Canadian Opera Productions Opening This Month
Photo: canadianopera on Instagram
Though we are at the start of a new year, Canada’s major opera companies are only half way through their yearly season. This January, companies across the country will launch their new productions. From traditional reproductions of 1700s classics to unique interpretations of Shakespearean plays, January marks an exciting time in the Canadian opera scene. This month, three new productions will hit Canadian stages in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Here is our roundup of the most exciting new Canadian opera productions opening this month.
Photo: dramatic_art_scene on Instagram
Vancouver: Macbeth
Shakespeare buffs will love this opera adaption of the playwright’s iconic Macbeth. Produced by South African company Third World Bunfight, this interpretation of Verdi’s four-act opera is set in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Directed and designed by Brett Bailey and starring Owen Metsileng as Macbeth, this unique production will play at the Vancouver Playhouse from January 16th-21st.
Photo: canadianopera on Instagram
Toronto: The Magic Flute
The Canadian Opera Company is the largest producer of opera in Canada. To kick off 2017, the prestigious company will perform The Magic Flute, Mozart’s last opera which was first performed in 1791. The Magic Flute tells the story of the Prince Tamino who is sent on a mission to rescue an enslaved princess, Pamina. This production will star Elena Tsallagova and Kirsten MacKinnon, who will alternate the role of Pamina. Directed by Diane Paulus, The Magic Flute will run at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto from January 19th-February 24th.
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Montreal: Dialogues des Carmelites
Founded in 1980, the Opera de Montreal aims to democratize opera as an art form. Up next for the company is a production of Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites. The French language opera tells the story of the French Revolution from the perspective of Blanche, a young nun at a Carmelite convent. Starring Marianne Fiset as Blanche and directed by Serge Denoncourt, the co-founder of Montreal’s Théâtre De L’Opsis , Dialogues des Carmelites will run from January 28th to February 4th at Montreal’s Place des Arts.