Don Giovanni Program

Performance C A N A D I A N O P E R A C O M PA N Y Wi n te r 2015

DON GIOVANNI

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CONTENTS 4 TOP TEN THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT MOZART’S DON GIOVANNI

BY NIKITA GOURSKI

10 SEMELE GOES TO BAM! 18 BACKSTAGE AND BEYOND 26 TOP TEN THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT WAGNER’S DIE WALKÜRE

BY NIKITA GOURSKI

2015/2016 SEASON PREVIEW: 12 LA TRAVIATA; 14 PYRAMUS AND THISBE; 16 SIEGFRIED; 20 THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO; 22 CARMEN; 24 MAOMETTO II

Performance

Top: Die Walküre (COC, 2006).

Photo: Michael Cooper Bottom: Kyle Ketelsen in Don Giovanni (Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, 2010).

Photo: Pascal Victor/Artcomart

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

Winter 2015

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n Cover images: Don Giovanni: Russell Braun as Don Giovanni in the Canadian Opera Company/Teatro Real Madrid (TRM)/Festival d’Aix-en-Provence/Bolshoi Theatre co-production of Don Giovanni, 2013, TRM. Photo: Javier del Real.

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TOP 10 THINGS TO KNOW

ABOUT

MOZART’S

Don Giovanni

Kerstin Avemo as Zerlina and Bo Skovhus as Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni, Festival d-Aix-en-Provence, 2010.

Photo: Pascal Victor/Artcomart

BY NIKITA GOURSKI

1. OPERA OF OPERAS

2. SOURCE MATERIAL

3. STORY IN A NUTSHELL

Musicians and music-lovers often refer to Don Giovanni as the “opera of operas.”

Find out why by listening to excerpts from the stunning, genre-melding masterpiece at coc.ca/LookAndListen.

The legend of Don Juan originates in traditional Spanish folklore. The earliest recorded version appears in the play El Burlador de Sevilla (The Playboy of Seville), written by a Spanish monk, Tirso de Molina, and published in 1630. Other plays on the subject proliferated throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, including one by French playwright Molière. At least three operas predate Mozart’s treatment, testifying to the widespread cultural fascination with the myth in 18th-century Europe.

Each treatment of the legend is different, but the story typically begins with Don Juan, a shameless libertine and womanizer, forcing himself on a lady of noble birth and eventually murdering her father. The Don then pursues several other women. He is usually accompanied by a servant who is a wavering figure, sometimes reaffirming, sometimes bristling against his master’s dubious ethic.

The story culminates with a dinner party, at which a stone statue (of the father killed by Don Juan) arrives at the feast and banishes the Don to Hell.

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TOP 10 THINGS TO KNOW about Mozart’s Don Giovanni

4. MIXING IT UP Collaborating with the brilliant librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart mixed comedy and tragedy—including elements of horror—to produce a potent, even disturbing combination, which succeeded tremendously at its Prague premiere in 1787. Up until that point, operas about the unscrupulous seducer were exclusively comedic.

5. WHO IS DON GIOVANNI? Mozart gives him only two, notably brief arias, both of which offer little information about the rake’s inner life or psychological self. Some modern critics have speculated that Mozart and Da Ponte deliberately present Don Giovanni as a blank canvas, creating a psychological space into which the audience, as well as the characters, project their fantasies, nightmares, fears, and desires. Meanwhile 19th-century commentators like Søren Kierkegaard and E.T.A. Hoffmann became enthralled with the symbolic value of Don Giovanni, explaining him as something more than an individual man, something like a life-force, a principle of desire, or an emblem of the human soul itself, riven with the representative contradictions of the human condition. While the opera withholds any final answers, the persistence of the question explains the variety of directorial approaches taken over the opera’s performance history.

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A scene from Don Giovanni, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, 2010.

Photo: Photo: Pascal Victor/ArtComArt

6. RIVETING INTERPRETATION Our production is staged by brilliant Russian director Dmitri Tcherniakov, “an artist whose work is on the edge of the cutting edge” (Opera News). For a full profile and analysis of Tcherniakov’s work, read Gianmarco Segato’s piece in the most recent issue of Prelude, available at the Welcome Desk and online at coc.ca/Publications.

Don Giovanni director Dmitri Tcherniakov

Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

7. A FADED DON Tcherniakov’s Don Giovanni defies the stereotype of a successful Casanova; he is not particularly young or old, nor is he a carefree playboy.

Rather, he’s a troubled, sometimes unhinged figure with a history—perhaps of some personal trauma—that makes him both invigorating and dangerous. Moreover he lacks any of the outward traits we’d normally associate with physical attractiveness or sexual charisma.

Nevertheless, he exerts a powerful magnetism over those around him. His clothes and haggard look are inspired in part by Marlon Brando’s character in Bernardo Bertolucci’s seminal film Last Tango in Paris.

TOP 10 THINGS TO KNOW about Mozart’s Don Giovanni

family’s hierarchy of values, and in negating a civilized morality of order and reason, transforms each of the family members for a time, estranges them from themselves, and opens a field of experience that was not accessible to them before—all this can lead to moments of intoxicating madness that briefly realize Don Giovanni’s utopian vision of absolute freedom. (top) (l-r) Bo Skovhus as Don Giovanni and Kyle Ketelsen as Leporello. (right) A scene from Don Giovanni. Both images from Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, 2010. Photos: Pascal Victor/ArtComArt

8. ALL IN THE FAMILY In a radical move, Tcherniakov redraws the relationships of the main characters, making them all part of a single family, which Don Giovanni—an outsider—has married into.

This both complicates the relationships among the principals and generates new, revelatory meanings in their interactions. But whether we choose to take the family device literally or interpret it metaphorically, as signifying a closed system of human relations, the results make for powerful theatre, pushing the characters into intense emotional territory “often more meaningfully than in a straight reading” (Opera News), one critic raved.

9. INSIDE A ROOM, WORLDS COLLIDE The action is set inside a wealthy bourgeois home (the room could be a library, drawing room, or main parlour).

Intentionally, there are no specific markers of the outer world—we could be in Vienna, Prague, London, Paris, etc.— but the costumes are contemporary, and the interior gives the impression of a respectable, well-established family. But if the Commendatore (the father, and master of this domain), represents a particular moral code, and his family members uphold a system of values consistent with that, then Don Giovanni is an eccentric force of dissent.

He disrupts and rejects the

10. EXPANDING TIME Tcherniakov expands the opera’s 24 hour-time-frame into several months, inserting temporal gaps of days and weeks in between scenes that originally unfold in direct sequence. By opening up the temporal structure of the opera this way, Tcherniakov allows for the possibility of much greater personal change in the characters—we are no longer seeing someone minute-by-minute, but returning to them after a longer period of time, in which their outlooks, motivations, and desires could have changed more substantially than in a contracted time span.

A S I A N I N S P I R E D. D I S T I N C T LY C A N A D I A N.

E N J OY P R E - P E R F O R M A N C E D I N I N G .

Nikita Gourski is Development Communications Officer at the Canadian Opera Company.

T H E S I G N AT U R E R E S TAU R A N T A N D LO B B Y B A R AT S H A N G R I - L A H O T E L , T O R O N T O FOR FURTHER INSIGHT INTO DON GIOVANNI, READ ANATOMY OF AN OPERA AND A PROFILE OF DMITRI TCHERNIAKOV IN THE WINTER ISSUE OF PRELUDE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT COC.CA/PUBLICATIONS.

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Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

SEMELE

GOES TO BAM!

Jane Archibald as Semele (foreground) and William Burden as Jupiter (background) in the COC's Semele, 2012.

Photo: Michael Cooper

“Both the adventurous staging and the consistently brilliant singing make Handel’s Semele by far the best opera production I’ve seen from the COC.” barczablog, 2012

F

or the second time in only four years, the COC presents a signature production at one of the most the prestigious art venues in the world, the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)! The COC performs Handel’s Semele March 4 – 10 as part of BAM’s 2015 spring season. A tantalizing mix of East and West, Baroque opera and 21st-century performance art, ancient myth and real-life tragedy, Semele was the sensation of the COC’s 2011/2012 season.

COC General Director, Alexander Neef “It’s truly an honour to have been invited to bring Semele to BAM. The centre’s international reputation and reach is an exceptional way for us to show new audiences what a great company we are. In 2011, we were thrilled to be the toast of New York City with The Nightingale and Other Short Fables, and we look forward to a similar reaction this year with this fantastic Semele.”

Soprano Jane Archibald (Semele) “I am so delighted to be able to inhabit Semele’s world once again! Performing this role with

the COC has been an absolute highlight of my career and it feels like such a wonderful fit for me. The costumes are beautiful, the set is evocative and the production is thoughtprovoking. I'm very excited to share it with New York audiences!”

Baritone Kyle Ketelsen (Cadmus/Somnus) “I’m extremely pleased to be debuting this role with the COC at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, which is known for its dedication to cutting-edge art.”

In March 2015, the COC’s groundbreaking production of Handel’s Semele will travel to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The COC thanks the following donors for their support of this milestone for the Company.

The COC Tour to BAM has been generously underwritten by Philip Deck and Kimberley Bozak Peter M. Partridge David and Kristin Ferguson Colleen Sexsmith Jerry and Geraldine Heffernan Kristine Vikmanis and Denton Creighton Anonymous FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON ALL THE CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY’S ACTIVITIES, READ THE WINTER ISSUE OF THE COC’S MAGAZINE PRELUDE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT COC.CA/PUBLICATIONS.

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Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

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GIUSEPPE VERDI

LA TRAVIATA When everything is for sale, what would you give for love?

With an irresistible score and a heartbreaking story of grand romance, Verdi’s La Traviata epitomizes what great opera is all about.

From Violetta’s soaring and passionate declaration of independence, “Sempre libera,” to her heartfelt cry for Alfredo’s love, “Amami Alfredo;” from Germont’s fatherly plea in “Di Provenza il mar” to the rousing “Libiamo,” Traviata is a glorious offering of some of Verdi’s most exciting melodies.

The role of Violetta demands vocal pyrotechnics and the dramatic conviction to carry the character through a remarkable emotional arc, and we have wonderful exponents of the role in Ekaterina Siurina and Joyce El-Khoury, two of the most exciting young sopranos on the opera scene.

In this new production, renowned director Arin Arbus sets the story of devotion and sacrifice in the demimonde of 1850s Paris, featuring decadent parties and all-night balls, sumptuous sets and exquisite costumes, all unfolding against the rhythms, rituals, and debauchery of a rapidly changing society.

October 8 – November 4, 2015

Generously underwritten in part by

NEW COC PRODUCTION

DAVID ROFFEY AND KAREN WALSH

Marina Rebeka as Violetta in La Traviata (Lyric Opera of Chicago, 2013). Photo: Todd Rosenberg

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Bold new Canadian meets early Baroque classic BARBARA MONK FELDMAN

CANADIAN WORLD PREMIERE

PYRAMUS AND THISBE MONTEVERDI

IL COMBATTIMENTO DI TANCREDI E CLORINDA AND LAMENTO D’ARIANNA Opera’s earliest beginnings collide with a bold, new Canadian world premiere in this intriguing and innovative program. When opera was first invented in early 17th-century Italy, Claudio Monteverdi was at the forefront with works like Lamento d’Arianna (1608) and Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (1624). As with most early opera, their subjects are drawn from mythology and history— here, the tales of Ariadne abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos; and, of Tancredi and Clorinda whose tragic fates unfold on the battlefields of the Crusades.

Canadian composer Barbara Monk Feldman’s Pyramus and Thisbe (2010) is also based on a classical myth—the same saga of fated love famously adapted by Shakespeare for Romeo and Juliet. Inspired by the ever-changing light and colour of her native Gaspé Peninsula, Monk Feldman’s transparent score charts the emotional landscape between two star-crossed lovers and celebrates the cathartic power of letting love go.

Following virtuosic turns in 2012’s Love from afar and 2015’s Erwartung, Canadian mezzo soprano and COC Ensemble alumna Krisztina Szabó continues her traversal of contemporary opera’s most compelling heroines as Monk Feldman’s Thisbe and then reaches back four centuries to play Monteverdi’s Arianna and Clorinda. Canadian baritone Phillip Addis (Marcello/Schaunard in 2013’s La bohème) returns as Pyramus and Tancredi. The compelling team of singer-actors is united under the ever-probing eye of director Christopher Alden (Die Fledermaus, 2012; Rigoletto, 2011). COC Music Director Johannes Debus leads the COC Orchestra.

October 17 – November 6, 2015 NEW COC PRODUCTION 14

Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

Detail from Nicolas Poussin’s Landscape during a Thunderstorm with Pyramus and Thisbe, 1651.

Photo: U. Edelmann–Stä del Museum–ARTOTHEK

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ONE NATION UNDER THE ARTS

RICHARD WAGNER

SIEGFRIED “Through furious fire have I come to you!”

The journey of the hero Siegfried, as created by the revolutionary composer Richard Wagner, makes for some of the most profound drama ever conceived. Wagner immerses us into a psychologically penetrating world of greed, fear, and self-discovery in a production created by innovative FrenchCanadian director François Girard and Toronto-born designer Michael Levine. Mirroring the emotional landscape of Wagner’s stirring score, this production has been called “mind-blowing” (Eye Weekly), “awe-inspiring” (Toronto Sun) and “incandescent” (National Post).

Described as “huge of voice, unflagging of stamina, imaginative and energetic on the stage” (Seattle Times), formidable German tenor Stefan Vinke is the hero Siegfried, a man without fear who battles dragons, fire, and gods in order to save the courageous Valkyrie Brünnhilde, who has been cast into an enchanted sleep. Powerhouse American soprano Christine Goerke brings her “multi-hued miracle of gale-force power and pin point control” (Musical America) in a return to the COC as Brünnhilde.

Wagner’s exhilarating, intoxicating and deeply personal score is brought to life by the COC Orchestra under COC Music Director Johannes Debus.

February 6 – 26, 2016

Production originally made possible by

COC PRODUCTION

KOLTER COMMUNITIES A scene from Siegfried (Canadian Opera Company, 2006).

Photo: Michael Cooper

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Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

We live in a country with a rich and deep appreciation for arts and culture, and we’re committed to fund programs that enable Canadians of all means and backgrounds to enjoy the very best.

Proud supporter of SURTITLES™ at the Canadian Opera Company and proudly Canadian.

ALEXANDER NEEF, General Director

DON GIOVANNI

by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Dramma giocoso in Two Acts, Libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, after the opera Don Giovanni Tenorio, o sia Il convitato di petra by Giovanni Bertati First performance: Gräflich Nostitzsches Nationaltheater, Prague, October 29, 1787 New COC Production Co-production with Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Teatro Real Madrid and Bolshoi Theatre Moscow Last performed by the COC in 2008 January 24, 27, 30, February 1, 3, 6, 12, 14, 18, 21, 2015 Sung in Italian with English SURTITLESTM

THE CAST Il Commendatore Donna Anna, daughter of the Commendatore Don Ottavio, Donna Anna’s new fiancé Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni’s wife and Donna Anna’s cousin Zerlina, Donna Anna’s daughter from a previous marriage Masetto, Zerlina’s fiancé Don Giovanni, Donna Elvira’s husband Leporello, young relative of the Commendatore, living in his house Conductor Director Associate Director Set Designer Costume Designers Lighting Designer Associate Lighting Designer Chorus Master Stage Manager SURTITLES™ Producer

Andrea Silvestrelli Jane Archibald Michael Schade Jennifer Holloway Sasha Djihanian^ Zachary Nelson Russell Braun** Kyle Ketelsen Michael Hofstetter Dmitri Tcherniakov* Thorsten Cölle Dmitri Tcherniakov* Dmitri Tcherniakov* and Elena Zaytseva Gleb Filshtinsky Ayvar Salikhov Sandra Horst***^ Jenifer Kowal Gunta Dreifelds

Performance time is approximately 3 hours and 30 minutes, including one intermission.

Production supported in part by

*Dmitri Tcherniakov is generously sponsored by Sarah Billinghurst Solomon and Howard Solomon **Russell Braun’s performance is generously sponsored by Earlaine Collins ***Sandra Horst and the COC Chorus are generously underwritten by Tim and Frances Price ^Graduate of the COC Ensemble Studio Program information is correct at time of printing. All casting is subject to change.

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DIRECTOR’S NOTES

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his unusual production was ripening with an attempt to ask numbers of questions of the work, which we so absorbingly love. What is this force which exists in the main hero, which permits him to bind so to himself? And what, at the end of the day, does he want from those women, whom he makes fall in love with him? What does he want from life overall?

And why is he considered such a legendary seducer, yet through the opera story it does not bring him great luck or great happiness?

Why is Don Giovanni so sinful that he deserves such a terrible punishment? Have not we seen in other opera stories much more awful and sinful characters, and yet Hell was not chasing after them as it does Don Giovanni? And do we really believe that the Hell where Don Giovanni falls in at the end exists? And why, if he is guilty of all possible sins and must be punished, why through the opera are we taking his part, wishing victory to him, sympathizing with him, with the final punishment coming as a tragic one?

Of course, in our production we were finding numbers of unconventional and new explanations of characters’ deeds important to us.

Don Giovanni is separated from the rest of the characters. He always exists in his own way, even when coupled with Leporello.

It is he, and there are all the others. The rest of the characters are all together and he is alone. It’s not by chance that in the final punishment they all get united.

At the end these two sides embody absolutely different ideas of how we shall live our life.

All heroes are opposite Don Giovanni and that's why they are all united in our production. That is one family: solid, rich, bourgeois, with their traditions and strict rules of living.

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Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

The Commendatore is the chief. He is an authority, a master, an embodiment of base of unshakable ground.

Donna Anna is his daughter and Don Ottavio is her new partner. They are not young, they are rather middle-aged. But there is a younger couple—Zerlina and Masetto. And we are also tying up Zerlina into this family knot by making her Donna Anna’s daughter from a first marriage. And Zerlina and Masetto’s social circle is not the lower one of the scale, not the bucolic peasant’s one. They are an equal part of this family clan. The traditional libretto division into peasants and aristocrats becomes the one between youths and adults.

Family relations between characters, which are invented in our production, pull them all into one family clan and are opposing them to Don Giovanni. That complicates relations between those who did not know each other and existed in different territory in the initial libretto.

And Don Giovanni comes to their world.

He has a feeling that he knows how our life should be changed and he wants them to follow him. He is like a Messiah and a maniac at the same time. And he wants them all to throw away all their rules, barriers, traditions and feathering. He wants to make them see everything differently.

To become happy. To return back to the natural, to the animal state, to invent new language and to start everything from the scratch. Then everyone will understand that what they are holding onto has no sense.

Don Giovanni in our production is not a young attractive seducer, playboy, fresh libertine.

The kind of revelation which came to our Don Giovanni could not come to the young seducer. It can come as a result of living experience, losses, traumas or re-evaluation of everything in midlife.

He wants to help each woman; he gives every woman something which was not accessible. The people in the end of the first act found themselves in a strange spot when they are following him, yet they are afraid of something, they are looking back towards the initial point of departure. They are following him, but a worm of doubt remains in them.

And Don Giovanni is happy: we don’t need anyone. We are all together. We do not need a big world. No jealousy, no property, no fidelity. We are all together, we are all equal and we are all happy.

Later, they all start to be afraid, they stop trusting him and they will betray him.

In the end they are taking vengeance on him, revenging their credulity, weakness that they trusted him, followed themselves and found inside something which they never expected. They became scared. And the vengeance which Don Giovanni meets is those peoples’ handiwork. They got up together to get rid of him and throw him out of their lives.

There is no stature whatsoever. That simply cannot exist.

The whole finale is their scenario. To terrify, to block, to pull away all forces and bring to death this desperate, exhausted and ruined Don Giovanni.

We are spreading the action of Don Giovanni to half of a year; weeks, days or months pass between the scenes.

Between the scenes a number of interesting things happen and characters come to the next episodes changed.

Don Giovanni in our production is surely not the first Don Juan. He is not a founder of myth—he is only an heir. Or maybe the last one in this historic gallery, tired and understanding all about everything. In those huge bookcases which we have on stage, most probably there is a great Please visit coc.ca for additional information

quantity of literature on Don Giovanni as a legendary opera-literature seducer. And most probably those books were read by our Elviras, Annas, Zerlinas. So women in this production are also armed from head to toe. They are armed with disillusion and irony. They’ve heard a lot about somebody else’s bitter experience. They don’t have innocence, holy unawareness in the kind of story in which they participate. Zerlina, first of all, recognizes her role—recognizes that in this layout she is Zerlina, a naïve little fool, who will be seduced and abandoned, and that is why it is with such pain she is making up her mind and yet, still one chance out of a hundred—at the end of the day she is daring.

There is no flirtation in it, no lightness, no game which will pleasantly tease the nerves. What is there is constraint, a veiled reproach: not for herself, but for those whose disappointment Zerlina already saw, an attempt to save the intercourse, that nothing like that would happen to her.

That he really needs her. That she is the one whom he was looking for all those years. She would like to believe and she is afraid to believe.

To each of our female characters, Don Giovanni has attached many expectations, in the imagination of each of them he is truly unique. The one who attracts and the one who scares. Someone to whom it is so difficult to give a hand, and that is exactly what he waits for. His hand is craving for the free choice. His hand is not demanding—rather it’s asking for help.

Help in some desperate metaphysical adventure. And that handshake is attractive—like a jump into the abyss of the unknown. And that is why it is so difficult to dare to take it.

Dmitri Tcherniakov

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SYNOPSIS

SYNOPSIS Il Commendatore Donna Anna, daughter of the Commendatore Don Ottavio, Donna Anna's new fiancé Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni's wife and Donna Anna's cousin Zerlina, Donna Anna’s daughter from a previous marriage Masetto, Zerlina's fiancé Don Giovanni, Donna Elvira’s husband Leporello, young relative of the Commendatore living in his house The action takes place in the house of the Commendatore.

ACT I Leporello, the faithful servant of all of Don Giovanni’s follies, witnesses a night scandal at the house of the Commendatore. Donna Anna alerts the whole household and tries to stop an intruder who would like to leave the house unseen. This intruder is Don Giovanni. The Commendatore hears the racket and comes to protect his daughter.

Don Giovanni takes up the challenge. As a result the Commendatore is killed. Don Giovanni tries to run away.

Donna Anna and her fiancé Don Ottavio cannot accept the sudden and horrible death of the Commendatore. Donna Anna wants to take revenge on the unknown murderer.

As Don Giovanni abandoned her, Donna Elvira is tortured with love and her craving for revenge. She finally finds him, but Donna Elvira’s grief only arouses indifference in Don Giovanni. He manages to escape.

It is Leporello who answers in his stead.

Zerlina celebrates her engagement with Masetto. Don Giovanni cunningly manages to stay alone with the young girl. He charms 4

Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

her and tempts her and leaves her with all senses alert. Enters Donna Elvira and warns Zerlina against trusting Don Giovanni.

Donna Anna and Don Ottavio encounter Don Giovanni and hope that he will give them his support in the difficult time they are living through. Don Giovanni gives them his assurances. Donna Elvira persuades Donna Anna not to believe in Don Giovanni’s sincerity. When Donna Anna remains alone with Don Ottavio, she tells him about the events of the fatal night and confesses that the murderer of her father is Don Giovanni himself.

Don Giovanni decides to set up a party and to bring in guests.

Zerlina and Masetto come to this party.

Donna Anna, Don Ottavio and Donna Elvira join them, planning to denounce Don Giovanni as the murderer of the Commendatore and the root of all their misfortunes. But Don Giovanni manages to reverse the situation and to take everybody in his wake. However, at the end everybody gets out of the game, throwing accusations into Don Giovanni’s face.

Donna Elvira who continues to mistake Leporello for Don Giovanni meets Donna Anna and Don Ottavio by chance. Zerlina and Masetto join them. Mistaking Leporello for Don Giovanni, they all want to execute him on the spot. Leporello manages to escape. Everybody feels that they cannot get rid of the destructive power of Don Giovanni over their respective fates.

Don Giovanni hears the voice of the dead Commendatore accusing him of horrible sins. In response, Don Giovanni provokes the Commendatore and dares him to dinner.

Don Ottavio tries to persuade Donna Anna that they will soon find the way to punish the criminal, and that she should agree to marry him as soon as possible.

Don Giovanni organizes a boisterous party, to which everybody is invited, even the late Commendatore. Joy is in full swing when Don Giovanni sees the invited Commendatore come in. The latter asks the villain to repent. Don Giovanni does not at all admit his fault and challenges all and everything. But he is defeated and crushed.

The avengers triumph...

Dmitri Tcherniakov

MUSIC STAFF

Stephen B. Hargreaves (Head Coach) Michael Shannon ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR

Emanuele Lippi ASSISTANT DIRECTOR

Joel Ivany ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERS

INTERMISSION ACT II Leporello does not want to share the follies and dangers of Don Giovanni’s life anymore, but the latter makes him take part in the realization of his new plans. According to one of these ideas, Donna Elvira, abandoned and unhappy, falls into the arms of Leporello whom she has to mistake for Don Giovanni. Masetto yearns to get back to Don Giovanni and brings more people to help him. But Don Giovanni, whom they are forced to mistake for Leporello, manages to fool them and to teach Masetto a good lesson.

Tiffany Fraser Stephanie Marrs ASSISTANT LIGHTING DESIGNERS

Kaileigh Krysztofiak Andrea Nelson ACTOR

Constantine Meglis UNDERSTUDIES

Leporello Donna Anna Don Giovanni Don Ottavio Donna Elvira Masetto

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Stephen Hegedus Aviva Fortunata Gordon Bintner Andrew Haji Karine Boucher Iain MacNeil

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ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES JANE ARCHIBALD Donna Anna

Canadian soprano Jane Archibald last appeared at the COC in the title role of Semele in 2012, which she sings again in March 2015 when the COC tours to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She also performed the role of Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos at the COC. Recent appearances include Zerbinetta (Opéra national de Paris/ONP, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Bayerische Staatsoper); Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffmann, Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Opernhaus Zürich); and Adele in Die Fledermaus (Metropolitan Opera). Upcoming engagements include Olympia (Bayerische Staatsoper) and the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte (ONP). Next season Ms. Archibald returns to the COC as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro.

RUSSELL BRAUN Don Giovanni

Canadian baritone Russell Braun last appeared with the COC as Ford in Falstaff.

Other COC roles include the Duke of Nottingham in Roberto Devereux, Conte di Luna in Il Trovatore, Jaufré Rudel in Love from Afar, Orestes in Iphigenia in Tauris, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky in War and Peace, Pelléas in Pelléas et Mélisande, Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro (which he sings again next season at the COC), Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor and the title role in Billy Budd. Upcoming engagements include Lescaut in Manon (Metropolitan Opera) and the world premiere of Peter Eötvös’ Senza Sangue in Cologne and 6

Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

New York (New York Philharmonic).

Recent recordings include Fantasio (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment) and Faust in the Met’s Live in HD series.

SASHA DJIHANIAN Zerlina

Ensemble Studio graduate soprano and Montreal native Sasha Djihanian was the winner of the First Annual COC Ensemble Studio Competition. Recently with the COC she appeared as Pedro in Don Quichotte and Fiordiligi in the Ensemble performance of Così fan tutte. Other COC roles include Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor, and she stepped in as Annio in a mainstage performance of La clemenza di Tito as well as the Ensemble performance. She was a recent prizewinner at the Jeunes Embassadeurs Lyriques, was a national finalist in the 2011 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and represented Canada at the 2011 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Recent credits include Nannetta in Falstaff (Opera Hamilton) and Micaëla in Carmen (Teatro Petruzzelli and Castleton Festival). She sings Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro (Opera Lyra) this spring.

JENNIFER HOLLOWAY Donna Elvira

American Jennifer Holloway is making her COC debut. Recent appearances include Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Opera Philadelphia); Temple Drake in Oscar Strasnoy’s Requiem for a Nun (Teatro Colón); Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus and Musetta in La Bohème (English National Opera); Dorabella in Così fan tutte (New National Theatre,

Tokyo and New York City Opera); Magnolia in Show Boat (Washington National Opera); and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro (Opéra National de Bordeaux/ONB).

Upcoming engagements include excerpts from Der Rosenkavalier (Valencia Orchestra) and Adalgisa in Norma (ONB).

KYLE KETELSEN Leporello

American bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen last appeared at the COC as Alidoro in La Cenerentola.

In regular demand by the world’s leading opera companies and orchestras, his recent appearances include Leporello (Lyric Opera of Chicago/LOC, Bayerische Staatsoper, Festival d’Aix-enProvence, Teatro Real and Houston Grand Opera); Escamillo in Carmen (Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Bayerische Staatsoper and Metropolitan Opera); Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia (LOC); and Méphistophélès in Faust (Opernhaus Zürich).

Upcoming appearances include Escamillo (Minnesota Opera and Chorégies d’Orange).

Mr. Ketelsen will also sing Cadmus/Somnus/ High Priest in Semele when the COC tours to the Brooklyn Academy of Music in March 2015.

ZACHARY NELSON Masetto

American baritone Zachary Nelson is making his COC debut.

Praised for his rich and powerful voice, his recent appearances include Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, Escamillo in Carmen, the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Marcello in La Bohème, and Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro (Semperoper Dresden/SD); Please visit coc.ca for additional information

and Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale and the title role in Le nozze di Figaro (Santa Fe Opera). Upcoming appearances include Duke Robert in Guntram (Washington Concert Opera); and Paolo Albiani in Simon Boccanegra and the title role in Le nozze di Figaro (SD).

MICHAEL SCHADE Don Ottavio

Canadian tenor Michael Schade last appeared at the COC as Tito in La clemenza di Tito.

Other COC credits include Die Fledermaus, The Magic Flute, Rusalka, Oedipus Rex, Il viaggio a Reims, Idomeneo, Il barbiere di Siviglia and L’elisir d’amore. Recent appearances include the title role in Idomeneo and Tito, as well as the Prince in Rusalka and Flamand in Capriccio (Wiener Staatsoper); the title role in Schubert’s Fierrabras (Salzburger Festspiele); Florestan in Fidelio (Opernhaus Zürich and Theater an der Wien); and the title role in Peter Grimes (Hamburgische Staatsoper). Upcoming appearances include concerts with Orchestre National de France, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchestra, and Orchestre de Paris. Mr. Schade is Artistic Director at the Internationale Barocktage Stift Melk in Austria through 2016.

ANDREA SILVESTRELLI Il Commendatore

Italian bass Andrea Silvestrelli is making his COC debut. One of the most sought-after basses on the international scene, Mr. Silvestrelli’s recent appearances include Ferrando in Il Trovatore and Il Commendatore (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Hagen in Götterdämmerung and Fafner in Das 7

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Rheingold and Siegfried (Tyrolean Festival Erl); Crespel in Les contes d’Hoffmann and Sparafucile in Rigoletto (Seattle Opera); Fafner in Das Rheingold (Houston Grand Opera/HGO); Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Pistola in Falstaff (San Francisco Opera/SFO); and Hunding in Die Walküre and Fasolt in Das Rheingold (Seattle Opera). Upcoming appearances include Wurm in Luisa Miller (SFO) and Fafner in Siegfried (HGO).

MICHAEL HOFSTETTER Conductor

German conductor Michael Hofstetter is making his COC debut.

Frequently sought after by major opera houses, orchestras and festivals, he has conducted at Bayerische Staatsoper, Hamburgische Staatsoper, Danish Royal Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, English National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Salzburger Festspiele and Händel Festspiele Karlsruhe, among others.

Opernwelt magazine nominated him several times as “Conductor of the Year,” most recently in 2013 for his achievements as general music director at Giessen. Recent engagements include Xerxes (English National Opera); Riccardo Primo (Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe); Der Freischütz (Styriarte Festival Graz/SFG); and Stabat Mater (Château de Versailles Spectacles and Opéra de Lyon). Upcoming engagements include the festival Schubertiade Hohenems; Eugene Onegin (Houston Grand Opera); and Il barbiere di Siviglia (SFG).

8

Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

DMITRI TCHERNIAKOV Director and Set and Costume Designer

Russian director and set and costume designer Dmitri Tcherniakov is making his COC debut.

A graduate of the Russian Theatre Academy, he has received numerous awards for his opera and theatre productions and was named “Director of the Year” at the 2013 International Opera Awards. His productions include The Rake’s Progress, Wozzeck, Eugene Onegin and Ruslan and Ludmila (Bolshoi Theatre); Tristan und Isolde (Mariinsky Theatre); Aida (Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre); Boris Godunov, The Gambler and The Tsar’s Bride (Staatsoper Unter den Linden/SUL); Khovanschina and Dialogues des Carmélites (Bayerische Staatsoper); Macbeth (Opéra national de Paris); Jenu ˚ fa (Opernhaus Zürich); La Traviata (Teatro alla Scala); Simon Boccanegra (English National Opera and Bayerische Staatsoper); Don Giovanni (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Bolshoi Theatre and Teatro Real); The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (Dutch National Opera and Gran Teatre del Liceu); Il Trovatore (La Monnaie); and Prince Igor (Metropolitan Opera). Upcoming productions include Parsifal (SUL) and Lulu (Bayerische Staatsoper).

THORSTEN CÖLLE Associate Director

German associate director Thorsten Cölle is making his COC debut. He studied theatrical sciences and opera stage direction in Berlin and was stage director at Staatsoper Unter den Linden from 2005 to 2011, and since then has worked in major international opera houses and theatres. He regularly collaborates with director Dmitri Tcherniakov.

ELENA ZAYTSEVA Costume Designer

Russian costume designer Elena Zaytseva is making her COC debut. She began her career designing for film and television after studying at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Theatrical Art, and she frequently collaborates with director Dmitri Tcherniakov.

Recent productions include Prince Igor (Metropolitan Opera); La Traviata (Teatro alla Scala); Il Trovatore (La Monnaie and Mikhailovskiy Theatre); Simon Boccanegra (English National Opera and Bayerische Staatsoper); Jenu ˚ fa (Opernhaus Zürich); Don Giovanni (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Bolshoi Theatre and Teatro Real); Dialogues des Carmélites (Bayerische Staatsoper); The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (Dutch National Opera and Gran Teatre del Liceu); Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Deutsche Oper am Rhein); and Macbeth (Opéra national de Paris). Upcoming projects include Lulu (Bayerische Staatsoper).

GLEB FILSHTINSKY Lighting Designer

Russian lighting designer Gleb Filshtinsky is making his COC debut. He graduated from the stage direction faculty of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Theatrical Art, specializing in theatre set design and has worked as a lighting designer on over 190 music and theatre productions in Russia and abroad. Recent credits include Cherevichki (Teatro Lirico di Cagliari); Aida and La Traviata (Latvian National Opera); Tosca (Staatsoper Unter den Linden); Simon Boccanegra (Bayerische Staatsoper and English National Opera); Eugene Onegin (Bolshoi Theatre); Il Trovatore (Salzburger Festspiele); Die Walküre, Otello and Semyon Kotko (Mariinsky Theatre); Macbeth and Please visit coc.ca for additional information

Eugene Onegin (Opéra national de Paris); The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh (Gran Teatre del Liceu and Mariinsky Theatre); and Prince Igor (Metropolitan Opera). Upcoming productions include Jenu ˚ fa (Teatro Comunale di Bologna); Lulu (Bayerische Staatsoper); and Il Trovatore (Salzburger Festspiele).

SANDRA HORST Chorus Master

Sandra Horst’s most recent COC credits include Falstaff and Madama Butterfly. Also at the COC she conducted Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims. As director of musical studies at UofT Opera, she most recently conducted Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore. Ms. Horst has served as chorus master for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Edmonton Opera; a judge for the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions; and music staff of the Juilliard Opera Center, Chautauqua Institution, Boston Lyric Opera, and Banff Centre for the Arts. She was one of the 100 Alumni of Achievement honoured by Wilfrid Laurier University and is a graduate of the COC Ensemble Studio. This season Ms. Horst is also chorus master for The Barber of Seville.

EMANUELE LIPPI Assistant Conductor

Italian conductor Emanuele Lippi is making his COC debut. Frequently sought after as a pianist, coach and conductor, his repertoire spans from Baroque to contemporary and includes opera, sacred and symphonic music. Recent appearances include Beethoven’s Leonore III and Symphony No. 4; concerts and performances (International Conservatory Week Festival at Glazunov Hall, Toyota Concert Hall, 9

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES

Zhou Xiao Yun International Opera Centre in Shanghai); Parsifal (co-production between Osterfestspiele Salzburg, Semperoper Dresden and Beijing Music Festival); and assistant conductor for Fidelio, Tannhäuser, Parsifal, the Ring Cycle, Il Diluvio Universale (Accademia di Montegral and Tiroler Festspiele Erl/TFE).

Upcoming productions include the Ring (TFE); Die Meistersinger and Tristan und Isolde (Beijing and Shanghai Festivals); and Petite messe solennelle (concerts and recording at the Accademia dei Musici in Fabriano).

JOEL IVANY Assistant Director

Canadian stage director Joel Ivany’s previous COC credits include assistant director for Hercules, Dialogues des Carmélites, Iphigenia in Tauris, Orfeo ed Euridice and La Bohème. He is the founder and artistic director of Against the Grain Theatre (AtG) and was a recent finalist and winner in the European Opera-Directing Prize for his concept of Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi. Mr. Ivany recently directed #UncleJohn (AtG); Carmen (Vancouver

Opera); the world premiere of East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon (Canadian Children's Opera Company); Macbeth (Minnesota Opera); Albert Herring (University of Toronto Opera); and Les contes d’Hoffmann (Edmonton Opera).

Next season at the COC Mr. Ivany directs Carmen.

JENIFER KOWAL Stage Manager

This is Jenifer Kowal’s 23rd season with the COC. Her numerous COC stage managing credits include Falstaff, Roberto Devereux, Così fan tutte, Peter Grimes, Salome, La clemenza di Tito, Die Fledermaus, Semele, Tosca, Rigoletto, Aida, Carmen, The Flying Dutchman, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fidelio, War and Peace, Eugene Onegin, Don Carlos, La Traviata, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, the Ring Cycle and, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Nightingale and Other Short Fables. She was the production stage manager for Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera’s Miss Saigon, which also toured to Toronto and Schenectady. Ms. Kowal studied theatre at Indiana University.

CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY ORCHESTRA VIOLIN I

CELLO

TROMBONE

Marie Bérard, Concertmaster The Concertmaster’s chair has been endowed in perpetuity by Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Aaron Schwebel, Associate Concertmaster Jamie Kruspe, Assistant Concertmaster Aya Miyagawa, Acting Assistant Concertmaster Anne Armstrong Sandra Baron Bethany Bergman Nancy Kershaw Dominique Laplante Yakov Lerner Jayne Maddison Neria Mayer

Bryan Epperson, Principal, on leave of absence Alastair Eng, Associate Principal Paul Widner, Assistant Principal, Acting Principal Olga Laktionova, Acting Assistant Principal Loewi Lin* Elaine Thompson

Charles Benaroya, Principal Ian Cowie

BASS

Michael Shannon*

VIOLIN II Paul Zevenhuizen, Principal Csaba Koczó, Assistant Principal James Aylesworth Elizabeth Johnston Boris Kupesic* Marianne Urke Louise Tardif Joanna Zabrowarna

VIOLA

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.

10

Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

Alan Molitz, Principal, on leave of Absence Joseph Phillips*, Acting Principal Robert Speer, Assistant Principal Tom Hazlitt Paul Langley

Keith Hamm, Principal Joshua Greenlaw, Assistant Principal, on leave of absence Sheila Jaffé, Acting Assistant Principal Carolyn Blackwell* Rory McLeod* Rhyll Peel, on leave of absence Beverley Spotton Yosef Tamir

BASS TROMBONE Herbert Poole

TIMPANI Michael Perry, Principal

CONTINUO HARPSICHORD

CONTINUO CELLO Alastair Eng

BANDA 1 Jamie Kruspe, Violin Maurizio Baccante, Cello Daniel Lalonde*, Bass

FLUTE Douglas Stewart, Principal Shelley Brown

OBOE

BANDA 2 Ashley Vandiver*, Violin Elaine Thompson, Cello Robert Wolanski*, Bass

Mark Rogers, Principal Lesley Young

CLARINET

LIBRARIAN

James T. Shields, Principal Colleen Cook

Wayne Vogan

BASSOON

ASSISTANT MUSIC LIBRARIAN

Eric Hall, Principal William Cannaway* Elizabeth Gowen, on leave of absence

Ondrej Golias

HORN

PERSONNEL MANAGER

Joan Watson, Principal Gary Pattison

Ian Cowie

STAGE LIBRARIAN Paul Langley

* extra musician

TRUMPET Robert Grim, Principal Robert Weymouth

Please visit coc.ca for additional information

11

CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY CHORUS

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

SOPRANOS

TENORS

BARITONES & BASSES

Laura Klassen Alexandra Lennox-Pomeroy Jennifer Robinson

Stephen Bell Sam Chung Sean Clark Stephen Erickson Nicolas Groenewegen John Kriter Stephen McClare

Kenneth Baker Sung Chung Michael Downie Jason Nedecky Michael Sproule Jan Vaculik Gene Wu

OFFICERS Mr. Tony Arrell, Chair Ms. Colleen Sexsmith, Vice Chair Mr. Paul A. Bernards, Treasurer Mr. John H. Macfarlane, Secretary Mr. Alexander Neef, General Director (ex officio) Mr. Robert Lamb, Managing Director (ex officio)

MEZZO-SORPANOS Susan Black Sandra Boyes

MEMBERS Mr. Mark Appel Ms. Nora Aufreiter Mr. Robert Brouwer Ms. Helen Burstyn Ms. Marcia Lewis Brown Mr. Stewart Burton Mr. Philip C. Deck Mr. Peter M. Deeb Mr. George S. Dembroski Mr. William Fearn (ex officio) Mr. David Ferguson (ex officio) Mr. Adam Froman Mr. Michael Gibbens Mr. Peter Hinman Dr. Linda Hutcheon Ms. Carolyn Jarvis

Mr. Justin Linden Mr. Jeff Lloyd Ms. Anne Maggisano Mr. Stephen O. Marshall Ms. Judy Matthews Mr. Jonathan Morgan Mr. Nick Mutton Ms. Frances Price Mr. Arthur R.A. Scace, C.M. Mr. Philip S.W. Smith Mr. Paul B. Spafford Ms. Michele Symons Ms. Kristine (Kris) Vikmanis Mr. Graham Watchorn Mr. John H. (Jack) Whiteside

HONORARY DIRECTOR Mr. Joey Tanenbaum, C.M.

VOLUNTEER SUPPORT ORGANIZATIONS COC OPERA GUILDS Brantford Opera Guild, David M. Cullen, President Kingston Opera Guild Grace Orzech, President London Opera Guild Ernest H. Redekop, President Muskoka Opera Guild Dr. Hans Heeneman, President Northumberland Opera Guild Thais Donald, President Oakville Opera Guild Maureen Rudzik, President Sudbury Opera Guild Diane Moore, President Western New York Opera Guild Dorothy K. Piepke, President

CANADIAN OPERA FOUNDATION DIRECTORS Mr. Tony Arrell Mr. Jonathan Bloomberg Mr. J. Rob Collins Mr. Philip C. Deck, Vice Chair Mr. William Fearn, Chair Mr. David Forster, Treasurer Mr. Gary Grad Mr. Michael Gough Mr. Christopher Hoffmann Mr. David Spiro, Secretary

HONORARY DIRECTORS Mr. George Hamilton Hon. Dennis Lane

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

12

Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

Please visit coc.ca for additional information

13

ADMINISTRATION AND STAFF ALEXANDER NEEF, General Director Robert Lamb Managing Director Johannes Debus Music Director EXECUTIVE OFFICE Marguerite Schabas Executive Assistant to the General Director ARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION Roberto Mauro Artistic Administrator Olwyn Lewis Company Manager Karen Olinyk Assistant, Artistic Administration & Music MUSIC Sandra Gavinchuk Music Administrator Sandra Horst Chorus Master Wayne Vogan Music Librarian, Coach Elizabeth Upchurch Head of the Ensemble Studio & Coach Wendy Nielsen Head Vocal Consultant Derek Bate Assistant to the Music Director Music Staff Rachel Andrist Timothy Cheung Andrea Del Bianco Jenna Douglas Stephen Hargreaves Anne Larlee Ben Malensek Michael Shannon Kathryn Garnett Scheduling Manager Birthe Joergensen Archivist – Joan Baillie Archives

COC Ensemble Studio Gordon Bintner Karine Boucher Charlotte Burrage Jean-Philippe FortierLazure Aviva Fortunata Clarence Frazer Andrew Haji Iain MacNeil Owen McCausland Jennifer Szeto Production Assistants Adriana Dimitri Jane Honek

Amy Cummings Scene Shop Co-ordinator David Retzleff Head Scene Shop Carpenter Andrew Walker Assistant Scene Shop Carpenter

Nancy Hawkins Head of Wardrobe Leslie Brown Wardrobe Assistant Sharon Ryman Wig & Make-up Supervisor Cori Ferguson Head of Wig & Make-up Crew Shawna Green Production Co-ordinator

PROGRAMMING

Richard Gordon Head Scenic Artist

Nina Dragani´ c Director of Programming – Free Concert Series

Carolina Valenzuela Assistant Head Scenic Artist

PRODUCTION

Scott Williamson Rehearsal Head Technician

Zane Kaneps SURTITLES™ Editor

Guy Nokes Properties Supervisor

Olwyn Lewis SURTITLES™ Assistant

Chuck Giles Technical Director

Stephanie Tjelios Resident Properties Builder/Co-ordinator

Supernumeraries Co-ordinators Analee Stein Elizabeth Walker

Barney Bayliss Associate Technical Director

Kathy Frost Resident Properties Buyer/Co-ordinator

Peter W. Lamb Director of Production Lee Milliken Production Manager

Lighting Co-ordinators Daniele Guevara Wendy Greenwood Assistant Technical Directors Melynda Jurgenson Wendy Ryder Janice Fraser Head Electrician Joel Thoman Assistant Electrician

Tracy Taylor Properties Builder/ Co-ordinator Properties Builders Carolyn Choo Wulf Sandra Corazza Costume Supervisor Cassandra Spence Costume Co-ordinator

Bob Shindle Head of Sound

Costume Assistants Natassia Brunato Christina Del Monte

Craig Kadoke Assistant Sound

Sue Furlong Resident Tailor

Paul Watkinson Head Carpenter

Assisted by Gulay Cokgezen Sharon Gashgarian Karen Hancock Carolyn Kasperski Barbara Nowakowski

David Middleton Assistant Carpenter

Ian Cowie Orchestra Personnel Manager

Rupert Baker Head Flyman

Ondrej Golias Assistant Librarian

Daniel Graham Head of Properties

14

Core Crew Scott Clarke Terry Hurley Paul Otis

Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

Additional Costumes by Martino Nyugen Additional Paint and Breakdown by Chrome Yellow

Hannah Gordon Assistant to the Production Department Gunta Dreifelds SURTITLES™ Producer

DEVELOPMENT Christie Darville Chief Advancement Officer Amy Mushinski Manager, Government Relations Janet Stubbs Foundation Development Stephen Gilles Director of Development

Alexandra Folkes Co-ordinator, Annual Programs and Patron Engagement Victor Widjaja Senior Development Officer, Friends of the COC Heather Cassels Individual Giving Co-ordinator, Friends of the COC Francesco Corsaro Senior Development Officer, Institutional Gifts Sarah Heim Senior Development Officer, Partnerships Nikita Gourski Development Communications Officer Tracy Briggs Senior Manager, Special Events

Eldon Earle Marketing Co-ordinator

FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION

Kristin McKinnon Assistant Publicist

Lindy Cowan, CPA, CA Director of Finance and Administration

EDUCATION AND OUTREACH Katherine Semcesen Associate Director, Education and Outreach Gianmarco Segato Adult Programs Manager Vanessa Smith School Programs Manager Blanche Israël Interim Children and Youth Programs Co-ordinator TICKET SERVICES Andrea Salin Ticket Services Manager Nikki Tremblay Assistant Ticket Services Manager

Laura Aylan-Parker Senior Development Officer, Special Events and Ensemble Circle

David Nimmo Group Sales Co-ordinator

John Kriter Donation Database Officer

Lillian Fung Ticket Services Supervisor

Olena Moldovan Donation Database Officer

Ticket Services Representatives James Baldwin Ernest Cayemen Aurelie Dufour Anna Kay Eldridge Peter Genoway Sylvie Goncalves Maureen Gualtieri Cat Haywood Keith Lam Kevin Morris Paulina Saliba Kat Smiley Darcy Stoop

COMMUNICATIONS Steven Kelley Chief Communications Officer

Peter Hussell Senior Manager, Advancement Operations

Claudine Domingue Director of Public Relations

Dawn Marie Schlegel Associate Director, Donor Relations

Gianna Wichelow Senior Manager, Creative and Publications

Emma Noakes Donor Relations Officer

Jennifer Pugsley Media Relations Manager

Richard Paradiso Call Centre Manager

Natalie Sandassie Senior Development Officer, Annual Programs and Patron Engagement

Claire Morley Associate Manager, Editorial

Call Centre Representatives Catherine Belyea Taisa Dackiw Ion Handrabur Wendy Limbertie Margaret Terry

Bree Callahan Co-ordinator, Annual Programs and Patron Engagement

Meighan Szigeti Associate Manager, Digital Marketing Kiersten Hay Digital Marketing Co-ordinator

CALL CENTRE

Lorraine O’Connor, CHRP Human Resources Manager Amalie Vanderzwet, CPA, CA Finance Manager General Accountants Florence Huang Zoran Orli´ c (FSCPA) Vera Brjozovskaia Accounting Clerk Payroll Accountants Jovana Bojovic Jeanny Won

Kathleen Minor Heather Reid Craig Thompson Building Operators Dan Bisca Dan Popescu Adrian Tudoran Paula Da Costa Eurest Services Supervisor Eurest Services Team Jennifer Barros Malaku Godana Nash Lim Jimmy Pacheco Sugey Torres FOUR SEASONS CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Steven Sherwood Manager, IT Services

Alfred Caron Director, Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts

Brad Staples Database Reporting Specialist

Elizabeth Jones Associate Director, Business Development

Tony Sandy IT Services Assistant

Shannon Churm Business & Events Co-ordinator

Katarina Božovi´ c Receptionist/ Switchboard Branka Hrsum Mailroom Clerk/Courier

Jefferson Guzman Associate Director, Patron Services

BUILDING SERVICES

Kim Hutchinson-Barber Assistant Manager, Patron Services

Joe Waldherr Associate Director, Facilities Management

Julia Somerville Assistant Manager, Front of House

Christian Coulter Assistant Manager, Operations

Brigitte Lang Assistant Manager, Food & Beverage

Maintenance Assistants Ryszard Gad (COC) Branislav Peterman (COC) Julian Peters (COC) James Esposito (FSCPA) Mark Healy (FSCPA) Piotr Wiench (FSCPA)

Patron Services Supervisors Stuart Constable Enrique Covarrubias Cortes Jamieson Eakin Lori MacDonald Melissa McDonnell

Security Supervisors Videsh Dookhu Dave Samuels Security Officers George Balyasin Tammy Hill Natalia Juzyc Usman Khalid

Patron Services Assistant Jennifer Toulmin Patron Services Leads Karol Carstenson Christine Groom Skye Plowman Rosemary Williams

FSCPA – Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts

Please visit coc.ca for additional information

15

LIFE TRUSTEES COUNCIL The Life Trustees Council salutes the leaders of the COC community whose efforts have been integral to the company’s artistic evolution and transformative history of accomplishment.

Earlaine Collins David Ferguson (Chair) Jerry and Geraldine Heffernan

Ben Heppner Henry N. R. Jackman Adrianne Pieczonka

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.

SUPPORTING TORONTO’S GROWING ARTS COMMUNITY TODAY, AND FOREVER

Tony and Anne Arrell The Estate of Dr. Larry M. Agranove ARIAS: Canadian Opera Student Development Fund The Gerard & Earlaine Collins Foundation The late John A. Cook The Estate of Horst Dantz and Don Quick Jerry and Geraldine Heffernan Kolter Communities

The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation Roger D. Moore E. Louise Morgan Tim & Frances Price Colleen Sexsmith Joey & Toby Tanenbaum Anonymous (2)

As Naming Donor of the Four Seasons Centre

MAJOR GIFTS & SPECIAL PROJECTS for the Performing Arts, we are proud to be a lifelong friend of the fine arts experience for the patrons here and from around the world.

ENJOY THE PERFORMANCE fourseasons.com

The COC offers its sincere thanks to the individuals listed below for their extraordinary support.

PRODUCTION UNDERWRITERS

PERFORMANCE AND ARTIST SPONSORS

ENSEMBLE STUDIO SUPPORTERS

Demonstrating their leadership and generosity, these donors have underwritten the COC’s main stage productions.

The following donors extend their generous support to individual artists and productions

Encouraging the next generation of artists, these donors support the COC’s Ensemble Studio.

$100,000 + Jack Whiteside

$1,000,000 Peter M. Deeb

$50,000 – $99,999 Sue Mortimer

$500,000 – $999,999 The Slaight Family Foundation

$500,000 + Jerry & Geraldine Heffernan The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation Colleen Sexsmith $100,000 – $499,999 Paul Bernards David Roffey & Karen Walsh $50,000 – $99,999 The Asper Foundation

$25,000 – $49,999 Earlaine Collins J. Hans Kluge Anonymous (1) Up to $25,000 Robert Sherrin Sarah Billinghurst Solomon & Howard Solomon Carol Swallow Riki Turofsky & Charles Petersen Kristine Vikmanis & Denton Creighton

Please visit coc.ca for additional information

$25,000 – $499,999 Anne & Tony Arrell Ethel Harris & the late Milton E. Harris Hal Jackman Foundation Roy and Marjorie Linden The Stratton Trust W. Garfield Weston Foundation

17

MAJOR GIFTS & SPECIAL PROJECTS

Join the Ensemble Circle

Three acclaimed opera productions Invitations to special events Post-performance toast with artists Henry N. R. Jackman Lounge access

Exclusive backstage tour Attend working rehearsal Admission to Operanation … and much more

The Ensemble Circle is a rapidly expanding community of young people who appreciate and support opera and the arts in Toronto. By becoming a member, you join a network of your peers from across the arts, media and business communities, and benefit from a personalized introduction to the world of opera and the Canadian Opera Company.

Call 416-306-2309

E-mail lauraa@coc.ca

Visit ensemblecircle.ca

Photos from Operanat10n: A Night of Temptation, 2013. Left: Cameron McPhail and Catherine Affleck. Photo: Ryan Emberley.

Centre: Photo: Tara Noelle. Right: (l-r) Katie Jones, Ashleigh Semkiw and Marissa Semkiw. Photo: Tara Noelle

Up to $25,000 ARIAS: Canadian Opera Student Development Fund Bruce Bailey Marcia Lewis Brown Margaret Harriett Cameron and the late Gary Smith Earlaine Collins Ninalee Craig Catherine Fauquier Patrick Hodgson Family Foundation Peter & Hélène Hunt Jo Lander Tom C. Logan Roger D. Moore Colleen Sexsmith June Shaw and the late Dr. Ralph Shaw Graham Watchorn Ruth Watts-Gransden Jack Whiteside Brian Wilks Anonymous (2)

GENERAL PROGRAM SUPPORTERS Providing general program support is critical to the COC’s artistic mission. $1,000,000+ Tim & Frances Price $100,000+ Anne & Tony Arrell Anonymous (1) $10,000 - $25,999 Bruce C. Bailey A. R. Deane & Mary Nesbitt The Parvez-Tyab Family Trust

SPECIAL PROJECTS In March 2015, the COC’s groundbreaking production of Handel’s Semele will travel to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The COC thanks the following donors for their support of this milestone for the Company.

Jerry & Geraldine Heffernan Judy & Wilmot Matthews Peter M. Partridge Colleen Sexsmith Kris Vikmanis & Denton Creighton Anonymous (1)

ENDOWMENT SUPPORT Making a gift to the Endowment ensures the long-term stability for the COC and its artists. $100,000 + Hon. Henry N. R. Jackman Anonymous (1) $25,000 – $99,999 Michael W. & Wanda Plachta Endowment Fund Up to $25,000 Anonymous (1)

Philip Deck & Kimberley Bozak David & Kristin Ferguson

INDIVIDUAL GIVING ANNUAL SUPPORT LEGACY AND BEQUEST GIFTS

MEMORIAL AND HONORARY DONATIONS

The COC honours the memory of the following patrons whose vision and generosity has provided lasting support.

The COC expresses its sincere appreciation to all donors who have made memorial and honorary donations.

Estate of Horst Dantz and Don Quick‡ Estate of Egon Homburger‡ Estate of John Gordon Hunter Estate of Ethel Berney Jackson‡ Estate of Henri Kolin Estate of Vida Peene Estate of J.M. (Doc) Savage‡ Estate of Helen Allen Stacey Estate of Jeanie Irwin Walker Anonymous (1)

In Memory of Margaret Elder Bell Fern Cohen Roy Albert Cross Derdre Gipp David Murray Harley Stephen Walter Ireland Janet Lo Eric Rump Darko Seifert Sylvia Shawn

In Honour of Walter Bowen Earlaine Collins Ninalee Craig Yael Dunkleman Michael Gibbens and Julie Lassonde Stephen Gilles Earl B. Law Wailan Low Judy and Wilmot Matthews Robert Morassutti Elizabeth Pizzinato and Richard Paquet Tim and Frances Price Barbara and Iain Scott Colleen Sexsmith David Stanley-Porter Beverly Zerafa As of January 15, 2015

‡ designates funds directed to the COC’s Endowment

Please visit coc.ca for additional information

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GOLDEN CIRCLE GOLD, $50,000 + Anne & Tony Arrell**** Cecily & Robert Bradshaw* David G. Broadhurst** In memory of Gerard H. Collins**** Jerry & Geraldine Heffernan**** The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation**** Roger D. Moore**** Colleen Sexsmith*** Anonymous (1) SILVER, $25,000 – $49,999 Andrew Peller Limited* Mark & Gail Appel*** Paul Bernards*** Barbara Black** The Black Family Foundation Philip Deck & Kimberley Bozak*** George & Kathy Dembroski**** Michael Gibbens & Julie Lassonde* Ethel Harris & the late Milton Harris**** Rennie & Bill Humphries**** Ronald Kimel & Vanessa LaPerriere**** Susan Loube & William Acton** James Nicol & Christine Milne Jack Whiteside*** BRONZE, $12,500 – $24,999 Dr. & Mrs. Hans G. Abromeit**** Philip & Linda Armstrong** Ms Nora Aufreiter* Mr. Philip J. Boswell**** Walter M. & Lisa Balfour Bowen**** Susanne Boyce & Brendan Mullen**** Rob & Teresa Brouwer** Marcia Lewis Brown* Stewart & Gina Burton* Wendy M. Cecil**** Dr. John Chiu in memory of Yvonne Chiu, C.M.**** Mr. & Mrs. Alexander Christ**** Stephen Clarke & Elizabeth Black** The Max Clarkson Family Foundation**** J. Rob Collins & Janet Cottrelle**** Sydney & Florence Cooper** Ninalee Craig*** Mr. & Mrs. Leslie Dan*** Jean Davidson & Paul Spafford**** Jill Denham & Stephen Marshall**

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David & Kristin Ferguson**** George Fierheller**** Lloyd & Gladys Fogler*** Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts*** Robert Fung** The Hon. William C. Graham & Mrs. Catherine Graham**** Ira Gluskin & Maxine Granovsky Gluskin*** William & Nona Heaslip Foundation**** Mr. Peter Hinman & Ms Kristi Stangeland Douglas E. Hodgson**** Michael & Linda Hutcheon**** Bernhard & Hannelore Kaeser**** Justin S. Linden* Jeff Lloyd & Barbara Henders* Mr. & Mrs. J. S. A. MacDonald**** Bobby & Gordon MacNeill** Judy & Wilmot Matthews* Hon. Margaret McCain*** John & Esther McNeil**** Don McQueen & Trina McQueen, O.C. ** John McVicker & B. W. Thomas**** Delia M. Moog*** Jonathan Morgan & Shurla Gittens** Sue Mortimer**** Nicholas & Rosemary Mutton* Mrs. Christl & Mr. Karl Niemuller*** Donald O’Born*** Peter M. Partridge**** Mr. Tim & Mrs. Frances Price**** Ms R. Raso**** David Roffey & Karen Walsh**** Barrie D. Rose & Family*** Philip & Maria Smith** Stephen & Jane Smith**** Marion & Gerald Soloway** David E. Spiro*** David Stanley-Porter**** Ryerson & Michele Symons Riki Turofsky & Charles Petersen** Ms Kristine Vikmanis & Mr. Denton Creighton**** The Youssef-Warren Foundation**** PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL TRUSTEE, $7,500 – $12,499 à la Carte Kitchen Inc. Margaret Atwood & Graeme Gibson*** Mr. & Mrs. Avie Bennett**** Dr. David & Constance Briant****

Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

Paul G. Cherry & Dean C. Noack**** Marilyn Cook* Ms Lindsay Dale-Harris & Mr. Rupert Field-Marsham**** Andrew Fleming** Peter & Shelagh Godsoe** Dr. Melvyn L. Iscove*** Bernhard & Hannelore Kaeser**** J. Hans Kluge** Jean V. Kramar** Mr. Gurney Kranz**** Mr. Philip Lanouette** Paul Lee & Jill Maynard**** Anne Lewitt** Jerry & Joan Lozinski**** Amy & John Macfarlane* Kathleen McLaughlin & Tim Costigan* Dr. Judith A. Miller*** Annie & Ian Sale* Dr. David Shaw** Françoise Sutton*** Carol Swallow*** William R. Waters**** PATRON, $3,750 – $7,499 Laurie & Fareed Ali** Sue Armstrong**** Ron Atkinson & Bruce Blandford**** Mona H. Bandeen, C. M. ** Karen & Bill Barnett* Henk Bartelink in memory of Oskar & Irmgard Gaube*** Dr. Frank Bartoszek & Mr. Daniel O’Brien**** Dr. Gail Beck, O. Ont. & Mr. Andrew Fenus* Dr. Thomas H. Beechy**** Mr. & Mrs. Eric Belli-Bivar*** Dr. Catherine Bergeron*** Tom Bogart & Kathy Tamaki** Peter Brieger & Beverley Hamblin* Dr. Jane Brissenden & Dr. Janet Roscoe**** Mrs. Donna Brock*** Alice Burton*** Margaret Harriett Cameron**** Joe & Laurissa Canavan Cesaroni Management Limited*** Frank Ciccolini**** The Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson* Mr. & Mrs. William J. Corcoran*** Lindy Cowan† & Chris Hatley*** Norman Curtis**** Brian J. Dawson*** Dr. Jeanne Deinum**** Carol Derk & David Giles** Mrs. A. Ephraim Diamond & Family**** Peter & Anne Dotsikas**

Jeffrey Douglas Vreni & Marc Ducommun*** Mr. Albert D. Dunn* Ron Dyck & Walter Stewart*** Bud & Leigh Eisenberg*** Joseph Fantl & Moira Bartram** Mr. & Mrs. Fraser M. Fell**** Kimberley Fobert & Robert Lamb†**** The Fraser Elliott Foundation**** Dr. & Mrs. Wm. O. Geisler*** Ben & Sarah Glatt**** Ann J. Gibson**** Peter & Shelagh Godsoe** Rose & Roger Goldstein**** Michael & Anne Gough**** Ronald & Birgitte Granofsky**** Douglas & Ruth Grant* John & Judith Grant** Al & Malka Green** John Groves & Vera Del Vecchio**** James & Joyce Gutmann**** George & Irene Hamilton**** Hampton Securities Ltd. * Scott & Ellen Hand*** Maggie Hayes** Hon. & Mrs. Paul Hellyer**** Chris Hoffmann & Joan Eakin** Michiel Horn & Cornelia Schuh**** Ken Hugessen & Jennifer Connolly** Dr. Melvyn L. Iscove*** The Jackman Foundation*** Victoria Jackman*** Ms Elizabeth Johnson** Dr. Joshua Josephson & Ms Elaine Lewis**** Lorraine Kaake**** Patrick & Barbara Keenan**** Dr. Joel Keenleyside**** Joseph Kerzner & Lisa Koeper**** James & Diane King** Dr. Elizabeth Kocmur**** Murray & Marvelle Koffler**** John B. Lawson, Q.C. **** Mr. J. Levitt & Ms E. Mah** Daniel & Janet Li** Vincent & Helene Lobraico* Tom C. Logan* Jonathan & Dorothea Lovat Dickson** Mr. Jed MacKay**** Mrs. R. MacMillan **** Dr. Colin McGregor Mailer**** Mrs. J. L. Malcolm* Dr. & Mrs. M. A. Manuel* Frederick J. Marker & Anne Dupré* Paul & Jean McGrath**** Ronan McGrath & Sarah Perry* June McLean****

Mr. Ian McWalter* Mr. Ulrich Menzefricke**** Bruce & Vladka Mitchell* Mr. Noel Mowat** Dr. Shirley C. Neuman** Eileen Patricia Newell*** Sally-Ann Noznesky**** E. Oliana & A. Iu*** Janice Oliver*** Keith & Brenda Ottaway*** The Ouellette Family Foundation Julia & Liza Overs**** Dr. & Mrs. William M. Park**** Douglas L. Parker**** John & Gwen Pattison** June C. Pinkney**** Polk Family Charitable Fund** Julian Porter, Q.C. ** Mary Jean & Frank Potter*** Margrit & Tony Rahilly**** Rob & Penny Richards*** Margaret A. Riggin* Gordon Robison & David Grant* Cameron Rusaw & Anne-Marie Sorrenti Judy & Hy Sarick**** Sam & Esther Sarick**** Helen & John Scott** June Shaw & the late Dr. Ralph Shaw**** Allan & Helaine Shiff**** David & Hilary Short*** Hume Smith**** Dr. Harley Smyth & Carolyn McIntire Smyth** Philip Somerville* Dr. John Stanley & Dr. Helmut Reichenbächer*** Wayne Stanley & Marina Pretorius* Doreen L. Stanton**** Mr. & Mrs. Gordon Taylor**** Wendy J. Thompson**** Anthea Thorp**** Ian Turner*** Sandra & Guy Upjohn*** Dita Vadron & James Catty** Rosalind & Dory Vanderhoof** Donald & Margaret Walter**** Hugh & Colleen Washington** Ruth Watts-Gransden**** Dr. Virginia Wesson*** Dr. Jack Williams & Dr. Dorothy Pringle*** Ms Lilly Wong* Mr. & Mrs. Richard Wookey**** Linda Young* Helen Ziegler*** Susan Zorzi** Sharon Zuckerman**** Anonymous (2)

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MEMBER, $2,250 – $3,749 D. C. Adamson-Brdar**** Susan Agranove & Estate of Dr. Larry M. Agranove**** Donna & Lorne Albaum** Mr. & Mrs. Roberto & Nancy Albis*** David & Debbie Allan Clive & Barbara Allen**** Mr. Thomas & Mrs. Claire Allen** Dr. D. Amato & Ms J. Hodges**** Anne-Marie H. Applin*** Valerie Armstrong**** Philip Arthur & Mary Wilson* Virginia Atkin*** Mr. Jeff Axelrod & Dr. John Goodhew John Bailey** James C. Baillie** Marilyn & Charles Baillie**** Andrew & Cornelia Baines**** Janice A. Baker**** Richard J. Balfour**** Lindy Barrow** Julia Bass & David Hamilton*** Alice & Tom Bastedo*** Mr. & Mrs. Peter & Sondra Beck* Ms Marie Bérard†*** Nani & Austin Beutel**** Dody Bienenstock** John & Mandy Birch* Anneliese & Walter Blackwell**** Darlene & Peter Blenich* Ian & Janet Blue*** John & Ila Bossons** Mr. W. Bowen & Ms S. Gavinchuk†**** Mr. Stephen Bradley Mrs. Carolyn Bradley-Hall & Mr. William Bradley*** Mrs. Richard Bradshaw*** Mr. Ingvar & Mrs. Sheila Brogren Brian Bucknall & Mary Jane Mossman**** Christopher & Elizabeth Buller Thomas J. Burton** Maureen Callahan & Douglas Gray** Sharon & Howard Campbell** Ken & Denise Cargill** Brian & Ellen Carr**** Gail Carson**** Drs. Carol & David Cass Cara Celotti & Tom Nicolopoulos Prof. Alfred L. Chan & Mr. Michael Farewell*** Dr. & Mrs. Albert Cheskes*** John D. Church Dr. Howard M. Clarke*** Edward Cole & Adrienne Hood*** Brian Collins & Amanda Demers* Mr. Andrew Combes*

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Tony & Elizabeth Comper* Mr. & Mrs. R. W. Corcoran Murray & Katherine Corlett**** Harold & Anita Corrigan*** Dr. Lesley S. Corrin**** Bram & Beth Costin Gay & Derek Cowbourne** Mary & John Crocker**** Ruth & John Crow*** Carrol Anne Curry*** Michael & Honor de Pencier**** Mrs. Rosario de Wit-Farro*** Dr. & Mrs. Michael & Ute Davis** Angelo & Carol DelZotto*** Charles Dennis & Steve Kelley† Mr. & Mrs. A. J. Diamond* J. DiGiovanni* Olwen & Frank Dixon** James Doak & Patricia Best*** Sandra Z. Doblinger** Ms Petrina Dolby*** Dr. James & Mrs. Ellen Downey** Marko Duic and Gabriel Lau**** William & Gwenda Echard**** Jean Patterson Edwards** Wendy & Elliott Eisen**** Jordan Elliott & Lynne Griffin* Robert Elliott & Paul Wilson** Christoph Emmrich & Srilata Raman Dr. & Mrs. John Evans*** Fabris Inc. * Mr. Eddy Fan George A. Farkass** Gail & Bob Farquharson* Darren Farwell Catherine Fauquier*** Bill Fearn & Claudia Rogers**** Lee & Shannon Ferrier**** William & Rosemary Fillmore*** Mrs. Lois Fleming**** Goshka Folda* J. E. Fordyce**** Robert & Julia Foster** Margaret & David Fountain**** Linda & Ken Foxcroft* Mrs. Ingrid Fratzl Rev. Ivars Gaide & Rev. Dr. Anita Gaide*** Ann Gawman*** Dr. Barry A. Gayle**** The Honourable Irving Gerstein & Mrs. Gail Gerstein** Mary & Lionel Goffart* Dr. Eudice Goldberg* Dr. Fay Goldstep & Dr. George Freedman** Deanna A. Gontard**** Dr. Paul W. Gooch Tina & Michael Gooding*** Wayne A. Gooding**** Goodman Family*

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Dr. Noëlle Grace & the Shohet Family**** Jane Greene** Mr. Finn Greflund & Mrs. M. Ortner** Mr. Carmen & Mrs. Vittoria Guglietti** Ellen & Simon Gulden**** Mr. Albert Haddad Dan Hagler & Family*** Ms Pamela Hallisey Francess G. Halpenny Mr. Adrian J. Hamel Beverly Hargraft** Mr. Harquail & Dr. Sigfridsson* Michael Harris & Carol Rak** Mr. & Mrs. William B. Harris*** Paul & Natalie Hartman* Caroline Helbronner*** Jacques & Elizabeth Helbronner*** Thea Herman & Gregory King*** William E. Hewitt*** Pamela Hoiles Sally Holton**** Emmy & Walter Homburger*** Drs. Walter & Virginia Hryshko* Ms Judith Hull Anthony C. J. Humphreys**** Peter & Hélène Hunt**** Eva Innes & David Medhurst* Elliott Jacobson & Judy Malkin** Paul Jaggard & Ruth Caswell Lynne Jeffrey**** Laurence Jewell** The Norman & Margaret Jewison Charitable Foundation**** E. Patricia Johnson** Dr. Albert & Bette Johnston** Joyce Johnston*** Alexandra Jonsson Miriam Kagan Mr. & Mrs. John & Donata Kaldas H. L. Katarynych David W. & Sheryl L. Kerr* Inta Kierans**** Ellen & Hermann Kircher**** Mr. Martin Kirr & Ms Suzanne McCuaig Mr. Douglas Klaassen** Michael & Sonja Koerner*** Robin Korthals & Janet Charlton** Dr. Robert Kosnik**** Valarie Koziol* William & Eva Krangle**** Richard T. La Prairie* Elizabeth & Goulding Lambert*** Jo Lander**** M. J. Horsfall Large** Marc Lebeau & Guylaine Lefebvre Dr. Connie Lee***

Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

Linda Lee & Michael Pharoah**** Neal & Dominique Lee** Dr. Richard Lee & Mr. Gary Van Haren** Alexander & Anna Leggatt*** Joy Levine*** Mr. Peter Levitt & Ms Mai Why*** Mr. Kejun Liang L. Liivamagi & Dr. D. N. Cash Marjorie & Roy Linden**** Dr. & Mrs. W. G. Lindley**** Janet & Sid Lindsay*** Anthony J. Lisanti*** In memory of Janet Lo** Dr. Vance Logan**** A. Benson Lorriman**** Douglas L. Ludwig & Karen J. Rice*** Peter H. Lunney* Dr. Robert G. Luton**** James & Connie MacDougall**** Dr. & Mrs. Richard Mackenzie**** Tom MacMillan**** Macro Properties Ltd. ** Ole P. Madsen* Mr. A. Mafrici**** R. Manke**** Mr. & Mrs. R. Gordon Marantz**** Fernando Martinez-Caro Roberto Mauro† & Erin Wall Mrs. Ettore Mazzoleni*** Dr. & Mrs. John A. McCallum**** The Hon. Barbara McDougall*** Dr. & Mrs. Donald C. McGillivray**** Darcy & Joyce McKeough* Mark & Andrea McQueen*** Don McLean & Diane Martello Guy & Joanne McLean**** M. E. McLeod**** Jean M. McNab**** Mr. Thomas McNicholas* Shawn McReynolds & Elaine Kierans* Dr. Davender Mehra & Dr. Ellis Galea Kirkland* Dr. Don Melady & Mr. Rowley Mossop*** Eileen Mercier**** Ms Andrea Miller Marvene (Cox) & Gordon Miller** Lee Milliken† & Doug MacNaughton** Patricia & Frank Mills*** Dr. & Mrs. Steven Millward** Florence Minz Audrey & David Mirvish*** Dr. David N. Mitchell & Dr. Susan M. Till*** Mr. Donald Mitchell Eva Mocarski* Anne Moore**** Mr. Robert Morassutti****

Ruth Morawetz & Ken Judd*** Alice Janet Morgan*** Ms Rosalind Morrow** Drs. Christopher & Pippa Moss*** Gael Mourant & Caroline Hubberstey* Mr. Joseph Mulder** Anne Murdock** Marilyn & Amy Mushinski† Matt & Debbie Mysak*** David & Mary Neelands*** Dr. Emilie Newell* Dr. Steven Nitzkin**** Simon & Marlene Nyilassy* Dr. James & Mrs. Valda Oestreicher*** Benson Orenstein*** Martin & Myrna Ossip* Eileen & Ralph Overend* Clarence & Mary Pace** Dr. & Mrs. N. Pairaudeau**** Lee Parsons* Dr. Roger D. Pearce*** Dr. A. Angus Peller* John & Penelope Pepperell* John & Carol Peterson*** M. J. Phillips**** Robin B. Pitcher**** Wanda Plachta**** Georgia Prassas**** Ms Jill Presser & Mr. John Duffy* Dr. Mark Quigley**** Stephen Ralls & Bruce Ubukata*** The Carol & Morton Rapp Foundation**** Professor C. Edward Rathé**** Kenneth F. Read**** Mrs. Richard Gavin Reid** Grant L. Reuber**** Mrs. Gabrielle Richards** Carolyn Ricketts**** Ms Nada Ristich* Emily & Fred Rizner** Clara Robert* Mr. Mike & Ms Stacy Robitaille Steve & Richa Roder Dr. Michael & Mary Romeo**** John & Hannah Rosen* Mrs. Gertrude Rosenthal**** Ken & Helen Rotenberg** Rainer & Sharyn Rothfuss**** Peter A. Roy & Leah Taylor Roy Drs. Orest & Maureen Rudzik**** David A. Ruston*** Ms Sharon Cookie Sandler**** Mallory Morris Sartz & John Sartz**** Go Sato**** Fred & Mary Schulz** Dr. Marianne Seger**** Carol Seifert & Bruno Tesan*** Robert & Geraldine Sharpe**** Victor & Rhoda Shields****

Milton & Joyce Shier**** William Siegel & Margaret Swaine** Dr. Bernie & Mrs. Bobbie Silverman** Rod & Christina Simpson In memory of Dr. Bernard Slatt* Dr. & Mrs. Jeremy Sloan** Jay Smith & Laura Rapp* Ms Muriel Smith & Mr. Eric Ojala**** Dr. Joseph So*** John & Ellen Spears**** Martha E. Spears*** Rosemary Speirs Alex & Kim Squires**** Oksana R. Stein*** Mr. & Mrs. Gary & Sula Stern* Dr. & Mrs. Stephen Stern*** John D. Stevenson**** James H. Stonehouse** Janet Stubbs** Eric Tang & Dr. James Miller** Mr. Arthur Paul Tarasuk* Tesari Charitable Foundation** Elizabeth Tory**** Mr. Alex Tosheff* Edmond & Sylvia Vanhaverbeke**** Dr. R. B. Van Winckle* Stefan Varga & Dr. Marica Varga* Mr. & Mrs. Henry & Ann Louise Vehovec**** Dr. Yvonne Verbeeten** Dr. Helen Vosu & Donald Milner**** Richard & Nathalie Wachsberg* Elizabeth & Michael Walker*** Ann & Marshall Webb** Peter Webb & Joan York**** Dr. Bogomila Welsh** Ms Eleanor Westney** Melanie Whitehead*** Mr. Brian Wilks* Elizabeth Wilson & Ian Montagnes**** John Wright & Chung-Wai Chow* Dr. Jackson Wu & Dr. Viviana Chang* Ms June Yee** Morden Yolles**** Walter Zwig**** Anonymous (26) FRIENDS OF THE COC SUSTAINING FRIENDS $1,600 – $2,249 Iivi Campbell**** Mr. Steven D. Donohoe**** Ted Goldenberg Mr. James Hamilton*

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Bill Heaslip**** Mr. Josef Hrdina* Dr. Paul & Mrs. Marcia Kavanagh Mrs. Mary Liitoja**** Mrs. Annette Oelbaum* Ms Marianne Orr* Barbara & Peter Pauly** Dr. Norbert V. Perera**** Ms Adrianne Pieczonka Mr. & Mrs. Domenic Porporo** Ms Joan Sinclair** David Smukler & Patricia Kern** The Sorbara Group**** Dr. M. Lynne Thurling & Dr. John Treilhard*** Vernon & Beryl Turner**** Gordon Waugh**** Anonymous (1) ASSOCIATE FRIENDS $1,100 – $1,599 Carol & Ernest Albright**** Gail Asper & Michael Paterson Michael & Janet Barnard** Don Biderman**** Ellen & Murray Blankstein* Darlene & Peter Blenich* Murray & Judy Bryant*** Dr. Wendy C. Chan* Patricia Clarke** Robert D. Cook** Mr. Neil Crawford* Mr. Stuart Davidson Mr. Darren Day*** Dr. Christine Dunbar** Howard & Kathrine Eckler*** R. Dalton Fowler**** John H. Galloway**** Alison Girling & Paul Schabas** Ricardo Gomez-Insausti* David Gordon & Wendy Flores Gordon* Sylvie Hatch**** David Holdsworth & Nicole Senécal* Richard & Susan Horner**** James Hughes*** Mr. Sumant Inamdar** Mr. Kazik Jedrzejczak**** Ms Elisa Kearney Ms Suanne Kelman & Dr. Allan J. Fox** The Hon. Dennis Lane, Q.C. & Mrs. Sandra Lane**** Jason & Stephanie Lewis Andrew & Harriet Lyons P. Anne Mackay**** Mrs. Janet Maggiacomo** Karen & Craig** Georgina McLennan**** Mr. David Milovanovic & Dr. Cinda Dyer Mr. Carl Morey****

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Mr. Sean O'Neill**** Marjorie & Anne Pepper** Ms Victoria Pinnington*** Dr. Peter Ray**** Dr. Shelley Rechner**** Amye & DeeAnn Hagler Sagar William & Meredith Saunderson**** Ms Elisabeth Scarff**** Beverly & Fred Schaeffer**** Dr. & Mrs. W. K. Stavraky*** Norma & George Steiner**** Ms Peg Thoen** Dr. Peter Voore**** Ron Williams* Nina & Norman Wright*** Carole & Bernie Zucker*** Anonymous (7) CONTRIBUTING FRIENDS $700 – $1,099 Dr. M. Al Sayyab Dentistry Professional Corp.

Ms I. M. Allen**** Dr. I. L. Babb Fund at the Toronto Community Foundation**** In memory of M. Baptista*** Peter & Leslie Barton** Mrs. Lynn Bayer*** Catherine Belyea+ Michael Benedict & Martha Lowrie**** Jeniva Berger**** Anthony Bird**** Dr. B. Derek & Dr. Anne W. Birt**** Dr. Jennifer Blake** Ms Marlene Bohn* Mary Brock & Brian Iler**** Ms Judith Burrows*** Ms E. Burton*** Mr. Bill Cameron* Betty Carlyle**** Mark Cestnik & Natercia Sousa**** Geoffrey & Bilgi Chapman**** Harold Chmara & Danny Hoy**** Joe T. R. Clarke**** Ms Rovena Cooper Mr. Sylvain Crozon M. P. Davies** Anita Day Don DeBoer & Brent Vickar*** Mr. Michael Disney* Wendy Drahovzal Mr. Arthur English** Mr. Larry Enkin*** Joe & Helen Feldmann*** Brian A. Ferguson**** Dr. James Ferguson Bruce & Mary Fillier Tom Flemming**** Jennifer & Frank Flower*** Angelo Furgiuele & Family*

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Douglas G. Gardner**** Martin Gerwin & Judith Rutledge* Girish & Bharati Ghatalia Elinor Gill Ratcliffe C.M., O.N.L., LLD (hc) Aviva & Andrew Goldenberg** Dr. Wilfred S. Goodman**** Mrs. Marion A. Green**** Mrs. Suzy Greenspan** Dr. & Mrs. Voldemars Gulens**** Dr. & Mrs. Brian & Cynthia Hands**** Roy & Gail Harrison**** Sandra Hausman** Peter L. Henniger* In memory of Pauline Hinch** Istvan & Gilian Hlinyanszky Mr. Sylvain Houle* Dr. Ivan & Mrs. Diana Hronsky**** In loving memory of Joyce Whitney Hughes* Mr. David Hutton*** Douglas & Dorothy Joyce**** Lilian Kilianski+ & Brian Pritchard* Mai Kirch**** Dr. & Mrs. L. A. Kitchell**** Serguei Kloubkov Mr. & Mrs. I. P. & O. M. Komarnicky*** Mr. Christopher J. Kowal* Mr. Jonathan Krehm* Gediminas P. Kurpis**** Mr. James R. Lake**** Harry Lane*** Alan & Marti Latta**** Giles le Riche & Rosemary Polczer*** Mr. Tom Le Seelleur** Claus & Heather Lenk* Mr. Yakov Lerner* Dr. David Levine* Mr. & Mrs. G. Lorenson Dr. Francois Loubert* Deidre Lynch* Tyler & Claire Macnamara Kathy Marton* Dr. Lynn McAslan Mary McClymont**** Mary McGowan**** Jil McIntosh** Mr. Bruce McKeown**** David & Jean McLay**** Sylvia McPhee**** Janis Medland* Janina Milisiewicz**** Kamini & Lynne Milnes* Frank & Anne Moir*** Blake Murray & Nancy Riley**** Peter Naylor Larry Nevard Mr. Tomi Nishio**** David Northcote & Suzanne Betcke*

Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

Mrs. Jean O'Grady** Ms Cristina Oke*** Karen Olinyk+* Joan Pape**** Mr. James C. Pappas**** Mr. Joseph & Mrs. Letizia Paradiso*** David Peachey & Georgia Henderson** Dr. Wadermar A. Pieczonka**** Dr. Alice Pitt & Dr. Deborah Britzman Ed & Beth Price*** Mr. Robert Radke Annette & Jim Ray Marat Ressin Ms Virginia Robeson** Dorothy & Robert Ross*** Mr. Michael Samborsky** M. & G. Sanvido**** Patti & Richard Schabas** Nancy A. Schiefer in memory of Walter Schiefer**** Marlene Pollock Sheff* John Spears**** Phil Spencer**** Mr. Paul Steep & Ms Anne McNeilly* Helga & Klaus Stegemann*** Jane & Ted Stephenson**** Penelope K. Sullivan**** Ms Michelle Tan** Judith Teller Foundation**** Ria Tietz**** Dr. Claude Tousignant** Mr. & Mrs. David G. Trent**** Maria & Ian Tulip**** Dr. Nancy F. Vogan**** Mr. Wayne Vogan+**** George Vona & Lark Popov** Barbara J. Weider Mr. John M. Welch**** James & Margaret Whitby**** F. Whittaker** Ms Diana Yenson* David A. Young Ms Iris Zawadowski* Anonymous (9) THE ENCORE LEGACY The Encore Legacy is the planned giving program of the Canadian Opera Company.

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

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.

The Canadian Opera Company gratefully acknowledges and thanks the following individuals who have included the COC in their estate planning: Susan Agranove & Estate of Dr. Larry M. Agranove Isobel Allen Callie Archer Renata Arens & Elizabeth Frey Mrs. Rosalen Armstrong Ron Atkinson & Bruce Blandford Lindy Barrow Mr. L. H. Bartelink J. Linden Best & James G. Kerr David Bowen Marnie M. Bracht Gregory Brandt Ann Christie Earl Clark The Rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson Brian Collins & Amanda Demers Earlaine Collins David H. Cormack Ninalee Craig Anita Day & Robert McDonald Ann De Brouwer Helen Drake Rowland D. Galbraith Douglas G. Gardner Ann J. Gibson Michael & Anne Gough L. A. Grover David G. Hallman George & Irene Hamilton Joan L. Harris James Hewson John R. Higgins Mr. Kim Yim Ho & Walter Frederic Thommen Douglas E. Hodgson Matt Hughes Michael & Linda Hutcheon Lynne Jeffrey Ann Kadrnka Ben Kizemchuk Kathryn Kossow Mr. Gurney Kranz Jo Lander Peggy Lau Tom C. Logan, A.R.C.T. Marjorie & Roy Linden Ms Lenore MacDonald Dr. Colin M. Mailer R. Manke Tim & Jane Marlatt Mr. Shawn Martin Margaret McKee Sylvia M. McPhee Dr. Alan C. Middleton Eleanor Miller Sigmund & Elaine Mintz

Donald Morse Sue Mortimer Mr. & Mrs. James D. Patterson Mervyn Pickering Gunther & Dorothy Piepke Wanda Plachta Ms Georgia Prassas K. F. Read Dr. John Reeve-Newson Mrs. Margaret Russell Sharon Ryman† Cookie & Stephen Sandler 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 Ronald Taber Mrs. L. Treutler Riki Turofsky & Charles Petersen N. Suzanne Vanstone Marie-Laure Wagner Hugh & Colleen Washington Marion C. Wilson Marion York Tricia Younger Anonymous (59)

The above Individual Support Gifts were made as of December 15, 2014. * ** *** **** † ‡

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

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.

OPERATOURS DONORS $700 + (As of December 10, 2014) Mrs. Larry M. Agranove**** Brian J. Dawson*** Jayne & Ted Dawson**** Brian A. Ferguson**** Ben & Sarah Glatt**** John B. Lawson, Q.C.**** Dr. Colin McGregor Mailer**** Mary McClymont**** John & Esther McNeil**** Benson Orenstein*** Joan Pape**** Ria Tietz**** Melanie Whitehead*** CORPORATE MATCHING PARTNERS The Canadian Opera Company gratefully acknowledges the following organizations that have matched gifts by their employees: Canadian Tire Corporation Limited IBM Canada Ltd. Ivanhoe Cambridge Inc Goodman & Company, Investment Counsel Ltd. FM Global Foundation

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MAJOR CORPORATE SPONSORS 2014/2015 SEASON

2014/2015 SPONSORS PERFORMANCE SPONSORS Barrick Gold Blake, Cassels & Graydon Burgundy Asset Management Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP Fionn MacCool’s Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts Linden & Associates McCarthy Tetrault LLP Norton Rose Fulbright LLP Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

BMO Financial Group Pre-Performance Chats BMO Financial Group Student Dress Rehearsals Verdi’s Falstaff generously underwritten in part by

HOSTING SPONSORS

Official Automotive Sponsor of the COC at the FSCPA

Presenting Sponsor of SURTITLES™

Presenting Sponsor Opera Under 30 Preferred Credit Card and Operanation TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege*

CORPORATE AND FOUNDATION DONORS $50,000+ The Asper Foundation The Slaight Family Foundation The Hal Jackman Fund at the Ontario Arts Foundation

Glencore Ensemble Studio School Tour

$10,000 – $49,999 Audrey S. Hellyer Charitable Foundation Cineplex Great West Life, London Life and Canada Life J.P. Bickell Foundation The Lloyd Carr-Harris Foundation OCC Lasik The McLean Foundation The W. Garfield Weston Foundation Anonymous (1) Official Canadian Wine of the COC at the FSCPA

Production Sponsor Rossini’s The Barber of Seville

Production Sponsor Puccini’s Madama Butterfly

Production Sponsor Puccini’s Madama Butterfly

$5,000 to $9,999 The Hope Charitable Foundation JMV Food Services Canada Ltd. Local 58 Charitable Benefit Fund Mill Street Brewery Shinex Window Cleaning Inc. State Street Unit Park Holdings Inc. The WholeNote Magazine $2,500 – $4,999 Hicks Memorial Fund at The Calgary Foundation Vida Peene Fund at the Canada Council for the Arts

Preferred Jewellery Partner

Golden Circle Hosting Partner

Preferred Fragrance

Program Sponsor After School Opera Program

Preferred Dry Cleaner

Preferred Hospitality Sponsor

Preferred Medical Services Provider

DINNER SPONSOR Hampton Securities

JEWELLERY PARTNER Maison Birks PARTNERING SPONSOR Burgundy Asset Management CONTRIBUTING SPONSORS Bloomberg Bonnie Shore Canaccord Genuity Element Financial Corp.

Torkin Manes LLP EVENT SUPPORTERS BT/A Chairman Mills Knot PR Mill St. Perrier Quince Flowers Ryan Emberley Photography 10tation The Room Toronto Life Trius Wines Wellington Printworks J.P. Wiser’s ® Canadian Whisky Lot No. 40™ Canadian Whisky Pike Creek™ Canadian Whisky Jameson® Irish Whiskey The Glenlivet® Single Malt Scotch Whisky Aberlour® Single Malt Scotch Whisky Beefeater® Gin. FINE WINE AUCTION 2014 PRESENTING SPONSORS TD Securities Bloomberg Graywood Group PARTNERING SPONSORS GWLM Inc. Thomson Reuters Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

CENTRE STAGE: ENSEMBLE STUDIO COMPETITION GALA 2014 COMPETITION SUPPORTERS RBC and RBC Foundation Peter M. Deeb Hal Jackman Foundation

EVENT SPONSORS Falconcrest Homes Marel Contractors

OPERA UNDER 30 SPONSOR TD Bank Group Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

OPERANATI0N: LIGHT UP THE NIGHT PRESENTING SPONSOR TD Bank Group

$1,000 – $2,499 Aimia D’Avignon Freight Services Inc. Jarvis & Associates Loch-Sloy Holdings Ltd. MAC Cosmetics Milgram Group of Companies Ltd. O’Shanter Development Company Ltd. The Powis Family Foundation

PLATINUM SPONSOR Mercedes-Benz

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GOLD SPONSORS Brookfield Asset Management Linden & Associates Scotiabank

PREFERRED FRAGRANCE REVEAL by Calvin Klein PREFERRED FLORISTS Bloom The Flower Company Quince Flowers

Supporter of Ensemble Studio and Centre Stage

GALA RECEPTION SPONSOR Maison Birks

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CHEESE SPONSOR The Cheese Boutique AUCTIONEER Stephen Ranger Fine Art Valuation & Consultancy

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

OPERATING SUPPORT

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year invested $157 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country.

Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier, le Conseil a investi 157 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.

ENSEMBLE STUDIO

SPECIAL PROJECT FUNDING For the many programs and special initiatives undertaken each year by the Canadian Opera Company, we gratefully acknowledge project funding from: Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund Department of Canadian Heritage Employment and Social 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, Opera.ca. and TAPA. The COC operates in agreement with Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.

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

SUPERNUMERARIES Angela Bell Nancy Mellow Timothy Ng Max Sokolovski Peter Wismath

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Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

BACKSTAGE AND BEYOND

OUR WONDERFUL COC DONORS ARE HELPING US CELEBRATE A GREAT SEASON AT SOME UNFORGETTABLE EVENTS INCLUDING PARTIES, GALAS, AND BACKSTAGE MEET-AND-GREETS WITH ARTISTS!

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7. The cast and creative team of Falstaff celebrated a great show at the opening night party afterwards.

Photo: Dave Cox 8. Falstaff himself, baritone Gerald Finley, celebrated the opening of Falstaff with the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson 9. COC General Director Alexander Neef and Head of the Ensemble Liz Upchurch celebrated the opening concert of the Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, at which Ensemble Studio members performed. Photo: Karen Reeves

6 1. Councillor Anthony Perruzza (far left) and Councillor Peter Leon (second from right) attended the Madama Butterfly backstage toast with their spouses. Photo: Joey Lopez

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2. (l-r) Tenor Stefano Secco and his fiancée Sarah, mezzo-soprano Beth Clayton (Patricia Racette's wife), and soprano Patricia Racette with a fluffy friend celebrated Madama Butterfly backstage along with COC Golden Circle members. Photo: Joey Lopez

11. KPMG guests Nazir and Yasmin Valani, and Margaret and Rob Brandl at a Backstage Toast for members of the COC’s Golden Circle. Photo: Joey Lopez

3. Beautiful table settings for the Centre Stage: Ensemble Studio Competition Gala. Photo: Jenna Wakani 4. Centre Stage Co-Chairs and COC Board members Frances Price and Justin Linden celebrated an evening of great Canadian talent, both current and future. Photo: Jenna Wakani

12. Ensemble Studio soprano Karine Boucher at a reception following the opening concert of the Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre.

Photo: Karen Reeves

5. Nicholas Mellamphy (Creative Director, The Room, Hudson's Bay), Nada Ristich (BMO Financial Group's Director, Corporate Donations), and Stephen Gilles (COC Development Department), at Centre Stage: Ensemble Studio Competition Gala. Photo: Jenna Wakani 6. An enthusiastic crowd attended the President’s Council Season Opening Party, held for the first time ever at the Four Seasons Centre. Photo: Dave Cox

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Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

10.COC Board member Marcia Lewis Brown, Ensemble Studio baritone Gordon Bintner and soprano Simone Osborne (Nannetta in Falstaff and an Ensemble Studio alumna) celebrated opening night of Falstaff.

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13. Tim Reuss, Mercedes-Benz Canada President, with his guests at the Centre Stage Ensemble Studio Competition gala. Photo: Jenna Wakani

Catch up with blogs and explore Look and Listen at coc.ca.

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MOZART

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO Love conquers all. Especially reason.

CREDIT: Daniel Kukla, Porcupine Wash (from the series “The Edge Effect”)

No opera is more convincing – or as consistently beautiful—in portraying the fluid enchantments, maze-like confusions, and bouts of sheer blindness brought on by love.

On the eve of their wedding, Figaro and Susanna’s romance is shaken when their employer, the Count, takes an extramarital interest in Susanna. This sets in motion a day of schemes and counter schemes, sexual intrigues and mistaken identities, embroiling the entire household in a web of erotic passions.

A sparkling cast of Mozartian singers take us into this magnificent, seriously witty farce, set to some of the most sublimely beautiful music ever written, from the Countess’s ravishing arias to virtuosic ensembles such as the Act II finale. Hailed as a “masterpiece” (Bloomberg News), this new-to-Toronto production by Claus Guth draws visual inspiration from the films of Ingmar Bergman and the plays of Ibsen and Strindberg, while fusing stylized gesture and choreography with Mozart’s score to deliver a “shattering, unforgettable” (The Guardian) account of the elemental forces of human nature.

February 4 – 27, 2016

TORONTO’S MOST EXCITING ANNUAL AUCTION OF CONTEMPORARY ART PHOTOGRAPHY

LIVE AND SILENT AUCTION GALA Thursday, March 26, 2015 Bram & Bluma Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library 789 Yonge Street PUBLIC PREVIEW March 20 to 22, 2015 Arta Gallery Distillery District

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NEW COC PRODUCTION Uli Kirsch as Cherubim in The Marriage of Figaro (Salzburg Festival, 2011). Photo: Monika Rittershaus

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Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

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BIZET

CARMEN Live free or die.

Carmen. The name alone conjures up myriad allusions: freedom-loving gypsy, sexual predator, fatalistic soul. Carmen has inspired ballets, movies and one of the world’s most enduringly popular operas, set to the driving passion and sensual heat of Georges Bizet’s score.

The story is one that could be ripped from the headlines of today, or anytime: Carmen enters into a tragic love affair with a young soldier whose jealousy is at odds with her unrelenting desire for freedom. She soon tires of him and seeks fresh excitement in the arms of another man.

Joel Ivany, of Toronto’s Against the Grain Theatre, directs a young and brilliant cast including two of the most outstanding Carmens on the opera stage today: Anita Rachvelishvili, who has sung Carmen with “smoldering, earthy sexuality"( New York Times) at the Met, La Scala and Berlin; and Clémentine Margraine, whose "passion and menace" (Opera News) has made her Carmen such a hit in Rome and Berlin.

April 12 – May 15, 2016 COC PRODUCTION

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A scene from Carmen (COC, 2010).

Photo: Michael Cooper

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Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

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ROSSINI

MAOMETTO II Love and war collide in Rossini’s epic drama In his grand bel canto drama Maometto II, Rossini unleashes his full arsenal of vocal pyrotechnics on the historical tale of the great Turkish Sultan, Maometto, and his quest to conquer the Holy Roman Empire. Mostly known for effervescent comedies like The Barber of Seville, Rossini was also a master of serious opera, the most famous being William Tell.

After its 1820 Naples premiere, Maometto II was not seen again in its original form until 2012 at Santa Fe Opera. There, it was lauded as a “thrilling [piece of] experiential theater” (Opera News) in the same David Alden production that will appear on our Toronto stage next Spring. Along with set and costume designer Jon Morrell, Alden has brought the opera’s action forward from its historical 15th-century origins to the time of its creation in 1820. Strikingly-coloured, Napoleonic era, First Empire gowns glow jewel-like against a neoclassical marble colonnade. Surprising coups des théâtres are peppered throughout, including the sudden emergence of a statue of three galloping horses on which Maometto makes a dramatic exit.

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Mastering Rossini’s fearsome vocal demands will be superstar Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni making his COC debut as “a chilling and complex Maometto. His dashing stage presence and virile voice exude menacing authority” (New York Times). COC favourite Elizabeth DeShong—no stranger to Rossini’s roulades that she so expertly tossed off as our 2011 Cenerentola—returns as Calbo, one of bel canto’s great, heroic pants roles. The young, rich-toned American soprano Leah Crocetto debuts as Maometto’s forbidden love, Anna. Conductor Harry Bicket (Hercules, 2014) makes a welcome return to the podium.

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April 29 – May 14, 2016 NEW COC PRODUCTION Luca Pisaroni as Maometto II (Santa Fe Opera, 2012).

Photo: Ken Howard

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Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

TORONTO OPEN CLASSES JAN 11 AUDITIONS JAN 25 & FEB 8 DVD AUDITIONS ACCEPTED UNTIL MARCH 30 REGISTER: WWW.NBS-ENB.CA

TOP 10 THINGS TO KNOW About Wagner’s Die Walküre

A scene from Die Walküre, COC, 2004.

Photo: Michael Cooper

TOP 10 THINGS TO KNOW

ABOUT

WAGNER’S

Die Walküre

3. THEATRE AS COMMUNITY

5. MYTHS ABOUT OURSELVES

6. GOOD PLACE TO START

By “total work of art” Wagner didn’t just mean the combination of discrete artistic practices into a unified whole. He also meant that the art work should bring people together. (Wagner was far from the clichéd figure of a genius composing only for himself; he was an essentially popular composer.) Indeed, Wagner was following—or was trying to revitalize, in a distinctly modern way—the traditions of ancient Greek theatre, in which a community gathers to reaffirm its selfunderstanding and collective values, as happens in religious ceremonies or festivals, for example.

Drawn from Icelandic legends, ancient Norse poems, and arcane German myths, the story of The Ring might seem completely disconnected from ordinary human concerns.

Yet for all the flying horses, fantastic locales, and power battles among gods, dwarves, and giants, the operas of the Ring Cycle are actually supremely human, presenting a completely recognizable world of human emotions.

Romantic passion, selfdiscovery, family dysfunction —these are the highs and lows the principal characters navigate, charting psychological experiences that define the human condition.

Die Walküre is the one Ring opera that is most often presented as a stand-alone piece. Full of accessible and beautiful music, it is a tale of a heroic warrior goddess, Brünnhilde, who defies divine law to do what she knows is right; it’s also a moving character study of a father, Wotan the leader of the gods, who comes to realize he has failed his wife and children; finally it is a masterful depiction of romantic love. Plus it features the famous “Ride of the Valkyries” theme, ubiquitously deployed in pop culture, from Apocalypse Now to Bugs Bunny. Hear it, and other highlights, at coc.ca/LookAndListen.

BY NIKITA GOURSKI

Wagner in Paris, 1861, approximately thirteen years before completing his monumental Ring Cycle.

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1. THE ARTIST OF THE MODERN WORLD

2. TOTAL WORK OF ART

Richard Wagner (1813–1883) is without a doubt one of the most important, not to mention controversial, artists in human history. His influence extends far beyond music and has touched all aspects of modern culture, from literature, poetry, fine arts, and cinema, to literary theory, politics, philosophy, and more. Renowned music critic Andrew Porter has claimed that “No artist has been more influential than Wagner.”

Wagner pursued aggressive reforms of traditional opera structures and insisted on the notion of Gesamtkunstwerk, “a total work of art,” in which music and words are seamlessly integrated, and various art forms are combined for maximal expressive effect.

Mythology, philosophy, dance, architecture, as well as the visual and plastic arts, would all be synthesized and absorbed into a unified, complete, multimedia experience. Wagner even designed a special performance venue, the Bayreuther Festspielhaus, where these operas of the future could be appropriately staged.

Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

4. APEX OF MUSICAL STORYTELLING Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner’s massive cycle comprising four interconnected operas, took approximately 26 years to compose. Music critic Alex Ross has pointed out that the Ring’s entire score is “more than two thousand printed pages [and if the music were played from beginning to end] would last from morning until midnight… arguably, the most ambitious work of art ever attempted.”

There are only two opera houses in history that have opened their inaugural seasons with a full Ring Cycle: the Bayreuther Festspielhaus in 1876 (see point 2) and the COC’s Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in 2006.

Clifton Forbis as Siegmund in Die Walküre, COC, 2004.

Photo: Michael Cooper

Catch up with blogs and explore Look and Listen at coc.ca.

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TOP 10 THINGS TO KNOW About Wagner’s Die Walküre

7. WAGNER’S LEITMOTIFS Wagner is known for his very rich orchestrations and harmonies, and especially for his system of leitmotifs. These are the short melodic and/or harmonic “symbols” associated with a particular person, object, emotion, or idea. The orchestra usually presents and develops most of the leitmotifs—only occasionally do they originate in the vocal line. As these musical “symbols” recur, they might return in altered forms and combinations, to signal evolving dramatic situations and character relationships.

For more, visit coc.ca/LookAndListen.

8. LOVE VERSUS POWER Our production is directed

by Canadian film and stage director Atom Egoyan. It was originally created as part of the COC’s complete Ring Cycle, a huge collaborative undertaking which brought together four directors (one per opera) and one designer, Canadian Michael Levine.

Egoyan focuses on the emotional life of the characters, and interprets the series of intimate family dialogues as part of a larger conflict between “love of power and power of love.”

9. DOWNFALL OF THE GODS Die Walküre, takes place in the once-pristine Valhalla, which is now in ruins as a result of Wotan’s power struggle for a magical ring.

Egoyan and Levine render this atmosphere of crisis with set design that features tiles torn violently from the floor, as if by an earthquake; a massive structure of collapsed scaffolding; floodlights suspended precariously; and miles of hanging cables and, wire, apparently wrenched loose in a cataclysmic event.

“Even the costumes are falling apart and disintegrating,” Egoyan says. “The whole production is about chaos.”

10. TODAY’S BEST WAGNERIANS CHRISTINE GOERKE (Brünnhilde) Highly anticipated role debut for this Musical America’s Vocalist of the Year: “the soprano we have been waiting for, a multi-hued miracle of gale-force power, and pinpoint control, effortlessly riding over the most clamoring orchestras.”

JOHAN REUTER (Wotan) Starred together with Christine Goerke in the Met’s Die Frau ohne Schatten in which their duet was “inarguably one of the evening's highlights.” Opera News

SEAFOOD

STEAK

COCKTAILS

HEIDI MELTON (Sieglinde) Melton “brought a lovely, plush soprano and great heart to the role of [Sieglinde].”

Wall Street Journal CLIFTON FORBIS (Siegmund) Forbis “flashes electrifying muscular power but still floats captivating sotto voce effects” Financial Times JANINA BAECHLE (Fricka) German mezzo-soprano is “intense and captivating” The Opera Critic

Nikita Gourski is Development Communications Officer at the Canadian Opera Company.

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FOR FURTHER INSIGHT INTO DIE WALKÜRE, READ AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTINE GOERKE IN THE WINTER ISSUE OF PRELUDE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT COC.CA/PUBLICATIONS.

Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

155 Wellington St. W, Toronto 416-351-3311

www.theshoreclub.ca

PATRON INFORMATION AND POLICIES Etiquette Patrons are reminded that R. Fraser Elliott Hall is an extremely lively auditorium and that all audience noise will be accentuated and audible to other patrons.

Turn off all electronic devices, avoid talking, coughing, humming, moving loose seats, kicking the backs of seats, rustling programs, and unwrapping candies or cough drops. In consideration of patrons with allergies please avoid wearing strongly perfumed beauty products and fragrances. Please remain in your seat until the performance has completely ended and the house lights have been turned on.

Electronic Devices The use of mobile and smartphones and all other electronic devices is extremely disruptive and is strictly prohibited during performances. If a patron has an emergency and needs to be contacted during a performance, he or she should contact Patron Services for assistance before the performance.

Cameras/Recording Devices The use of cameras, video cameras or sound-recording devices of any kind is prohibited in R. Fraser Elliott Hall during performances. Any person using an unauthorized recording device while the performance is in progress will be required to surrender or erase any recordings, photographic or digital images and may be asked to leave. No refunds will be issued.

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 may not be readmitted or may be accommodated in an alternate viewing location.

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, booster seats, back supports, infrared hearing-assistive devices and rental of binoculars, 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 in 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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Canadian Opera Company 2014/2015 Season

Ticket Services Canadian Opera Company subscriptions and individual tickets are available through COC Ticket Services ONLINE: 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 for the Performing Arts Box Office also services ticketing needs for The National Ballet of Canada and all other Four Seasons Centre events.

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

Parking 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 greenp.com.

Four Seasons Centre Facility Tours Tours of the Four Seasons Centre now include backstage access! For more information, visit fourseasonscentre.ca.

BMO 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 Beverage Service A pre-order system for intermission refreshments is available at all bars throughout the Isadore and Rosalie Sharp City Room. Food and beverages are not permitted in R. Fraser Elliott Hall.

Special Events and Catering The Four Seasons Centre 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 fourseasonscentre.ca or call 416-363-6671.

Performance by Design.

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A Daimler Brand

T:8.375”

© 2014 Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc.

B:8.625”

S:7.625”

Mercedes-Benz is proud to be the Official Automotive Sponsor of the Canadian Opera Company at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.