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG AND THE home. As the COC continues to TWILIGHT OF OUR IGNORANCE grow and cement its reputation as Q&A WITH DEBUS AND GOERKE one of the world’s foremost opera 24 producers, we want our young artist 27 GIVING THE FUTURE OF OPERA programs to grow alongside us and THE REAL EXPERIENCE continue to expand our efforts to 29 OUR NEW ROOMMATES: nurture the next generation of opera AGAINST THE GRAIN professionals. Of course, our Ensemble Studio 32 BACKSTAGE AND BEYOND This fall, we launched a new pilot artists continue to be wonderful ambassadors for the COC and 34 BIOGRAPHIES: THE MAGIC FLUTE project to establish a residency program providing resources Canada’s opera scene as they 41 BIOGRAPHIES: and mentorship opportunities to embark on international careers. GÖTTERDÄMMERUNG emerging opera companies. Our They work with some of the best instructors in the business 46 THE REWARDS OF FRIENDSHIP first Company-in-Residence is AND SPONSORSHIP Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre throughout the season and you (AtG), an indie collective known can witness the results of their 47 A GIFT FOR THE COC ARCHIVES for their innovative and accessible rigorous training when they take to the mainstage of the Four 48 LOOKING TO LOUIS RIEL productions in unusual venues. This residency program is a formalization Seasons Centre for An Evening 56 MANY THANKS TO OUR of a long-time mentorship that with the Ensemble Studio: Music SUPPORTERS has existed between the COC and of Handel and Mozart, a special showcase of operatic scenes on 62 PATRON INFORMATION AtG. Our hope with this residency AND POLICIES program is to put a system in place February 23. that helps nurture young companies as they grow and seek to establish a Canada may have a relatively sustainable future. We also welcome small population but our pool GO SCENT FREE our fourth COC Orchestra Academy of operatic talent is limitless. In consideration of patrons cohort this winter. Five musicians For opera to continue thriving with allergies, please avoid from the University of Toronto, The as an art form in this country, wearing perfumed beauty Glenn Gould School and, new this we must invest in our young products and fragrances. year, the Schulich School of Music at singers, instrumentalists, McGill University will be mentored directors, designers, crew by COC Orchestra members, members, and administrators. COC Program is published three times a participate in rehearsals, and gain They are the future of opera year by the Canadian Opera Company. All and we will continue doing our rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in real performance experience by part without written consent is prohibited. performing at the 2017/2018 season part, and growing our programs, Contents copyright Canadian Opera to ensure that they can form Company. Direct all advertising inquiries to launch event on January 12 and [email protected]. in the pit on opening night of solid foundations for successful careers. Program edited by Claudine Domingue, Götterdämmerung, as well as in their Director of Public Relations; Kristin McKinnon, own concert as part of the COC’s Publicist and Publications Co-ordinator; and, Free Concert Series in the Richard Read more about our training Gianna Wichelow, Senior Manager, Creative programs on page 27, and our and Publications. Layout by Gianna Wichelow. Bradshaw Amphitheatre on January 26. All information is correct at time of printing. partnership with AtG on page 29. Photo credits are on page 61. CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY 2016/2017 3 THE MAGIC (DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE) Ambur Braid as the Queen of the Night and Simone Osborne as Pamina in the Ensemble Studio performance of the COC’s The Magic Flute, 2011. 4 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY 2016/2017 PRODUCTION SPONSOR PRODUCTION ORIGINALLY MADE FLUTE POSSIBLE BY THE CATHERINE AND BY WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART MAXWELL MEIGHEN FOUNDATION Opera in two acts w Libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder Edited for the New Mozart Edition (Neue Mozart-Ausgabe) by Gernot Gruber and Alfred Orel Used by arrangement with European American Distributors LLC, Sole US and Canadian agent for Baerenreiter, publisher and copyright owner. First performance: Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden, Vienna, 1791 COC PRODUCTION Last performed by the COC in 2011 w January 19, 28, 29, February 1, 3, 4, 7, 10, 16, 18, 19, 24, 2017 Sung in German with English SURTITLES™ THE CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM (in order of vocal appearance) Tamino Pamina First Armed Man Revival Director Andrew Haji^ Elena TsallagovaD Owen McCausland^ Ashlie Corcoran^ Owen McCausland^* Kirsten MacKinnonD* Andrew Haji^* Assistant Director First Lady First Spirit Second Armed Man Rob Kempson Aviva Fortunata^ Sophie Filip-Vicari** Neil Craighead^ Set and Costume Designer Second Lady Second Spirit The Speaker Myung Hee Cho Emily D’Angelo† Ella Farlinger** Martin Gantner Lighting Designer Third Lady Third Spirit Papagena Scott Zielinski Lauren Segal^ Clara Moir** Jacqueline Woodley^ Chorus Master Papageno First Priest Sandra Horst^ Joshua Hopkins Charles Sy† Conductor Stage Manager Phillip Addis* D Second Priest Bernard Labadie Stephanie Marrs Queen of the Night Bruno Roy† Director Ambur Braid^ SURTITLES™ Producer Sarastro Diane Paulus Gunta Dreifelds Monostatos Goran JuricD Michael Colvin^ Matt Boehler* *Jan. 29, Feb. 3, 16, 18, 24, 2017 ** The First, Second and Third Spirits are members of the Canadian Children’s Opera Company Andrew Haji’s performance is generously sponsored by Marjorie and Roy Linden Ambur Braid’s performance is generously sponsored by Peter M. Deeb Emily D’Angelo’s performance is generously sponsored by Marcia Lewis Brown Charles Sy’s performance is generously sponsored by Peter and Hélène Hunt Bruno Roy’s performance is generously sponsored by Catherine Fauquier Sandra Horst and the COC Chorus are generously underwritten by Tim and Frances Price D COC Debut † Current member of the COC Ensemble Studio ^ Graduate of COC Ensemble Studio Program information is correct at time of printing. All casting is subject to change. ACT I 70 minutes INTERMISSION 25 minutes ACT II 80 minutes Performance time is approximately two hours and 55 minutes. CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY 2016/2017 5 NOTES labyrinth that covers the grounds of the estate. The theatricality of their journey is enhanced by the mysteries In creating this production of The Magic Flute—one of the of the outdoor world beneath the cover of night where they most beloved of all Mozart operas—the creative team has act out the rituals of the drama. All distinctions between focused on what makes the story so engagingly theatrical fantasy and reality fade away as their pageant lasts for audiences of every generation. We have sought to through the night until dawn. explore the layers of comedy, fairytale, and myth that come together in live performance. The entire opera has been For Enlightenment thinkers, journeying through re-imagined as a play-within-a-play—a performance being the architectural spaces created by a labyrinth held created before our eyes by the members of a household a metaphorical significance, as well as an aesthetic and their guests, in celebration of the name day of the appeal. The opera references the rites and rituals of opera’s heroine, Pamina. It is something out of the world of the Freemasons, the Enlightenment society in which Shakespearean comedy, where the concepts of the theatre Mozart and the librettist Emanuel Schikaneder were and the stage are presented for what they can reveal to lodge brothers. In Masonry, a journey through a maze us about our own real-world natures. Pamina and Tamino symbolized the passage from death to re-birth, as well begin their journey to love and enlightenment as living as the cyclical progression from night to day. In our and breathing actors treading the boards of an outdoor production, especially important is the journey of the stage. heroine Pamina, whose admission to the Temple of Wisdom and participation in the trials by fire and water is We have set the action in 1791, the year in which the essential to the outcome, for only in the union of the male opera was first performed, against the backdrop of the and female do the characters successfully pass through the Enlightenment. The entire play-within-a-play is presented trials. In this complex world of imagination, we hope The in the open space of a nobleman’s garden, itself a place of Magic Flute will become a new living experience for every enchantment and symbolic power during this historical member of our audience as well. period. As the drama unfolds, the actors leave the theatre behind and continue to enact their story in an elaborate Diane Paulus, director (from the COC’s 2011 house program) On the small, beautiful stage that is the set-within-a-set in the play-within-a-play, Michael Schade’s Tamino was pursued by a three-headed serpent when the COC premiered this production of The Magic Flute in 2011, directed by Diane Paulus. 6 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY 2016/2017 SYNOPSIS ACT II Near the temple Sarastro leads a prayer to Isis and Osiris, ACT I to assist Pamina and Tamino.