Aida House Program

C A N A DI A N OPE R A COM PA N Y Autumn 2010

Performance

AIDA

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The COC presents Death in Venice (co-production between Aldeburgh Festival, Bregenz Festival, Státní opera Praha and Opéra national de Lyon). A scene from the Lyon production, 2009.

Photo: Bertrand Stofleth

CO N T E N TS 6

The Essential Verdi: Interview with Aida’s conductor, Johannes Debus

by Suzanne Vanstone

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Love Sick: Britten’s Final Opera

by Gavin Plumley

24

Fifth Year of Free Concerts

by Suzanne Vanstone

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Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour: Investing Today in Opera’s Tomorrow

by Katherine Semcesen

CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY Autumn 2010/2011

COC Music Director Johannes Debus.

Photo: Michael Cooper

Performance CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY EDITORS: Suzanne Vanstone, Senior Communications Manager, Editorial Gianna Wichelow, Senior Communications Manager, Creative ART DIRECTOR /DESIGN: Jan Haringa GRAPHIC ARTIST: Glenda Moniz NATIONAL ACCOUNT DIRECTORS: Danny Antunes, Gary Bell, Tom Marino, David Thom, PERFORMANCE MEDIA GROUP INC.: PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER: Joe Marino CEO: Frank Barbosa SECRETARY TREASURER: Rajee Muthuraman FINANCE: Gina Zicari Aida cover image by Mark Olson Death in Venice cover image by Mark Olson Canadian Opera Company’s edition of Performance magazine is published quarterly by Performance Media Group 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.

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INTERVIEW WITH A I D A ’ S C O N D U CT O R , JOHANNES DEBUS

THE ESSENTIAL VERDI: COC’s Aida trumpet built by orchestra member, Herbert Poole.

Photo: COC

BY SUZANNE VANSTONE

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HIS PAST SUMMER, FRESH FROM APARTMENT HUNTING IN TORONTO AND FROM STEPPING IN FOR JAMES LEVINE TO MAKE HIS DEBUT CONDUCTING THE ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO AT TANGLEWOOD, COC MUSIC DIRECTOR JOHANNES DEBUS SAT DOWN TO DISCUSS VERDI’S AIDA, THE OPENING OPERA OF THE SEASON AND ONE WHICH HE IS CONDUCTING. The COC has not performed this opera in 25 years and is excitedly looking forward to what director Tim Albery has in store for this new production. Albery has brought dynamic interpretations to the company on numerous occasions including Rodelinda, Götterdämmerung and War and Peace. Johannes looks forward to this new exposition of one of Verdi’s most famous operas.

This is Johannes’s first Aida, having previously conducted Rigoletto, La Traviata, and Falstaff and he has a deep love for the composer. “Verdi holds a very special place in my heart and I think we

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have the duty to always present something which is fundamental to the works we are performing.

We always have to tell, or re-tell, the story. If Aida is a piece only about elephants, pyramids, obelisks and all those folkloric elements, it wouldn’t have had the tremendous success it’s had over the years. For me, and I think I’m also speaking for the composer, the focus is on the relationship between the characters and the characters themselves. How do they act in certain and often very extreme situations, extreme states of emotions? Radames is in love with Aida, but Aida is part of the enemy – theirs is an impossible love.

Ethiopian King Amonasro loves his daughter and infiltrates Egypt to try and rescue her. And then the relationship between Amneris and Radames – Amneris loves him, yet he does not return that love. Aside from the big tableau scenes, where are we? We are, for example, in Amneris’ room or we are in the tomb with only two people. These are intimate spaces and it’s very important to keep the emphasis on that.”

C A N A D I A N O P E R A C O M PA N Y 2 0 1 0 / 2 0 1 1 S E A S O N

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THE ESSENTIAL VERDI: Interview with Aida’s conductor, Johannes Debus

COC Music Director Johannes Debus.

Photo: Michael Cooper

Whether staged in ancient Egypt or a more contemporary setting, Johannes emphasizes the reality of the feelings expressed between all the characters. “Although some of the situations appear a bit unreal, to be honest, from time to time, we experience these things. It’s quite human, what’s going on in Aida. So to put the focus on exactly that is absolutely thrilling and you can really tell the audience a story which captures them.

Verdi’s music, as always, often derives from popular music elements. But he transforms these elements into his own universal language. So although you do have the folkloric elements, or in this case oriental elements such as the dances in the second act, it’s still Verdi. Pure, Italian, Verdi.”

Johannes describes Verdi as having much to do with form and structure and compares him to Beethoven in terms of a certain inflexibility. “If we listen to the great Verdi conductors, Toscanini for instance who knew and spoke with Verdi, he said that Verdi was quite rigid, whatever he

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conducted. But he was so clear and so convincing.

There is, of course, an element of rubato – a kind of freedom, a natural breath – but it is always within the framework, within the structure. That is really difficult to achieve. Verdi’s music is quite essential and pure. There are no excuses. Verdi is like Michelangelo’s sculptures. Every muscle is so defined. And that’s what you have to do as an interpreter and it’s enormously difficult.”

He comments that with Puccini, for example, the orchestra already starts to sound wonderful in the very first rehearsal. With Verdi, it takes more effort to make it sound effortless. It shouldn’t be brutal, but it should be absolutely powerful, and rhythmically clear. “I’m not saying that Puccini isn’t, but it’s a different sort of framework. With Verdi there’s less room to work in and you have to be more precise. You have to understand his style, his special dialect, his language, and you have to know and feel his rubato. The difficulty in interpreting Verdi’s music is that if you give it too much freedom, it falls apart.”

One of the special orchestral elements of Aida is the trumpets especially fashioned for this opera.

The Egyptian trumpets, or Aida trumpets are long, “uncoiled,” and have only one valve. There are six Egyptian trumpets in total – three play in the key of A-flat and three play in B-natural creating a very dramatic effect. If you are familiar with “herald” trumpets, the type of instrument used at the Stratford Festival to announce the start of a performance, you will have the general idea.

However herald trumpets play in B-flat. The majority of opera companies employ herald trumpets as they do not have the resources to acquire the special Verdi versions. But the COC is fortunate to have Herbert Poole, bass trombonist in the COC Orchestra, to manufacture these trumpets for us.

He also made the stierhorn when the company performed Götterdämmerung. Johannes adds, “We have the good luck that Herb is a very refined

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THE ESSENTIAL VERDI: Interview with Aida’s conductor, Johannes Debus

COC’s Aida trumpets built by orchestra member, Herbert Poole.

Photo: COC

instrument creator, he’s a very gifted man. The trumpets play offstage in the banda and have a brilliant, focused sound – a bit more radiant than a regular trumpet.”

Johannes most recently conducted The Flying Dutchman with the COC. How does he compare the composers and subsequently prepare the orchestra differently? “Well, we always have this inevitable comparison because Wagner and Verdi are contemporaries, born in the same year. For the orchestra, there are always some basic things with every composer, every piece – like intonation, care with rhythm, listening to each other – for all music we have to make that clear, clean.

“There is no simple virtuoso moment with Verdi.

Every single bit, every recitative, every coloratura is meaningful in a dramatic sense. It really has to do with the action, with the drama. Wagner, I think, was always looking for something Utopian and superhuman. Whereas Verdi is one of the most human composers. Not to say that there are no heroic, grandiose moments – let’s talk about the Triumphal March! But if you listen to that music and you listen to Wagner, you get a totally different

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view on things, on mankind, on what moves us.

But above all Verdi always insisted that it was absurd to think in these compartmentalized categories – music is either good or bad.”

In January 2011 the COC mounts an exciting new production of The Magic Flute with Johannes conducting. He’s run the gamut from Wagner to Verdi to Mozart in eight months. “And that’s great, because I think these three composers are the greatest opera composers. They gave this genre something very special, very personal. I’m so delighted to have this chance to conduct Mozart and Verdi and Wagner. Last year, to be honest, didn’t feel like a full season for me. I’m very glad that I can stay in town for longer periods now.”

Johannes identifies very much with Italian culture, and Verdi came from the heart of it.

He lived on a farm in the countryside of Busseto and always stayed true to his roots. Johannes continues, “He did not come from the upper class and was very down to earth, but in terms of his art, there was no compromise. If you read some letters about Verdi rehearsing, he gave his all – he was sweating and energetic and stomped his feet and risked everything. This tension, this energy behind it, you can hear in his music.

“Verdi’s music really speaks to me in a very special way which I can’t describe in words. It’s elementary, but universal in the way it speaks to everyone. For me, it’s a very personal statement, I keep Verdi very dear. I have to do that, I’m a bit Italiano!”

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

For further insights into Aida, please read the article

by Gianmarco Segato in the fall issue of Prelude, available online at coc.ca. Visit the COC’s blog Parlando to see video and photographs of the Aida trumpets.

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SICK :

LOVE

B R I TT E N ’ S F I N A L O P E R A

BY G AV I N P LU M L E Y

Oh Rose, thou art sick!

The invisible worm That flies in the night, in the howling storm Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy.

And with his dark secret love, does thy life destroy.

William Blake

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D

URING THE LAST PART OF THEIR LIVES, LUCHINO VISCONTI, DIRK BOGARDE AND BENJAMIN BRITTEN WERE ALL DRAWN TO THOMAS MANN’S 1912 NOVELLA DER TOD IN VENEDIG (DEATH IN VENICE). Visconti and Bogarde created the 1971 film Morte a Venezia, accompanied by the “Adagietto” of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. Britten came to the novella at around the same time and began collaborating with Myfanwy Piper on what was sadly to become his final opera. Since the creation of the opera, the keepers of the Britten Estate and the Bogarde cognoscenti have refused to see in Mann’s story the very basic theme under discussion, that of repressed homosexual desire.

Mann himself, although married, experienced same-sex desire and Death in Venice has become as much associated with those concerns as it has with the Apollonian/Dyonisian dialectic with which Gustav von Aschenbach (the “Master Writer” of the story, although a composer in the film) is obsessed.

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f e a t u r e

Opposite page and left The COC presents Death in Venice (co-production between Aldeburgh Festival, Bregenz Festival, Státní opera Praha and Opéra national de Lyon).

Scenes from the Lyon production, 2009.

Photos: Bertrand Stofleth

Unlike in Britten’s other operatic works where the composer explores sexuality through music, in Death in Venice that topic is evaded in more “lofty” discussions about aestheticism. Despite the attempts to avoid discussion of the less accepted angles of the story, Britten was wildly drawn to this melancholic work. It uncovered not only the brilliance of the composer’s skill, but also an unfortunate discomfort with his own sexuality.

Just before he began work on his final opera, Britten completed the pacifist-centred Owen Wingrave with Myfanwy Piper. It was to Piper that he turned again with the idea of Mann’s novella.

In consideration of her work on The Turn of the Screw previously, she was the perfect collaborator for Death in Venice, replete as it was with the eeriness that permeates the Henry James piece. Permission was sought from Thomas Mann’s estate (though Britten and Piper were warned that negotiations were still ongoing for the Visconti movie) and the composer and his librettist set to work. They first

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discussed the work in the back of John and Myfanwy Piper’s car as Britten and Pears and they drove through France on holiday. Although he had been frail since he had picked up a serious viral infection in 1968 (ironically in Venice), Britten still undertook a punishing schedule of recordings, performing and performances of his works. Plans were made for a September 1972 premiere of the new work, but the initial schedule proved too optimistic and given the constraints upon the composer’s time a premiere had to be postponed to June 1973.

The delay would, however, prove decisive.

As in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which Britten had completed a decade before, Death in Venice was a work with disparate groups overlapping at a certain time and place, namely the Hotel des Bains on the Venice Lido. So as with the Rustics, Lovers and Fairies in Britten’s Shakespearean work, here he had to control the comings and goings of his Northern European writer, the exotic Polish family, the Venetians and the European tourists, to say

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L O V E

S I C K : B r i t t e n ’ s

F i n a l

O p e r a

The COC presents Death in Venice (co-production between Aldeburgh Festival, Bregenz Festival, Státní opera Praha and Opéra national de Lyon).

Alan Oke (centre, seated) as Gustav von Aschenbach in the Lyon production, 2009.

Photo: Bertrand Stofleth

nothing of the omnipresent Traveller figure. Britten had early on formulated the idea that the Polish family would be silent dancers – suggested, or at least confirmed by a discussion with the choreographer Frederick Ashton – it was during a rest in the idyllic fishing town of Camogli, south of Genoa, that Britten struck upon the beachside rituals accompanied by the chorus, one of the most distinctive elements of the opera. Britten sought to explicate the differences and indeed tease the disparity between the groups through contrasting sound worlds. The “European” symphonic sound world of Aschenbach and his French, Danish and Italian counterparts, contrasts with the “Eastern” sounds of the Gamelan-inspired world of the beautiful Tadzio and his dancing coterie. Britten had been exposed to the gamelan music of South-East Asia through his friend and colleague, the Canadian composer Colin McPhee. They met in America during the war and Britten incorporated the sounds of the Indonesian gamelan orchestras into his own style. It was in direct opposition to Britten’s customarily deliberate, complicated and finely wrought idiom. The link between the two worlds could be seen as Gustav Mahler – ironic, considering Visconti’s dependence on his music and physical attributes when creating his own vision of Aschenbach’s final voyage. As in Mahler’s

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Das Lied von der Erde, Britten is drawn to the culture of the East, he summons up the exoticism and, like Mahler, creates a symphonic idiom in which both Eastern and Western harmonies coexist. As with the differentiation of Captain Vere and Billy Budd or Peter Quint and Miles in The Turn of the Screw, Britten sought to explicate through his musical characterization the elements of danger and “otherness” in the story. The very sounds that underlined Oberon’s drugging of his lover Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, here accompany Tadzio’s alluring dance-lust-rituals.

Where Britten had sought out and underlined the sexual in Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, here in Death in Venice the sex, as it were, found Britten. The composer could reason away the discrepancy between the intellectual wranglings of the “Master Writer” Aschenbach (created for his life-long lover Peter Pears) and the physicality of Tadzio, but he was not able to hide the very real issue at the heart of the piece, that is of the destructive quality of beauty. Britten may have thought that Death in Venice held the key to his intellectual fascinations (its echoes throughout his oeuvre are palpable), but it also unlocked a more primal instinct, that of the profound attraction to a boy less than half his age. Myfanwy Piper’s own description of the work is revealing.

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L O V E

S I C K : B r i t t e n ’ s

“The decision to come out with the fatal ‘I love you’ at the end of the scene [at the close of the first act] was taken fairly easily. It is the first overt reference to homosexual love (or homo-eroticism, Mann’s preferred word). But it is also the end of one kind of selfdeception and perhaps also of self-preservation on Aschenbach’s part. And it is the beginning of the series of falls into the abyss.”

It is interesting that she classifies the mention of “I love you” as specifically homosexual love, rather than the emotion in general. But more importantly she elides the gay element of the tale with the negativity that pervades the synopsis. It is “fatal,” self-deceptive and the entry to the “abyss.” All in all, her analysis may be generically cogent, but it belies a general wariness of the peculiarities of same-sex attraction. Such evasion was not untypical in Britten’s career and he had regularly sought to dampen down any such confrontation.

The pianist Graham Johnson recalls (rather frivolously) that his admiration for Der Rosenkavalier had caused Britten consternation because “what he loathed about this piece was its lesbianism.”

Even in his own work Britten was keen not directly to comment on a subject that was, nevertheless, dear to his heart and constantly brimming beneath the surface. After he had completed the brilliant comedy Albert Herring (in which it is often thought the title character displays traits of a closeted man) it is believed that the librettist Eric Crozier proposed an all-out gay sequel, which Britten totally refused to compose.

Homosexuality had, and in some quarters continues to have, an element of taboo. Britten may have lived with his lover Peter Pears for the majority of his life (he was of course the inspiration

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for Britten’s Gustav von Aschenbach), but it was only in 1967 that homosexual acts were decriminalized in Britain. The discrepancy between Pears and Britten’s public and private personas was a well-known anomaly, but the wider distrust and revulsion at their way of life mean that both parties were understandably reserved. Such controversy surrounding gay sex was of course something paralleled in the critical reception of Thomas Mann’s story. When describing her husband’s novella, Katia Mann wrote:

“All the details of the story, beginning with the man at the cemetery, are taken from experience. […] In the diningroom, on the very first day, we saw the Polish family, which looked exactly the way my husband described them: the girls were dressed rather stiffly and severely, and the very charming, beautiful boy of about thirteen was wearing a sailor suit with an open collar and very pretty lacings. He caught my husband’s attention immediately. This boy was tremendously attractive, and my husband was always watching him with his companions on the beach.

He didn’t pursue him through all of Venice – that he didn’t do – but the boy did fascinate him, and he thought of him often. […]

I still remember that my uncle, Privy Counsellor Friedberg, a famous professor of canon law in Leipzig, was outraged: ‘What a story! And a married man with a family!’”

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C a n a d i a n

O p e r a

C o m p a n y

ALEXANDER NEEF, General Director

Aida

by Giuseppe Verdi Opera in Four Acts, Libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, from the French prose of Camille du Locle, based on an original scenario by Auguste Mariette First performance: Opera House, Cairo, December 24, 1871 New Production October 2, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, November 2, 5, 2010 Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto Sung in Italian with English SURTITLESTM

THE CAST (in order of vocal appearance) Ramfis Radames Amneris Aida The King of Egypt A Messenger A Priestess Amonasro Conductor: Director: Set Designer: Costume Designer: Choreographer: Lighting Designer: Chorus Master: Stage Manager: SURTITLESTM Producer:

Phillip Ens Rosario La Spina Jill Grove Sondra Radvanovsky Michele Capalbo (Oct. 21, 24, 27, 30, Nov. 2, 5) Alain Coulombe Alfredo Portilla Betty Waynne Allison Scott Hendricks Johannes Debus Derek Bate (Oct. 24, 27, 30) Tim Albery Hildegard Bechtler Jon Morrell La誰la Diallo Thomas C. Hase Sandra Horst Jenifer Kowal Gunta Dreifelds

Performance time is approximately two hours, 55 minutes with one intermission.

Aida has been generously underwritten in part by Tim and Frances Price.

This production of Aida is being recorded for future broadcast on CBC Radio Two (94.1 FM in Toronto) on Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, on December 4, 2010.

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

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C a n a d i a n

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AIDA SYNOPSIS Thebes – In the palace of the King of Egypt ACT I A conference room Egypt is at war with Ethiopia. Ramfis tells Radames that an invasion has begun.

Radames hopes that he is named to lead the Egyptian army into battle, despite the fact that he is in love with the Ethiopian slave Aida.

Amneris, the daughter of the King, who herself loves Radames, begins to suspect that he may love Aida.

Once news of the full scale of the Ethiopian invasion arrives, Radames is appointed commander of the army. Aida is left appalled by her conflicting emotions: her longing that Radames should return victorious and her desire that her father Amonasro, the Ethiopian king, and his army should reach Thebes to set her free.

The Temple of Vulcan The men ready themselves to go into battle.

ACT II Amneris’ private rooms Amneris extracts from Aida the truth of her feelings for Radames, by observing Aida’s grief as she tells her that Radames has died on the battlefield, and her joy when she hears that this was a lie and that he is alive and victorious.

Amneris orders Aida to follow her to the celebrations.

The victory celebration Radames is welcomed home as a hero. The King offers him anything he wants. Radames asks that the Ethiopian prisoners be admitted.

Among them is Amonasro. Aida rushes to her father, but he warns her not to reveal who

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he is. Pretending to be only an officer, he tells the King that Amonasro died in battle and begs him to show mercy by releasing all the captured Ethiopians. Radames asks the King to agree to this. Ramfis persuades the King that, if he must free the prisoners, he should at least keep Amonasro and his daughter Aida captive as a surety of peace.

The King agrees and then, to Radames’ and Aida’s horror, offers Radames his daughter’s hand in marriage.

INTERMISSION

ACT III Outside the Temple of Isis Ramfis leads Amneris to a night of prayer before the day of her wedding. She longs to believe that Radames truly loves her.

Aida has agreed to meet Radames in secret.

Amonasro has followed her and forces her to accept that she should help save her country from the Egyptian army by extracting their invasion plans from Radames. He hides as Radames arrives.

Despite his impending marriage to Amneris, Radames tries to persuade Aida that once he has conquered Ethiopia he will be able to persuade the King to allow him to marry her. Aida dismisses this fantasy, and eventually persuades him they have no choice but to escape to Ethiopia. So they can avoid the invading forces, he tells her the route they will travel. A delighted Amonasro appears, and Radames realizes that he has been deceived. Amneris and Ramfis return to discover Radames’ treachery. He allows Amonasro and Aida to escape, and is arrested.

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ACT IV Outside Radames’ cell Amneris pleads with Radames to defend himself at his trial. She says she will ask the King for clemency, if he renounces Aida. Radames refuses. He is taken to his trial. Amneris, left alone, hears him refusing to defend himself.

He is sentenced to a traitor’s death: he is to be entombed alive.

An underground chamber Radames is left in the darkness to die.

He discovers that Aida has hidden herself in the chamber.

She persuades him to accept the inevitability of their death, to welcome their release from the sorrow of life.

Alone, Amneris prays that she will find peace.

Music Staff Albert Krywolt Anne Larlee (Ensemble Studio Intern Coach) Samuel Tak-Ho Tam (Banda Conductor) Felice Venanzoni (Head Coach ) Italian Language Coach Manuela Scarci Assistant Conductor Derek Bate Assistant Director Marilyn Gronsdal Assistant Stage Managers Lesley Abarquez Kristin McCollum Assistant Lighting Designers Wendy Greenwood Jason Hand Dancers Lisa Auguste Jane Johanson Sarah Matton Rebecca Hope Terry Niki Wozniak Understudies Radames Alfredo Portilla The King of Egypt Neil Craighead A Messenger Christopher Enns A Priestess Ileana Montalbetti

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pa r ro t g i r s a t ms ’C ab ni ao dg ir aa np h Oi pe es r a

C o m p a n y

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES BETTY WAYNNE ALLISON A Priestess Canadian soprano Betty Waynne Allison is a former member of the COC Ensemble Studio.

Ms Allison’s performances in Ensemble productions included Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Donna Elvira in Gazzaniga’s Don Giovanni and Mona in the world premiere of Swoon.

On the mainstage she has covered and performed a wide range of roles, including Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Annina in La Traviata, the title role in Luisa Miller, Turnspit and the title role in Rusalka, Freia in Das Rheingold, Marguerite in Faust, Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, and Amelia in Simon Boccanegra.

The British Columbia native recently returned from Europe as the Canadian representative to the first ever Stella Maris Vocal Competition, placing first in the oratorio class and fourth overall. Other recent competition successes include being a regional finalist at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a Silver Medal in the Czech Slovak International Competition, Grand Prizes at the Ottawa Choral Society New Discovery and West Palm Beach Opera competitions and a top prize from Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyriques (2009).

MICHELE CAPALBO Aida Canadian soprano Michele Capalbo makes her COC debut with this production, having previously sung the role of Aida with Opéra de Nice, Houston Grand Opera, Palacio des Bellas Artes, Teatro Municipal Santiago, Teatro Sociale Mantova,

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and Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse. Other recent credits include Desdemona in Otello with Palm Beach Opera, Le Jugement Dernier/Requiem de Verdi with the Palais des Festival et des Congrès de Cannes, Lady Macbeth with Opera Ireland and Opéra de Montréal, Leonora in Il Trovatore with Teatro Real Madrid and Manitoba Opera, Verdi’s Requiem with Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the title role in Tosca with Seattle Opera, New York City Opera and Calgary Opera, as well as Elisabetta in Don Carlos with the Grand Théâtre de Genève. Future engagements include Ms Capalbo’s debut with San Francisco Opera and a return to Calgary Opera, both as Aida; Opera Colorado as Leonora in Il Trovatore; and, a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Vancouver Symphony.

ALAIN COULOMBE The King of Egypt COC Ensemble Studio graduate, French Canadian bass Alain Coulombe has appeared in over 30 COC mainstage productions in roles such as Sarastro in The Magic Flute, Count Ilya Rostov in War and Peace and the Priest in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Over the last 15 years, he has worked internationally with conductors such as Seiji Ozawa, Richard Bradshaw, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jonathan Darlington, Helmut Rilling, Bernard Labadie, Edoardo Müller and Richard Bonynge.

Recently, with symphony orchestras and opera companies in Canada, United States and Germany, he performed in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ and Mozart’s Requiem, as well as in the roles of Le Comte des Grieux in Manon, Raimondo in Lucia

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di Lammermoor, Oroveso in Norma, Tiresias in Oedipus Rex, Arkel in Pelléas et Mélisande, Sparafucile in Rigoletto and Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni. Upcoming roles include Ramfis in Aida with Calgary Opera, Sparafucile in Rigoletto with Michigan Opera Theatre, Le Bailli in Werther with Opéra de Montréal, as well as the bass soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with the Vancouver Symphony.

PHILLIP ENS Ramfis Canadian bass Phillip Ens returns to the COC having previously sung the roles of Jacopo Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra, Wurm in Luisa Miller, Fafner and Hunding as part of the complete Ring Cycle, and Fafner in the 2005 production of Siegfried.

Mr. Ens made his operatic debut in 1985 with Manitoba Opera and has since been heard throughout the world on the stages of the Metropolitan Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, and Opéra national de Paris. Recent engagements include John Claggart in Billy Budd at Glyndebourne Festival; Jorg in Stiffelio at the Met; Arkel in Pelléas et Mélisande at Theater an der Wien; his debut with Houston Grand Opera as Claggart; Fafner in Das Rheingold and Siegfried with Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Deutsche Oper Berlin; Il barbiere di Siviglia with San Francisco Opera; and, Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni with the Met and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Future engagements include Wagner’s Ring Cycle at Bayerische Staatsoper and Hamlet at Theater an der Wien.

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JILL GROVE Amneris American mezzo-soprano Jill Grove makes her COC debut in this production.

Ms Grove first sang the role of Amneris with the Dayton Opera. Her recent credits include La Voix in Les contes d’Hoffmann and Florence Pike in Albert Herring with Santa Fe Opera, Erda and the First Norn in the Ring Cycle with Los Angeles Opera, Erda in Das Rheingold with the Metropolitan Opera, the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas with the Philharmonia Baroque, Zita in Gianni Schicchi at the Los Angeles Opera and the Spoleto Festival, and Countess Geschwitz in Lulu with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She has performed numerous times with the Met, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera and Houston Grand Opera. European appearances include Haushälterin in Die schweigsame frau at the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Deaconess in King Roger at the Netherlands Opera and Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera with the Welsh National Opera.

SCOTT HENDRICKS Amonasro American baritone Scott Hendricks recently performed with the COC as Iago in Otello and Rodrigue in Don Carlos.

Other recent operatic credits include the title role of Macbeth with Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Tamare in Die Gezeichneten with Teatro Massimo, the title role in Richard III with Opéra national du Rhin, Conte di Luna in Il Trovatore, Roderick in The Fall of the House of Usher with Bregenz Festival, the title role in Rigoletto with Houston Grand Opera, and Król Roger with the Gran Teatro del Liceu.

Mr. Hendricks regularly performs on the concert platform and, as a song recitalist, he has performed in over 70 concerts with

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accompanist John Wustman as part of the Complete Songs of Franz Schubert Recital Series. Mr. Hendricks is an alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio and a recipient of a 1999 Richard Tucker Foundation Career Grant. Future engagements include roles with Bayerische Staatsoper, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Gran Teatro del Liceu, the Bregenzer Festspiele and his Metropolitan Opera debut.

ROSARIO LA SPINA Radames Australian tenor Rosario La Spina makes his COC debut with this production, having previously performed the role of Radames with both Seattle Opera and Opera Australia. Other credits include Don José in Carmen, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Alfredo in La Traviata, Calaf in Turandot, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, the Prince in The Love for Three Oranges, the Prince in Rusalka, Rodolfo in La Bohème, and the title role in Les contes d’Hoffmann – all with Opera Australia; Rodolfo with Seattle Opera; Alfredo and Pinkerton with West Australian Opera; and Hoffmann, with State Opera of South Australia. He has been a soloist in Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Verdi’s Requiem and many other works with the Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland and Adelaide Symphony orchestras. Recent recordings include Puccini Romance, Rusalka under Richard Hickox and a major solo album featuring Mr. La Spina with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo.

In 2011, he appears as Don José in Sydney and Adelaide, Pinkerton in Sydney, Hoffmann in Perth and Macduff in Macbeth in Sydney and Melbourne.

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ALFREDO PORTILLA A Messenger Mexican tenor Alfredo Portilla makes his COC debut with this production.

A former Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera, his past credits there include Macduff in Macbeth, Rodolfo in La Bohème, Alfred in Die Fledermaus, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, and Gastone in La Traviata. As a member of the Compañía Nacional de Ópera Bellas Artes, Mr. Portilla appeared as the Duke in Rigoletto, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, and Alfredo in La Traviata. Other operatic credits include Edgardo with New Jersey Opera, Ismaele in Nabucco with New Israeli Opera, Rodolfo with New York City Opera, Pinkerton with Opéra national de Lyon, La Bohème at the Metropolitan Opera, and Cavaradossi in Tosca with New Israeli Opera, New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, and Paris Opera (Bastille). Mr. Portilla’s most recent appearances include Cavalleria rusticana at Palm Beach Opera, Alfredo at the Teatro dell’Opera of Rome, Tosca at Pittsburgh Opera and Cleveland Opera and Adriana Lecouvreur at Teatro Massimo.

SONDRA RADVANOVSKY Aida American-born and Toronto-based soprano Sondra Radvanovsky sings Aida for the first time in her COC debut. While her home is the Metropolitan Opera, she has sung in every major opera house, including Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Vienna State Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago. Apart from such dramatic roles as Rusalka and Tatiana in Eugene Onegin, she is best known for the iconic soprano roles of Verdi – among them her signature role of

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Leonora in Il Trovatore, and the soprano leads in Ernani, Luisa Miller, Stiffelio, Don Carlo and I vespri siciliani. In the spring of 2010, she sang the title role in Tosca for the first time in Denver, a role which she will repeat this season at the Met. Her first solo recording (Verdi Arias) was recently released on the Delos label, following a disc of Verdi scenes and duets with Dmitri Hvorostovsky, recorded live in Moscow. Other engagements this season include Leonora at the Met (including HD broadcast), Amelia in Un ballo in maschera with Lyric Opera of Chicago and Elena in I vespri siciliani at Teatro Regio di Torino.

JOHANNES DEBUS Conductor Canadian Opera Company Music Director Johannes Debus made his COC debut conducting War and Peace, and recently conducted the COC’s Diamond Anniversary Concert as well as the company’s signature production of The Flying Dutchman. Mr. Debus obtained his musical education at Hamburg Conservatorium, before being engaged at Oper Frankfurt in 1998 as répétiteur and Kapellmeister. There he acquired an extensive repertoire ranging from works

by Mozart, Rossini, Verdi, Wagner and Puccini, to Strauss, Berg, Britten and Henze. Recent operatic credits include Salome with Bayerische Staatsoper as well as a new production of Thomas Adès’ The Tempest for Oper Frankfurt.

In the summer of 2010, Mr. Debus made his debut at the Spoleto Festival in Italy with Hans Werner Henze’s opera Gogo no eiko (The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea), as well as his debut at the Tanglewood Festival, replacing James Levine and conducting The Abduction from the Seraglio with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming engagements include his return to Bayerische Staatsoper for performances of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail.

This season with the COC he will also conduct The Magic Flute.

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DEREK BATE Conductor/Assistant Conductor Derek Bate recently conducted Madama Butterfly with the COC, and also conducted one performance of The Flying Dutchman and was the assistant conductor for Carmen and Maria Stuarda.

Currently the COC resident conductor, he has conducted performances of Luisa Miller, Eugene Onegin, La Bohème, Carmen, Turandot, La Traviata, Die Fledermaus, the Ensemble Studio productions of Renard and Swoon, and was assistant conductor of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fidelio, War and Peace, Pelléas et Mélisande, From the House of the Dead, Don Carlos, Elektra, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and the complete Ring Cycle. He served as COC chorus master for five seasons, and as resident conductor of the COC Ensemble Studio. He has appeared with Opera Grand Rapids, Calgary Opera, Edmonton Opera, Alberta Ballet, the National Arts Centre, and Toronto Operetta Theatre. His musical theatre repertoire includes Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, and Show Boat. This season with the COC Mr. Bate is the assistant conductor for Nixon in China and La Cenerentola.

TIM ALBERY Director Toronto resident Tim Albery returns to the COC after directing War and Peace, Götterdämmerung as part of the complete Ring Cycle, Rodelinda in 2005 and Peter Grimes in 2003.

Operatic credits include: Children’s Crusade

by Murray Schafer; Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna for Luminato Festival; Otello with Dallas Opera; Boris Godunov, War and Peace, Billy Budd, Peter Grimes, Lohengrin, and From the House of the Dead with English National Opera; A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merry Widow with Metropolitan Opera; The Flying

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Dutchman and Chérubin with Royal Opera House Covent Garden; The Midsummer Marriage, The Trojans, Don Carlos, La finta giardiniera, Luisa Miller, Idomeneo, Così fan tutte, One Touch of Venus, Kát’a Kabanová, Madama Butterfly, The Fortunes of King Croesus and Macbeth with Opera North; The Magic Flute with Santa Fe Opera; Don Giovanni, Fidelio and The Midsummer Marriage with Scottish Opera; Don Carlos, Passion, and The Fortunes of King Croesus with Minnesota Opera; Madama Butterfly with Opera Zuid; Béatrice et Bénédict with Santa Fe Opera and Netherlands Opera; and Simon Boccanegra and Ariadne auf Naxos with Bayerische Staatsoper. Theatre credits include Wallenstein and Macbeth with Royal Shakespeare Company, Berenice with National Theatre, Attempts on her Life with Royal Court Theatre, Mary Stuart with Greenwich Theatre, and Nathan the Wise with Soulpepper Theater.

HILDEGARD BECHTLER Set Designer Designer Hildegard Bechtler made her COC debut in 2008 as the set designer for War and Peace. Set design credits for opera include: Dido and Aeneas, Acis and Galatea and Paul Bunyan with the Royal Opera House; The Letter with Santa Fe Opera; La Cenerentola with Deutsche Opera Berlin; Dido and Aeneas with Teatro alla Scala; War and Peace, Boris Godunov, Lohengrin, and Peter Grimes with English National Opera; La Cenerentola and Don Giovanni with Glyndebourne Festival Opera; Werther, Madama Butterfly, Wozzeck, Don Carlos, and Kát’a Kabanová with Opera North; Peter Grimes and Simon Boccanegra with Munich Opera; La Wally with De Nederlandse Opera and the Bregenz Festival; Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with Sydney Opera House; Dialogues des Carmélites in Japan and with Opéra national de Paris; and, the Ring Cycle with Scottish Opera. Ms Bechtler has worked extensively

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in theatre worldwide with recent credits including After the Dance with the National Theatre; The Seagull with the Royal Court and on Broadway; Krapp’s Last Tape with Harold Pinter, also televised; Primo in London and on Broadway, also filmed by BBC/HBO and The Misanthrope and Arcadia in the West End. JON MORRELL Costume Designer Jon Morrell makes his COC debut with this production.

Mr. Morrell studied Theatre Design at the Central School of Art and Design in London, England, and has designed internationally for opera, theatre and ballet. Recent operatic design credits include: Kát’a Kabanová for Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, English National Opera (ENO) and Warsaw; Iphigénie en Tauride with Staatsoper Hamburg; Partenope at ENO; La clemenza di Tito at the Teatro Regio di Torino; Angels in America with Théâtre du Châtelet; Jenufa ˚ with Houston Grand Opera and ENO; and, La Bohème with ENO. Both Partenope and Jenufa ˚ were recipients of the Olivier Award for Best New Opera Production. Past theatre credits include designs for National Theatre London, Deutsches Theater Berlin and Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers, Paris. Ballet credits include work with the Royal Ballet Covent Garden, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet and Scottish Ballet. Future engagements include Tannhäuser at the Royal Opera House, and Rigoletto for Scottish Opera.

LAÏLA DIALLO Choreographer Canadian-born and Englandbased choreographer Laïla Diallo made her COC debut in 2008 as the choreographer for War and Peace. She studied at École de danse de Québec before travelling to La Rochelle and London to pursue her training. After dancing for eight years with

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Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance between 1998 and 2005, she started creating her own choreographic work. Recent pieces include Sense of Self, a creation co-authored and performed with Mélanie Demers, the solos Imprint and At-any-moment-something-else as well as Come rain or come shine for Verve, Northern Contemporary School’s graduate company. For opera and theatre, credits as movement director or choreographer include The Prince of Homburg with the Donmar, The Road to Mecca with the Arcola, A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Rose Theatre, All’s Well That Ends Well and Thérèse Raquin with the National Theatre, Days of Significance with the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Vortex with Theatre Royal Windsor and West End, A Doll’s House with Theatre Royal Bath, and Macbeth and Hansel and Gretel with Scottish Opera on Tour. Ms Diallo was awarded a Rayne Fellowship for Choreographers in 2006.

THOMAS C. HASE Lighting Designer Lighting designer Thomas C. Hase was previously with the COC as lighting designer for Pelléas et Mélisande, Elektra (Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination), War and Peace, Luisa Miller, Faust, and Norma, and he made his company debut with Rodelinda in 2005. His work in the U.S. includes Company on Broadway (Henry Hewes Design Award nomination), and designs for Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, New York City Opera, Minnesota Opera, Portland Opera, Dallas Opera, Cincinnati Playhouse, and Cincinnati Ballet. Internationally his designs have been seen at Dutch National Opera, Finnish National Opera, Opéra de Marseille, Columbian National Opera, Staatstheater Kassel, Theater Erfurt, Bavarian State Opera, Irish National Theatre, Vancouver Opera, Opera North, and over 100 designs for theatre, opera, and ballet at the Stadttheater Giessen, Germany. He premiered Phillip Glass’s Waiting for the

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Barbarians with Theater Erfurt and Amsterdam, as well as the blockbuster European revival of The Wiz for Stage Holdings in Holland. As Ping Chong’s lighting designer his work has been seen worldwide. Mr. Hase is the resident lighting designer and director for Cincinnati Opera.

SANDRA HORST Chorus Master Chorus master Sandra Horst’s recent credits include Idomeneo, Maria Stuarda, The Flying Dutchman, Otello, Carmen, Madama Butterfly and The Nightingale and Other Short Fables for the COC and The Marriage of Figaro, Eugene Onegin and The Golden Ticket for Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

As director of musical studies for the University of Toronto’s Opera Division, she has most recently conducted Ravel’s L’Enfant et les sortilèges and L’heure espagnole, as well as productions of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, J. Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, and John Beckwith’s Taptoo! Ms Horst conducted Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims for the COC, has been chorus master of Edmonton Opera, served as a judge for the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions and has been on the music staff of the Juilliard Opera Center, Chautauqua Institute, Boston Lyric Opera, Edmonton Opera, Banff Centre for the Arts, Opera Ontario and Opera Saskatchewan. With the COC this season she is also the chorus master for Death in Venice, The Magic Flute, Nixon in China, La Cenerentola, and Orfeo ed Euridice.

JENIFER KOWAL Stage Manager Last season, Jenifer Kowal was with the COC as stage manager for The Nightingale and Other Short Fables, Carmen and The Flying Dutchman. Most recently, Ms Kowal was the

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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. With the COC this season she will also stage manage Ariadne auf Naxos.

FOOD AND BEVERAGE SERVICE We are pleased to offer, for the convenience of all of our patrons, a pre-order system for intermission purchases. Our pre-order system is designed to decrease your wait time at the bar during intermission and we invite you to make use of it at every COC performance.

Bars are located throughout the Isadore and Rosalie Sharp City Room’s many levels. Food and beverages are not permitted in R. Fraser Elliott Hall.

MARILYN GRONSDAL Assistant Director Marilyn Gronsdal is a director, assistant director and librettist in opera. She has worked regularly at the COC, including serving as the director of La Bohème, associate director of Eugene Onegin and as the assistant director on several productions including War and Peace, From the House of the Dead and The Flying Dutchman. Ms Gronsdal was the production assistant director for the COC’s Ring Cycle.

She has staged productions for the COC Ensemble Studio, Manitoba Opera, Canadian Children’s Opera Company and the University of Toronto Opera Division, and assisted at the Nationaltheater Mannheim. Ms Gronsdal has also travelled with many COC productions including Oedipus Rex with Symphony of Psalms in Edinburgh, La Traviata in Auckland and Wellington, and Siegfried in Lyon. She is the co-artistic director of Landlocked Opera Theatre, which will present the world premiere of The Shipbuilder by composer Robert Ursan and librettist Ken Mitchell in Regina. *FSCPA Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts

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C A N A D I A N O P E R A C O M PA N Y O R C H E S T R A 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 Anne Armstrong Sandra Baron Bethany Bergman, on leave of absence Andrew Chung Pamela Hinman Hiroko Kagawa Nancy Kershaw, on leave of absence Dominique Laplante Yakov Lerner Renée London Jayne Maddison Aya Miyagawa Neria Mayer VIOLIN II Paul Zevenhuizen, Principal Csaba Koczó, Assistant Principal James Aylesworth Christine Chesebrough Michele Fox Elizabeth Johnston Laurel Mascarenhas Louise Tardif Marianne Urke Sonia Vizante Rebekah Wolkstein Joanna Zabrowarna VIOLA Nicolò Eugelmi, Principal, on leave of absence Francis Kefford, Acting Principal Joshua Greenlaw, Assistant Principal Carolyn Blackwell Nicholaos Papadakis Rhyll Peel Angela Rudden Theresa Rudolph Koczó Capella Sherwood Beverley Spotton Yosef Tamir

CELLO Bryan Epperson, Principal Alastiar Eng, Associate Principal Paul Widner, Assistant Principal Maurizio Baccante Garrett Knecht Olga Laktionova Elspeth Poole Elaine Thompson BASS Alan Molitz, Principal Robert Speer, Assistant Principal Tom Hazlitt Andrew Horton Paul Langley, on leave of absence Eric Lee Reuven Rothman Robert Wolanski FLUTE Douglas Stewart, Principal Shelley Brown Christine Little PICCOLO Shelley Brown OBOE Mark Rogers, Principal Jasper Hitchcock ENGLISH HORN Lesley Young CLARINET Max Christie, Acting Principal James Ormston BASS CLARINET Colleen Cook BASSOON Eric Hall, Principal Elizabeth Gowen HORN Joan Watson, Principal Janet Anderson Bardhyl Gjevori Gary Pattison TRUMPET Robert Grim, Principal Brendan Cassin

TROMBONE Robert Ferguson, Principal Ian Cowie BASS TROMBONE Herbert Poole CIMBASSO Scott Irvine TIMPANI Michael Perry, Principal PERCUSSION Trevor Tureski, Principal Ryan Scott John Thompson HARP Sarah Davidson, Principal AIDA TRUMPETS Valerie Cowie Robert Divito Scott Harrison Mary Jay Anita McAlistar Robert Venables BANDA Michele Verheul, Eb Clarinet Camilo Danilo, Bb Clarinet Kornel Wolak, Bb Clarinet Andrew Dubelsten, Trumpet Richard Sandals, Trumpet Mary Jay, Trumpet Robert Venables, Trumpet Roslyn Black, Horn James MacDonald, Horn Christine Passmore, Horn David Pell, Trombone Gordon Sweeney, Trombone Janice Owens, Bass Trombone Mark Bonang, Bass Trombone and Tuba Trevor Tureski, Bass Drum Sanya Eng, Harp LIBRARIAN Wayne Vogan ASSISTANT MUSIC LIBRARIAN Capella Sherwood STAGE LIBRARIAN Paul Langley, on leave of absence PERSONNEL MANAGER Ian Cowie

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C A N A D I A N O P E R A C O M PA N Y C H O R U S SOPRANOS

MEZZO-SOPRANOS

TENORS

BARITONES/BASSES

Lindsay Barrett Mary Bella Heidi Breier Stacie Carmona Andrea Cerswell Rebecca Collett Margaret Evans Meghan Fleet Ilona Karan Laura Klassen Alexandra LennoxPomeroy Ingrid Martin Eve Rachel McLeod Katie Murphy Jennifer Robinson Catherine Tait Teresa van der Hoeven Tina Winter

Marianne Bindig Susan Black Sandra Boyes Wendy Hatala Foley Sonya Gosse Erica Iris Huang Heather Jewson Lilian Kilianski Kathryn Knapp Jessica Lloyd Karen Olinyk Liliana Piazza Marianne Sasso Olenka Slywynska Lisa Spain Vilma Indra Vitols Paula Wickberg Cindy Won

Vanya Abrahams Craig Ashton Sasha Bataligin Stephen Bell Jeffery Boyd Ken Chamberland Taras Chmil Sam Chung Sean Clark Stephen Erickson Nicolas Groenewegen Dustin Hiles Doug Jamieson Patrick Jang John Kriter Jason Lamont James Leatch Joseph Lévesque Stephen McClare Eric Olsen J. Bud Roach

Grant Allert Kenneth Baker Peter Barnes Stephen Barradell Sung Chung Bruno Cormier Lawrence Cotton Mark Daboll Todd Delaney Michael Downie James Lévesque Douglas Millar Jason Nedecky Keith O'Brien David Roth Bruce Schaef Michael Sproule Jan Vaculik Peter Wiens Christopher Wilson Marcus Wilson Michael York

BOARD OF DIRECTORS OFFICERS

Mr. David C. Ferguson, Chair Mr. Paul B. Spafford, President Mr. Philip C. Deck, President Elect Mr. Michael A. French, Treasurer Mr. John H. Macfarlane, Secretary Mr. Alexander Neef, General Director (ex officio) Mr. Rob Lamb, Managing Director (ex officio) MEMBERS

Mr. H. Anthony (Tony) Arrell Ms Nora Aufreiter Mr. Barry Avrich Mr. Paul A. Bernards

Mr. Walter Bowen, Q.C. Mr. David Broadhurst Mr. Robert Brouwer Mr. Stewart Burton Mr. Frank Ciccolini, Sr. Mr. George S. Dembroski Dr. Fayaz Dossa Mr. William Fearn (ex officio) Mr. David Forster Mr. Adam Froman Mr. John Gagliano Dr. Linda Hutcheon Ms Trinity Jackman Ms Pamela Jeffery Mr. Jeff Lloyd Mr. Stephen O. Marshall Ms Judy Matthews Mr. Geoffrey Matus Ms Trina McQueen

Mr. Jonathan Morgan Mr. William Morneau Mrs. Sue Mortimer Mr. Nicholas Mutton Mr. Ian Pearce Mrs. Frances Price Mr. John Rothschild Mr. Arthur R. A. Scace, C.M. Ms Colleen Sexsmith Ms Sandy Simpson Mrs. Arija Stiver (ex officio) Ms Kristine (Kris) Vikmanis Ms Karen Walsh Mr. John H. (Jack) Whiteside Mr. Tom Woods Honorary Directors Mr. Joey Tanenbaum, C.M.

VO LU N T E E R S U P P O RT O R G A N I Z AT I O N S COC Guild Presidents David M. Cullen, Brantford Opera Guild Grace Orzech, Kingston Opera Guild Ernest H. Redekop, London Opera Guild Tom Anderson, Muskoka Opera Guild Thais Donald, Northumberland Opera Guild Margaret Parker Oakville Opera Guild June Wilson Thexton Peterborough Opera Guild Jeanette Cornelissen, Quinte Opera Guild Mike Humphris, Sudbury Opera Guild Dorothy K. Piepke, Western New York Opera Guild

ARIAS: Canadian Student Opera Development Fund (formerly known as COVC) Arija Stiver, President Merle Gobin, Past-President Tamara Donnelly, Vice-President Marina McDougall, Vice-President Lisa Teskey, Vice-President Jane Sergievskaya, Vice-President Susanne Dobos, Recording Secretary Marlene Kalchos, Corresponding Secretary Lisa Teskey, Treasurer

Canadian Opera Foundation Mr. William Fearn, Chair Mr. Derek Brown Mr. J. Rob Collins Mr. David Forster Mr. George Hamilton, Treasurer Mr. Roy D. Hogg, FCA Hon. Dennis Lane Mr. Peter MacKenzie Ms Kathleen McLaughlin Mr. Paul B. Spafford (ex officio) Mr. David E. Spiro, Secretary Mr. Edzo Wisman

For more information on COC Guilds please visit http://www.coc.ca/AboutTheCOC/Affiliates/OperaGuilds.aspx

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A D M I N I S T R AT I O N A N D S TA F F 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, Chorus Administrator 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 Music Librarian Capella Sherwood COC Ensemble Studio Ambur Braid Rihab Chaieb Neil Craighead Christopher 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 Draganic´ 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 Scene Shop Supervisor Patrick Wood Head Scene Shop Carpenter David Middleton Assistant Scene Shop Carpenter Larry Pratt Carpenters Garret Campbell Doug Closs Hugh MacLachan David Nicholson Rob Rea Dave Retzleff Andrew Vukovic Andrew Walker Head Scenic Artist Richard Gordon Assistant Head Scenic Artist Carolina Valenzuela Scenic Painters Katherine Lilly Lisa Petrocco Rehearsal Head Technician Scott Williamson Properties Supervisor Guy Nokes Resident Properties Builder/Co-ordinator Stephanie Tjelios Properties Co-ordinator Kathy Frost Properties Buyer/ Co-ordinator Tracy Taylor Properties Builders Carolyn Choo Wulf Costume Supervisor Sandra Corazza Costume Co-ordinator Cassandra Spence Assisted by Kate Day Costume Assistant Jazlyn Dow Lina Marques Resident Tailor Sue Furlong Assisted By Karen Donaldson Helen Flower Sharon Gashgarian Karen Hancock Ilana Harendorf Barbara Nowakowski Gulay Cokgezen Ina Kerklaan Deniz Cakin Alanna Gong Waugh Additional Costumes by Arana Enterprises Christine Audet Industry Costumes Avril Stevenson 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 Production Intern Morgan Leigh Hearty Supernumeraries Co-ordinators Analee Stein Elizabeth Walker SURTITLES™ Producer Gunta Dreifelds SURTITLES™ Editor Zane Kaneps SURTITLES™ Assistant Olwyn Lewis DEVELOPMENT Chief Development Officer Marion York Director, Individual Giving Christie Darville Senior Development Officer, Individual Giving Dawn Marie Schlegel Senior Development Officer, Annual Programs Peter Hussell 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 Development Carlie Weppler Development Officer, Corporate and Foundation Giving Sybil Choles Corporate Development Co-ordinator Jeanna Beaudry Manager, Special Events Tracy Briggs Special Events Co-ordinator 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 Orlic´ (FSCPA) Payroll Accountants Jovana Boˇzovic´ 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 Boˇzovic´ Mailroom Clerk/Courier Branka Hrsum BUILDING SERVICES COC & FSCPA Building Services Manager Michael Tremblay 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) Security Officers Tammy Hill Natalia Juzyc Heather Reid Building Operators Radu Chereji Dan Popescu Cristian Tripa 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 Jennifer Dougall Media Relations Manager Vanessa Somarriba Social and Interactive Media Co-ordinator Cecily Carver Marketing Co-ordinator Eldon Earle 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 Education and Outreach Assistant Gillian Story Ticket Services Ticket Services Manager Alan Moffat Assistant Ticket Services Managers Andrea Salin Nikki Tremblay Group Sales Co-ordinator David Nimmo Ticket Services Supervisors Erin Cook Lilian Fung 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 Cory Strong Maria Villegas Victor Widjaja Mitch Yolevsky Call Centre Call Centre Manager Sarah Frankel Call Centre Representatives John Chou Alex Gladwell Stephen Kreuger David Ontonovich Richard Paradiso Sara Rhodes Adriano Sobretodo Brent Thatcher Margaret Terry FOUR SEASONS CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS Director of Facility Operations Alfred Caron Business Manager Elizabeth Jones Special Events Co-ordinator Kathleen Reichelt Patron Services Manager Jefferson Guzman Assistant Manager, Front of House Kim Hutchinson-Barber Assistant Manager, Food & Beverage Brigitte Lang Patron Services Supervisors Kelly Bailey Adam Orr Brynn Pearson Rebecca Riddell Ashley Westlake Kimberly Wu

FSCPA – Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts

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17

JOIN US!

Shannon Mercer, Krisztina Szabó and

Joni Henson in the COC’s Così fan tutte,

2006. Photo: Michael Cooper

What you see on stage at today’s performance has been made possible, in part, by the generosity and loyal support of the Friends of the COC. In addition, this charitable support provides opportunities for a wider community to enjoy opera through our education and outreach programs and Free Concert Series. It also helps to develop the next generation of opera artists through our Ensemble Studio training program.

Become a Friend of the COC* and you will have the chance to engage with opera in new ways. Join us in the Friends’ lounge at all COC performances, enjoy special behind-the-scenes working rehearsals and events, learn more about the COC with our newsletter Prelude, and gain access to single tickets one week prior to the public. As well, all gifts will be gratefully acknowledged with a charitable tax receipt.

For more information on the Friends of the COC, please stop by the Friends’ lounge located on Ring 3, visit our Support the COC pages at coc.ca, or call us at 416-847-4949.

Thank you for your support! *Friends of the COC give a charitable membership gift between $150 – $2,249 annually.

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 15 years. Their support is critical to the company’s success and we are forever indebted to their commitment and generosity.

Dr. Larry M. Agranove ARIAS: Canadian Opera Student Development Fund The Gerard & Earlaine Collins Foundation The late John A. Cook Kolter Communities

MAJOR GIFTS & S PE CIAL PR OJ E CTS 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 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

The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation Roger D. Moore E. Louise Morgan Joey & Toby Tanenbaum

I N D I V I D UA L A N N UA L S U P P O R T $25,000 – $99,999 Ethel Harris & the late Milton E. Harris Ronald Kimel & Vanessa LaPerriere Jill & Geoff Matus Melanie Whitehead Mersch Roger D. Moore David Stanley-Porter The Stratton Trust Françoise Sutton William & Phyllis Waters Anonymous Up to $24,999 Ian & June Cockwell Peter & Hélène Hunt Hon. Henry N. R. Jackman‡ J. Hans Kluge Jo Lander Melanie Whitehead Mersch In loving memory of Sandra Papsin Katalin Schäfer

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THE GOLDEN CIRCLE 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*

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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**** Sydney & Florence Cooper* 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** 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****

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Douglas E. Hodgson**** Michael & Linda Hutcheon**** William Ip & Kathleen Latimer* Dr. Amy Kaiser & Ken Rotman* Jeff Lloyd & Barbara Henders Mr. & Mrs. J. S. A. MacDonald**** Judy & Wilmot Matthews Jill & Geoff Matus* John & Esther McNeil*** Trina & Don McQueen* Johanna Metcalf*** 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 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*** TH E PR E S I D E NT’S COU NCI L The 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**** Mr. & Mrs. Leslie Dan** 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**** Bobby & Gordon MacNeill* Hon. Margaret & Mr. Wallace McCain** John McVicker & B. W. Thomas**** Mrs. Louise O’Shea**** Françoise Sutton** Ms R. Raso*** Dr. David Shaw* Anonymous (1) Patron, $3,750 – $7,499 Mr. Peter Allen* Sue Armstrong** Ron Atkinson & Bruce Blandford*** Salah Bachir* Mrs. N. A. Balciunas**** Robert & Mona Bandeen** Schuyler Bankes & Family*** Karen & Bill Barnett L. H. Bartelink in memory of Oskar & Irmgard Gaube**

C A N A D I A N O P E R A C O M PA N Y 2 0 1 0 / 2 0 1 1 S E A S O N

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**** 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** Hon. & Mrs. Paul Hellyer**** Ava Marion Hillier* Prof. Michiel Horn**** Scott Irvine† & Joan Watson†** Dr. Melvyn L. Iscove** The Jackman Foundation*** Victoria Jackman & Bruce Kuwabara** Dr. Peter Janetos* Mr. Robert C. Jefferies*** Dr. Joshua Josephson**** Lorraine Kaake**** H. L. Katarynych** Patrick & Barbara Keenan**** 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**** Daniel & Janet Li* Vincent & Helene Lobraico

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Angelo & Grace Locilento* Douglas L. Ludwig & Karen J. Rice** Ole P. Madsen* R. Manke**** Christa & Robert McDermott* The Hon. Barbara McDougall*** Paul & Jean McGrath**** June McLean**** Mr. Michael J. McMurray* Melanie Whitehead Mersch** Mr. Albert Merz* Dr. Judith A. Miller*** Beatrice & Arthur Minden Foundation**** Mary Mogford & Tom Campbell Professor David J. Murray** Eileen Patricia Newell** Mrs. Sally-Ann Noznesky**** 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 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**** Dr. John Stanley & Dr. Helmut Reichenbächer** Drs. Wayne Stanley & Marina Pretorius Doreen L. Stanton**** Dr. Richard & Jane Stoneman*

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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*** Peter Webb & Joan York**** Ruth Watts-Gransden**** L. R. Wilson* Morden Yolles**** Linda Young The Youssef-Warren Foundation*** Helen Ziegler** Sharon Zuckerman**** Helen & Walter Zwig**** Anonymous (6) Member, $2,250 – $3,749 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 & Susan Arthur Virginia Atkin** John Bailey* Marilyn & Charles Baillie**** James C. Baillie* Andrew & Cornelia Baines**** Janice A. Baker**** Richard J. Balfour*** Lindy Barrow

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Ms Roxanne Bartel Dr. Frank Bartoszek & Mr. Daniel O’Brien**** Florence Sharpe Barwell**** Julia Bass & David Hamilton** Alice & Tom Bastedo** Mr. & Mrs. Peter & Sondra Beck Ms Marie Bérard†** Dan Bereskin, Q.C. & Rhoda Gryfe* Dr. Catherine Bergeron** 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**** Bric Engineered Systems 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**** Clarice Carson Gail Carson**** Wendy M. Cecil**** W. D. Chambers*** Dr. & Mrs. Albert Cheskes** Birte von Chlumecky-Bauer**

Dr. Howard M. Clarke** The Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson Cogeco Data Services Edward Cole & Adrienne Hood** Murray & Katherine Corlett*** Harold & Anita Corrigan*** Dr. Lesley S. Corrin**** Gay & Derek Cowbourne* Eloïse Crabtree & Don Carmichael* Ms Wanda Crickmay Susan Crocker* Mary Beth Currie & Jeff Rintoul Carrol Anne Curry** Ms Lindsay Dale-Harris & Mr. Rupert Field-Marsham**** Doris J. Daughney M. P. Davies* Stan & Jean Davies**** Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP** Dr. & Mrs. Michael & Ute Davis* Brian J. Dawson** Juleth Dawson Jill Denham & Stephen Marshall* Michael & Honor de Pencier*** Mrs. Rosario de Wit-Farro** Mrs. Leonard G. (Anne) Delicaet & Mrs. Kendra Anne Delicaet-Almasi*** Perry & Rae Dellio** Angelo & Carol DelZotto** Mr. & Mrs. Elvio DelZotto* Mr. & Mrs. A. J. Diamond 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

C A N A D I A N O P E R A C O M PA N Y 2 0 1 0 / 2 0 1 1 S E A S O N

Marko Duic**** H. I. Dunlop*** Ms Judy Dunn Ron Dyck & Walter Stewart** William & Gwenda Echard**** Jean Edwards* Wendy & Elliot Eisen*** Robert Elliott & Paul Wilson* Genia & Stan Elkind**** Dr. & Mrs. John Evans** Virginia Evans* Fabris Inc. George A. Farkass* 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 * Michael & Lora Gibbens 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* Ellen & Simon Gulden**** Anna L. Guthrie**** Mr. & Mrs. Henry Hackenspiel**** Gudrun Hackert Dan Hagler & Family** Ms Francess G. Halpenny**** John & Ruth Hannigan Beverly Hargraft* Paul & Natalie Hartman Paul & Margaret Harricks Michael Harris & Carol Rak* Valerie & Brian Harris*** Mr. & Mrs. William B. Harris** Mr. D. Harrison & Dr. E. Fischer* 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* 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 & HÊlène Hunt**** Mrs. Wilma Hysen*** Infonex Inc.* Prof. Christopher Innes & Brigitte Bogar

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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**** Donald K. Johnson & Anna McCowan Johnson* Ms Elizabeth Johnson* Dr. Albert & Bette Johnston* Joyce Johnston** Joseph & Maureen Katchen Dr. Joel Keenleyside**** 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 E. Kraker William & Eva Krangle*** Elizabeth & Goulding Lambert*** Leslie & Jo Lander**** Richard T. La Prairie Dr. Connie Lee** Dr. Richard Lee & Mr. Gary Van Haren* Linda Lee & Michael Pharoah**** Neal Lee & Dominique Lee* Alexander & Anna Leggatt** Joy Levine** Mr. Jonathan C. Levitt & Ms Ethel Mah Mr. Peter Levitt & Ms Mai Why** Cheryl Lewis & Mihkel Voore**

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Marjorie & Roy Linden**** Dr. & Mrs. W. G. Lindley**** Janet & Sid Lindsay** Anthony Lisanti** Michel Lislois** Dr. Vance Logan*** A. Benson Lorriman**** Ms Jane Loughborough* Dr. Robert G. Luton**** Jonathan & Dorothea Lovat Dickson* Mary Lu & Bruce MacDonald**** James & Connie MacDougall**** John Macfarlane Mr. Jed MacKay**** Dr. & Mrs. Richard Mackenzie**** Mrs. R. MacMillan**** Macro Properties Ltd.* Mrs. Janet Maggiacomo* Susan & Scott Maidment** Dr. Colin McGregor Mailer**** Robert Mansell & Elizabeth Mitchell* 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*** Dr. & Mrs. John A. McCallum**** Wendy & Chris McDowall* Anne McFadyen Dr. & Mrs. Donald C. McGillivray**** Darcy & Joyce McKeough* Guy & Joanne McLean*** M. E. McLeod**** Jean M. McNab**** Margaret C. McNee Mark & Andrea McQueen*** Shawn McReynolds & Elaine Kierans

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Dr. Don Melady & Mr. Rowley Mossop** Mr. Ulrich Menzefricke**** MI9 Business Intelligence Systems Ingrid & Daniel Mida Dr. Thomas & Catherine Millar Marvene (Cox) & Gordon Miller* Lee Milliken† & Doug MacNaughton* Dr. William & Mrs. Sharon Millman* Patricia & Frank Mills** Ms Kamini Milnes* Audrey & David Mirvish** Bruce & Vladka Mitchell Dr. David N. Mitchell & Dr. Susan M. Till** Robert & Janet Mitchell Dr. Eva Mocarski Dr. & Mrs. S. Mocarski Donald Moggridge & Susan Howson** Anne Moore*** Mr. Robert Morassutti**** Ruth Morawetz & Ken Judd** 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. Steven Nitzkin*** Mr. Jean-Claude Noel* Dr. James & Mrs. Valda Oestreicher** E. Oliana & A. Iu** Janice Oliver†** Martin & Myrna Ossip* Benson Orenstein**

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**** Grant L. Reuber** Mrs. Gabrielle Richards* Carolyn Ricketts*** Ms Nada Ristich Emily & Fred Rizner* Clara Robert Ms Virginia Robeson Sidney Robinson & Linda Currie**** Gordon Robison & David Grant* Dr. Michael & Mary Romeo**** John & Hannah Rosen Diane & Joseph Rosenthal** 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**** Katalin Schäfer** Mrs. Ortaud Scherer*

C A N A D I A N O P E R A C O M PA N Y 2 0 1 0 / 2 0 1 1 S E A S O N

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*** Dr. Birgitta Sigfridsson William Siegel & Margaret Swaine* In memory of Dr. Bernard Slatt Dr. & Mrs. Jeremy Sloan* Jay Smith & Laura Rapp Judy & Hume Smith*** Kenneth & Catherine Smith** Ms Muriel Smith & Mr. Eric Ojala*** Dr. Harley Smyth & Carolyn McIntire Smyth* Dr. Joseph So** 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* Janet Stubbs Dr. Peter Stroz & Dr. Sophia Pantazi*** 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** Tony & Mary van Straubenzee***

Dr. R. B. Van Winckle Dita Vadron & James Catty* Edmond & Sylvia Vanhaverbeke*** Mr. & Mrs. Henry & Ann Louise Vehovec*** Dr. Yvonne Verbeeten** Dr. Helen Vosu & Donald Milner*** Richard & Nathalie Wachsberg Samara Walbohm & Joe Schlesinger Diane Walker** 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* Rose Wolfe* Ms Ling Wong* Mr. & Mrs. Richard Wookey*** Nina & Norman Wright** Dr. Laval Yau*** Erik Yeo Marion York† & Robert Speer†* Marina Yoshida*** Dr. Howard & Sybil Young**** Tricia Younger* George Zeman Susan Zorzi** Anonymous (25)

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FRIENDS OF THE CA N A D I A N O P E R A C O M PA N Y Sustaining Friends $1,600 – $2,249 Dody Bienenstock* David Binet Iivi Campbell**** Mrs. Margaret Couch* Irene & Keith Croot*** Ruth & John Crow** Jayne & Ted Dawson**** Mr. Albert D. Dunn Mrs. Lois Fleming**** Carmen & Vittoria Guglietti* Richard & Donna Holbrook**** Dr. & Mrs. Ivan Hronsky**** Ms Suanne Kelman & Dr. Allan J. Fox* Dr. & Mrs. R. W. Kimber** Tom C. Logan Mr. A. Mafrici**** Mr. John Nagel Dr. Emilie Newell* Mr. Tomi Nishio*** Mrs. Annette Oelbaum Dr. Norbert V. Perera**** Go Sato**** Gary Shiff** Philip Somerville 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 Mr. Michael Abromeit Robert & Susan Allair In memory of M. Baptista** Don Biderman**** Ms Ethel Birkenshaw Mr. Bob Bosshard Ms E. Burton**

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Francis & Donna Canzi* W. D. Caskey**** Brian Collins & Amanda Demers Tony & Elizabeth Comper* Mr. Darren Day** Prometheum Institute** Ms Christine Demont** Mr. James Dewhurst Ms Eleanor L. Ellins**** Gary Fitzgibbon** J. E. Fordyce**** Miss Gillian Foster** John H. Galloway**** Alison Girling and Paul Schabas* Helen & Barry Goldlist**** Mr. Henry Gooderham** Mrs. Marion A. Green**** Mr. & Mrs. Michael E. Harrison**** Mr. & Mrs. H. C. Hatch*** Jean & Bill Heaslip**** Lawrence & Beatrice Herman*** Mr. Josef Hrdina* Donald Hughes*** Craig & Rochelle Knowles Claus & Heather Lenk* Mary McGowan*** Mr. Ian McWalter Brian Miron & Monica Vegelj Mr. Carl Morey*** Mr. Sean O'Neill*** Clarence & Mary Pace* Dr. Roger D. Pearce** Ms Beatrice Riddell Ms Beate Ritchie Ms Wendy Rolph** Mrs. Gertrude Rosenthal**** Ms Gloria Shulman A. K. Sigurjonsson** C. Anderson Silber* David Smukler & Patricia Kern* The Sorbara Group**** Dr. & Mrs. George Steiner*** Jane & Ted Stephenson*** Irene & Tom Tait*

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Ms Peg Thoen* Helen S. Tokiwa**** Bill MacKenzie & Alan Westbrook** Janet White* Ron Williams* Drs. Jackson Wu & Viviana Chang Anonymous (3) Contributing Friends $700 – $1,099 Mr. Roger Abbott Mary Ann Alexander**** Ms Isobel M. Allen**** Jamie & Patsy Anderson* Anne & Husayn Banani* M. & J. Barnard* Peter & Leslie Barton** Sonja Bata* Dr. Gail Beck & Mr. Andrew Fenus Jeniva Berger** Dr. B. Derek & Dr. Anne W. Birt**** Dr. William Blackburn & Dr. Ramona Lumpkin Dr. Jennifer Blake Mary Brock & Brian Iler*** Mr. Thomas N. Bryson** Theresa & John Caldwell**** Betty Carlyle**** Mrs. Raffaela Caruso** Mark Cestnik**** Carole Chabot & Derek Dodd** Harold Chmara**** Joe T. R. Clarke**** Dr. Marsha Cohen & Mr. Michael Mendelson** Mr. & Mrs. Norman & Louise Coxall** Mario Crespi**** Mr. John A. Crocker & Mrs. Mary Crocker*** Dr. Domville* Mr. Steven D. Donohoe**** Peter & Shashi Eden* Mr. Thomas Eiser****

Mr. Arthur English* Ms Sharon Evans**** Mr. Kirk Falconer** Klaus & Rose Feikes**** Joe & Helen Feldmann** Richard & Gail Flack** Mr. Morris Flicht**** Mrs. & Mr. Jennifer & Francis Flower*** Mr. William A. Foote*** R. Dalton Fowler**** Dr. & Mrs. A. Mervyn Fox**** 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* Dr. Wilfred S. Goodman**** Ms Ina K. Govan**** Jacqueline Green* Suzy Greenspan** Mr. James Hamilton Philo Handler* Dr. & Mrs. Brian & Cynthia Hands**** Harper House Contracting Ltd Mr. & Mrs. E. Roy Harrison**** In memory of Pauline Chorniuk Hinch George & Gloria Hinton* Mr. David Holdsworth & Ms Nicole Senecal Richard & Susan Horner**** James Hughes** Pierre Hurtubise**** Mr. & Mrs. Malcolm M. Inglis**** Mr. Kazik Jedrzejczak**** Gordon Jocelyn*** Frances E. Johnson*** Douglas & Dorothy Joyce**** May & Fred Karp** Mai Kirch*** Mr. Martin Kirr Dr. & Mrs. L. A. Kitchell** Mr. & Mrs. I. P. & O. M. Komarnicky**

C A N A D I A N O P E R A C O M PA N Y 2 0 1 0 / 2 0 1 1 S E A S O N

Mr. Jonathan Krehm Horace & Elizabeth Krever**** Mr. & Mrs. Owen & Margie Kurin* Gediminas P. Kurpis**** Mr. James R. Lake*** Harry Lane** Alan & Marti Latta**** Mrs. Mary Liitoja**** Mr. Jeff Low* Anne Mackay**** Mr. Sean Magill Craig & Karen Mahood* Kathy Marton Jil McIntosh* Mr. Bruce McKeown*** Georgina McLennan**** Mr. Grant McMichael Sylvia McPhee**** Janis Medland Mrs. Eileen A. Mercier*** Suzanne Mess** Jacqueline Bradley & Leslie Miko Kathryn Mikoski & Hope Clement* Terry & Dom Morris** David Northcote & Suzanne Betcke** Jean O'Grady* Ms Cristina Oke** Karen Olinyk† Ms Marianne Orr William Ostrander*** Ms Julia Overs*** Mr. Martti Paloheimo Mr. & Mrs. Joseph & Letizia Paradiso** Barbara & Peter Pauly* David Peachey & Georgia Henderson* Bruce Pearce*** Marjorie Pepper & Anne Pepper** Mrs. Dorothy K. Piepke**** Ms Ella Prindiville**** C. Edward Rathé**** Dr. Peter Ray*** Mrs. Richard Gavin Reid

Guylaine Rheault-Oliver Ms Virginia Robeson* Mr. David E. Roman**** Dorothy & Robert Ross*** M. Sanvido*** William & Meredith Saunderson*** Barbara Sawaszkiewicz**** Miss Elisabeth Scarff**** Patti & Richard Schabas* Mrs. Sylvia Schmid**** 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* Mr. Warren Sorensen & Mr. Gregory Williams**** Mary G. Spears**** Mrs. Harriet H. Stairs** Dr. & Mrs. W. K. Stavraky** Scott Steele & Jan Korman Robert & Nancy Stephenson* Marta Stewart**** 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*** Edith M. Vuchnich**** Mr. Barry M. Walker*** Mr. John M. Welch**** Anonymous (15)

please visit coc.ca for additional information

T H E E N C O R E L E G ACY 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.

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 Horst Dantz & Don Quick Ann De Brouwer

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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 Marjorie & Roy Linden J. Bruce MacDonald Ms Lenore MacDonald Dr. Colin M. Mailer Tim & Jane Marlatt R. Manke 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 & G. Longchamps 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 Doreen L. Stanton Lilly Offenbach Strauss Drs. W. & K. Stavraky Janet Stubbs Ann Sutton

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Ronald Taber Vivian Treacy Mrs. L. Treutler N. Suzanne Vanstone† Marie-Laure Wagner Hugh & Colleen Washington Marion C. Wilson Marion York† Anonymous (40) C O R P O R AT E MATCH I N G PARTN E R S 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. The above Individual Support Gifts were made as of August 25, 2010. * 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 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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Friends Full page ad to follow

PAGE 27 please visit www.coc.ca for additional information

M A J O R C O R P O R AT E S P O N S O R S 2 010/11 S E A S O N

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

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

Official Automotive Sponsor of the COC at the FSCPA

Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour

BMO Financial Group Pre-Performance Opera Chats and BMO Financial Group Student Dress Rehearsals BMO Capital Markets & BMO Nesbitt Burns: Presenting Sponsor of the 2010 Opera Golf Classic Aida Opening Night Sponsor

Presenting Sponsor Opera for a New Age and Operanation VII

Production Co-sponsors Adam’s Nixon in China

Official Canadian Wine of the COC at the FSCPA

Preferred Hospitality Sponsor

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Official Media Sponsors

Presenting Sponsor, Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre

Preferred Fragrance Sponsor

Digital Marketing Sponsor

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2010/2011 SPONSORS

Preferred Airline Sponsor

Rentals Supplier

Floral Supplier

Mario Séguin Other suppliers: THE BUTLER DID IT Nestlé Waters Torrié Coffee

Diamond Performance Sponsors

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

2010/2011 Media Sponsors & In-Kind Supporters CBC Radio Two Mario Séguin Remenyi House of Music Ltd.

Corporate and Foundation Donors Major Gifts

Opera Golf Classic 2010 Presenting Sponsor BMO Capital Markets BMO Nesbitt Burns

$10,000+ Audrey S. Hellyer Charitable Foundation The Hope Charitable Foundation The Hal Jackman Fund at the Ontario Arts Foundation The McLean Foundation Performance Sponsors At time of printing CTVglobemedia Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP Delvinia EdgeStone Capital Partners Fionn MacCool’s Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts HSBC Bank Canada Louis Vuitton PricewaterhouseCoopers Standard Life Torys LLP Opening Night Sponsor Fionn MacCool’s Hosting Sponsor

$5,000 to $9,999 225490 Investments Limited IATSE Local 58 Charitable Stage Technicians Toronto SNC Lavalin Unit Park Holdings Inc. William and Nona Heaslip Foundation $3,000 to $4,999 The Calgary Foundation – Nellie Hicks Memorial Fund The Keg Spirit Foundation $2,000 to $2,999 Classical 96.3 MAC Cosmetics Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc. Shinex Window Cleaning Vida Peene – Fund Canada Council

Annual Fine Wine Auction 2010 Host Sponsor Crush Wine Bar Event Sponsors The Cheese Boutique Wines from Austria

Supporting Sponsor KPMG LLP Dinner Sponsor GMP Securities Cocktail Sponsor Goodmans LLP Cart Sponsor Canaccord Genuity Putting Green Sponsor St Joseph Print Operanation VII Presenting Sponsor TD Canada Trust Official Fragrance Calvin Klein Beauty

$1,000 to $1,999 Jarvis & Associates Milgram Group of Companies Ltd. Park Property Management Powis Family Foundation

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

O P E R AT I N G G R A N T S

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

S PECIAL PROJ ECT FU N DI NG 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 and Local #822.

SUPERNUMERARIES Matthew Bailey Richard Lododzinski Vlad Pajovic

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The COC presents Death in Venice (co-production between Aldeburgh Festival, Bregenz Festival, Státní opera Praha and Opéra national de Lyon). Alan Oke (seated) as Gustav von Aschenbach in the Lyon production, 2009.

Photo: Bertrand Stofleth

And perhaps it is distinctly salacious to find in Death in Venice (in whatever form) a mere fascination for young masculine beauty, rather than the severe and urgent discussion of the Nietzschean wrangle between reason and passion.

While many in the brilliant and intellectually dexterous clique in Britten’s home in Aldeburgh that the composer formed around himself would have falsely blanched at the homosexual underpinning of the work, it has been remarked on frequently by “outsiders,” contrarily more “inside” on the issue itself. The late Philip Brett (a remarkable scholar in both the field of Britten and issues of sexuality in music) has commented on the fact that Death in Venice is derived “at least in part from [Britten’s] early and crucial self-doubt” both in his work and in himself. Equally, Brett said that marginalizing the great operas that Britten wrote solely as the exegesis of a troubled homosexual could be considered homophobic, perhaps underlining that they could not be able to speak directly outside that select audience. What we must do, however, is to uncover some of the personal psychology

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that went in to the moving and communicative mentality of the works.

So how does Britten talk on the private and the public level? At the end of his life and career, Britten had become a creature of habit. He was a man who had observed the secret and lived by it, so his lifelong obsession with Thomas Mann’s novella found its voice, not through paeans of love and pride, but through the torture of many years servitude to the heterosexual norm. Here was an embittered codification of the torture of hiding the heart; it is a theme to which Britten returned time and time again in his life. Although linked through the obvious theme of night, the 1943 Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings also explores some of the sexual undertones of the night time. In setting William Blake’s dark poem about sexual disease, Britten seems to comment on his “hidden” self, the part that is kept from public view. It is telling that both Aschenbach’s agonized admittance of his love for Tadzio and the setting of Blake’s poem in the Serenade share the key of E major. The “crimson joy” of the rose (or his private romantic

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solace) finds its parallel in the juicy strawberries of Death in Venice, at first succulent, then diseased.

So it becomes clear that not only is Britten suffering under the heavy yoke of his sexuality, but he also chides society for chiding him. The community’s despising of his way of life has perpetuated the secrecy; it is in fact a vicious circle. But the protagonist is a willing accomplice in the process, for example in Aschenbach’s knowing pursuit of death and his unwillingness to leave Venice behind. Are we to pity this man who, at the end of his life, found beauty in a place in which society had taught him not to seek it? Or are we merely to see in this an arching line back to the excess of Tristan and Isolde, or Salome and her blinkered and ultimately self-destructive desire for Jochanaan’s kiss? Is it, as Visconti surmised, a grandiloquent Liebstod or, as in Britten’s vision, a picture of the marginalization (both from without and within) of the “peculiar.”

The most eerie echo of death and the minorities of our world that Death in Venice has had in recent times is the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic.

Within the communities of western cities the disease – named the “gay cancer” and other hurtful pejoratives – invoked both sympathy and ignorance, and further marginalized the minority.

As Colin Graham described when reviving Death in Venice some 20 years after he had created the premiere production,

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Graham finds in the darkness of Aschenbach’s lovelorn despair a broader hope. It is alluring to be drawn into the biographical parallels between a composer’s life and the work created, particularly a work obsessed with death and masculine beauty, but one must close the biography and gaze into the beauty of the score. Musically Death in Venice is astringent but also capable of enormous lushness. The music that heralds the appearance of “La Serenissima” is some of the most magisterial that Britten created and even the most hard-hearted operatic neophyte would fail to be pained by Aschenbach’s longing sigh of “I love you.” The opera is the summation of a life long quest for emotional truth in the form to which Britten found himself continually drawn. Without the coarseness of some of the writing for the chorus in Peter Grimes, the pretentious wordiness of The Turn of the Screw or the all-too-jocund merriment of Albert Herring, Death in Venice is an apposite and poignant conclusion to the career of a man who wrestled continually with his private and public personas.

His greatest contribution to his audience and society at large was his hidden directness in asking them to understand that, as his friend E. M. Forster wrote, “people are far more different than is pretended.”

Gavin Plumley has written widely about 20th-century opera, including a number of projects for the Liceu.

“Today we cannot ignore a comparison of the disintegration of the mind and spirit cause by cholera to the similar symptoms suffered by many victims of the plague of today and by their loved ones. I feel these considerations make the opera more topical than ever for all such sufferers and to those who must have compassion for them.”

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Reprinted with permission.

For further insights into Death in Venice, please read an interview with director Yoshi Oida by Suzanne Vanstone in the fall issue of Prelude, available online at coc.ca.

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THE POWER TO MOVE YOU

Every Move is a Powerful One with Sales Representative Geon van der Wyst The same strong focus and discipline that took Geon van der Wyst to the top of his profession as a principal dancer are the foundation of his exceptional career in real estate. Just as Geon worked hard to perfect his dance moves, he’s consistently perfecting his service to his clients. That’s why he’s won so many over the years.

“I was very fortunate to connect with thousands of people through ballet. I’m grateful that I can continue to connect with people on an even more personal level in my real estate career.”

—Geon van der Wyst

Geon van der Wyst

The Power to Move You

Geon van der Wyst, Sales Representative

416.921.1112 Office 416.824.3527 Cellular TM

f e a t u r e

FIFTH YEAR OF FREE CONCERTS

In celebration of five years of spectacular concerts in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre (RBA), programming director Nina Draganic´ reflects on some of the most powerful aspects of this special series, generously presented by National Bank: “I never take it for granted. Every time I enter the space, I gasp. We’re approaching concert 400 and the beauty of the space still amazes me. When you have those transcendent moments when the audience is completely rapt and a ray of sunlight is coming in and shining on a violin, and the artist is doing something extraordinary – whether it’s an emerging performer or a seasoned professional – those moments are exquisite.

“What can I say that expresses the impact of these concerts more than these photos? The colour, the movement, the light, the space, the variety – it’s all there.

“The lobby is so animated. There are many different cultures, age groups and demographics coming together, and they all feel welcome and embraced in our space. The gesture of the Canadian Opera Company offers them something so special – in many cases a completely eye-opening experience.

They start to wonder what else we are doing and want to explore that.”

Creole Drummatix.

Photo: Chris Hutcheson

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Pianist, Mark Eisenman.

Photo: Chris Hutcheson

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“It’s so easy to attend. You don’t have to buy a ticket in advance, you don’t have to line up at a box office, you don’t even have to make an early commitment – you just go.

And enjoy! ” (Nina Draganic´)

Ensemble Studio member, Simone Osborne.

Photo: Chris Hutcheson

“There’s also the opportunity to hear artists doing repertoire that they often don’t get a chance to do. You can see another side of them and it gives them the freedom to perform repertoire that’s close to their heart. And the artists are grateful to have this venue, to have a full audience, and to be able to perform more intimate works.” (Nina Draganic´)

Ensemble Studio members, Teiya Kasahara and Neil Craighead in La serva padrona.

Photo: Joe Pack

“The space allows you to quiet your thoughts and be swept away in the story of the compositions.” (lawandstyle.ca)

Don Thompson & Reg Schwager.

Photo: Chris Hutcheson

“There is nowhere else in the city I would rather be…” ( Toronto Star )

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C A N A D I A N O P E R A C O M PA N Y 2 0 1 0 / 2 0 1 1 S E A S O N

RESIDENCES FROM $800,000 P R I VAT E E S TAT E S F R O M $ 2 . 9 M

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TO BE ABOVE THE SHANGRI-LA HOTEL, TORONTO

L I V I N G S H A N G R I - L AT O R O N T O . C O M

LIVING SHANGRI-LA TORONTO IS OWNED, DEVELOPED, OFFERED AND SOLD BY 180 UNIVERSITY RESIDENTIAL L.P. NEITHER SHANGRI-LA INTERNATIONAL HOTEL MANAGEMENT LTD., ITS ULTIMATE PARENT COMPANY SHANGRI-LA ASIA LIMITED, NOR ANY OF THEIR SUBSIDIARIES, AFFILIATES AND/OR ASSOCIATED COMPANIES, NOR ANY OF THEIR RESPECTIVE DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES ARE: (A) THE OWNER, SELLER, BROKER, DEVELOPER OR OFFEROR OF 180 UNIVERSITY RESIDENTIAL L.P.; OR (B) A SUBSIDIARY, AN AFFILIATE, ASSOCIATED OR OTHER RELATED COMPANY, DIRECTOR, OFFICER, PARTNER, SALES REPRESENTATIVE OR SALES AGENT OF 180 UNIVERSITY RESIDENTIAL L.P. THIS IS NOT AN OFFER FOR SALE. RENDERINGS AND PHOTOS ARE REPRESENTATIONAL ONLY. DIMENSIONS, SIZES, AREAS, SPECIFICATIONS, LAYOUTS, MATERIALS, PRICING AND AVAILABILITY ARE APPROXIMATE ONLY AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. E.&O.E. THE DEVELOPER RESERVES THE RIGHT TO MAKE MODIFICATIONS TO THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN.

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“People have become hooked on contemporary music. They’ve said to me ‘I would have never purchased a ticket for this, but I’m so glad I came: this has opened a door and now I’m going to attend more new music concerts. I used to think it was alienating, noisy and dissonant, but I was surprised at how accessible it was.’” (Nina Draganic´)

City Dance Corps.

Photo: Mike Brassard

“…topnotch music and dance... a high octane celebration” (San Fernando Valley Sun)

The Glenn Gould School New Music Ensemble.

Photo: Chris Hutcheson

“One of the best performances I have EVER seen. Absolutely stupendous!” – (Patron)

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VER THE PAST SEVEN YEARS NATIONAL BANK HAS BEEN A GENEROUS SPONSOR OF VARIOUS COC PRODUCTIONS. This year, National Bank has made an outstanding commitment to the Canadian Opera Company as the presenting sponsor for the fifth season of the Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.

“At National Bank, we have a long tradition of being actively involved in the communities we work in, and contribute substantially to their economic and cultural development,” says Camillo di Prata, Executive VP & Managing Director, Financial Markets. “This is why we are very proud to continue our long-standing commitment to supporting culture and our community by presenting the Canadian Opera Company’s Free Concert Series.

Hilario Durán Trio.

Photo: Chris Hutcheson

“The series is so open and accessible and I’m surprised at how rapt and attentive the audiences are, there’s such an intensity.

The audience wraps around the artists.”

(Nina Draganic´)

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“The COC has embraced artistic excellence and cultural diversity to provide people of all ages and backgrounds with the opportunity to discover unique emerging talents; which certainly resonates with the core values of diversity and innovation that we as an institution subscribe to.”

The Free Concert Series in the RBA is supported by the Free Concert Series Endowment Fund in honour of Richard Bradshaw by an anonymous donor.

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X ST R AT A E N S E M B L E ST U D I O

SC H OO L TOU R I N V E ST I N G T O D AY IN OPERA’S TOMORROW

BY KATHERINE SEMCESEN

E

XPERIENCING AN OPERA PERFORMED LIVE IS AN UNPARALLELED ARTISTIC PHENOMENON: the intricate collaboration of a composer’s score, a librettist’s text, the director’s dramatic concept, the designer’s visual language, the conductor’s and orchestra’s interpretation of the music, and the personal expression of singers, culminates in an evening of extraordinary storytelling and declaration of emotions. For this reason, thousands of people choose to engage in opera by attending Canadian Opera Company’s mainstage productions each season. How do you capture the experience and share it with those who are too young to attend on their own? You bring it to them.

The COC has proudly been taking operas on the road with the Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour for over 20 years, annually travelling over 5,000 km to perform for students from Kindergarten to Grade 6 in the comfort of their school. Operas suitable for children are translated into English and are adapted into 45-minute performances for piano and four to five singers, offering young people captivating interpretations of the full-length originals.

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Characters and plots remain true to the authentic work and the scores highlight the operas’ most notable melodies and musical themes, enabling the young audiences to experience a range of emotions. Children connect further to the singers through a Q&A held immediately following the opera, when students ask questions about the work that goes into becoming an opera singer and inner secrets of a performer. Each year, the COC produces 45 performances of each production and introduces opera to over 16,000 children and their school communities.

In 2010, Xstrata, a major global mining group, continues its commitment as the title sponsor of the Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour. Through Xstrata’s generous support, the COC is able to showcase the talent of its renowned Ensemble Studio while giving many school children their first opera experience.

For many young students this is their first encounter with opera and this demands an energetic and mesmerizing performance by the members of the COC’s young artist training

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f e a t u r e

Opposite page, left – (l – r) Miriam Khalil, Lauren Segal, Victor Micallef and Peter Barrett in the COC’s Ensemble Studio School Tour production of Isis and the Seven Scorpions, 2006.

Photo: Gary Beechey Opposite page, right – Krisztina Szabó in the COC’s Ensemble Studio School Tour production of Cinderella, 1999.

Photo: John M. Currid This page, left – (l – r) Erin Fisher, Wallis Giunta and Laura Albino in the COC’s Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour production of Cinderella, 2009.

Photo: COC Below – Krisztina Szabó, Alain Coulombe, and Michael Colvin in the COC’s Ensemble Studio School Tour production of Cinderella, 1999.

Photo: John M. Currid

program, the Ensemble Studio. Often these singers are rehearsing the school tour whilst being engaged in a mainstage production. This rigorous rehearsal schedule, coupled with the challenges of travelling and performing two shows a day for an intensive period, provides a valuable training opportunity for young singers.

Many of Canada’s international opera stars, such as Isabel Bayrakdarian, Krisztina Szabó, Michael Colvin and Yannick-Muriel Noah have performed with the COC’s school tour in the early days of their operatic careers. Mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó, who sang the role of Cinderella in the 1998/1999 production of Cinderella recalls that “it [the school tour] trained us how to get up and do a show no matter what – no matter what time of day, no matter how you were feeling, what the audience was like, no matter what the piano was like. It was about stamina – vocally, energetically and mentally. I think that school tours are beneficial in the development of young artists because it allows you the opportunity to inhabit a role day after day after day – to really get in the skin of

a role and into it vocally… The more you do something, the more confidence you have in what you do – vocally and theatrically and that is vital to an opera singer. And I think it’s good for young artists to be ready for any kind of audience – and kids certainly will give you honest reactions, comfortable or not!” Soprano Yannick-Muriel Noah (Queen of the Night, The Magic Flute, 007/2008) seconds Krisztina’s thoughts: “It is essential for the

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

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XST R ATA E N S E M B L E STU D I O SC H OO L TOU R : I nve s t i n g To d ay i n O p e ra ’ s To m o r r ow

singer because we get to perform in front of an audience that is non-judgmental. They certainly have opinions but not the same expectations.

We can offer our gift to people who receive it with joy and wonder. The kids see the best of us and hopefully, this will allow them to catch the opera bug down the road!” For tenor Michael Colvin (Don Ramiro, Cinderella, 1998/1999) it was a matter of building his performance skills and learning to enjoy performing instead of being bogged down in the very technical aspect of singing: “The school tour experiences taught me not to take myself so seriously and that performing is FUN! As young professionals we spend SO much time working on vocal technique, etc., that we forget singing is supposed to be fun! A well-developed sense of humour is essential when singing Rossini at 9 a.m. in a school gymnasium with an out-of-tune piano!”

Initiatives like the Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour are vital to the development of new audiences and young artists alike. It offers children meaningful artistic experiences and exposure to the rich arts and culture in Canada. The intensive training enables young Canadian opera stars to learn about their voice, practice the art of

interpretation and feel the excitement of offering young people their first introduction to opera.

In November 2010 young audiences will be thrilled with productions of the classic fairytale, Cinderella, using music from Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Massenet’s Cendrillon; and Isis and the Seven Scorpions by Canadian composer Dean Burry, an adventure story steeped in ancient Egyptian mythology commissioned by the COC in 2005. In fact, Burry’s Isis and the Seven Scorpions was the first complete opera that was performed at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts for 300 students in the rehearsal hall during the inaugural celebrations in June of 2006.

To learn more about how you can bring the school tour to your young person’s school community, contact Prologue to the Performing Arts at 416-591-9092 or visit coc.ca.

Katherine Semcesen is Senior Manager, Education and Outreach at the Canadian Opera Company.

For further insights into the Ensemble Studio, read Caitlin Coull’s article Celebrating the Ensemble Studio in the fall issue of Prelude available online at coc.ca.

Bring your family to the opera!

Don’t miss special performances of the 2010/2011 Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour productions of Isis and the Seven Scorpions and Cinderella on Saturday, November 13, 2010.

Isis and the Seven Scorpions – 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Cinderella – 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Jackman Studio, Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre 227 Front St. E. $15 adults/$10 children (15 years and younger) per opera 416-363-8231

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(l – r) Laura Albino, Michael Uloth and Erin Fisher in the COC’s Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tour production of Cinderella, 2009.

Photo: COC

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7E RE IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD

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PAT RO N I N FO R M AT I O N &

POLICIES

Etiquette

Ticket Services

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.

Canadian Opera Company subscriptions and single tickets are available through COC Ticket Services Online: www.coc.ca

By Phone: 416-363-8231 or long distance 1-800-250-4653 Monday to Friday – 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Saturday – 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

In Person: Four Seasons Centre Box Office 145 Queen St. W. Monday to Saturday – 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. or through first intermission Sunday (performance days only) – 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. or through first intermission The Four Seasons Centre Box Office also services ticketing needs for The National Ballet of Canada and all other Four Seasons Centre Events.

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.

Electronic Devices Wristwatch chimes, cellular phones, pagers and all other electronic devices are extremely disruptive and must be turned off before the performance. If a patron has an emergency and must be contacted during a performance, he or she should contact Patron Services for assistance before the performance.

Group Sales Groups of 10 or more enjoy savings on regular single ticket prices. For more information or to reserve seats call 416-306-2356.

Cameras/ Recording Devices

Parking

The use of cameras, video cameras or sound-recording devices of any kind is prohibited in R. Fraser Elliott Hall. These devices MUST be checked at the coat check before entering the auditorium. Any person using an unauthorized recording device will be required to surrender or erase any recordings, photographic or digital images and may be asked to leave.

No refunds will be issued.

There is parking on a first-come, first-served basis for about 200 vehicles underneath the Four Seasons Centre. The entrance is located on the west side of York Street, south of Queen Street. Additional parking is conveniently located just steps away in the Green P lot underneath Nathan Phillips Square. For directions visit www.greenp.com.

Latecomers In the interest of safety and for the comfort of all patrons and performers, latecomers may not enter the auditorium or be seated unless there is a suitable break in the performance (usually intermission). Patrons leaving the auditorium during the performance or returning late after intermission will not be readmitted and are invited to view the performance on the large monitor in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre (located between Rings 3 and 4).

Children and Babes-in-Arms All patrons, including children, must have a ticket for the performance. All children must be seated next to an accompanying adult. Young children should be able to sit quietly throughout the performance. If unable to do so, children and their accompanying adult will be asked to leave the auditorium. Babes-in-arms will not be admitted.

Patron Services Located in the Lower Lobby, the following services are available: Coat and Parcel Check – Rental of back supports, binoculars and infrared hearing assistive devices Booster Seats – (on a first-come, first-served basis)

Medical Emergencies and First Aid A house doctor is present at all performances. Please contact an usher if medical services are required.

Lost and Found During performances please speak with an usher or visit Patron Services at the Coat Check on the Lower Lobby.

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

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Four Seasons Centre Facility Tours Regularly scheduled tours of the Four Seasons Centre take place on most Saturdays at noon. Please visit www.coc.ca for complete schedule. To inquire about private group tours please call 416-363-6671.

B M O Financial Group Pre-Performance Opera Chats The Canadian Opera Company Volunteer Speakers Bureau offers free, insightful chats about the stories, music and background of all COC performances, 45 minutes prior to each performance in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.

Food and B everage Service We are pleased to offer, for the convenience of all of our patrons, a pre-order system for intermission purchases. Our pre-order system is designed to decrease your wait time at the bar during intermission and we invite you to make use of it at every COC performance. Bars are located throughout the Isadore and Rosalie Sharp City Room’s many levels.

Food and beverages are not permitted in R. Fraser Elliott Hall.

Special Events and Catering The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is available for rental for all of your presentation, meeting or special events needs, with spaces accommodating from 20 to 2,000 people and full catering services. For further details visit www.fourseasonscentre.ca or call 416-363-6671.

The Opera Shop Located on the orchestra level of the Isadore and Rosalie Sharpe City Room, the COC's Opera Shop offers a fine selection of opera recordings on CD and DVD, as well as opera-related books, giftware and COC souvenirs.

C A N A D I A N O P E R A C O M PA N Y 2 0 1 0 / 2 0 1 1 S E A S O N