biographies Kelly Robinson
Harry Frehner
Stage Director
Lighting Designer
Kelly Robinson’s work has been seen at the the Opera Companies of Dallas, Minnesota, Portland, and Montreal, among others. Also The National Arts Centre, The Stratford, and Shaw Festivals, Vineyard Theater (New York) and London’s West End. World premieres include the operas Filumena, Frobisher and Lillian Alling by John Estacio and John Murrell and The Inventor by Bramwell Tovey and John Murrell. Recent projects include Mavra and Iolanta for Guildhall SMD in London, Evita for Vancouver Opera, Bittergirl for The Charlottetown Festival, The Merry Widow for Michigan Opera Theater, and Don Giovanni for Opera Santa Barbara. His last production for Calgary Opera was Die tote Stadt.
Gérard Théorêt Assistant Stage Director Gérard Théorêt is a former soloist with Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet and has worked with such dance and theatre luminaries as Agnes DeMille, Gillian Lynne, Hal Prince, and Anne Reinking. Trained in Britain as an actor, he has performed roles from Shakespeare to Lloyd Webber including two seasons at the Stratford Festival. From 1991 to 1997 he toured as Associate Director with Phantom of the Opera. He was a professor of Drama at the University of Alberta and Full Professor in Dance at Cornish College of the arts. For five years he toured with Cirque du Soleil as Artistic Director of Corteo (2007-10) and performing the role of The Baron in Saltimbanco (2010-12). He is a founding member of Men In Dance in Seattle where he currently resides. He works internationally as a master teacher, choreographer, and director. This marks his eighth collaboration with Kelly Robinson. Always a pleasure. Sue LePage Set & Costume Designer Sue will always be proud to have been part of the original creative team for Filumena, as well as Estacio and Murrell’s Frobisher and Lillian Alling. She has designed over 200 theatre and opera productions across Canada, from the Neptune, Charlottetown Festival, NAC, Canadian Stage, Tarragon, Soulpepper and Stratford, to RMTC, Banff, Citadel, and Edmonton and Vancouver Opera. Recent credits include Disgraced (Citadel, Hope and Hell, Mirvish), The Lion in Winter (Grand Theatre London) and Uncle Vanya at the Shaw Festival, where highlights include Saint Joan, Ragtime, Born Yesterday and Arcadia. Sue has won several Doras and a Sterling, and calls Toronto home.
Harry Frehner has designed more than 50 productions for Calgary Opera dating back to 1992. Several of these productions have been nominated for Betty Mitchell Awards, of which two have won. He has lit productions for opera companies in Canada and internationally, such as Vancouver Opera, Edmonton Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, Manitoba Opera, San Diego Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Opera Colorado, Arizona Opera, Utah Opera and Wide Open Opera in Dublin. As well, his work has been seen across Canada at such companies as The Banff Centre, Theatre Calgary, Alberta Theatre Projects, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, Stratford and Shaw Festivals and Ballet BC.
Christopher Mokrzewski Repetiteur & Asst Conductor Conductor, pianist and vocal coach Christopher “Topher” Mokrzewski is a steadily rising figure in the worlds of Canadian opera and chamber music. He is in his fourth season as Calgary Opera’s Resident Conductor, and is a founding member and Music Director of Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre and music director of the Open Space Opera Program at The Banff Centre. A graduate of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio, the Eastman School of Music and the Music Academy of the West, Mokrzewski has been described by music critic John Terauds as “one of those bright, eager, whip-smart young artists who could give even the most hardened cynic a jolt of optimism about the future of classical music and opera.” He was also named one of CBC Music’s “Hot 30 Classical Musicians under 30” in 2013. Mokrzewski last conducted The Mikado for Calgary Opera (2015).