Today, the Canadian Opera Company announced a cast change for their upcoming winter run of Verdi’s Rigoletto. American soprano Andrea Carroll has withdrawn from singing the role of Gilda. In her place, two Canadian sopranos have been cast. Sarah Dufresne will appear in four performances (Jan. 24, 28, Feb. 6 and 8) and Andriana Chuchman, in the final three (Feb. 10, 12 and 14).
Sarah Dufresne (Ophélie) in Opéra de Montréal’s Hamlet, 2024
Photo: Vivien Gaumand
Dufresne recently sang her first Gilda at Pacific Opera Victoria in April 2025 and then reprised the role at Vancouver Opera to open their 2025-26 season. The soprano’s star has been on the rise since she won second prize in the Aria Division of Concours Musical International de Montréal in 2022. She was subsequently a member of the Jette Parker Artists Programme at Royal Ballet and Opera for two years. Dufresne opened Opéra de Montréal’s 2024-25 season to great acclaim in her role debut as Ophélie in Thomas’s Hamlet. This will be her COC debut.
Chuchman has previously sung with the COC as Musetta in La bohème (2019) and Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffmann (2012). Last season, she made her debuts at Vancouver Opera as Tina in Dove’s Flight and San Diego Opera as Violetta in La traviata, and returned to Manitoba Opera as Adina in L’elisir d’amore. In the past few seasons, she has debuted several important new roles including Violetta, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and the title role in Handel’s Alcina. She sang Adina at the Metropolitan Opera in 2014. Later this season, she sings Eurydice in Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice at Pacific Opera Victoria.
Andriana Chuchman (Adina) in Metropolitan Opera’s L’elisir d’amore, 2014
Photo: Ken Howard
The COC’s Rigoletto runs from Jan. 24-Feb. 14. In other casting, Quinn Kelsey returns in the title role which he sang when the company first presented Christopher Alden’s production in 2011. Ben Bliss, familiar from his Mozart roles at the COC, is the Duke of Mantua. Chinese bass Peixin Chen sings Sparafucile and Zoie Reams is Maddalena after a memorable COC debut in 2024’s Medea. Music Director Johannes Debus conducts.
For more information about Canadian Opera Company’s Rigoletto, visit www.coc.ca/tickets/2526-season/rigoletto
