Opera Across Canada: a season anchored by the classics

Starting at our nation’s westernmost opera outpost, Pacific Opera Victoria offers a season well-balanced between tradition and the (almost) new. The season opens in October with a new production of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito staged by Toronto’s Jennifer Tarver, with tenor Andrew Haji in the title role. February marks a company directorial debut for POV’s new artistic director, Brenna Corner, with Rachel Portman’s 2003 operatic adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s beloved literary classic, The Little Prince. The season ends in April with Verdi’s Rigoletto, which sees Canadian soprano Sarah Dufresne making a role debut as Gilda. www.pacificopera.ca

Vancouver Opera opens in October with Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus in Opéra de Québec’s recent production staged here by Ashlie Corcoran. The cast includes Lara Ciekiewicz as Rosalinde and Claire de Sévigné as Adele. February brings Jonathan Dove’s 1998 opera, Flight, in a concept by Morris Panych that was first seen at POV in 2020. The all-Canadian cast includes soprano Caitlin Wood and countertenor Cameron Shahbazi. Company Music Director Jacques Lacombe leads an April, season-closing Madama Butterfly with Yasko Sato and Karen Chia-Ling Ho alternating the title role. www.vancouveropera.ca

Calgary Opera presents Mozart’s Don Giovanni as its November season-opener with company Artistic Director Jonathan Brandani on the podium and Anna Theodosakis directing. Baritone Phillip Addis sings the title role with sopranos Midori Marsh, Aviva Fortunata and Christina Thanisch-Smith as the women he pursues. February brings Donizetti’s comedy Don Pasquale with veteran Canadian baritone John Fanning in the title role. An unusual double bill of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi ends the season in April with Italian baritone Giuseppe Altomare in the two title roles. New Brunswick soprano Kirsten LeBlanc is Lauretta. www.calgaryopera.com

As in Vancouver, Edmonton Opera opens its season with Die Fledermaus (November) staged by the company’s artistic director, Joel Ivany, as a show within a show, a concept he premièred at Toronto’s Glenn Gould School in 2018 when soprano Jonelle Sills also starred as Rosalinde. February brings London (U.K.)’s Theatre of Sound production of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle that reimagines Judith suffering from dementia, with Bluebeard as her caregiver; starring Canadian veterans Russell Braun and Krisztina Szabó. The company’s presentation of Wagner’s Ring Cycle continues in June with Die Walküre in Jonathan Dove’s reduced score. Heading the cast are Jaclyn Grossman, Scott Rumble, Catherine Daniel, Giles Tomkins and Anna Pompeeva. www.edmontonopera.com

Manitoba Opera’s season includes two Italian favourites: Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love and Puccini’s La bohème. November’s Elixir sees Winnipeg soprano Andriana Chuchman as Adina, a role she sang to great acclaim at The Metropolitan Opera. In April, Bohème welcomes Quebec artists Suzanne Taffot as Mimì and Hugo Laporte as Marcello, Munich-based Canadian tenor Zachary Rioux as Rodolfo and Toronto soprano Charlotte Siegel as Musetta. Rounding out the cast are baritone Clarence Frazer as Schaunard and bass-baritone Alex Halliday as Colline. www.mbopera.ca

Canadian Opera Company’s 2024-25 season bucks the trend toward safer classics with company premières and lesser-performed works. The company’s first-ever Nabucco opens the season in October with British baritone Roland Wood in the title role, American soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams as Abigaille alongside Canadians Rihab Chaieb and Matthew Cairns. Verdi’s early masterpiece plays in repertoire with Gounod’s Faust in a new production by British director Amy Lane. The international cast includes Chinese tenor Long Long in the title role, Chinese soprano Guanqun Yu as Marguerite and American bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen as Méphistophélès.

The COC’s January/February winter season includes its first-ever co-commission with Opéra de Montréal, La Reine-garçon, composed by Julien Bilodeau to a libretto by Michel Marc Bouchard. Based on the life of Queen Christina of Sweden, it stars Canadian sopranos Kirsten MacKinnon and Kirsten LeBlanc as the Boy-Queen. This company première runs in tandem with Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with Japanese soprano Eri Nakamura as Cio-Cio San. The COC’s season closes in April/May with South African artist William Kentridge’s staging of Berg’s Wozzeck featuring German baritone Michael Kupfer-Radecky in the title role and Canadian soprano Ambur Braid as Marie. It runs in repertoire with a revival of Robert Carsen’s iconic production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. A one-off concert performance of Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana caps the season on May 23. www.coc.ca

Opéra de Montréal presents three main stage productions, one fewer than in recent seasons. In September, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville opens the season with Canadians Hugo Laporte as Figaro and Pascale Spinney as Rosina. A highlight of the national season overall has to be OdeM’s new Alain Gauthier staging of Thomas’s Hamlet in November, starring Canadians Elliot Madore in the title role and Sarah Dufresne as Ophélie. The season closes in May with Puccini’s La bohème featuring Lauren Margison, Frédéric Antoun, Andrea Núñez, John Brancy and conductor Simon Rivard. www.operademontreal.com

In October-November, Opéra de Québec continues its exploration of Italian works set to French texts with Rossini’s comedy, Le comte Ory, in a new production by French director Jean-Romain Vesperini. French singers Philippe Talbot and Judith Fa star. In May, the company presents Verdi’s Il trovatore, once again headlined by two French artists: tenor Christophe Berry as Manrico and soprano Irina Stopina as Leonora. Canadians Hugo Laporte and Carolyn Sproule take on Count di Luna and Azucena. www.operadequebec.com