OPERA NEWS: Stars return home
for COC's 2012/13 season

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
18 JAN 2012

TORONTO - In the Canadian Opera Company’s 2012/13 season, Canada’s opera chicks — the Canadian singers, directors and designers that have found success in the broader opera world — will definitely be coming home to roost. And thanks to Alexander Neef, the COC’s director general, it seems they will have something to crow about as they take part in the company’s 63rd season, announced Wednesday in the Four Season Centre’s Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.

That season begins next September, with our own Russell Braun leading a cast that also includes Ramon Vargas, Riccardo Massi, Elza van den Heever, Elena Manistina and Dmitry Beloselsky in the Opera de Marseille’s production of Verdi’s Il Trovatore, directed by Charles Roubaud and designed by Jean-Noel Lavesvre.

It is paired in a fall season that also includes a brand new production of Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus, directed by Christopher Alden, with sets by Allen Moyer and costumes by Constance Hoffman. Canadian Michael Schade heads a cast that includes Tamara Wilson, Laura Tucker, Ambur Braid, Mireille Asselin, Peter Barrett, Christopher Enns, David Cangelosi and James Westman.

Acclaimed Canadian tenor Ben Heppner returns to the COC stage to help launch the winter season, sharing one of Tristan un Isolde’s title roles with Burkhard Fritz, while Melanie Diener and Margaret Jane Wray divvy up the distaff. Directed by the legendary Peter Sellars, the Wagnerian classic, a production of the Opera National de Paris, features a video design by Bill Viola and will also feature Daveda Karanas, Alan Held, Franz-Josef Selig, Ryan McKinny and Robert Gleadow.

Director Christopher Alden returns to helm the Chicago Opera Theater’s production of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, working with designers Andrew Cavanaugh Holland (sets) and Terese Wadden (costumes). In addition to Schade and Gleadow, the work will also feature performers Keri Alkema, Mireille Asselin, Isabel Leonard and Wallis Giunta.

The English National Opera’s production of Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, directed by David Alden and designed by Charles Edwards (sets) and Brigitte Reiffenstuel (costumes) launches the spring season. It will feature Anna Christy in the title role, with Stephen Costello, Brian Mulligan, Nathaniel Peake and Oren Gradus rounding out the cast.

Then, Canadian director Atom Egoyan teams up with choreographer Serge Bennathan and designers Derek McLane (sets) and Catherine Zuber (costumes) to revisit Richard Strauss’ Salomé, in an all-new production, co-produced with the Houston Grand and the Vancouver Operas. In addition to Canadian Richard Margison, the cast will also include Erika Sunnegardh (in the title role), Martin Gantner, Alan Held, Julia Juon, Nathaniel Peake and Maya Lahyani.

To close out the season, acclaimed Canadian director Robert Carsen and designer Michael Levine team up to recreate the Nederlandse Opera’s production of Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites, featuring a cast that includes Isabel Bayrakdarian, Judith Forst and Adrianne Pieczonka, teamed with Helène Guilmette, Irina Mishura, Frederic Antoun and Jean-François Lapointe.

Johannes Debus, the COC’s music director, will conduct the COC Orchestra for four of the works — Die Fledermaus, La Clemenza di Tito and Salomé (with Derek Bate) and Dialogues des Carmelites — while Marco Guidarini conducts Il Trovatore, Jiri Belohlavek, Tristan und Isolde, and Stephen Lord conducts Lucia di Lammermoor.

Members of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio will be featured in the Feb. 6 production of La Clemenza di Tito.

Subscriptions are currently on sale, and for further information, call 416-363-8231 or visit coc.ca.