Ariadne auf Naxos House Program

Performance C A N A D I A N O P E R A C O M PA N Y Spring 2011

Ariadne auf Naxos

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CONTENTS 6

MASTER OF SUBLIME

BY PATRICK SUMMERS

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BATHING IN STRAUSS

BY SUZANNE VANSTONE

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NIGHTINGALE SOARS AT BAM

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THE OPERA OF UNANSWERED CRIES

BY MAX LOPPERT

The Canadian Opera Company presents Cinderella. Joyce DiDonato as Cenerentola and Patrick Carfizzi as Don Magnifico in the Houston Grand Opera production, 2007.

Photo: Brett Coomer

Performance C A N A D I A N O P E R A C O M PA N Y

Spring 2011

n CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY EDITORS: Suzanne Vanstone, Senior Communications Manager, Editorial; Gianna Wichelow, Senior Communications Manager, Creative n RJ PERFORMANCE MEDIA INC.: PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER: Joe Marino n CEO: Frank Barbosa n SECRETARY TREASURER: Rajee Muthuraman n FINANCE: Gina Zicari n NATIONAL ACCOUNT DIRECTORS: Danny Antunes, Gary Bell, Tom Marino, David Thom, Heather Thom n ART DIRECTOR /DESIGN: Jan Haringa n GRAPHIC ARTIST: Glenda Moniz n Cinderella, Ariadne auf Naxos and Orfeo ed Euridice cover images: Mark Olson 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 consent is prohibited. Contents copyright © Performance Inc. Subscriptions available by contacting publisher.

Direct all advertising enquiries to 2724 Coventry Road, Oakville, Ontario, L6H 6R1 or phone 905-829-3900, Ext. 222.

For blogs, interactive quizzes, and podcasts featuring music and interviews, visit coc.ca.

5

MASTER OF SUBLIME

BY PATRICK SUMMERS

I

n that most quotable of movies, Casablanca, no one says, “Play it again, Sam.” Ingrid Bergman, as Ilsa, says, “Play it once, Sam, for old times’ sake.” But the phrase benignly sits in our lexicon: we want, as time goes by, our legends to be true.

The Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini (1792 – 1868) is surrounded by lore.

Thanks to the legends of his time, we picture the rotund and jolly young retiree in mid19th-century Paris, the reliable dispenser of bon mots (he thought Wagner’s operas had “beautiful moments but awful quarter hours”) who happily ate his weight in tournedos

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Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

Rossini as the cultured of Europe stopped by his salon to pay him homage. We don’t know why he wrote the last of his 39 operas at the age of 37. But we do know that he feared being remembered merely as the composer of “the third act of Otello and The Barber of Seville.” And, indeed, it wasn’t until a late-20th-century renaissance that Rossini’s grand and revered reputation was fully restored.

Why was Rossini considered a lesser musical figure for about a century after his death? Fashions come and go, of course, and Rossini wrote in a particularly florid vocal style that linked the late-Classical era to the Romantic, but which, in the mid-to-late 19th century, came to be considered old-fashioned.

His serious works largely faded from the stage. In the mid-20th century, Rossini’s music was heard in cartoons and on television shows, most famously for The Lone Ranger, which used the finale of the William Tell Overture as its theme. Rossini’s operas, meanwhile, were singer-dominated “star” vehicles, often with delicately lean accompaniment figures considered by some (even now, sadly) to be intellectually suspect in their simplicity.

But, of course, music is not automatically bettered by being more complex. A close look at Rossini’s orchestral writing reveals a marvellously inventive musical mind, full of complicated and transparent simplicity.

Rossini was a master of sparkling orchestral virtuosity and elegant economy. And he expected orchestral virtuosity from the singing voice: his vocal lines are limpid, wide-ranging, and highly florid, like singing clarinets and horns. One moment he asks a singer to spin a long and rhythmically pliant phrase only to follow it with a fiendishly difficult passage work. Performing his arias can feel, to singers, like singing an instrumental concerto. In addition to the written demands of the page, Rossini composed – like Handel and Mozart, the operatic masters who came before him – with an expectation that a star singer would “decorate” his music, much like jazz singers of our own time personalize their interpretations of famous songs and make them their own.

How does a singer “decorate” a Rossini aria? Think of an aria as a house and Rossini as the architect. He has laid the floor plan and selected the paint colours.

It is left to the taste of the interpreters to finish the décor, to add the personal touches that make the room unique. Thus no two performances are alike.

But the point is to decorate, not remodel.

Taste is everything: Rossini left hundreds of examples of vocal ornamentation he considered proper and/or stylish for his music. He wrote, for example, four alternate sets of ornaments for the finale of La donna del lago (The Lady of the Lake), written for Opposite page: The COC presents Cinderella. (l – r) Tamara Wilson as Clorinda, Earle Patriarco as Dandini, and Catherine Cook as Tisbe in the Houston Grand Opera production, 2007.

Left: Nikolai Didenko (centre) as Alidoro.

Photos: Brett Coomer

For blogs, interactive quizzes, and podcasts featuring music and interviews, visit coc.ca.

7

The COC presents Cinderella. (Foreground, l – r) Lawrence Brownlee as Don Ramiro, Earle Patriarco as Dandini; (background, l – r) Catherine Cook as Tisbe, Patrick Carfizzi as Don Magnifico, and Tamara Wilson as Clorinda in the Houston Grand Opera production, 2007. Photo: Brett Coomer

four different sopranos; they are fantastically inventive and much bolder than what many conductors and singers would try in Rossini today. Rossini’s ornamental style has a unique tint; a musical language that, once recognized, is unmistakable. It crackles. And he let it be known if one decorated too far: in the early 1860s, the celebrated soprano Adelina Patti sang a Rossini aria for the maestro. Her highly decorative ornaments prompted his famous retort, “It’s a lovely aria – who wrote it?”

“Who wrote it?” begs the question of why he wrote the way he did. Vocal ornamentation is expected to heighten the expressiveness of a given phrase, to surprise the ear and keep the music fresh with each new singer.

The resurgence of many of Rossini’s serious operas has positively influenced our current generation of singers, who are schooled and gifted in the demands of this music – as a result, Rossini’s grand musical thoughts,

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Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

particularly in so touching and humourous a work as La Cenerentola, are being discovered anew by modern audiences.

Rossini’s music, ebullient and friendly, recalls the remarkable era of Parisian musical history over which he reigned. The three children of Manuel García, who was Rossini’s first Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, were all indelibly linked to Rossini: Manuel the younger invented the laryngoscope and became a celebrated vocal pedagogue, training Jenny Lind and Mathilde Marchesi, the latter of whose published vocal exercises remain one of the most important links to Rossini and should be studied by every young singer. Manuel’s sisters, Maria Malibran and Pauline Viardot-García, were legendary singers who inspired some of the greatest composers of their day, particularly Berlioz, Saint-Saëns, Meyerbeer, and Chopin, whose piano music was highly influenced by the decorative vocal style of bel canto opera.

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CINDERELLA: Master of Sublime

Did Rossini, as a major part of his legend suggests, simply make enough money and decide to stop writing after William Tell?

Or was he just aesthetically linked more to the past than to the future? We’ll never know, of course. Listening to the glowing humanity of La Cenerentola’s gossamer finale, or the sunburst which closes the final moments of his William Tell, we feel perhaps a wistful look back at the noble finales of Mozart and Gluck, the world into which Rossini was born and which he outlived. But we also hear the future: Wagner, Berlioz, and perhaps even Mahler’s vocal music.

But enjoyment of Rossini needs no academic credentials: the relevance of a work like Cenerentola is its reassuring glimpse of sameness. We share, across

time, stories, music, and emotions. Rossini’s lighthearted legend, that of the ultimate bon vivant, will undoubtedly endure, but his own words pierce that surface.

“Music is a sublime art,” he said, “precisely because, unable to imitate reality, it rises above ordinary nature into an ideal world, and with celestial harmony moves the earthly passions.”

Play it again and again and again, Sam. Patrick Summers is the music director of Houston Grand Opera. This article originated with Houston Grand Opera, 2007, reprinted with permission.

For further insights into Cinderella, please read Ramón Jacques’ article on the directing team of Els Comediants in the spring issue of Prelude, available online at coc.ca.

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Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

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ADRIANNE PIECZONKA:

BATHING IN STRAUSS

BY SUZANNE VANSTONE

I

Adrianne Pieczonka

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Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

caught renowned Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka just before she left for Berlin to perform Desdemona with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, before arriving in Toronto to sing the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos with the COC. “Quite a change of pace – Verdi to Strauss,” she laughs.

Adrianne is no stranger to Ariadne.

This is approximately the sixth production that she has performed in and, until now, all have taken place in Europe: from a very traditional 35-year-old production in Vienna, to a couple in Spain – Bilbao and Barcelona – and a recent one in Munich with Canadian director Robert Carsen, which was one of her favourites. Robert also joins us this spring to direct Orfeo ed Euridice.

The COC has not performed Ariadne since 1995 and it contains some of Strauss’s most sublime music. In this opera-withinan-opera, where opera seria and commedia dell’arte become strange bedfellows, the audience is privy to backstage melodrama as well as onstage expressions of heartbreak, love and transcendence. We look forward to welcoming a stellar cast for this production.

Adrianne says, “In fact I just sang Ariadne in Munich with Alice Coote and Jane Archibald a couple of months ago, and they’re wonderful.” Ms Coote and

W W W. J OS EPHS ON. C A

ADRIANNE PIECZONKA: Bathing in Strauss

Canadian Ms Archibald perform in this COC production as the Composer and Zerbinetta respectively. “It’s going to be great. I’ve worked with Alice a couple times and she is such a world-class artist, and I think Canadians are in for a real treat.

I hadn’t sung with Jane before, but it was a joy. Not only is she a wonderful artist but she takes everything in her stride and is so even-keeled.” When I mention to Adrianne that Robert Carsen will be with us this spring, she exclaims, “Yay, Canada! And then, of course, there’s Richard Margison as Bacchus. I’ve not sung Ariadne with him before and I’m looking forward to it.

And a lot of the other cast members are also Canadians. Very exciting – we should all be so proud!”

Why has this particular role become so dear to her? “Ariadne is a beloved role. First of all, I’m such a huge admirer and lover of Strauss – I think he wrote so well for my particular type of voice. It always feels like I’m taking a lovely bath in these long beautifully-spun phrases. Zerbinetta gets all the fireworks, and often she can ‘clean up’ and get thunderous applause after her aria. I have an aria in the second act, but it’s not a showstopper, the action continues on and there’s no applause – it’s the way it’s composed. But I think what really does speak to me is the text. It’s that marriage of Hofmannsthal [librettist] and Strauss.

It’s a dream team that I just adore. I love singing the text.

“I speak the language fluently as I’ve lived and worked in Germany and Austria long enough that it really feels like a part of me. And I know the nuances. Ariadne is not like a lot of Strauss heroines. It’s not a showy, diva-like role. She’s very introspective.

She, of course, is in the second part of the opera. Bereft on this island, she does a lot of languishing. And yet there is much self-

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Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

The COC presents Ariadne auf Naxos. Peter Hoare as Bacchus and Janice Watson as Ariadne in the Welsh National Opera production, 2004.

Photo: Clive Barda

reflection and, maybe as I’m getting older, this appeals to me more. But I don’t find it dull – the music is absolutely glorious.

And then we finally have the entrance of Bacchus. Although he isn’t on until the very end of the opera, his music is terribly difficult. That amazing love duet that he and Ariadne have – it’s almost on another plane. Is it reality? Is it magic? It is very metaphysical and extremely beautiful.”

Interestingly, Adrianne’s connection with Ariadne began long before she started singing the title role. Although her official operatic debut was at the COC in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in 1988, her first larger role was as Naiad in Vancouver. “Jean Stilwell was Dryad, Martha Collins was Echo and Judy Forst was the Composer.”

She laughs, “I don’t think I have those high Ds anymore, but Naiad was my first main role and I remember it very fondly.”

Ariadne is not the only Strauss opera that Adrianne has performed in. She made her debut in Vienna at the Staatsoper as the Fifth Maiden in Elektra. “I was pretty

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The COC presents Ariadne auf Naxos.

A scene from the Welsh National Opera production, 2004. Photo: Clive Barda

green. It was in 1991 and starred Hildegard Behrens and Christa Ludwig, which was incredible. The Fifth Maiden is a small but important role, and she has a little mini-aria where she kneels down and grabs the knees of Elektra. I was grabbing Hildegard Behrens’ knees! That was pretty amazing.”

She then performed it with Claudio Abbado conducting in Florence. Following that she sang Arabella in 1995 at Glyndebourne, a role she has since performed numerous times. She continues, “There is the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier, which I’ve performed a lot and loved. Then Ariadne, and then the Empress in Die Frau ohne Schatten, which is not a well-known opera but very beautiful and I’ve been asked to sing that quite a few times. It, too, is a challenging role. She has a high D in Act I and by Act III it is similar to an Isolde-like monologue – very big and dramatic. I am also looking forward to Chrysothemis (Elektra) in a new production by Patrice Chéreau at Festival d’Aix en Provence.

“Strauss has accompanied me everywhere – he really has. And maybe it’s because I started in Europe and Vienna where of course there are so many more opportunities to sing this repertoire. The only roles I haven’t done are Elektra, and I don’t think I’d do that one. Salome might be an option – it’s short, quite high and dramatic.”

Director Neil Armfield returns to the

COC having directed Billy Budd and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Adrianne looks forward to his “take” on the opera.

She has not worked with him before nor with renowned conductor Sir Andrew Davis.

“Sir Andrew is known as a Strauss specialist, and is in New York doing Capriccio with Renée Fleming. I’ve never done that role on stage, but I’ve recorded the big monologue scene. I can’t wait to work with him – what a wonderful conductor.

“It’s interesting – Ariadne is a sort of chamber opera, in that the orchestra’s reduced in size, but they make a sizeable sound. For the players in Europe, it’s their real bread and butter, it’s such a tradition.

It’s in their blood and is usually played a couple times a year, so it’s very accessible.

I am sure the COC will rise to the occasion and play it wonderfully. There is a harmonium and a celeste which are different and fun for the orchestra members. It also has beautiful solos for the violin, cello, etc.

It’s challenging, gorgeous music and what a wonderful team we have to perform it!”

Suzanne Vanstone is Senior Communications Manager, Editorial at the Canadian Opera Company.

For further insights into Ariadne auf Naxos please read Gianmarco Segato’s interview with Jane Archibald in the spring issue of Prelude.

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Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

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ARIADNE AUF NAXOS Richard Strauss Opera in One Act, with Prologue Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, after Le Bourgeois gentilhomme

by Jean Baptiste Poquelin Molière.

First performance of revised version: Vienna, October 4, 1916 Last performed by the COC in 1995 Production of Welsh National Opera April 30, May 3, 12, 15, 18, 21, 27, 29, 2011 Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto Sung in German with English SURTITLESTM

The CaST (in order of vocal appearance)

The Music Master The Major-Domo A Lackey An Officer The Composer Tenor/Bacchus The Wig-Maker Zerbinetta Prima Donna/Ariadne The Dancing Master/Brighella Naiad Dryad Echo Harlequin Truffaldino Scaramuccio

Richard Stilwell Thomas Hauff Doug MacNaughton Roger Honeywell Alice Coote* Richard Margison Adrian Kramer Jane Archibald Adrianne Pieczonka John Easterlin Simone Osborne Lauren Segal Teiya Kasahara Peter Barrett Michael Uloth Christopher Enns**

Conductor: Director: Choreographer: Set & Costume Designer: Original Lighting Designer: Lighting Design Re-created by: Stage Manager: SURTITLESTM Producer:

Sir Andrew Davis Neil Armfield Denni Sayers Dale Ferguson Tim Mitchell Paul Woodfield Jenifer Kowal Gunta Dreifelds

Performance time is approximately two hours, 25 minutes with one intermission. * Ms Coote’s performance is generously sponsored by J. hans Kluge. ** Mr. enns’ performance is generously sponsored by Peter & hélène hunt.

This production of Ariadne auf Naxos is being recorded for future broadcast on CBC Radio Two (94.1 FM in Toronto) on Saturday Afternoon at the Opera.

Program information is correct at time of printing. All casting is subject to change.

Please visit coc.ca for additional information

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DIRECTOR’S NOTES

DIRECTOR’S NOTES Ariadne auf Naxos

R

ichard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal were endlessly fascinated by art – its beauty, the contradictions of its practice, the ironies of its production in human society. Most of all, they were drawn to the power of art to transform the mundane or momentary into something eternal: born of human clay, through its own mystery of form, art enables us to touch the divine.

And nowhere do they explore these contradictions more rigorously nor more playfully than in Ariadne auf Naxos.

It is amazing to think Ariadne once existed without its prologue. The Vorspiel was an addition urged by Hofmannsthal a few years after the first productions of the opera in 1912/1913 (when it was an accompaniment, with incidental music

by Strauss, to Hofmannsthal’s adaptation of Moliere’s Le Bourgeois gentilhomme).

So the Composer, the Music Teacher, the Dancing Master as musical presences, and the Major-Domo, with his aristocratic disdain masking a secret yearning for the pleasures of the 9 p.m. fireworks, all came later, as a kind of post-rationalization of the strange yoking together of the worlds of opera seria and commedia dell’arte – the high and the low – in the creation that follows it.

It is a very exacting work to produce: comedy is hard! Designer Dale Ferguson and I were drawn to an utterly naturalistic rendering of the backstage reality – this “wealthy Maecenas,” the patron who has paid for the entertainment, may enjoy fireworks, but he is a man with state of the art theatrical equipment. And so we present a space that tells us precisely where we are. In opera, I believe you listen with your eyes, and the director’s job, my job, is to lead the eyes of the audience through the details of the story so that understanding builds with 2

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

every moment of behaviour. In the design of the space, as in the opera itself, the opera seria company need their secure turf – they belong here, in their dressing rooms, on their stage. The commedia company, typically, have to improvise: the broom cupboard under the stairs becomes the dressing room of Zerbinetta, the clown diva – any available nail becomes a hanging rack for the clowns’ costumes.

And visually we create an ironic reversal (or rather we try to enhance Strauss’s ironic reversal). As we encounter them, the clowns in the prologue are down-to-earth human beings – ordinary people off the street. Most poignantly, as we get to know her, we sense the depth of Zerbinetta’s soul: underneath the smiles of the clown there is a human heart breaking. It is the highly-strung opera performers who are really the clowns – the Tenor and the Prima Donna bedecked with ruffs of Kleenex around their necks, their heads ridiculous in wig caps, their faces white with greasepaint.

Miraculously, across the span of this operatic mélange, these polarities are reversed once again. In the course of the opera, the commedia clowns, beginning at their most sympathetic with Harlequin’s beautiful entreaty to the grieving Ariadne, become more and more shrill as their improvisations fall on deaf ears. In the final presentation of their set-piece The Tale of Fickle Zerbinetta and her Four Lovers, they drive relentlessly into the cul-de-sac of their own formal restrictions, having started with such open and generous ambitions.

The opera seria, by contrast, seemingly the more inflexible art form and with the most unpromising of performers, through the harmonies of music and the beauty of the human voice – and didn’t Strauss know

SYNOPSIS

them well! – proves to be the form that truly bends and grows until it resolves in a climax of utterly luminous transcendence.

As Ariadne chooses life over death in the arms of Bacchus, Zerbinetta claims a kind of victory: her practical, life-affirming wisdom has been enacted. But really it is

the Composer, having appeared to us at first as a humourless hysteric, who is the victor – his music has transformed the stage, transformed the world, and made the temporal, eternal.

Neil armfield

SYNOPSIS THE PROLOGUE

Backstage of a private theatre in a mansion, the Music Master protests to the Major-Domo because he has learned that the opera, Ariadne on Naxos, newly composed for performance at a soirée at the mansion that evening, will be followed by a “vulgar” performance by a troupe of comedians and a fireworks display. He complains that the Composer (the Music Master’s protégé) will be deeply offended by this arrangement.

Haughtily, the Major-Domo tells him that since his employer, the richest man in Vienna, is paying for the production, his instructions cannot be altered. The Major-Domo exits.

The Composer then enters and soon encounters Zerbinetta, the leading lady of the comic troupe that is to mount The Fickle Zerbinetta and her Lovers.

As the Music Master predicted, the Composer is furious when he learns of the decision to present a comic work following his own serious opera. The Prima Donna, who is to appear as Ariadne in Ariadne on Naxos enters and wastes no time in exhibiting her disdain for Zerbinetta and her troupe of comedians. Zerbinetta responds with an equally contemptuous statement that the “boring” serious opera will spoil the evening.

The Major-Domo returns to announce a change in plans, which will subject the Composer’s opera to further indignities: in order to avoid any delay to the fireworks Please visit coc.ca for additional information

display, Ariadne on Naxos and The Fickle Zerbinetta must somehow be performed simultaneously! The Composer is horrified, but the Dancing Master from the comic troupe suggests that the performance will work out well because his players are good at improvising. Cuts are made to the music of Ariadne on Naxos, and Zerbinetta decides that she and her companions will do what they can to enliven the piece. Zerbinetta then charms the Composer into reluctantly accepting this arrangement.

THE OPERA The stage is set for the opera Ariadne on Naxos.

On the deserted island of Naxos, the anguished Ariadne, recalling how she was abandoned by the untrue Theseus, prays for death. Zerbinetta and the other comedians enter and attempt to console Ariadne with singing and dancing. Ariadne retreats into a cave in the rocks, and the comedians flirt with Zerbinetta. After this interlude, the opera continues, and the god Bacchus enters.

For a moment, Ariadne mistakes him for her Theseus, but regaining her senses, she greets Bacchus as a god of peace. Her grief is transformed, and, finding love in the arms of Bacchus, she chooses life over death. Zerbinetta re-enters to knowingly remark, “When the new god approaches, we surrender without a word.”

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MuSiC STaff

Rachel Andrist (Head Coach) Susan Ball GeRMaN LaNGuaGe CoaCh

Adi Braun aSSiSTaNT CoNduCToR

Bradley Moore aSSiSTaNT diReCToR

Allison Grant aSSiSTaNT STaGe MaNaGeRS

Joanna Barrotta Kristin McCollum LiGhTiNG Co-oRdiNaToR

Wendy Greenwood aSSiSTaNT LiGhTiNG deSiGNeRS

Jason Golinsky Jason Hand uNdeRSTudieS

The Music Master A Lackey The Composer Tenor/Bacchus The Wig-Maker Zerbinetta Prima Donna/Ariadne The Dancing Master/Brighella Naiad Dryad Echo Harlequin Truffaldino Scaramuccio

4

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

Doug MacNaughton Neil Craighead Lauren Segal Gregory Carroll/Roger Honeywell Jason Nedecky Teiya Kasahara Amber Wagner John Kriter Jacqueline Woodley Rihab Chaieb Ambur Braid Adrian Kramer Neil Craighead Stephen Bell

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6

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES JANE ARCHIBALD Zerbinetta

A native of Nova Scotia, Jane Archibald is making her COC debut. Her career has taken her from Toronto to San Francisco to the Vienna State Opera. Current and upcoming engagements include Lucia with Deutsche Oper Berlin and Zurich Opera; Konstanze and Zerbinetta at Bayerische Staatsoper; Zerbinetta, Cleopatra and Olympia with Paris Opéra; Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier at La Scala; Zerbinetta at the Baden-Baden Festival; Konstanze with Zurich Opera; Zerbinetta at Royal Opera House Covent Garden and a return to the Metropolitan Opera. Concert appearances include Messiaen’s Poèmes pour Mi with the Berlin Philharmonic and Mozart arias with Camerata Salzburg. Ms Archibald has an honours bachelor of music in voice performance from Wilfrid Laurier University and was recently named 2011 Alumna of the Year. A Canada Council grant recipient, she was winner of the 2006 Sylva Gelber Foundation award. Her first solo CD, a recording of Haydn arias, was released on the ATMA label on April 26, 2011. Next season she returns to the COC to perform the title role in Semele.

PETER BARRETT harlequin

Canadian baritone and Ensemble Studio graduate Peter Barrett returns to the COC after reprising the role of Baritone 1 in the COC’s production of Stravinsky’s The Nightingale & Other Short Fables at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Other roles with the COC include Marcello in

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La Bohème, Prince Yamadori in Madama Butterfly, Lieutenant Colonel Denisov and General Rayevsky in War and Peace, Šapkin in From the House of the Dead, Le Dancaïre in Carmen, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Nick in The Handmaid’s Tale, Sid in Albert Herring and the Mandarin in Turandot. Mr. Barrett recently made his Metropolitan Opera debut performing the role of Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale.

He sang the King in Transformations at the Wexford Festival, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Lyra Ottawa, the Shepherd in Daphne with Pacific Opera Victoria and Marcello with Minnesota Opera, Hamilton Opera and the Newfoundland Symphony. Mr. Barrett’s awards include the Galaxy Rising Star at the CBC National Competition for Young Performers for most promising young artist.

ALICE COOTE The Composer

British mezzo-soprano Alice Coote has performed numerous roles including Poppea, Carmen, Charlotte, Orlando, Lucretia, Marguerite, Penelope, Octavian, Composer, Orfeo, Idamante, Nerone, Hansel, Sesto/Cesare, Sesto/Tito, Maffio Orsini, Ruggiero and Ariodante. She has performed with Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden (ROH), Opéra national de Paris, Netherlands Opera, Munich Opera, Salzburg Opera Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Metropolitan Opera as well as the opera companies of Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In concert Ms Coote is acclaimed for her interpretations of Mahler, Berlioz, Mozart, Handel and

7

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Bach with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Concertgebouw. She recently made her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as Dejanira in Hercules. Forthcoming seasons introduce Prince Charming in Cendrillon at ROH and the title role in La Favorita at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées to her repertoire. Ms Coote’s recordings include songs by Robert Schumann and Gustav Mahler, Handel’s Messiah and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (EMI), Angel/Dream of Gerontius (Halle), Composer/Ariadne auf Naxos (Chandos), Orfeo (Virgin Classics), Choice of Hercules (Hyperion), Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody (Tudor), and on DVD: Messiah/Handel (EMI), Hansel/Hansel and Gretel (EMI), Nerone/Poppea (Decca), and Maffio Orsini/Lucrezia Borgia (Medici Arts).

CHRISTOPHER ENNS Scaramuccio

Born in Manitoba, tenor Christopher Enns is a member of the COC Ensemble Studio. He made his COC debut earlier this season as an American/Glass Maker/Strolling Player in Death in Venice.

Mr. Enns also performed the role of Tamino in the Ensemble Studio’s mainstage performance of The Magic Flute. He holds a bachelor of vocal performance from the University of Manitoba, and recently graduated from the University of Toronto with a diploma in operatic performance.

Recent performances include the title role in Candide, Ecclitico in Il mondo della luna and Gonzalve in L’heure espagnole with the University of Toronto’s Opera Division; Alfred in Die Fledermaus with Highlands Opera Studio; and, Gastone in La Traviata with Saskatoon Opera. Mr. Enns has also performed with the Toronto Summer

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Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

Music Academy, Opera NUOVA, the Winnipeg Symphony and the Aldeburgh Connection.

THOMAS HAUFF Major-domo

Canadian Thomas Hauff is making his COC debut.

Working professionally as an actor since the age of 14, his first professional role was as Slightly Soiled, one of the Lost Boys, in Peter Pan for the Vancouver International Festival. Favourite theatre roles include Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Stratford Festival), James Tyrone in Moon for the Misbegotten (Theatre New Brunswick), Paul Sycamore in You Can’t Take it With You (Theatre Aquarius), Matthew Cuthbert in Anne (Blyth Festival, Theatre Calgary), James Donnelly in Sticks and Stones (Blyth Festival), both Angus and Morgan in different productions of The Drawer Boy (Theatre Passe Muraille, Waterloo Stage Company), and Alfred in Stretching Hide for Manitoba Theatre Projects. He has been featured in such films as Adoration, Away From Her, and the Canadian classic Who Has Seen the Wind. TV credits include Universal Soldier, Sue Thomas F.B. Eye, A Season on the Brink and as a regular on several TV series including 9B, Friday the 13th, Top Cops and Night Heat.

In 2012 Mr. Hauff will appear in Cruel and Tender at Canadian Stage, directed

by Atom Egoyan.

ROGER HONEYWELL an officer

Canadian tenor Roger Honeywell, a COC Ensemble Studio graduate, returns to the COC after performing Macduff in Macbeth. Other COC roles

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

include Roderigo in Otello, Narraboth in Salome, and the title role in the COC Ensemble production of Giulio Cesare in Egitto. Recent engagements include Narraboth with Opéra de Montréal, Jimmy in Lillian Alling with Vancouver Opera, Smoot in The Inventor with Calgary Opera, Segismundo in Life is a Dream with Santa Fe Opera, Danilo in The Merry Widow with Lyric Opera of Chicago, James Nolan in Doctor Atomic with Lyric Opera of Chicago and Metropolitan Opera, Cavaradossi in Tosca with Florida Grand Opera, Troilus in Troilus and Cressida with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the Prince in Tea: A Mirror of Soul with Santa Fe Opera, Casey in The Grapes of Wrath with Minnesota Opera, Geoff Hammond in The Letter with Santa Fe Opera, Laca in Jen˚ufa with Glimmerglass Opera, Don José in Carmen with Opera Calgary, Rodolfo in La Bohème with Opera Company of Philadelphia, and Dick Johnson in La fanciulla del West with Glimmerglass Opera.

JOHN EASTERLIN The dancing Master/Brighella

American tenor John Easterlin last appeared with the COC as Monostatos in The Magic Flute. Other recent credits include Herod in Salome at Wiener Staatsoper, Prince Nilsky in The Gambler at Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Jack O’Brien and Toby Higgins in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Teatro Real Madrid, The Magician in The Consul with Glimmerglass Opera, Squeak in Billy Budd and the Hunchback Brother in Die Frau ohne Schatten at Opéra national de Paris.

A regular guest at America’s leading opera companies including Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle, he is a multi-Grammy, Emmy and Olivier award

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recipient, as well as the holder of two Guinness World Records. Future engagements include Alfred in Die Fledermaus at Lake George Festival’s 50th anniversary season, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, the Steuermann in Der fliegende Holländer at Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Shabby Peasant in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with Teatro Real, and the Scrivener in Khovanshchina and Hauk-Sendorf in The Makropulos Case, both at the Met. TEIYA KASAHARA echo

Canadian lyric coloratura soprano Teiya Kasahara is of Japanese and German heritage and hails from Vancouver, B.C. She is a recent graduate of the COC Ensemble Studio. COC performance credits include the solo in Two Poems by Konstantin Balmont in The Nightingale and Other Short Fables, Frasquita in Carmen, Serpina in La serva padrona, First Wood Sprite in Rusalka, as well as Despina in Così fan tutte and Maturina in Gazzaniga’s Don Giovanni in Ensemble Studio productions.

Notable understudies include Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Madame Mao in Nixon in China, the title roles in Maria Stuarda and The Nightingale and Other Short Fables, Marzelline in Fidelio, Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Zerlina in Don Giovanni. This summer she returns to the Aspen Music Festival as Tytania.

Ms Kasahara is a Jeunes Ambassadeur Lyrique Laureate and a semi-finalist in the 13th Julian Gayarre International Singing Contest in Pamplona, Spain. She holds a bachelor of music from the University of British Columbia.

9

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10

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

ADRIAN KRAMER The Wig-Maker

Canadian baritone and Ensemble Studio member Adrian Kramer recently performed the roles of the Hotel Waiter in Death in Venice and Papageno in the Ensemble Studio performance of The Magic Flute, as well as reprising the role of Japanese Envoy 3 in the COC’s The Nightingale and Other Short Fables at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Previously with the COC he understudied the roles of Chou En-lai in Nixon in China, Moralès and Le Dancaïre in Carmen, and Prince Yamadori and Yakuside in Madama Butterfly. Mr. Kramer has performed with Glimmerglass Opera, the Castleton Festival, Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Chautauqua Institution and the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival. He holds a bachelor of music from the Juilliard School and a master’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he performed numerous roles including Papageno, Count Almaviva and Pelléas. He has been heard in recital throughout North America and Europe at such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center and the Kennedy Center and, in 2005, he was the winner of the Juilliard Honors Recital Competition.

DOUG MacNAUGHTON a Lackey

Baritone Doug MacNaughton, a graduate of the COC Ensemble Studio, has performed as Elviro in Xerxes, the Philosopher in The Golden Ass, as well as roles in Madama Butterfly, Dialogues des Carmélites, Rigoletto, Lulu and Andrea Chénier with the COC. Recent performances include Ben Hubbard in Regina, Major-Domo in Capriccio, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte

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and Benoît/Alcindoro in La Bohème for Pacific Opera Victoria, as well as Cervantes/ Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha with the Stirling Festival Theatre and Maximillian in Candide with Manitoba Opera. On the concert stage he recently performed in Dave Brubeck’s The Light in the Wilderness with the Elora Festival Singers. Mr. MacNaughton has been commissioning music for baritone and guitar which is intended to be self-accompanied.

Some of this music will be featured in a recital called 21st-Century Troubadour at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre on May 24, 2011. Upcoming engagements include multiple roles in John Beckwith’s Crazy to Kill, a detective opera produced

by Toronto Masque Theatre.

RICHARD MARGISON Tenor/Bacchus

Canadian tenor Richard Margison returns to the COC after last appearing as Florestan in Fidelio.

Other roles with the COC include Calaf in Turandot and Manrico in Il Trovatore. Mr. Margison has appeared throughout North America, Europe and Australia in Un ballo in maschera, Turandot, Aida, Ariadne auf Naxos, Fidelio, Il Trovatore, La Gioconda, Don Carlo, Norma and 1984. This season he reprises the role of O’Brien in 1984 in València, Spain and celebrates his Canadian roots in Turandot with Opera Lyra Ottawa, Il Trovatore with Opéra de Québec, Tosca with Manitoba Opera, and on a recital tour of British Columbia.

Mr. Margison’s discography comprises an all-Verdi recording on CBC Records, Fidelio (Chandos), Lanza (Warner Music), Don Carlo (Philips) and Mazeppa (Deutsche Grammophon). DVDs include Ariadne auf Naxos (Virgin Classics), Tosca and 1984 (Decca), La Gioconda (TDK), and

11

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

The Folk Singing Opera Star (Harbinger Films). An Officer of the Order of Canada (2001), he also holds Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Giulio Gari and the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundations. He and his wife Valerie Kuinka direct the Highlands Opera Studio.

SIMONE OSBORNE Naiad

Soprano Simone Osborne, a member of the COC Ensemble Studio, recently reprised her role as Chorus Solo Soprano in The Nightingale and Other Short Fables at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. COC credits include Pamina in The Magic Flute and performances in Death in Venice, Maria Stuarda, Carmen and the Ensemble performance of Idomeneo.

She has appeared with the symphony orchestras of Vancouver, West Coast, Edmonton, and Prince George, as well as North Bohemian Opera and Vancouver Opera. Ms Osborne 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. She 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. With the COC next season, she will make her role debuts as Gilda in Rigoletto and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi as well as making debuts with Vancouver Opera as Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, Toronto Symphony in Mozart’s Requiem and in recital across Atlantic Canada with Debut Atlantic.

12

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

ADRIANNE PIECZONKA Prima donna/ariadne

Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka returns to the COC after appearing as Leonore in Fidelio, Elisabeth in Don Carlos, Sieglinde in Die Walküre (for which she won a Dora Award) and the Inaugural Gala Concert for the FSCPA*. She made her COC debut as Mimì in 1994. Ms Pieczonka performs regularly with the Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper, the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Teatro Liceu, Los Angeles Opera, and at the Salzburg and Bayreuth festivals. She made her triumphant debut as Tosca in Los Angeles in 2008, reprising this role in San Francisco and Europe and will also perform the role with the COC next season. Ms Pieczonka’s most recent CD is the Juno award-winning recording of Puccini’s most well-loved arias from Tosca, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, and Manon Lescaut, among others. Her recording as Elsa in Lohengrin (Hännsler Classic), conducted by Semyon Bychkov, was named Disc of the Year and received the Opera Award at the 2010 BBC Music Magazine Awards. She is an Officer of the Order of Canada and in 2007 was named Kammersängerin by the Austrian government.

LAUREN SEGAL dryad

Canadian mezzo-soprano Lauren Segal, a graduate of the COC Ensemble Studio, recently appeared with the COC as the Third Lady in The Magic Flute and Nancy T’sang in Nixon in China. Previous COC appearances include Mercédès in Carmen, Sonya in War and Peace, Aljeja in From the House of the Dead and Siebel in Faust.

She has performed Maddalena in Rigoletto

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

with Opéra de Montréal, Messiah with Vancouver Bach Choir, Dorabella in Così fan tutte with Pacific Opera Victoria, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with Manitoba Opera, Sesto in La clemenza di Tito with Orford Arts Festival, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus with Opera Hamilton and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with the Toronto Summer Music Festival. Ms Segal has sung in opera galas for the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and with Toronto’s Mendelssohn Choir, and was a recitalist at Festivoix, Westben and Bayfield festivals. She returns to the COC next season as the Muse/ Nicklausse in The Tales of Hoffmann.

RICHARD STILWELL The Music Master

American Richard Stilwell returns to the COC after his performance as Danilo in The Merry Widow (1988). He has appeared with major opera companies throughout North America and Europe performing a wide range of roles in operas including Monteverdi’s Orfeo, L’incoronazione di Poppea and Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria; the title role in the premiere of Britten’s Billy Budd at the Metropolitan Opera; Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte; Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia; Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin; Verdi’s Falstaff and Don Carlos; Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande; and, Pasatieri’s The Seagull and Inês de Castro. In the 2007/2008 season he took the stage of the New York City Opera as the Doctor in Samuel Barber’s Vanessa, as well as performing the role of Mr. Redburn in Billy Budd with Santa Fe Opera. He can be heard as the Count and Don Giovanni on the soundtrack of Miloš Forman’s award-winning film Amadeus. In addition to his singing career Mr. Stilwell also teaches at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts.

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MICHAEL ULOTH Truffaldino

Born in Kitchener, bass and COC Ensemble Studio member Michael Uloth appeared earlier this season as the Second Armed Man in The Magic Flute, Sarastro in the Ensemble Studio performance of The Magic Flute and the Priest in St. Mark’s in Death in Venice. Other COC credits include The Bonze in The Nightingale and Other Short Fables (a role he reprised this season at the Brooklyn Academy of Music), Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly, Don Alfonso in the Ensemble Studio production of Così fan tutte, Snug in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Gavrila in War and Peace. An alumnus of Glimmerglass Opera’s 2007 Young American Artists Program, other operatic credits include Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, Il re di Scozia in Ariodante, Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia, Superintendent Budd in Albert Herring, and Reverend John Hale in The Crucible. Mr. Uloth is a graduate of the University of Toronto with a master of music in opera, and also holds a bachelor of music and an opera diploma from Wilfrid Laurier University.

SIR ANDREW DAVIS Conductor

Celebrated conductor Sir Andrew Davis has been music director and principal conductor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago since 2000. He is conductor laureate of the Toronto Symphony and BBC Symphony Orchestra, and was also music director of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Sir Andrew is artistic advisor to the

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ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Besançon Festival for their 2010 and 2011 seasons. He has conducted orchestras worldwide from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw, as well as at renowned opera houses and festivals including La Scala and the Bayreuth Festival.

This season Sir Andrew’s engagements include Capriccio at the Metropolitan Opera, Peter Grimes at Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Rusalka at the Glyndebourne Festival, Thaïs at the Edinburgh Festival, and The Mikado, Lohengrin, and La fanciulla del West at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

He also makes appearances with the Tivoli Festival, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as a performance of Elgar’s Caractacus with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Three Choirs Festival.

In December 2010, Sir Andrew Davis led the world premiere of his own new orchestration of Handel’s Messiah with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

NEIL ARMFIELD director

Director Neil Armfield returns to the COC after directing A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2009) and Billy Budd (2001; winner of seven Dora Awards). He recently completed 17 years as artistic director of the internationally renowned Belvoir Street Theatre in Australia, from where his final production of Diary of a Madman, starring Geoffrey Rush, toured to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Opera credits include Tristan und Isolde, Janácˇek and Britten cycles, and the world premieres of Brett Dean’s Bliss and Alan John’s The Eighth Wonder for Opera Australia; Peter Grimes for Houston Grand Opera; and, Le nozze di Figaro for Welsh National Opera. He has also worked with English National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Royal Opera

14

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

House Covent Garden. An accomplished television and film director, he directed and co-wrote Candy (2006) which starred Abbie Cornish and the late Heath Ledger.

Mr. Armfield co-translated and directed Exit the King on Broadway starring Geoffrey Rush, Andrea Martin and Susan Sarandon. In 2007, he was awarded Officer of the Order of Australia for service to the arts, nationally and internationally.

DENNI SAYERS Choreographer

Denni Sayers most recently worked with the COC as movement and assistant director for Don Carlos. Other COC engagements include Boris Godunov and Tosca. Credits include Die Frau ohne Schatten with Mariinsky Opera; Paul Bunyan, The Bartered Bride, Boulevard Solitude, Carmen and Sweeney Todd with Royal Opera House Covent Garden; Boris Godunov and Parsifal with English National Opera; Peter Grimes, Turandot, The Bassarids, Tannhäuser and La fanciulla del West with Netherlands Opera; Rigoletto for the Semperoper Dresden; War and Peace and Boris Godunov with Opéra national de Paris; The Flying Dutchman, Sweeney Todd and The Pirates of Penzance with Lyric Opera of Chicago; Fidelio, Die Gezeichneten and Elektra for Salzburg Festival Opera; Aida, Ariadne auf Naxos and Don Carlos with Welsh National Opera; The Love for Three Oranges and Carmen for Opera Australia; Don Giovanni with Glyndebourne Opera; the world premiere of The Little Prince with Houston Grand Opera; Die Meistersinger for Zurich Opera; Porgy and Bess with Washington Opera; The Water Diviner’s Tale at Royal Albert Hall and Oedipus at Royal National Theatre. Upcoming productions include Salome in Baden Baden, Emperor and

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Galilean at Royal National Theatre and Peter Grimes with Opera Australia.

DALE FERGUSON Set and Costume designer

Australian designer Dale Ferguson returns to the COC after designing the sets and costumes for A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2009.

Mr. Ferguson is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Operatic credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Houston Grand Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago, Fresh Ghosts and Motherland for Chamber Made Opera, Eugene Onegin for Opera Australia and The Marriage of Figaro for Welsh National Opera and Opera Australia. He made his Broadway debut in 2009 designing the sets and costumes for the Neil Armfield/Geoffrey Rush adaptation of Exit the King, which garnered him nominations for a Drama Desk Award and two Tony Awards. In 2010 he received the Australian Helpmann Award for Best Scenic Design for the Melbourne Theatre Company’s production of August Osage County. His theatre work in Sydney includes Antigone, The Chairs and Measure for Measure for Belvoir Street Theatre; the Neil Armfield/Geoffrey Rush adaptation of Beaumarchais’ play The Marriage of Figaro for the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival; and, productions of Titanic the Musical and The Rocky Horror Show.

TIM MITCHELL original Lighting designer

Tim Mitchell makes his COC debut with this production. His operatic and dance credits include Die Fledermaus (Welsh National Opera); Die Frau ohne Schatten (Golden Mask Award Nomination for Best Lighting of an Opera production) and Elektra (Mariinsky Theatre); The Marriage

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of Figaro, Requiem Ballet and Don Giovanni (Kammeroper); Carmen Negra (Icelandic Opera); The Snowman (Korea/Sadler’s Wells/Tour); Cleopatra, Hamlet, Dracula (National Ballet Theatre); and, The Lady and The Fool (Birmingham Royal Ballet).

His theatre credits include The Secret Garden (Edinburgh Festival Theatre/Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto); Dirty Dancing (West End/Toronto/Hamburg/ Utrecht/U.S. tour/Berlin); The Pajama Game (West End/Toronto); Cinderella (Old Vic); Sleeping Beauty (New York/Barbican/ Young Vic); Henry IV Parts I & II (Washington Shakespeare – Helen Hayes Award nomination); The Play What I Wrote (Broadway/West End); Merrily We Roll Along (Donmar); Hamlet (Japan/Sadler’s Wells); Yes Prime Minister, Imagine This, Bad Girls The Musical, Otherwise Engaged, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, and Of Mice and Men (West End), as well as numerous productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Chichester Festival Theatre, and Almeida Theatre.

PAUL WOODFIELD Lighting design Re-Creator

British lighting designer Paul Woodfield was born and educated in Birmingham and joined the Welsh National Opera (WNO) electrics team in 1986. He has designed the lighting on numerous WNO productions including Madama Butterfly, Il tabarro, Orpheus in the Underworld, Eugene Onegin, Sweeney Todd, The Mikado and the world premiere of Katerina, a large scale, innovative WNO project for primary school children using Janácˇek’s Kát’a Kabanová as inspiration.

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ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

JENIFER KOWAL Stage Manager

Jenifer Kowal recently returned from stage managing the remount of the COC’s 2009 production of The Nightingale and Other Short Fables at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Her recent COC credits include Aida, Carmen and The Flying Dutchman. Ms Kowal was the production stage manager for Dancap’s production of Miss Saigon, which also toured to Pittsburgh and Schenectady. This is Ms Kowal’s 19th season with the COC. Previous COC credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fidelio, War and Peace, Eugene Onegin, Tosca, Don Carlos, La Traviata, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Così fan tutte, The Handmaid’s Tale, Boris Godunov, Bluebeard’s Castle/ Erwartung, Billy Budd and all COC productions of the Ring Cycle. She was also the stage manager for the Richard Bradshaw tribute concert and the Inaugural Concerts for the FSCPA*. Originally from Texas, she studied theatre at Indiana University.

BRADLEY MOORE assistant Conductor

American Bradley Moore returns to the COC after assisting on both Otello and Simon Boccanegra, following his recent recital tours with Renée Fleming and Alice Coote.

Currently a pianist, vocal coach and assistant conductor with the Met, Mr. Moore has performed with many of the world’s great singers and instrumentalists, including Plácido Domingo, Michael Schade, Joshua Bell and Yo-Yo Ma. As a soloist, he has appeared with several orchestras including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. He was also the musical assistant to Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, and Ivor

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Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

Bolton at the Salzburg Festival and assistant conductor at the Opéra national de Paris and the Los Angeles Opera. Discography credits include an EMI Classics Debut Series recital with Eric Cutler and a recording of songs by the American composer Daron Hagen.

He recently completed his doctorate in piano performance at Yale University.

ALLISON GRANT assistant director

Allison Grant was recently with the COC as assistant director and assistant choreographer for Death in Venice. Other COC credits include assistant director/movement director for A Midsummer Night’s Dream; choreographer for Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, The Queen of Spades, Dido and Aeneas and La Bohème; director of The Brothers Grimm and Cinderella; and, assistant director of Madama Butterfly, The Barber of Seville, Rodelinda, La Bohème, Turandot and L’elisir d’amore. Other directing credits include Don Giovanni for the University of Toronto’s Opera Division; Die Zauberflöte for Sarasota Opera; Don Giovanni and Carmen for Opera Ontario; L’Italiana in Algeri for Opéra de Montréal; Così fan tutte, The Magic Flute and Figaro! Figaro! Figaro! for Vancouver Opera; and, Bach at Leipzig, Master Class and Private Lives at Theatre Athena. Choreographic credits include Eugene Onegin and Un ballo in maschera for Vancouver Opera; The Merry Widow for Opera Ontario, Edmonton Opera and Hawaii Opera Theatre; Die Fledermaus for Vancouver Opera, Kentucky Opera and Opera Ontario; and, Carmen and La fille du Régiment for Opera Ontario. Next fall Ms Grant will direct and choreograph Roméo et Juliette for Vancouver Opera. *FSCPA – Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts

One-of-a-kind jewellery, sparkling stationery, musical gems, and so much more at the Opera Shop! Visit us on the main floor of the Isadore and Rosalie Sharp City Room, open before, during and (sometimes) after all performances.

Jewellery trunk shows Nancy Ciccone: Sunday, May 8 (Mother’s Day) P. J. Bundy: Saturday, May 28 and Sunday, May 29

This spring we recommend the following recordings from Universal Classics: Orfeo ed Euridice The 1762 Vienna version of the score sung in Italian, with celebrated countertenor Derek Lee Ragin as Orfeo. A recording hailed by Gramophone magazine as “a total interpretation of the work, more penetrating than any other in the catalogue.” John Eliot Gardiner, conductor; English Baroque Soloists; Monteverdi Choir. With Derek Lee Ragin, Sylvia McNair, Cyndia Sieden, Decca, 2 CDs, $22.75 including tax.

Ariadne auf Naxos A classic recording now offered at budget price. Levine has always held this score close to his heart and the cast features two of the great 20th-century exponents of their roles: Anna Tomowa-Sintow’s regal Ariadne and Kathleen Battle’s spectacular Zerbinetta. James Levine, conductor; Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. With Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Agnes Baltsa, Kathleen Battle, Gary Lakes, Hermann Prey, Deutsche Grammophon, 2 CDs, $22.75 including tax.

La Cenerentola Two of today’s most celebrated Rossini singers in the very same strikingly colourful, storybook production appearing onstage at the COC this spring! Patrick Summers, conductor; Gran Teatre Del Liceu Orchestra and Chorus. With Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Florez, Decca, 2 DVDs, $56.50 including tax.

Shop for much more at the Opera Shop or at coc.ca!

The Opera Shop is a project of the Canadian Opera Company, in partnership with L’Atelier Grigorian and Decca – The Opera Label.

All proceeds support the Canadian Opera Company.

Earrings by Nancy Ciccone

Bring in the Bling this Spring!

CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY ORCHESTRA VIOLIN I Marie Bérard, Concertmaster The Concertmaster’s chair has been endowed in perpetuity by Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Benjamin Bowman, Associate Concertmaster Diane Tait, Assistant Concertmaster Paul Zevenhuizen, Principal Second Csaba Koczó, Assistant Principal Second Sandra Baron VIOLA Nicolò Eugelmi, Principal, on leave of absence Francis Kefford, Acting Principal Joshua Greenlaw, Assistant Principal Theresa Rudolph Koczó, Acting Assistant Principal Yosef Tamir Beverley Spotton CELLO Bryan Epperson, Principal, on leave of absence Alastair Eng, Associate Principal Paul Widner, Assistant Principal Olga Laktionova, Acting Assistant Principal Maurizio Baccante BASS Alan Molitz, Principal Robert Speer, Assistant Principal FLUTE Douglas Stewart, Principal Shelley Brown OBOE Mark Rogers, Principal Lesley Young

BASSOON Eric Hall, Principal Elizabeth Gowen HORN Joan Watson, Principal Gary Pattison TRUMPET Robert Grim, Principal TROMBONE Robert Ferguson, Principal TIMPANI Michael Perry, Principal PERCUSSION Trevor Tureski, Principal Ryan Scott John Thompson HARP Sarah Davidson, Principal, on leave of absence Sanya Eng, Acting Principal Emilie Lom PIANO Rachel Andrist CELESTE Albert Krywolt HARMONIUM Susan Ball LIBRARIAN Wayne Vogan ASSISTANT MUSIC LIBRARIAN Capella Sherwood

CLARINET James T. Shields, Principal Colleen Cook

STAGE LIBRARIAN Paul Langley

BASS CLARINET Colleen Cook

PERSONNEL MANAGER Ian Cowie

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Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

BOARD OF DIRECTORS OFFICERS Mr. Paul B. Spafford, Chair Mr. Philip C. Deck, President Mr. Paul A. Bernards, Treasurer Mr. John H. Macfarlane, Secretary Mr. Alexander Neef, General Director (ex officio) Mr. Robert Lamb, Managing Director (ex officio) MEMBERS Mr. H. Anthony (Tony) Arrell Ms Nora Aufreiter Mr. Barry Avrich Mr. David Broadhurst Mr. Robert Brouwer Ms Marcia Lewis Brown

Mr. Stewart Burton Mr. George S. Dembroski Dr. Fayaz Dossa Mr. William Fearn (ex officio) Mr. David C. Ferguson Mr. David Forster Mr. Adam Froman Mr. John Gagliano Mr. Michael Gibbens Dr. Linda Hutcheon Ms Trinity Jackman Ms Pamela Jeffery Mr. Jeff Lloyd Mr. Stephen O. Marshall Ms Judy Matthews Mr. Geoffrey Matus Ms Marina McDougall (ex officio)

Ms Trina McQueen Mr. Jonathan Morgan Mrs. Sue Mortimer Mr. Nicholas Mutton Mr. Ian Pearce Ms Frances Price Mr. John Rothschild Mr. Arthur R. A. Scace, C.M. Ms Colleen Sexsmith Ms Sandra Simpson Mr. Philip Smith Ms Kristine (Kris) Vikmanis Ms Karen Walsh Mr. John H. (Jack) Whiteside Mr. Tom Woods HONORARY DIRECTORS Mr. Joey Tanenbaum, C.M.

VOLUNTEER SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS COC OPERA GUILDS Brantford Opera Guild, David M. Cullen, President Kingston Opera Guild Grace Orzech, President London Opera Guild Ernest H. Redekop, President Muskoka Opera Guild Tom Anderson, President Northumberland Opera Guild Thais Donald, President Oakville Opera Guild Margaret Parker, President Peterborough Opera Guild June Wilson Thexton, President Quinte Opera Guild Dorothy Temple, President Sudbury Opera Guild Mike Humphris, President Western New York Opera Guild Dorothy K. Piepke, President

ARIAS: Canadian Student Opera Development Fund Arija Stiver, Chair Marina McDougall, President Arija Stiver, Past-President Lisa Teskey, Vice President/ Treasurer Francine Lewis, Secretary (ex officio)

CANADIAN OPERA FOUNDATION Mr. William Fearn, Chair Mr. Derek Brown Mr. J. Rob Collins Mr. Philip C. Deck (ex officio) Mr. David Forster Mr. George Hamilton, Treasurer Mr. Roy D. Hogg, FCA Hon. Dennis Lane Mr. Peter MacKenzie Ms Kathleen McLaughlin Mr. David E. Spiro, Secretary Mr. Edzo Wisman

For more information on COC Guilds please visit coc.ca/Guilds

Please visit coc.ca for additional information

19

ADMINISTRATION AND STAFF ALEXANDER NEEF, General Director Managing Director Robert Lamb Music Director Johannes debus EXECUTIVE OFFICE Executive Assistant to the General Director Marguerite Schabas ARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION Artistic Administrator Roberto Mauro MUSIC Music Administrator Sandra Gavinchuk Chorus Master Sandra horst Music Librarian, Coach Wayne Vogan Head of the Ensemble Studio & Coach elizabeth upchurch Resident Conductor derek Bate Music Staff Rachel andrist Susan Ball Jean desmarais albert Krywolt anne Larlee Ben Malensek Steven Philcox elizabeth Rowe felice Venanzoni Company Manager olwyn Lewis Scheduling Manager Kathryn Garnett Administrative Assistant, Music Karen olinyk Archivist, Joan Baillie Archives Birthe Joergensen Orchestra Personnel Manager ian Cowie Assistant Librarian Capella Sherwood COC Ensemble Studio ambur Braid Rihab Chaieb Neil Craighead Chris enns Wallis Giunta adrian Kramer anne Larlee ileana Montalbetti Simone osborne Michael uloth Jacqueline Woodley Production Assistants ariel Martin-Smith aislinn Ritchie PROGRAMMING Director of Programming – Free Concert Series Nina draganić PRODUCTION Production Manager Lee Milliken Technical Director david feheley Associate Technical Director Barney Bayliss Lighting Co-ordinator Wendy Greenwood Assistant Technical Director Melynda Jurgenson

Head Electrician Janice fraser Assistant Electrician Joel Thoman Production Electrician ashley Rose Head of Sound al Merson Head Carpenter Paul Watkinson Assistant Carpenter Mike Gelfand Head Flyman Rupert Baker Head of Properties alison Potter Core Crew Guy Campagnaro Scott Clarke Terry hurley Paul otis Head Scene Shop Carpenter david Retzleff Head Scenic Artist Richard Gordon Assistant Head Scenic Artist Jana osterman Rehearsal Head Technician Scott Williamson Properties Supervisor Guy Nokes Resident Properties Builder/Co-ordinator Stephanie Tjelios Properties Buyer/ Co-ordinator Kathy frost Properties Co-ordinator Tracy Taylor Properties Builders Carolyn Choo Wulf Costume Supervisor Sandra Corazza Costume Co-ordinator Cassandra Spence Assisted by Chloe anderson Kate day Costume Assistants Jazlyn dow Lina Marques Resident Tailor Sue furlong Assisted By Gulay Cokgezen Karen hancock Additional Costumes by arana enterprises industry Costumes Additional Footwear by handmade Shoes Additional Dyeing by Chrome Yellow Wardrobe Mistress Marilyn Rodwell Wardrobe Assistant Rafe Macpherson Wig & Make-up Supervisor Sharon Ryman Head of Wig & Make-up Crew Cori ferguson Production Co-ordinator Shawna Green SURTITLES™ Producer Gunta dreifelds SURTITLES™ Editor Zane Kaneps SURTITLES™ Assistant John Sharpe

DEVELOPMENT Director of Development Christie darville Senior Development Officer, Individual Giving dawn Marie Schlegel Donor Relations Officer Natalie Sandassie Development Officer, Individual Giving Leeanne Rorabeck Individual Giving Co-ordinator Stephanie hunt Individual Giving Co-ordinator Stephen Radbourn Development Officer, Friends of the COC aisha Talarico Development Co-ordinator, Friends of the COC Lucia Ly Senior Development Officer, Corporate Programs Carlie Weppler Development Officer, Corporate & Foundation Giving Sybil Choles Co-ordinator, Corporate Development Peggy Lau Manager, Special Events Tracy Briggs Co-ordinator, Special Events Christine Tizzard Donation Database Officer Kira egorova Data Processing Co-ordinator olena Moldovan FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION Director of Finance and Administration Lindy Cowan, Ca Finance Manager Ray Gooden, fCa (uK) General Accountants florence huang Zoran orlić (fSCPa) Payroll Accountants Jovana Božović Jeanny Won Public Affairs Manager amy Mushinski Manager, IT Services Steven Sherwood IT Services Assistant Tony Sandy Computer Services Assistant Nick Mitropoulos Receptionist/ Switchboard Katarina Božović Mailroom Clerk/Courier Branka hrsum BUILDING SERVICES COC & FSCPA Building Services Manager Joe Waldherr Assistant Building Services Manager Piro Milo Security Supervisors Videsh dookhu dave Samuels

Maintenance Assistants Tymen de Vries (fSCPa James esposito (fSCPa) Ryszard Gad (CoC) Branislav Peterman (CoC) Julian Peters (CoC) Wojtek Plichta (fSCPa) Piotr Wiench (fSCPa) Security Officers Tammy hill Natalia Juzyc heather Reid Building Operators Radu Chereji dan Popescu dan Bisca Hurley Supervisor Paula da Costa COMMUNICATIONS Director of Public Relations Claudine domingue Director of Marketing Jeremy elbourne Senior Manager Sales and Customer Service Phil Stephens Senior Communications Manager, Editorial Suzanne Vanstone Senior Communications Manager, Creative Gianna Wichelow Communications Manager, Special Initiatives Caitlin Coull Digital Marketing Manager (on leave) Jennifer dougall Media Relations Manager Jennifer Pugsley Social and Interactive Media Co-ordinator Cecily Carver Marketing Co-ordinator eldon earle Digital Marketing Co-ordinator olga Kwak Retail and Editorial Co-ordinator Gianmarco Segato Volunteer and Creative Assistant John Kriter Communications Assistant Vanessa Smith EDUCATION AND OUTREACH Senior Manager, Education and Outreach Katherine Semcesen Education and Outreach Programming Manager Jessica Lovett Education and Outreach Programming Co-ordinator Carly anderson Administrative and Marketing Assistant, Education and Outreach Kalun Leung

FSCPA – Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts

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Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

TICKET SERVICES Ticket Services Manager alan Moffat Assistant Ticket Services Managers andrea Salin Nikki Tremblay (on leave) Group Sales Co-ordinator david Nimmo Ticket Services Supervisors erin Cook Lilian fung Victor Widjaja Ticket Services Representatives Becky Bridger Terry Bursey ernest Cayemen holly Coish danielle d’ornellas anna Kay eldridge Chelsea ireton Keith Lam Julia Lederer ian Mcdonnell diana Merta amber Mills Kelly Noordermeer Kevin Pook Mary Porter Maria Serreno Mitch Yolevsky CALL CENTRE Call Centre Manager Sarah frankel Call Centre Representatives frank Bush alex Gladwell david ontonovich Richard Paradiso Tim Sell adriano Sobretodo Margaret Terry FOUR SEASONS CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS Director of Facility Operations alfred Caron Business Manager elizabeth Jones Patron Services Manager Jefferson Guzman Assistant Manager, Front of House Kim hutchinson-Barber Assistant Manager, Food & Beverage Brigitte Lang Patron Services Supervisors Kelly Bailey Melissa Lapczynski adam orr Brynn Pearson Rebecca Riddell ashley Westlake Kimberly Wu Patron Services Lead Carianne hill

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Please visit coc.ca for additional information

19

E. LOUISE MORGAN SOCIETY The E. Louise Morgan Society was created to reflect the vision and commitment of its founder and the members who have created a legacy of leadership, passion and philanthropy in support of the goals of the Canadian Opera Company.

Each of these donors has contributed a cumulative total of more than one million dollars over the past fifteen years. Their support is critical to the company’s success and we are forever indebted to their commitment and generosity.

Dr. Larry M. Agranove

Kolter Communities

ARIAS: Canadian Opera Student Development Fund

The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation

The Gerard & Earlaine Collins Foundation The late John A. Cook

MAJOR GIFTS & SPECIAL PROJECTS Every year, the Canadian Opera Company has unique projects operating beyond regular annual activities, each of which relies on private funding to ensure its success. These include: transition and endowment funding, production underwriting, artist and performance sponsorship as well as training, education and outreach programs. $500,000 – $999,999 The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation $100,000 – $499,999 Anne & Tony Arrell David G. Broadhurst The Estate of Horst Dantz & Don Quick‡ Jean Davidson & Paul Spafford Philip Deck & Kimberley Bozak George S. Dembroski Trina & Don McQueen Tim & Frances Price Colleen Sexsmith Sandra L. Simpson The Slaight Family Anonymous‡ $25,000 – $99,999 Estate of Daphne Bell Ethel Harris & the late Milton E. Harris Ronald Kimel & Vanessa LaPerriere Estate of Aldo & Anita Maggiorotti Jill & Geoff Matus Melanie Whitehead Mersch Roger D. Moore David Stanley-Porter

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The Stratton Trust Françoise Sutton William & Phyllis Waters

Roger D. Moore E. Louise Morgan Joey & Toby Tanenbaum

INDIVIDUAL ANNUAL SUPPORT GOLDEN CIRCLE

UP TO $24,999 Philip Anisman†† Anthony G. Borg†† James & Lembi Buchanan†† Cecily & Robert Bradshaw Paul & Joyce Chapnick†† Ian & June Cockwell Mr. Frank L. Davis†† Mr. Gordon Fenwick†† David & Kristin Ferguson Dave Friedman†† Peter & Hélène Hunt Stephen W. Ireland†† Hon. Henry N. R. Jackman‡ Patrick & Barbara Keenan Mrs. Dolly Kerzner†† J. Hans Kluge Jo Lander Ian Lightstone†† Marjorie & Roy Linden†† Vincent Lobraico†† Michael Overbury†† In loving memory of Sandra Papsin David Roffey & Karen Walsh Jeffery Rubenstein†† Katalin Schäfer Dean Tudor†† Terry Vaudry†† Ms Kristine Vikmanis & Mr. Denton Creighton Peter Wearing†† Jack Whiteside†† Estate of Evelyn Ann Young Anonymous (2)

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

GOLD, $50,000+ Anne & Tony Arrell*** David G. Broadhurst* In memory of Gerard H. Collins**** Jerry & Geraldine Heffernan**** The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation**** Roger D. Moore**** Arthur & Susan Scace**** Colleen Sexsmith** Sandra L. Simpson* SILVER, $25,000 – $49,999 Andrew Peller Limited Paul Bernards*** Cecily & Robert Bradshaw Philip Deck & Kimberley Bozak*** George S. Dembroski**** Mr. & Mrs. W. Humphries*** Ronald Kimel & Vanessa LaPerriere**** Susan Loube & William Acton* The Stratton Trust* BRONZE, $12,500 – $24,999 Dr. & Mrs. Hans G. Abromeit**** Mark & Gail Appel** Philip & Linda Armstrong* Ms Nora Aufreiter Melissa & Barry Avrich John & Claudine Bailey*** Barbara Black* Mr. Philip J. Boswell†**** Walter M. & Lisa Balfour Bowen**** Susanne Boyce & Brendan Mullen*** Rob & Teresa Brouwer* Marcia Lewis Brown Stewart & Gina Burton*

Dr. John Chiu in memory of Yvonne Chiu, C.M.**** The Max Clarkson Family Foundation**** J. Rob Collins & Janet Cottrelle**** Sydney & Florence Cooper* Mr. & Mrs. Leslie Dan** Jean Davidson & Paul Spafford**** David Denison & Maureen Flanagan* Dr. Fayaz & Mrs. Sandra Dossa David & Kristin Ferguson**** George Fierheller**** Margaret & Jim Fleck* Lloyd & Gladys Fogler*** David & Elizabeth Forster** Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts** Adam & Sharin Froman John & Rita Gagliano Roger & Kevin Garland** Michael & Lora Gibbens Ira Gluskin & Maxine Granovsky Gluskin** James & Joyce Gutmann**** Ethel Harris & the late Milton Harris**** Dr. W. P. Hayman & Dr. M. L. Myers*** Nona & William Heaslip Foundation**** Douglas E. Hodgson**** Michael & Linda Hutcheon**** William Ip & Kathleen Latimer* Jeff Lloyd & Barbara Henders Mr. & Mrs. J. S. A. MacDonald**** Bobby & Gordon MacNeill* Judy & Wilmot Matthews Jill & Geoff Matus* John & Esther McNeil*** Trina & Don McQueen* Johanna Metcalf*** Bruce & Vladka Mitchell Delia M. Moog** Jonathan Morgan* Sue Mortimer in memory of Clive Bennett Mortimer**** Nicholas & Rosemary Mutton Mrs. & Mr. Christl & Karl Niemuller** Donald O’Born** Peter M. Partridge**** Ian & Michelle Pearce Tim & Frances Price**** David Roffey & Karen Walsh*** Barrie Rose & Family*** John A. Rothschild Katalin Schäfer** Philip & Maria Smith** Stephen & Jane Smith**** Marion & Gerald Soloway* David E. Spiro*** David Stanley-Porter**** Ms Kristine Vikmanis & Mr. Denton Creighton**** Jack Whiteside** Tom & Ruth Woods***

PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL COMMITTEE Mary-Catherine Acheson Diane Adamson-Brdar Thomas J. Burton Gladys Fogler Sue Mortimer Katalin Schäfer Colleen Sexsmith (Chair) Kristine Vikmanis Karen Walsh TRUSTEE, $7,500 – $12,499 à la Carte Kitchen Inc. Laurie & Fareed Ali* Margaret Atwood & Graeme Gibson** Mr. & Mrs. Alexander Christ**** Andrew Fleming** The Hon. William C. Graham & Mrs. Catherine Graham**** Al & Malka Green* Rainer Hackert*** Maggie Hayes** Trinity Jackman Bernhard & Hannelore Kaeser**** J. Hans Kluge* Murray & Marvelle Koffler**** Mr. Gurney Kranz*** Anne & Wilf Lewitt* Jerry & Joan Lozinski**** Hon. Margaret & Mr. Wallace McCain** John McVicker & B. W. Thomas**** Mrs. Louise O’Shea**** Ms R. Raso*** Françoise Sutton** Dr. David Shaw* Anonymous PATRON, $3,750 – $7,499 Clive & Barbara Allen**** Mr. Peter Allen* Sue Armstrong** Ron Atkinson & Bruce Blandford*** Salah Bachir* Mrs. N. A. Balciunas**** Mona H. Bandeen, C.M.** Schuyler Bankes & Family*** Karen & Bill Barnett L. H. Bartelink in memory of Oskar & Irmgard Gaube** Dr. Thomas H. Beechy**** Mr. & Mrs. Eric Belli-Bivar** Mr. & Mrs. Avie Bennett**** Mr. Roland Bertin**** Tom Bogart & Kathy Tamaki* William & Anna Maria Braithwaite* Dr. David & Constance Briant****

Please visit coc.ca for additional information

Dr. Jane Brissenden & Dr. Janet Roscoe**** Mrs. Donna Brock** Margaret & Derek Brown**** Murray & Judy Bryant** Thomas J. Burton* Sharon & Howard Campbell* Joe & Laurissa Canavan Cesaroni Management Limited** Mr. Douglas W. Chaddock Paul G. Cherry & Dean C. Noack**** Peter & Frances Chiddy* Frank Ciccolini**** Marilyn Cook Mr. & Mrs. William J. Corcoran** Tim Costigan & Kathleen McLaughlin Lindy Cowan† & Chris Hatley** Mrs. Ninalee Craig** Norman Curtis**** C. M. Dare**** Raul Werneck de Castro** Dr. Jeanne Deinum**** Carol Derk & David Giles* Mrs. A. Ephraim Diamond and Family**** Bernard & Francine Dorval** Peter & Anne Dotsikas* Vreni & Marc Ducommun** Bud & Leigh Eisenberg** Mr. & Mrs. John J. Elder**** Joseph Fantl & Moira Bartram* Graham Farquharson** Fleur-de-lis Interior Design Kimberley Fobert & Robert Lamb†*** The Fraser Elliott Foundation**** Dr. & Mrs. Wm. O. Geisler** The Hon. & Mrs. Alastair W. Gillespie**** Ben & Sarah Glatt**** Peter & Shelagh Godsoe* Rose & Roger Goldstein *** Michael & Anne Gough**** Dr. Noëlle Grace & The Shohet Family*** Ronald & Birgitte Granofsky*** Douglas & Ruth Grant John & Judith Grant* John Groves*** George & Irene Hamilton**** Hampton Securities Ltd. Scott & Ellen Hand** Mr. & Mrs. William B. Harris** Hon. & Mrs. Paul Hellyer**** Ava Marion Hillier* Prof. Michiel Horn**** Scott Irvine† & Joan Watson†** Dr. Melvyn L. Iscove** The Jackman Foundation*** Victoria Jackman** Dr. Peter Janetos* Mr. Robert C. Jefferies*** Dr. Joshua Josephson**** Lorraine Kaake****

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Patrick & Barbara Keenan**** Dr. Joel Keenleyside**** Jim & Diane King* Joseph Kerzner & Lisa Koeper*** Jean V. Kramar* The Hon. Dennis Lane, Q.C. & Mrs. Sandra Lane**** Harold & Larraine Langer**** Mr. Philip Lanouette* John B. Lawson, Q.C.**** Paul Lee & Jill Maynard**** Mr. J. Levitt & Ms E. Mah Daniel & Janet Li* Anthony Lisanti** Michel Lislois** Vincent & Helene Lobraico Angelo & Grace Locilento* Douglas L. Ludwig & Karen J. Rice** John Macfarlane Mrs. J. L. Malcolm* Christa & Robert McDermott* The Hon. Barbara McDougall*** Paul & Jean McGrath**** June McLean**** Mr. Michael J. McMurray* Sam Meister Mr. Ulrich Menzefricke**** Melanie Whitehead Mersch** Mr. Albert Merz* Dr. Thomas & Mrs. Catherine H. Millar Dr. Judith A. Miller*** Beatrice & Arthur Minden Foundation**** Professor David J. Murray** Eileen Patricia Newell** Mrs. Sally-Ann Noznesky**** E. Oliana & A. Iu** Keith & Brenda Ottaway** Dr. & Mrs. William M. Park**** Mr. Douglas L. Parker**** John & Gwen Pattison* Polk Family Charitable Fund** Julian Porter, Q.C.* Samuel A. Rea & Wendy J. Thompson**** Rob & Penny Richards** Margaret A. Riggin Gordon Robison & David Grant* Joseph L. Rosenmiller* Maxwell L. Rotstein & Nancy-Gay Rotstein**** Mr. & Mrs. R. T. Ruggles**** Annie & Ian D. Sale Judy & Hy Sarick**** Sam & Esther Sarick*** Helen & John Scott* Katherine & Gary Shaw* Dr. Ralph Shaw & June Shaw**** Allan & Helaine Shiff**** Judy & Hume Smith*** Dr. John Stanley & Dr. Helmut Reichenbächer** Drs. Wayne Stanley & Marina Pretorius

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Doreen L. Stanton**** Dr. Richard & Jane Stoneman* Carol Swallow** Mr. & Mrs. Michael Tatham* Kathryn J. Thornton*** Anthea Thorp*** Vincent Tovell, O.C.*** Rosalind & Dory Vanderhoof Donald & Margaret Walter**** Hugh & Colleen Washington* William R. Waters*** Ruth Watts-Gransden**** Peter Webb & Joan York**** Dr. Jack Williams & Dr. Dorothy Pringle** L. R. Wilson* Mr. & Mrs. Richard Wookey*** Linda Young Tricia Younger* The Youssef-Warren Foundation*** Helen Ziegler** Sharon Zuckerman**** Helen & Walter Zwig**** Anonymous (6) MEMBER, $2,250 – $3,749 Mr. Herb Abramson** The Acheson Family Foundation** D. C. Adamson-Brdar**** Dr. & Mrs. Larry M. Agranove**** Donna & Lorne Albaum* Mr. & Mrs. Roberto & Nancy Albis** Mr. Thomas Allen* Mr. & Mrs. Howard Alpert** Dr. D. Amato & Ms J. Hodges**** Rod Anderson & Merike Lugus**** Andrée Appleton & Alexander Leman* Anne-Marie H. Applin** Valerie Armstrong*** Philip Arthur Virginia Atkin** John Bailey* James C. Baillie* Marilyn & Charles Baillie**** Andrew & Cornelia Baines**** Janice A. Baker**** Richard J. Balfour*** Lindy Barrow Ms Roxanne Bartel Dr. Frank Bartoszek & Mr. Daniel O’Brien**** Florence Sharpe Barwell**** Julia Bass & David Hamilton** Alice & Tom Bastedo** Rene Beaulieu Mr. & Mrs. Peter & Sondra Beck Mr. Doug & Mrs. Alison Bell Ms Marie Bérard†** Dan Bereskin, Q.C. & Rhoda Gryfe* Dr. Catherine Bergeron**

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

Nani & Austin Beutel**** John N. & Miranda A. H. Birch J. Bismillah* Anneliese and Walter Blackwell**** Susanne Blake*** Ms Lynn Blaser & Mr. John van Ogtrop**** Ian & Janet Blue** John & Ila Bossons* Mr. W. Bowen & Ms S. Gavinchuk†*** David Boyd-Thomas*** Mrs. Carolyn Bradley-Hall & Mr. William Bradley** Mrs. Richard Bradshaw** Sylvia Brander**** Peter Brieger & Beverley Hamblin Brian Bucknall & Mary Jane Mossman**** Alice Burton** Barrie & Betty Cade** Maureen Callahan & Douglas Gray* Margaret Harriett Cameron**** Della H. Campbell**** Ken & Denise Cargill** Brian & Ellen Carr**** Gail Carson**** Wendy M. Cecil**** Dr. & Mrs. Albert Cheskes** Birte von Chlumecky-Bauer** Dr. Howard M. Clarke** The Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson Cogeco Data Services Edward Cole & Adrienne Hood** Brian Collins & Amanda Demers* Murray & Katherine Corlett*** Harold & Anita Corrigan*** Dr. Lesley S. Corrin**** Gay & Derek Cowbourne* Ms Wanda Crickmay Susan Crocker* Irene & Keith Croot*** Andreas Curkovic Mary Beth Currie & Jeff Rintoul Carrol Anne Curry** Ms Lindsay Dale-Harris & Mr. Rupert Field-Marsham**** Doris J. Daughney M. P. Davies* Dr. & Mrs. Michael & Ute Davis* Brian J. Dawson** Juleth Dawson Michael & Honor de Pencier*** Mrs. Rosario de Wit-Farro** Mrs. Leonard G. (Anne) Delicaet & Mrs. Kendra Anne Delicaet-Almasi*** Mary-Kathleen Delicaet & John Young Perry & Rae Dellio** Angelo & Carol DelZotto** Mr. & Mrs. Elvio DelZotto*

Jill Denham & Stephen Marshall* Mr. & Mrs. A. J. Diamond Mr. David S. Dick Steven & Linda Diener** J. DiGiovanni Olwen & Frank Dixon* James Doak & Patricia Best** Sandra Z. Doblinger* Ms Petrina Dolby** Dr. James & Mrs. Ellen Downey* John Duffy & Jill Presser Marko Duic**** H. I. Dunlop*** Judy Dunn Ron Dyck & Walter Stewart** William & Gwenda Echard**** Jean Edwards* Wendy & Elliot Eisen*** Genia & Stan Elkind**** Robert Elliott & Paul Wilson* Dr. & Mrs. John Evans** Virginia Evans* Fabris Inc. George A. Farkass* Gail & Bob Farquharson Catherine Fauquier*** Bill Fearn & Claudia Rogers*** Lee K. Ferrier*** William & Rosemary Fillmore** Mr. & Mrs. Cosimo & Christina Fiorenza** Dr. Sidney M. Fireman* Robert & Julia Foster* Margaret & David Fountain**** Mr. Michael A. French* Judith Ann Fullerton* Robert Fung** Rev. Ivars Gaide & Rev. Dr. Anita Gaide** Tom & Helen Galt**** Ann Gawman** Dr. Barry A. Gayle**** Martin & Mindy Gerskup* The Honourable Irving Gerstein & Mrs. Gail Gerstein* Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Giancamilli* Ann J. Gibson**** William & Marika Glied** Mary & Lionel Goffart Dr. Eudice Goldberg Dr. Fay Goldstep & Dr. George Freedman* Deanna A. Gontard**** Tina & Michael Gooding** Wayne A. Gooding**** Goodman Family David & Janice Gordon** Jane Greene* Mr. Finn Greflund & Mrs. M. Ortner* Carmen & Vittoria Guglietti* Ellen & Simon Gulden**** Anna L. Guthrie**** Mr. & Mrs. Henry Hackenspiel**** Gudrun Hackert*** Dan Hagler & Family**

Ms Francess G. Halpenny**** Mr. Adrian J. Hamel John & Ruth Hannigan Beverly Hargraft* Michael Harris & Carol Rak* Valerie & Brian Harris*** Mr. D. Harrison & Dr. E. Fischer* Paul & Natalie Hartman Lloyd Heaslip**** Jenny Heathcote**** Mr. Thomas G. Heintzman & Ms Mary Jane Heintzman** Caroline Helbronner & Douglas Klaassen** Jacques & Elizabeth Helbronner** Ann & Lyman Henderson**** Thea Herman & Gregory King** The Donald Heskins Philanthropic Fund of The Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies* William E. Hewitt*** Sam & Libby Ho** Chris Hoffmann & Joan Eakin* Richard & Donna Holbrook**** Sally Holton & Stephen Ireland*** Emmy & Walter Homburger** Mr. Roland Hoy** Drs. Walter & Virginia Hryshko Ken Hugessen & Jennifer Connolly* Anthony C. J. Humphreys**** Gillian Humphreys Peter & Hélène Hunt**** Mrs. Wilma Hysen*** Infonex Inc.* Prof. Christopher Innes & Brigitte Bogar William Innes Diana & Philip Jackson in memory of Ethel B. Jackson*** Elliott Jacobson & Judy Malkin* Lynne Jeffrey*** Laurence Jewell* The Norman & Margaret Jewison Charitable Foundation**** Ms Elizabeth Johnson* Dr. Albert & Bette Johnston* Joyce Johnston** H. L. Katarynych** Joseph & Maureen Katchen David W. & Sheryl L. Kerr Inta Kierans**** Peter Kingsmill Ellen & Hermann Kircher**** Dr. Elizabeth Kocmur**** Michael & Sonja Koerner** Robin Korthals & Janet Charlton* Dr. Robert Kosnik**** Richard J. Kostoff** Valarie Koziol William & Eva Krangle*** Richard T. La Prairie

Please visit coc.ca for additional information

Elizabeth & Goulding Lambert*** Leslie & Jo Lander**** Dr. Connie Lee** Linda Lee & Michael Pharoah**** Neal Lee & Dominique Lee* Dr. Richard Lee & Mr. Gary Van Haren* Alexander & Anna Leggatt** Joy Levine** Mr. Peter Levitt & Ms Mai Why** Cheryl Lewis & Mihkel Voore** L. Liivamagi Justin S. Linden Marjorie & Roy Linden**** Dr. & Mrs. W. G. Lindley**** Janet & Sid Lindsay** Dr. Vance Logan*** A. Benson Lorriman**** Dr. Robert G. Luton**** Ms Jane Loughborough* Jonathan & Dorothea Lovat Dickson* Mary Lu & Bruce MacDonald**** James & Connie MacDougall**** Mr. Jed MacKay**** Dr. & Mrs. Richard Mackenzie**** Mrs. R. MacMillan**** Tom & Catharina MacMillan**** Macro Properties Ltd.* Mrs. Janet Maggiacomo* Susan & Scott Maidment** Dr. Colin McGregor Mailer**** R. Manke**** Dr. & Mrs. M. A. Manuel Mr. & Mrs. R. Gordon Marantz**** Gerald & Helen Marr**** Kenneth & Kathleen Mathieson Pauline and Dipak Mazumdar at the Toronto Community Foundation*** Mrs. Ettore Mazzoleni** Dr. & Mrs. John A. McCallum**** Wendy & Chris McDowall* Anne McFadyen Dr. & Mrs. Donald C. McGillivray**** Dr. Gabrielle McIntire Darcy & Joyce McKeough* Guy & Joanne McLean*** M. E. McLeod**** Jean M. McNab**** Margaret C. McNee Mark & Andrea McQueen*** Shawn McReynolds & Elaine Kierans Mr. Ian McWalter* Dr. Don Melady & Mr. Rowley Mossop** MI9 Business Intelligence Systems Ingrid & Daniel Mida Marvene (Cox) & Gordon Miller* Lee Milliken† & Doug MacNaughton* Dr. William & Mrs. Sharon Millman*

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Patricia & Frank Mills** Ms Kamini Milnes* Audrey & David Mirvish** Dr. David N. Mitchell & Dr. Susan M. Till** Mr. Donald Mitchell Robert & Janet Mitchell Eva Mocarski Dr. & Mrs. S. Mocarski Donald Moggridge & Susan Howson** Anne Moore*** Mr. Robert Morassutti**** Alice Janet Morgan** Ada & Hugh G. Morris Edith Patterson Morrow*** Ms Rosalind Morrow* Drs. Christopher & Pippa Moss** Mr. Noel Mowat* Walter & Susan Mozek Mr. Joseph Mulder* Taketo & Vija Murata* Ethel Myers**** David & Mary Neelands** Dr. Shirley C. Neuman* Dr. John & Pamela Newall**** Dr. Emilie Newell* Dr. Steven Nitzkin*** Mr. Jean-Claude Noel* Simon & Marlene Nyilassy Dr. James & Mrs. Valda Oestreicher** Janice Oliver** Benson Orenstein** Martin & Myrna Ossip* Julia & Liza Overs*** Dr. & Mrs. N. Pairaudeau*** Isabel Pargana & Raimondo Maltese Mrs. Margaret Ann Pattison**** John & Penelope Pepperell* Dr. R. G. Perrin* Stephanie Perry & Ronan McGrath Mr. William Perry* John & Carol Peterson** M. J. Phillips**** June C. Pinkney**** Johann C. Pinto Robin B. Pitcher*** Wanda Plachta*** Mary Jean & Frank Potter*** Georgia Prassas**** Margrit & Tony Rahilly**** Stephen Ralls & Bruce Ubukata** The Carol & Morton Rapp Foundation**** C. Edward Rathé**** Grant L. Reuber** Mrs. Gabrielle Richards* Carolyn Ricketts*** Ms Nada Ristich Emily & Fred Rizner* Clara Robert Ms Virginia Robeson

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Sidney Robinson & Linda Currie**** Dr. Michael & Mary Romeo**** John & Hannah Rosen Ken & Helen Rotenberg* Rainer & Sharyn Rothfuss*** Drs. Orest & Maureen Rudzik**** David A. Ruston** Ms Sharon Cookie Sandler*** Mallory Morris Sartz & John Sartz**** Stewart & Dianne Saxe*** Dr. & Mrs. Bruce Schaef**** Beverly & Fred Schaeffer**** Mrs. Ortaud Scherer* Fred & Mary Schulz* Dr. Marianne Seger**** Carol Seifert & Bruno Tesan** Mr. & Mrs. Norman Shamie*** Victor & Rhoda Shields*** Milton & Joyce Shier**** Dr. Kevin Shiffman* David & Hilary Short*** William Siegel & Margaret Swaine* Dr. Birgitta Sigfridsson In memory of Dr. Bernard Slatt Dr. & Mrs. Jeremy Sloan* Jay Smith & Laura Rapp Kenneth & Catherine Smith** Ms Muriel Smith & Mr. Eric Ojala*** Dr. Harley Smyth & Carolyn McIntire Smyth* Dr. Joseph So** Philip Somerville* John & Ellen Spears*** Martha E. Spears** Alex & Kim Squires**** The Steve & Sally Stavro Family Foundation* Celia & Lee Steels** Oksana R. Stein** Mr. & Mrs. Gary & Sula Stern Dr. & Mrs. Stephen Stern** John D. Stevenson*** James H. Stonehouse* Dr. Peter Stroz & Dr. Sophia Pantazi*** Janet Stubbs Anna Talenti*** Eric Tang & Dr. James Miller* Mr. & Mrs. Gordon Taylor*** John Todd & Jenny Ginder**** John & Liz Tory**** Diana Tremain**** Ian Turner** Riki Turofsky & Charles Petersen* Cindy & Gary Ullman** Sandra & Guy Upjohn** Dita Vadron & James Catty* Tony & Mary van Straubenzee*** Dr. R. B. Van Winckle Edmond & Sylvia Vanhaverbeke***

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

Mr. & Mrs. Henry & Ann Louise Vehovec*** Dr. Yvonne Verbeeten** Dr. Helen Vosu & Donald Milner*** Richard & Nathalie Wachsberg Samara Walbohm & Joe Schlesinger Diane Walker & Rob Bell** Elizabeth & Michael Walker** Philip & Diana Weinstein Dr. Bogomila Welsh* Dr. Virginia Wesson** Ms Eleanor Westney* Ms Anne-Marie Widner & Mr. Paul Szymanski** Mr. Brian Wilks Elizabeth Wilson & Ian Montagnes**** Jeffrey Stewart Wilson* Ms Ling Wong* Dr. Jackson Wu & Dr. Viviana Chang Dr. Laval Yau*** Erik Yeo Morden Yolles**** Marion York & Robert Speer†* Marina Yoshida*** Dr. Howard & Sybil Young**** George Zeman Susan Zorzi** Anonymous (23) FRIENDS OF THE COC As of April 6, 2011 SUSTAINING FRIENDS $1,600 – $2,249 In memory of M. Baptista** Dody Bienenstock* Iivi Campbell**** Mrs. Margaret Couch* Ruth & John Crow** Jayne & Ted Dawson**** Mr. Albert D. Dunn Mrs. Lois Fleming**** Carmen & Vittoria Guglietti* Ms Suanne Kelman & Dr. Allan J. Fox* Dr. & Mrs. R. W. Kimber** Tom C. Logan* Mr. A. Mafrici**** Mrs. Eileen A. Mercier*** Mr. John Nagel Mrs. Annette Oelbaum Dr. Norbert V. Perera**** Mrs. Richard Gavin Reid Go Sato**** Gary Shiff** Jim Stewart & Deborah Swail Mr. & Mrs. Vernon & Beryl Turner*** Dr. O. R. Waler* Gordon Waugh*** Ms June Yee** Anonymous (2)

ASSOCIATE FRIENDS $1,100 – $1,599 Ms I. M. Allen**** Michael & Janet Barnard* Don Biderman**** Mrs. William Birchall Ms Ethel Birkenshaw Bruce Burgess** Ms E. Burton** Dr. Wendy C. Chan Pauline Cheung & Winston Koo Mr. Darren Day** Prometheum Institute** Ms Christine Demont** Gary Fitzgibbon** Mr. James Dewhurst J. E. Fordyce**** Miss Gillian Foster** R. Dalton Fowler**** Klaus Multiparking Inc. John H. Galloway**** Alison Girling and Paul Schabas* Helen & Barry Goldlist**** Mr. Henry Gooderham** Dr. Wilfred S. Goodman**** Mrs. Marion A. Green**** Suzy Greenspan** Mr. & Mrs. Michael E. Harrison**** Mr. & Mrs. H. C. Hatch*** Jean & Bill Heaslip**** Lawrence & Beatrice Herman*** Mr. Josef Hrdina* Donald Hughes*** Horace & Elizabeth Krever**** Mr. & Mrs. Owen & Margie Kurin* Alan & Marti Latta**** Claus & Heather Lenk* P. Anne Mackay**** Craig & Karen Mahood* Mary McGowan*** Brian Miron & Monica Vegelj Mr. Carl Morey*** Mr. Sean O'Neill*** Clarence & Mary Pace* Dr. Roger D. Pearce** Ms Alexandra Petrenko Ms Beatrice Riddell A. K. Sigurjonsson** C. Anderson Silber* David Smukler & Patricia Kern* Mr. Warren Sorensen & Mr. Gregory Williams**** Dr. & Mrs. George Steiner*** Jane & Ted Stephenson*** Ms Peg Thoen* Bill MacKenzie & Alan Westbrook** Janet White* Ron Williams* Anonymous (4)

CONTRIBUTING FRIENDS $700 - $1,099 Mr. Roger Abbott Mrs. Rosalen Armstrong**** Anne & Husayn Banani* Peter & Leslie Barton** Dr. Gail Beck & Mr. Andrew Fenus Michael Benedict & Martha Lowrie**** Jeniva Berger** Dr. B. Derek & Dr. Anne W. Birt**** Dr. Jennifer Blake Mary Brock & Brian Iler*** Miss Maria Buisman* Ms Judith Burrows* Theresa & John Caldwell**** Betty Carlyle**** Jack A. Carr Mark Cestnik**** Carole Chabot & Derek Dodd** Barbara Charters**** Harold Chmara**** Joe T. R. Clarke**** Dr. Marsha Cohen & Mr. Michael Mendelson** Mr. & Mrs. Norman & Louise Coxall** Mr. Neil Crawford Mr. John A. Crocker & Mrs. Mary Crocker*** Mrs. Grace Diez Dr. Domville** Mr. Steven D. Donohoe**** Peter & Shashi Eden* Mr. Thomas Eiser**** Ms Eleanor L. Ellins**** Mr. Arthur English* Ms Sharon Evans**** Mr. Kirk Falconer** Mr. F. C. Farr*** Joe & Helen Feldmann** Brian A. Ferguson*** Richard & Gail Flack** Mr. Morris Flicht**** Mrs. & Mr. Jennifer & Francis Flower*** Dr. & Mrs. A. Mervyn Fox**** Douglas G. Gardner*** Elinor Gill Ratcliffe C.M., O.N.L. Dr. Gabriela Gohla Dr. Bruno & Mrs. Louise Golisky** Lisa & Harvey Golombek in memory of Hilda & Isie Golombek* Ricardo Gomez-Insausti Ms Ina K. Govan**** Mr. James Hamilton Philo Handler* Dr. & Mrs. Brian & Cynthia Hands**** Harper House Contracting Ltd Mr. & Mrs. E. Roy Harrison**** W. L. B. Heath*** In memory of Pauline Chorniuk Hinch

Please visit coc.ca for additional information

Mr. David Holdsworth & Ms Nicole Senecal Richard & Susan Horner**** Dr. Ivan & Mrs. Diana Hronsky**** James Hughes** Pierre Hurtubise**** Mr. Sumant Inamdar* Mr. Kazik Jedrzejczak**** Frances E. Johnson*** Douglas & Dorothy Joyce**** May & Fred Karp** Heidi & Khalid Khokhar** Mai Kirch**** Dr. & Mrs. L. A. Kitchell** Mr. & Mrs. I. P. & O. M. Komarnicky** Mr.& Mrs. Armin Kratel Mr. Jonathan Krehm Gediminas P. Kurpis**** Mr. James R. Lake*** Harry Lane** Mary-Jane Large** Giles le Riche & Rosemary Polczer** Mr. Yakov Lerner Mrs. Mary Liitoja**** Nathan & Glenys Lindenberg Ingrid Martin Kathy Marton Mary McClymont**** Jil McIntosh* Mr. Bruce McKeown*** Georgina McLennan**** Sylvia McPhee**** Janis Medland Mr. & Mrs. David & Shirley Menzel** Suzanne Mess** Kathryn Mikoski & Hope Clement* Frank & Anne Moir* Terry & Dom Morris** David Northcote & Suzanne Betcke** Jean O'Grady* Ms Cristina Oke** Karen Olinyk† William Ostrander*** Mr. Martti Paloheimo Mr. Joseph & Mrs. Letizia Paradiso** Barbara & Peter Pauly* David Peachey & Georgia Henderson* Bruce Pearce*** Dr. A. Angus Peller Mrs. Dorothy K. Piepke**** The Late Ms Ella Prindiville**** Dr. Peter Ray*** Dr. Shelley Rechner**** Guylaine Rheault-Oliver Mr. David E. Roman**** Mrs. Gertrude Rosenthal**** Dorothy & Robert Ross*** M. Sanvido*** William & Meredith Saunderson***

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Barbara Sawaszkiewicz**** Miss Elisabeth Scarff**** Patti & Richard Schabas* Mrs. Sylvia Schmid**** The Derick Brenninkmeyer Charitable Foundation Henry & Mary Seldon*** Anci Shafran**** Robert Sherrin** Cheryl Shook* Ms Elizabeth J. Shropshire* Dr. & Mrs. Bernie & Bobbie Silverman* D. Bruce Sinclair* Joan Sinclair & John McConnell* John Spears**** Mrs. Harriet H. Stairs** Tony Stapells** Dr. & Mrs. W. K. Stavraky** Scott Steele & Jan Korman Robert & Nancy Stephenson* Marta Stewart**** Mr. Paul Szaszkiewicz & Ms Peggy Theodore Anna M. Tait**** Ms Michelle Tan* Mrs. Yoka Terbrugge Dr. M. Lynne Thurling & Dr. John Treilhard** Dr. Claude Tousignant* David & Diana Trent**** Mrs. Norene Turvolgyi**** Dr. Nancy F. Vogan**** Mr. Wayne Vogan†**** Dr. Peter Voore*** Mr. John M. Welch**** Mr. and Mrs. Karl Wildi David B. & Virginia Wortman* Nina & Norman Wright** Ms Iris Zawadowski Ms Marta Zerenyi Anonymous (15) THE ENCORE LEGACY The Encore Legacy is the planned giving program of the Canadian Opera Company.

Planned giving is making the decision today to provide a gift for the Canadian Opera Company that may not be realized until after your lifetime.

Planned giving also allows many people to make a significant gift without altering their current lifestyle.

Gifts planned today, that will ultimately affect your estate, allow you to make a statement of support that will become a lasting legacy to the COC. In addition, gift planning may provide significant tax benefits for your estate.

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The Canadian Opera Company gratefully acknowledges and thanks the following individuals who have included the COC in their estate planning: Dr. Larry M. Agranove Isobel Allen Renata Arens & Elizabeth Frey Mrs. Rosalen Armstrong Ron Atkinson & Bruce Blandford J. Linden Best & James G. Kerr David Bowen Marnie M. Bracht Walter Carsen Earl Clark Brian Collins & Amanda Demers Earlaine Collins David H. Cormack Ann De Brouwer Helen Drake Rowland D. Galbraith Douglas G. Gardner Michael & Anne Gough L. A. Grover George & Irene Hamilton Joan L. Harris James Hewson John R. Higgins Mr. Kim Yim Ho & Walter Frederic Thommen Douglas E. Hodgson Matt Hughes Lynne Jeffrey Ann Kadrnka Kathryn Kossow Mr. Gurney Kranz Jo Lander Peggy Lau† Marjorie & Roy Linden J. Bruce MacDonald Ms Lenore MacDonald Dr. Colin M. Mailer R. Manke Tim & Jane Marlatt Margaret McKee Sylvia M. McPhee Dr. Alan C. Middleton Eleanor Miller Donald Morse Sue Mortimer Mr. & Mrs. James D. Patterson Mervyn Pickering Gunther & Dorothy Piepke Ms Georgia Prassas K. F. Read Dr. John Reeve-Newson Mrs. Margaret Russell Cookie & Stephen Sandler J. M. Doc Savage David Serber Claire Shaw R. Bonnie Shettler David E. Spiro Dr. D. P. Stanley-Porter

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

Doreen L. Stanton Lilly Offenbach Strauss Drs. W. & K. Stavraky Janet Stubbs Ann Sutton Ronald Taber Vivian Treacy Mrs. L. Treutler N. Suzanne Vanstone† Marie-Laure Wagner Hugh & Colleen Washington Marion C. Wilson Marion York Anonymous (41) CORPORATE MATCHING PARTNERS The Canadian Opera Company gratefully acknowledges the following organizations that have matched gifts by their employees: Canadian Tire Corporation Limited Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc Goodman & Company Investment Counsel Ltd. FM Global Foundation

The above Individual Support Gifts were made as of March 24, 2011. * ** *** **** † ‡ ††

five to nine years of support 10 to 14 years of support 15 to 19 years of support 20 or more years of support COC administration, chorus or orchestra member Endowment Fine Wine Auction

Despite the staff’s extensive efforts to avoid errors and omissions, mistakes can occur.

If your name was omitted, listed incorrectly or misspelled, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. We would appreciate being notified of any errors at 416-847-4949.

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MAJOR CORPORATE SPONSORS 2010/2011 SEASON

Sun Life Financial Accessibility Program Encompassing SURTITLES™, Wheelchair Seating, Hearing-Assistive and Vision-Impaired Devices

Official Automotive Sponsor of the COC at the FSCPA

Major Supporter, Ensemble Studio Production Sponsor Mozart’s The Magic Flute

Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour

BMO Financial Group Pre-Performance Opera Chats and BMO Financial Group Student Dress Rehearsals Aida Opening Night Sponsor

Presenting Sponsor Opera for a New Age and Operanation VII

Production Co-sponsors Adams’ Nixon in China

Presenting Sponsor, Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre

Official Canadian Wine of the COC at the FSCPA

KPMG Opera Golf Classic

Preferred Fragrance Sponsor

Preferred Medical Services Provider

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Preferred Hospitality Sponsor

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

Official Media Sponsors

Digital Marketing Sponsor

2010/2011 SPONSORS Preferred Airline Sponsor

Rentals Supplier

Preferred Florists

Mario Séguin Quince Flowers Tidy’s Flowers Wild Thyme Other suppliers

THE BUTLER DID IT Nestlé Waters Torrié Coffee

DIAMOND PERFORMANCE SPONSORS

PERFORMANCE SPONSORS At time of printing

ARIAS Barrick Gold Burgundy Asset Management CTVglobemedia Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP Delvinia Fionn MacCool’s Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts HSBC Bank Canada Louis Vuitton PwC Scotia Capital Standard Life

OPENING NIGHT SPONSOR Fionn MacCool’s HOSTING SPONSOR

PROGRAM SPONSORS Budd Sugarman Foundation, Create an Opera Supporter Great West Life, London Life and Canada Life, Opera Storytime Program Supporter The Globe and Mail, Subscriber Ticket Back Sponsor KPMG LLP, Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour Performance Sponsor Standard Life, Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour Performance Sponsor Torys LLP, After School Opera Program Supporting Sponsor

2010/2011 MEDIA SPONSORS & IN-KIND SUPPORTERS CBC Radio Two Remenyi House of Music Ltd.

CORPORATE AND FOUNDATION DONORS MaJoR GifTS

ANNUAL FINE WINE AUCTION 2011 hoST SPoNSoR Crush Wine Bar

$10,000+ Audrey S. Hellyer Charitable Foundation J. P. Bickell Foundation The Hope Charitable Foundation The Hal Jackman Fund at the Ontario Arts Foundation The McLean Foundation $5,000 to $9,999 225490 Investments Limited Britten-Pears Foundation IATSE Local 58 Charitable Stage Technicians Toronto SNC Lavalin Unit Park Holdings Inc.

KPMG OPERA GOLF CLASSIC Title Sponsor KPMG LLP OPERANATION VII Presenting Sponsor TD Bank Financial Group offiCiaL fRaGRaNCe Calvin Klein Beauty diNNeR SPoNSoR E-L Financial Limited

PaRTNeRiNG SPoNSoR Harris Brown & Partners Limited CheeSe SPoNSoR Cheese Boutique ChoCoLaTe SPoNSoR Rhéo Thompson Candies

$3,000 to $4,999 The Calgary Foundation – Nellie Hicks Memorial Fund The Keg Spirit Foundation $2,000 to $2,999 Classical 96.3 FM MAC Cosmetics Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc. Vida Peene Fund - Canada Council $1,000 to $1,999 Milgram Group of Companies Ltd. Powis Family Foundation

Please visit coc.ca for additional information

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GOVERNMENT SUPPORT The Canadian Opera Company gratefully acknowledges the generous support of these government agencies and departments.

oPeRaTiNG GRaNTS

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $26.3 million in music throughout Canada.

Nous remercions de son soutien le Conseil des Arts du Canada, qui a investi 26,3 millions de dollars l’an dernier dans la musique à travers le Canada.

eNSeMBLe STudio

SPeCiaL PRoJeCT fuNdiNG For the many programs and special initiatives undertaken each year by the Canadian Opera Company, we gratefully acknowledge project funding from: Department of Canadian Heritage Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

CREDITS & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Canadian Opera Company would like to thank all those who volunteer both on a daily basis and for special events with the company.

Michael Cooper: Official photographer The COC is a member of Opera America and Opera.ca.

The COC operates in agreement with Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.

The COC operates in agreement with I.A.T.S.E., Local #58, Local #822 and Local #828.

Broadcast Partner CBC Radio is providing the production facilities and production team for the COC produced recordings of this season’s operas.

Recording Producer: Neil Crory; Recording Engineer: Doug Doctor; Assistant Recording Engineer: Steve Sweeney

SUPERNUMERARIES Mike Gibbons Shawna Green Tom Jokinen Chris Pemberton

32

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

SUN LIFE FINANCIAL

We are pleased to support the Sun Life Financial Accessibility Program, at the Canadian Opera Company, which encompasses SURTITLESTM, wheelchair seating, hearing-assistive and vision-impaired devices.

TM

SURTITLES is a registered trade-mark of the Canadian Opera Company.

速 Making the Arts More Accessible is a registered trade-mark of Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada.

A scene from The Nightingale and Other Short Fables at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, 2011.

Photo: © 2011 Jack Vartoogian/FrontRowPhotos

NIGHTINGALE SOARS AT BAM This March, at the invitation of the worldrenowned Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), the Canadian Opera Company performed the U.S. premiere of its spectacular production of Robert Lepage’s The Nightingale and Other Short Fables.

The production, set to the music of Stravinsky, was directed by Robert Lepage and conducted by COC Music Director Johannes Debus. Audiences cheered and the critics raved!

“Magic, pure and complex... Johannes Debus conducts the Toronto forces with elegant swagger...

Call it a triumph.” HHHHH Martin Bernheimer, Financial Times “The Canadian Opera Company’s Orchestra and Chorus were vibrantly conducted by its accomplished young music director, Johannes Debus.”

Anthony Tommasini, New York Times “When its [chorus] members simultaneously opened up their Chinese robes to reveal hitherto hidden puppets, it was pure magic – and the show was full of these moments of childlike wonder.”

Elisabeth Vincentelli, New York Post “Mixing elegance and whimsy, director Robert Lepage’s production of The Nightingale and Other Short Fables, at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, is both a visual and an aural treat.”

Dan Bacalzo, Theater Mania “The COC Orchestra, conducted by Johannes Debus, brings out the delicacy and haunting lyricism in this charming work...”

Mike Silverman, Associated Press

SUBSCRIBE NOW FOR 2011/2012 AND SAVE UP TO 50%

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Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

THE OPERA OF UNANSWERED CRIES

BY MAX LOPPERT

O

pening the Orfeo ed Euridice chapter of his Opera Nights (1943), Ernest Newman presented his readers with two assertions: “This is the work with which [Gluck] began his famous ‘reform of the opera,’” and “It is the oldest opera now in the repertory.” The first may still be an arguable proposition; the second no longer is. Since Newman’s date of publication, the vast continent of early music has been opened up. The beginnings of opera have been re-explored, and Monteverdi’s Orfeo now claims the position in the repertory that Newman staked for Gluck’s. Moreover, Italian 18th-century “serious opera,” the target of Gluck’s revolutionary zeal, is no longer terra incognita for opera-lovers. Received Opinion, re-stated in generations of operatic textbooks, may have dismissed opera seria as intrinsically a hopelessly decadent art-form verging on dramatic meaninglessness because of formulaic rigidity and dependence on singers’ showing off. Now – in the wake of successful recent revivals of opera seria

22

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

The COC presents Orfeo ed Euridice. David Daniels (centre) as Orfeo in the Lyric Opera of Chicago production, 2006. Photo: Robert Kusel

by Handel, Hasse, Jommelli, Traetta, and many others, which have won new admirers – the whole subject requires root-and-branch re-examination.

With all this as background, the status of Orfeo, Gluck’s azione teatrale per musica, as one of the key works of operatic history remains easy to reaffirm. At the time of its first performance, at the Burgtheater in Vienna on Oct. 5, 1762, the composer was 48, with a long and varied theatrical career behind him. Born in Bavaria, raised in Bohemia, he earned his living first in Prague, then Vienna, before departing for Milan, where he steeped himself in current Italian operatic modes and manners; his first opera, Artaserse (Milan, 1741), was a success, as were his next seven, given in various Italian theatres. Thereafter he spent time in London (where he struck up a warm relationship with Handel), Vienna, Dresden, Prague, Copenhagen, and Naples, for much of the time at the head of the travelling opera troupe which he had joined in 1746.

Marriage to a wealthy Viennese merchant’s daughter in 1752 enabled him to settle in that city; attached to the court, he enjoyed the inestimably valuable patronage of Count Durazzo, Genoa-born, Francophile by cultural inclination, who served as the Empress’s theatre administrator. Maria Theresa herself never wholly admired Gluck, though he taught her children and eventually won high office from her; she preferred the collaborations of her court poet Metastasio (the 18th century’s supreme opera seria librettist, who in a letter once described Gluck as a composer of “surprising fire but… mad”) and Hasse – the “old guard,” also resident in Vienna – to the “avant garde,” that formed around Durazzo.

Alongside Gluck, that group also included Ranieri de’ Calzabigi from Livorno, librettist of Orfeo (and another passionate Francophile), and the Florentine dancer-choreographer Gasparo Angiolini. Nonetheless, Vienna remained Gluck’s home until his death in 1787, even during the 1770s, when he was

For blogs, interactive quizzes, and podcasts featuring music and interviews, visit coc.ca.

23

ORFEO ED EURIDICE: The Opera of Unanswered Cries

bent on conquest of the Paris operatic stage.

The diversity, variety, and sheer skilfulness of Gluck’s theatrical scores are still insufficiently recognized. He composed in all the operatic modes fashionable in Vienna, and prolifically for the dance.

Among the most significant of his ballet compositions was Don Juan, the Molièreinspired A-bomb of a pantomime-ballet that Gluck and Angiolini dropped on an unsuspecting Burgtheater on Oct. 17, 1761.

Orfeo the following year caused another sensation. Produced for the Emperor Franz’s name day, it was modest in length and modestly supplied with three principal roles. More startling, given the context, was the severe Classical setting, the large-scale use of chorus, the absence of soloist vocal display, and the integration of Angiolini’s dance episodes into the dramatic unfolding.

Retrospectively Orfeo was taken to mark the start of the whole so-called Reform movement, which Gluck later provided with a manifesto. To the publication in 1769 of Alceste (premiered in Vienna, 1767), the second of his three Reformist collaborations

with Calzabigi, he attached as preface what became one of the most widely quoted documents in music history, in which he formulated the ideals that had driven him to simplify current operatic practice. This is its key sentence: “I sought to rid music of all the abuses, introduced either by the vanity of singers or by the excessive complaisance of conductors, that have for so long disfigured the Italian opera.”

It is salutary to remember that Gluck’s own creative path never maintained an unswerving route towards the innovative ideals expressed in that preface. (He continued to write “old-fashioned” opera seria after Orfeo.) In the words of Winton Dean in the first edition of The New Grove Dictionary, “[His] Italian Reform operas… were not quite the bolt from the blue they appear in the selective light of historical memory. Rather they crystallized existing tendencies, fortified by the hand of genius” – tendencies already apparent in Gluck himself and in other opera seria composers of the day, Traetta and Jommelli among them. Furthermore, in Paris there was

The COC presents Orfeo ed Euridice. David Daniels (centre) as Orfeo in the Lyric Opera of Chicago production, 2006. Photo: Robert Kusel

24

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

2010|11 season is presented by

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ORFEO ED EURIDICE: The Opera of Unanswered Cries

already the well-established theatrical trend of moving away from the grandiosely artificial towards simplicity and naturalness.

Significant French influences are detectable in Orfeo, applied (no doubt) via the Parisian leanings of Gluck’s collaborators Durazzo and Calzabigi; these concern the expanded role of the chorus, removal of “dry” (that is, keyboard-accompanied) recitative, and construction of the acts in massive tableaux.

All this notwithstanding, it takes no more than a single encounter with Orfeo in its original form to convince one that Gluck’s expressive directness and (for most of the opera’s course) unremitting concentration of musical effect for dramatic

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Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

purpose represent a creative landmark in the history of opera. Let me be specific about this “concentration of effect”: in measure 25 of the opening minor-key chorus, the hero cries out the name “Euridice!” (on four notes – three Ds and then the D an octave lower) above the other voices. In measure 27 he repeats the cry; in measure 44 he slightly alters it. The situation is summarized: a funerary chorus, the chief mourner bursting out in grief above it, the dead beloved’s name thrice repeated. An unforgettable sound-image encapsulates the tragedy. Interpolation of a solo voice into choral singing may not itself have been a new operatic effect, yet in context at the very opening of the opera, it amounts to a new operatic invention.

Orfeo ed Euridice could be subtitled “the opera of unanswered cries.” In his first solo, “Chiamo il mio ben così,” Orfeo calls out to Euridice everywhere in the natural world, but Nature fails to return him a reply (his calling-out suggested with supreme poetic aptness by the presence offstage of a small second orchestra echoing the ends of his phrases). Later, in “Che faro senza Euridice?”

Orfeo’s Act III lament and the opera’s climax, Euridice’s name is invoked with increasingly desperate passion. (Gluck is said to have instructed the celebrated alto castrato Gaetano Guadagni, the first Orfeo, to “shout [it] as if you had suffered a real loss.” Across the span of the opera the hero’s first and second losses are linked, and the second thereby rendered limitlessly poignant; in the entire operatic literature, few names become charged with a stronger emotional current.

The music of Orfeo, in its balance of forms, colours, and atmospheres, penetrates the core of Calzabigi’s drama. Act II, which for Romain Rolland, the distinguished French novelist-scholar of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was “the most moving…

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ORFEO ED EURIDICE: The Opera of Unanswered Cries

in all opera,” creates between its two parts a perfect equilibrium: hell then heaven, darkness then light, sombre then limpid orchestration, with Orfeo in his traversal of both realms providing the link between them. The opera’s ceremonial C-major overture may not live up to Gluck’s belief (subsequently expounded in that Alceste preface) that an “overture ought to warn the spectators of the action that is to be represented to them”; the traditional 18th-century happy ending complete with suite of decorative dances may contradict sense and dramatic momentum. The piece, after all, was premiered on an emperor’s name day, and even as it stands, the most enlightened 18th-century aristocrat might be forgiven some discomfort on sitting through quite so unadorned a festive entertainment.

I used earlier the phrase “Orfeo in its original form”; for confusingly, the opera exists in more than one authentic form and in several unauthentic ones. The very brevity of the 1762 score, though its local success set European cognoscenti buzzing, rendered it disconcerting to most contemporary tastes – it was simply too plain-spoken. When in 1774 Gluck presented the work at the Paris Opera as Orphée et Eurydice, it may well have been this that prompted him to enlarge it as he did.

The Paris version might almost be deemed a new opera, expanded from the old. To satisfy local tastes and cope with local performing exigencies, he altered the original instrumentation, added much new music (notably the D-minor flute solo in the Elysian Fields scene), and recast Orpheus for the high tenor Joseph Legros. The

The COC presents Orfeo ed Euridice. David Daniels as Orfeo and Isabel Bayrakdarian as Euridice in the Lyric Opera of Chicago production, 2006.

Photo: Robert Kusel

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Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

ORFEO ED EURIDICE: The Opera of Unanswered Cries

immediacy of the original was distanced – and in 1859, 72 years after Gluck’s death, when Berlioz prepared a Paris revival of the opera, returning a shortened, re-ordered form of the 1774 Orphée to the 1762 alto pitch for the great mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot, the next stage of that distancing was prepared. Viardot herself was one of the greatest operatic actresses of her (or any) day, but in later years the hero’s part tended to become the preserve of oratorio contraltos; the emotional predicament burning beneath the classical simplicities of the original became hard to detect, unless a performer of Viardot-like gifts filled the leading role. For at least a century a post-Berlioz composite of all previous scores, “back-translated” into Italian, such as was published by Ricordi in Italy and Novello in England, was the Orfeo edition most often performed – and the distancing process was complete.

All the various versions of Orfeo and Orphée demand performance; none can be sacrificed. Yet if we wish to recover in its keenest, purest, most nakedly affecting form Gluck’s response to the myth about the power of art to triumph over mortality, it is to the original Orfeo ed Euridice, that we shall need to turn.

Max Loppert, born in 1946 in Johannesburg, was chief critic of the London Financial Times (1980 – 96) and assistant editor of Opera (1986 – 1997).

He now lives in Italy, acting as a northeast Italy correspondent for Opera and contributing to other music journals and periodicals while completely his study of Gluck’s operas. This article originated with Lyric Opera of Chicago, 2006, reprinted with permission.

The COC presents Orfeo ed Euridice. Isabel Bayrakdarian as Euridice and David Daniels as Orfeo in the Lyric Opera of Chicago production, 2006.

Photo: Robert Kusel

For further insights into Orfeo ed Euridice, please read Suzanne Vanstone’s interview with director Robert Carsen in the spring issue of Prelude, available online at coc.ca.

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Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

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PATRON INFORMATION AND POLICIES Etiquette Patrons are reminded that R. Fraser Elliott Hall is an extremely lively auditorium and that all audience noise will be accentuated and will be audible to other patrons. Turn off all electronic devices, avoid talking, coughing, humming, moving loose seats, kicking the backs of seats, rustling programs, and unwrapping candies or cough drops. In consideration of patrons with allergies please avoid wearing strongly perfumed beauty products and fragrances. Please remain in your seat until the performance has completely ended and the house lights have been turned on.

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Following performances, all lost and found items will be stored at the security desk at Stage Door. Please call 416-363-6671 for information.

34

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

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