Canadian Opera COmpany Fall 2013 Per forman ce PETER GR IM ES (l –r) Dimitri Pittas as Rodolfo and Joshua Hopkins as Marcello in the Canadian Opera Company/Houston Grand Opera (HGO)/San Francisco Opera co-production of La Bohème , 2012, HGO. Photo: Felix Sanchez CONTEN TS 4 REMEMBERING LOTFI 6 JOHN CAIRD DIRECTS A NEW BOHÈME BY SUZANNE VANSTONE 12 HEPPNER ON PETER GRIMES BY SUZANNE VANSTONE A scene from the Opera Australia production of Peter Grimes , 2009. 20 CANADA’S FUTURE OPERA STARS Photo: Branco Gaica TAKE CENTRE STAGE BY JENNIFER PUGSLEY 24 COMING THIS WINTER MOZART’S COSÌ FAN TUTTE BY CLAIRE MORLEY 28 COMING THIS WINTER VERDI’S UN BALLO IN MASCHERA BY GIANNA WICHELOW Canadian Opera COmpany Fall 2013 Per forman ce n CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY EDITORS: Suzanne Vanstone, former Senior Communications Manager, Editorial; Gianna Wichelow, Senior Communications Manager, Creative; Claire Morley, Communications Officer n RJ PERFORMANCE MEDIA INC .: PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER: Joe Marin o n CEO: Frank Barbosa n SECRETARY TREASURER: Rajee Muthuraman n FINANCE: Gina Zicari n NATIONAL ACCOUNT DIRECTORS: Danny Antunes, Gary Bell, Tom Marino, Paul Radford n ART DIRECTOR /DESIGN: Jan Haring a n GRAPHIC ARTIST: Glenda Moniz n Cover images: La Bohème : Dimitri Pittas as Rodolfo and Katie Van Kooten as Mimì in the Canadian Opera Company/Houston Grand Opera (HGO)/San Francisco Opera co-production of La Bohème , 2012, HGO. Photo: Felix Sanchez Peter Grimes : (l –r) Taryn Fiebig and Lorina Gore as Auntie’s Nieces and Stuart Skelton as Peter Grimes in the Opera Australia production of Peter Grimes , 2009. Photo: Branco Gaica M Canadian Opera Company’s edition of Performance magazine is published quarterly by RJ Performance Media Inc., 2724 Coventry Road, Oakville, Ontario, L6H 6R1. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written MIZRAHI consent is prohibited. Contents copyright © Performance Inc. Subscriptions available by contacting publisher. DEVELOPMENTS Direct all advertising enquiries to 2724 Coventry Road, Oakville, Ontario, L6H 6R1 or phone 905-829-3900, Ext. 222. Catch up with blogs and enjoy COC Radio at coc.ca. 3 “Lotfi was a legend. There is no question that he was one of opera’s most influential general directors. i am personally very grateful for his friendship and the advice he shared with me ever since i joined the COC.” – COC General Director Alexander Neef (left) Lotfi Mansouri and Alexander Neef at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 2010. Photo: COC; (below) The COC's 1983 production of Elektra , where SURTITLES™ were first used. Photo: Robert C. Ragsdale One of Lotfi’s most personal and heartfelt ambitions was achieved when he founded the COC Ensemble Studio in 1980, which is now Canada’s premier training program for young opera professionals. To date, over 180 young opera artists including singers, coaches, stage directors and conductors have received their first major professional operatic experience through the Ensemble Among Lotfi’s many contributions to the Studio, claiming such alumni as Ben COC and the opera world was the Heppner, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Janet unveiling of SURTITLES™ at the company’s Stubbs, John Fanning, and Wendy Nielsen, 1983 production of Elektra . The innovative to name just a few. use of simultaneous projected translations above the stage suddenly allowed the REME MB ERING “Lotfi possessed an infectious COC to make opera more accessible to enthusiasm for all that opera is. audiences. This revolutionized the opera He inspired us. He knew every world, and the use of titles is now standard word and note in every opera practice in all major opera houses around he directed. He loved his ‘kids’, LOTFI the world. the singers whose careers he LOTFI MANSOURI nourished and supported. What a privilege it was to have Mansouri left the COC in 1988 to become (1929 –2013) been one of his ‘kids’!” General Director of the San Francisco – Janet Stubbs, mezzo-soprano and member Opera, but he returned to the COC family of the inaugural Ensemble Studio regularly to direct on the mainstage, and his past August, we at the COC were largest in North America. During his to give masterclasses to the young artists Tdeeply saddened to hear of the loss of tenure, Mansouri’s focus was on of the Ensemble Studio. our third General Director, Lotfi Mansouri. implementing a longer performance Lotfi led the company from 1976 to 1988 season, audience development, more “His larger-than-life personality, broad sense of humor and boundless and played a crucial role in launching the adventurous repertoire and productions, enthusiasm for his work endeared him to everyone. His knowledge COC’s international reputation for artistic and advance planning both financially of the repertoire and stagecraft were daunting, and it benefitted every excellence and creative innovation. and artistically, the accomplishments organization he was associated with.” He grew the company into the largest of which are essential elements of the – San Francisco Opera General Director David Gockley opera producer in Canada and one of the COC’s operations today. 4 Canadian Opera Company 2013/20 14 Season Catch up with blogs and enjoy COC Radio at coc.ca. 5 A scene from the Canadian Opera Company/Houston Grand Opera (HGO)/San Francisco co-production of La Bohème , 2012, HGO. Photo: Felix Sanchez JOHN CAIRD DI RECT S ANEW BOHÈME BY SUZANNE VANSTONE John Caird hether you are an opera neophyte or airy feeling, both in the public foyer spaces Wa seasoned aficionado, chances are and in the hall itself. The space is not you have experienced La Bohème ’s beautifu l pretentious but rather incorporates a real music and heart-wrenching tale in some sense of community. It was a great pleasure fashion – be it with a full production, to work there and I look forward to my return excerpted highlights, or perhaps that aria with La Bohème .” on the radio that you can’t quite name, but In creating this new co-production with know intimately. A repertoire staple since Houston and San Francisco, Caird and set the company’s inaugural season in 1950, and costume designer David Farley have the COC is thrilled to bring a brand new taken inspiration from La Belle Époque , Bohème to its stage under the direction of capturing the romance and artistic brilliance Tony-award winning director John Caird. at the heart of this opera. Caird very much enjoyed working at La Bohème is based on Scènes de la vie the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing de bohème , a play by Henri Murger and Arts when he was last here to direct Don Théodore Barrière, which was adapted Carlos in 2007. “The building has a light, from a novel by Murger . But as Caird says, 6 Canadian Opera Company 2013/20 14 Season John Caird Directs a NEW Bohème story we know that both men will move on and certainly love again.” “Rather than relationships, their art is what is paramount to them – art is their true passion. No matter what is happening around them, Rodolfo pauses to write down a line of verse and Marcello feverishly paints and sketches. Like all good artists, they don’t want a moment to slip by without, in some way, recording it.” Caird has set this production in the 19th century, inspired by what was happening in Paris at the time. “We drew great inspiration from the great painter Toulouse-Lautrec who was capturing all aspects of street life, feeding the desire for the wealthy classes to peer into the seamier (l –r) Vuyani Mlinde as Colline, Michael Sumuel as Schaunard, Dimitri Pittas as Rodolfo and Joshua Hopkins side of life.” The set design revolves around as Marcello in the Canadian Opera Company/Houston a mosaic of canvases, painted by Marcello, Grand Opera (HGO)/San Francisco Opera co-production of La Bohème , 2012, HGO. Photo: Felix Sanchez that frame the action within the opera’s changing Parisian locales. Some paintings remain fixed, some turn in place to create “In reality, the original works were neither scene changes, and others fly in to enhance a novel nor a play, but rather vignettes, the artistic effect. glimpses into the lives of the bohemian Puccini’s ability to create compelling lifestyle in Paris’s Latin Quarter.” Murger characters and express larger-than-life vividly captured the bohemians’ emotions through unforgettable melodies unconventional attitude towards freedom, is what makes La Bohème a perpetual pleasure and love, as well as their complete favourite of audiences. “A great opera like commitment to art, but he also reminded Bohème is a beautifully crafted construction his readers of the harsh realities of their lives. of melodies and musical dialogue – and At La Bohème ’s core is the heartbreaking Puccini’s craftsmanship is quite astonishing . tragedy of Mimì, an ailing seamstress and As always, it will be an unalloyed pleasure her lover Rodolfo. But Caird ingeniously to share a rehearsal room with his music. uses the four young artists: Marcello, a Having said that, my own work is only ever painter; Rodolfo, a poet; Schaunard, a musician; as good as the cast I am working with, and and Colline, a philosopher; to propel the from whom I draw my own inspiration. In story, each employing their particular talent. this respect I am being doubly rewarded – “All four young men possess wit and talent with two superb casts, both brimming over but they aren't as good at their relationships with youthful energy and enthusiasm.” n as they are at their art. Rodolfo knows he must lose Mimì and Marcello runs hot and Suzanne Vanstone is former Senior Communications cold with Musetta, but by the end of the Manager, Editorial at the Canadian Opera Company FOR FURTHER INSIGHT INTO LA BOHÈME , PLEASE READ CANVASES COME ALIVE WITH SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER DAVID FARLEY, BY SUZANNE VANSTONE, AVAILABLE IN THE FALL ISSUE OF PRELUDE ONLINE AT COC.CA/PUBLICATIONS .