Nixon in China House Program by Canadian Opera Company

Performance C A N A D I A N O P E R A C O M PA N Y Wi n te r 2 0 10/2 0 1 1

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CONTENTS 6

VOCAL ROYALTY: Meet the Princes of Flute and Cenerentola BY JON KAPLAN

OPERA FOR ADULTS BY KATHERINE SEMCESEN

NIXON IN CHINA: CLASH OF THE TITANS BY ERIC DOMVILLE

INTRODUCING THE 2011/2012 SEASON BY GIANMARCO SEGATO

Preliminary sketch of the giraffe by Myung Hee Cho, set and costume designer for The Magic Flute.

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

W i n t e r 2 0 10 / 2 0 1 1

n CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY EDITORS: Suzanne Vanstone, Senior Communications Manager, Editorial; Gianna Wichelow, Senior Communications Manager, Creative n RJ PERFORMANCE MEDIA INC.: PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER: Joe Marino n CEO: Frank Barbosa n SECRETARY TREASURER: Rajee Muthuraman n FINANCE: Gina Zicari n NATIONAL ACCOUNT DIRECTORS: Danny Antunes, Gary Bell, Tom Marino, David Thom, Heather Thom n ART DIRECTOR /DESIGN: Jan Haringa n GRAPHIC ARTIST: Glenda Moniz n The Magic Flute and Nixon in China cover images: Mark Olson Canadian Opera Company’s edition of Performance magazine is published quarterly by RJ Performance Media Inc., 2724 Coventry Road, Oakville, Ontario, L6H 6R1. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written consent is prohibited. Contents copyright © Performance Inc. Subscriptions available by contacting publisher. Direct all advertising enquiries to 2724 Coventry Road, Oakville, Ontario, L6H 6R1 or phone 905-829-3900, Ext. 222.

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

VOCAL ROYALTY BY JON KAPLAN

MEET THE PRINCES OF FLUTE AND CENERENTOLA

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

he 2011 Canadian Opera Company roster of characters is filled with nobility, both elected and hereditary. In the former category you’ll find American president Richard Nixon, whose 1972 trip to China is the subject of John Adams’ Nixon in China, while divinities – I think we can consider them nobility – are key players in the plots of Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. In the former you’ll find the god of wine, Bacchus, and, more importantly for Strauss, Ariadne’s salvation; if you want an operatic version about his creation, listen to Handel’s Semele. Gluck’s Amore, the god of love and the child of Venus, instigates Orfeo’s trip to the underworld to be reunited with his deceased wife Euridice. But it’s the princely tenors who are sure to make an impression in two works, Wolfgang Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Gioacchino Rossini’s La Cenerentola, the Italian master’s version of Cinderella. The source for the 1817 Cenerentola is clearly a fairy tale, though, as we’ll see below, it’s not quite the same story that people remember from the Brothers Grimm

or the Disney versions. Mozart’s Flute also has elements of the fairy tale. Commissioned by Emanuel Schikaneder for his suburban Viennese theatre, to a libretto by Schikaneder himself, the 1791 work is a singspiel, a combination of spoken text and song. It was aimed at an audience distanced both in geography and in taste from court operas such as Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro. Both composer and librettist (Schikaneder also played Papageno at the premiere) were Freemason lodge brothers, and, as scholars have pointed out for centuries, Masonic imagery and philosophy are part of the work’s building blocks. A look at Flute’s story, though, also

suggests its links to the fairy tale: a prince hears of a beautiful princess, falls in love with her and battles obstacles to win her. Throw in some magical elements, the defeat of evil by good, a comical secondary plot involving an endearing sidekick and you could as easily be describing any of a number of traditional fireside stories. Princes in fairy tales are almost by nature characters on a quest of some sort. In Cenerentola, Don Ramiro seeks his bride from among the many women in his kingdom. Tamino, the prince in Flute, pursues his beloved, Pamina, after being shown her portrait by the three ladies who serve her mother, the Queen of the Night. What he doesn’t realize at first is that his search also involves a quest for wisdom and truth. For the Canadian Opera Company’s production of The Magic Flute, three Canadian tenors share the role of Tamino: Michael Schade, Frédéric Antoun and COC Ensemble member Christopher Enns. He and his fellow Ensemble members sing Flute on February 17 as part of the COC season at the Four Seasons Centre; it follows an Ensemble performance of Idomeneo last May. Schade, who has sung Tamino some 250 times around the world, admits with a laugh that “there’s nothing more difficult than playing a prince. “Even in real life, think about Prince Charles and Lady Diana, or more recently Prince William and his fiancée, Kate Middleton; people are often more interested in the princess than the prince, and in some fashion he’s defined by her presence.” Schade knows that Tamino has to make his mark from the opening of the opera, where he appears chased by a monstrous serpent. Michael Schade as Tamino in the Salzburg Festival production of The Magic Flute, 2006. Photo: wild+team

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

THE MAGIC FLUTE: Vocal Royalty: Meet the Princes of Flute and Cenerentola

Left: Frédéric Antoun. Right: Christopher Enns

“What’s fiendishly difficult is that he has to be made human from the start, and that happens where he’s thrown out of his comfort zone in his encounter with the birdcatcher Papageno. Papageno treats him simply as a fellow human being and doesn’t know what a ‘prince’ is when Tamino uses the word. I think there’s a humanistic, Freemason influence here, an idea of the equality of mankind.” Quebec tenor Antoun, who first sang the role at university, feels the challenge is in Act II, “because Mozart hasn’t given you much to play with. I almost wish that the composer had given Tamino an aria there, but I realize that Mozart’s purpose is to make Pamina shine. As a performer, I have to anchor myself on the small points about the prince’s strengths and weaknesses that text and music provide.” For Enns, a Manitoba singer who joined the Ensemble this year, Tamino is “a young man who left home to find out about the world. He’s now brimful of ideals and believes in high, lofty things like Wisdom and Beauty. Because he’s young, he’s impetuous rather than rational, and one of the things he has to add to his noble nature is prudence.” All three tenors agree that seeing Pamina’s portrait starts Tamino on his path to wholeness, but that he has much to learn along the way. “He’s off like a shotgun blast, as lads do when they’re after a pretty girl,” notes Schade, “and only when he’s running does he start to become a man. He wants to save

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

her from a wicked oppressor, but realizes over the course of the opera that the initial problem of who’s right and wrong in this world isn’t as simple as he thought.” “He’s as much in love with Sarastro’s temple and its ideals as he is with Pamina,” continues Enns, tackling his first Tamino. “In the scene with the Speaker, Tamino finds his core beliefs challenged by the love of a woman he’s never met. Musically and dramatically, this is the scene where we learn most about the prince. The Speaker keeps challenging his ideals and firing him up both to accept his love, his high-minded principles and also to understand that Sarastro isn’t the enemy he thought.” The confrontation between Tamino and the Speaker is Antoun’s favourite scene to perform. “It has the most contrasts for the tenor; there’s drama, high notes, and a real exchange between the two. You get to see Tamino’s anger, his obedience and respect for authority, his joy when he starts to play the flute and ultimately his hope.” And while viewers come to think, like Tamino, that it’s Sarastro rather than the Queen of the Night who holds the truth, Schade isn’t so sure. In 2012, the tenor will be in Salzburg to perform Schikaneder’s sequel to The Magic Flute, Das Labyrinth, with music by Peter Winter. Schade explains that in this 1798 opera the characters from Flute return and seek power once again, power that he says contaminates in a Lord of the Rings fashion.

THE MAGIC FLUTE: Vocal Royalty: Meet the Princes of Flute and Cenerentola

“After all the times I’ve sung this opera, I’m still not sure who’s good and who’s bad. I’m convinced, though, that Tamino and Pamina would be better, after the opera ends, to move as far away from their in-laws as possible. The four of them living together doesn’t suggest a happy family scene.” Speaking of happy families, you won’t find one at the start of Rossini’s La Cenerentola, where the title character – whose name is actually Angelina – has to put up with two bullying stepsisters. There’s no cruel stepmother here, as in other versions of the tale, but rather a socialclimbing stepfather, Don Magnifico. The royal tenor in this tale is Don Ramiro, prince of Salerno, forced by his father’s sudden death to wed or be disinherited. Not the most fairy tale of motivations, but he’s still forced to search his kingdom for the ideal wife.

Preliminary sketch of Tamino by Myung Hee Cho, set and costume designer for The Magic Flute.

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

Rossini gives an unusual twist to the tale: there’s no magic, no fairy godmother, no glass slipper. Instead, he has Alidoro, a philosopher and Ramiro’s tutor, bring about the match between Angelina and his pupil. Jacopo Ferretti’s libretto replaces the supernatural with commedia dell’arteinspired figures like Ramiro’s servant Dandini, who switches places with his master, and the buffoon Magnifico. “Ramiro is looking for true love,” says Lawrence Brownlee, the renowned Rossini tenor who makes his debut with the COC in La Cenerentola. “Someone of his status can have any woman he wants, but he insists that his wife be someone with integrity. He knows instinctively that Angelina is that person the first time he sees her, but she still instructs him over the course of the opera. “Angelina’s mistreated by almost all the other characters but returns goodness for insults. In the final scene, Ramiro wants to punish those who haven’t been kind to her, but she dissuades him; in fact, everyone’s transformed through her goodness.” She teaches in other ways, too. As the mysterious beauty at the ball, Angelina leaves the prince not a glass slipper but rather one of a pair of bracelets; she asks him to return it to the woman who wears its partner. If the prince then still wants to wed the woman – Angelina doesn’t say she will appear as a poor kitchen maid – she will accept. In other words, Angelina sends her princely husband-to-be on yet another quest. And just as Sarastro directs Tamino toward wisdom, Alidoro guides Ramiro toward knowledge and happiness. “Characters like Alidoro and Sarastro are full of lived experience,” continues Brownlee, who has sung Ramiro in some 10 productions, including one at the Metropolitan Opera. “They’re part of the old school, and that’s something the younger

When machines start driving machines we’ll consider a change. Computers can measure performance. But they can’t feel. They can’t appreciate the connection between the driver and the road. Which is why Infiniti has a Master Driver, whose extraordinary skill is actually formally recognized by the government of Japan. His sole job is to provide engineers with human feedback. Emotional feedback. Which goes a long way towards explaining the efficient performance of the new 2.5-litre V6 powered 2011 G25 Sedan, the latest addition to the legendary G lineup. This is inspired performance. This is the way of Infiniti.

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MSRP for 2011 G25 Sedan (G4TK71 AA00) is $36,390. Freight and PDE charges of $1,920, license, registration, insurance, duties and applicable taxes (including excise tax, fuel conservation tax, tire recycling tax and duties on new tires, where applicable) are extra. All prices are subject to change without notice. Retailer may sell for less. ®The INFINITI names, logos, product names, featurenames, and slogans are trademarks owned by or licensed to Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., and/or its North American subsidiaries.

THE MAGIC FLUTE: Vocal Royalty: Meet the Princes of Flute and Cenerentola

The COC presents La Cenerentola. Lawrence Brownlee (far right) as Don Ramiro in the Houston Grand Opera production, 2007. Photo: Brett Coomer

characters like Ramiro and Tamino, who are inherently good people and have the desire to grow, understand.” Brownlee will be especially close to his Alidoro in Toronto, Kyle Ketelsen. The two studied together at Indiana University and played on the same championship intramural basketball team. How does he feel about returning to a role he’s done a number of times before? “Plácido Domingo taught me something that always keeps a part fresh for me. He said you should always try to learn something new each time you return to a role. That’s

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

a way of growing, of making the material appealing not only for the audience but also for the singer.”

Jon Kaplan is senior theatre writer at NOW Magazine. For further insights into The Magic Flute, please read Suzanne Vanstone's interviews with conductor Johannes Debus and set and costume designer Myung Hee Cho in the winter issue of Prelude, available online at coc.ca. This new COC production of The Magic Flute has been generously underwritten by the Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation.

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Nabucco. Masada 2010

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Aida Giuseppe Verdi Conducted by Daniel Oren

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The Arena di Verona Orchestra Conducted by Giuliano Carella

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Jerusalem Giuseppe Verdi Verdi's rarely performed opera

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SO YOU’VE EXPERIENCED AN OPERA. NOW WHAT?

OPERA FOR ADULTS

BY KATHERINE SEMCESEN

A (l – r) Johannes Debus, Christopher Alden and Brent Bambury at an Opera 101 event for The Flying Dutchman, 2010. Photo: COC

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

cross Canada there is a strong and supportive community of opera enthusiasts of varying ages with diverse experience and knowledge of the art form. Their appetite for opera goes beyond the mainstage performances and they keep feeding their hunger by attending informal events at local libraries or trendy bars, keeping up-to-date on all things opera through the many opera blogs or podcasts, going to shorter opera recitals and free concerts, or participating in academic courses and conferences. It’s an opportunity to socialize with other opera aficionados and fill the opera need when not sitting in an opera house enjoying a performance. To support the individuals in the opera community, the COC is committed to offering the public a chance to learn, engage and develop a further understanding and appreciation for all things opera before and after a performance. Take the test and find out which COC program might satisfy your operatic needs!

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How many operas have you attended? A. 0 to 5 B. 5 to 9 C. 10 or more What type of events do you like to attend? A. Informal, one-off in-person or online event B. An informal event that is part of a series C. An in-depth and stimulating academic lecture Why do you enjoy opera? Pick the statement that relates to you the most. A. The social aspect and it’s a fun night out. B. The multidisciplinary storytelling nature of the art form. C. Listening to the music of different composers and experiencing the varied theatrical adaptations of each piece. Which opera excites you the most? A. La Bohème B. The Flying Dutchman C. Death in Venice Which opera character do you best relate to? A. Carmen B. Orfeo C. Mélisande

exploration of opera. You’ve already determined your favourite operas and are curious to get beyond the basics of the art form. Recommended COC programs: BMO Financial Group Pre-performance Opera Chats, Opera 101, Free Concert Series presented by National Bank, COC online Book Club, COC Podcasts, Live CBC Broadcasts, Opera Courses – Up & Coming Mostly C’s: You live, breathe and eat opera and the mainstream resources aren’t fulfilling your need to find out more. Operas like Death in Venice, War and Peace, Fidelio, Simon Boccanegra, Otello and Pelléas et Mélisande get regular play in your household. Recommended COC events: The Opera Exchange, Opera Courses – History of Opera and International Tours

FOR PROGRAM DETAILS VISIT COC.CA/EXPLORE! BMO Financial Group Pre-performance Opera Chats: Members of the COC Volunteer Speakers Bureau, an array of opera enthusiasts with substantial experience in opera, provide context to the operas through insightful chats 45 minutes before each performance in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre. Chats are FREE with your performance ticket.

Mostly A’s: You’ve got your feet wet in the art form and you’re searching for the next step. Something casual, insightful, with an option to participate and lend your voice to the discussion. Recommended COC programs: BMO Financial Group Pre-performance Opera Chats, Opera 101, Free Concert Series presented by National Bank, Opera Talks, Parlando blog, COC Podcasts, Live CBC Broadcasts Mostly B’s: You’re hooked and you don’t shy away from commitment or deeper

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

A BMO Financial Group Pre-performance Opera Chat in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre. Photo: COC

OPERA FOR ADULTS

Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre presented by National Bank: Hear other opera companies, educational institutions, and the singers in the COC’s young artists training program, the Ensemble Studio, perform during a FREE noon-hour or evening concert.

COC Podcasts: Download COC music podcasts for your listening pleasure. Explore the musical highlights, plots, and background with COC hosts Gianmarco Segato and Gianna Wichelow and special guests from mainstage productions. Live CBC Broadcasts: CBC broadcasts all seven of the COC’s mainstage productions on Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and on occasion the COC hosts FREE online chats during the broadcasts of the operas where the public can speak directly with the singers, directors, and other cast and creative team members.

Sondra Radvanovsky performs as part of the Free Concert Series, presented by National Bank, 2010. Photo: Chris Hutcheson

Opera Courses – History of Opera: Explore a special period in operatic history through video recordings of live performances of operas. This year, the focus is on operas that are never or rarely performed on stages in North America but which are often staged in European houses with their more eclectic repertoire. International Opera Tours: Now in its 30th season, Dr. David Stanley-Porter’s thoughtfully planned itineraries bring you to cities renowned for their cultural and historic treasures. Discover opera around the world with the finest accommodations and excellent seating at sold-out performances! Opera 101: Enjoy a drink and an informal interview hosted by CBC radio personality, Brent Bambury, and a member of the COC’s cast and creative team of an upcoming mainstage opera. Events are FREE and take place in pubs and lounges in Toronto! 18

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

The Opera Exchange: Local and international academics from an array of disciplines (i.e. music, sociology, literature, forensics, philosophy, etc.) lead in-depth explorations and analysis on operatic themes, music and dramatic interpretations of stories. Opera Courses – Up and Coming: An in-depth examination of contrasting stagings in preparation for the 2010/2011 COC opera season.

NEW IN 2010/2011! Opera Talks: In partnership with the North York Central Public Library in Toronto, COC speakers give FREE presentations on upcoming mainstage operas. Parlando Blog: Get the scoop on the COC 24-7! Frequent posts give you a timely account of what is happening at the company – from production load-ins, rehearsals, building of new productions, and more! Katherine Semcesen is Senior Manager, Education and Outreach at the Canadian Opera Company. For more information about all the COC's education and outreach events for all ages, please visit the Explore and Learn section at coc.ca.

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NIXON IN CHINA by John Adams Opera in Three Acts, libretto by Alice Goodman By arrangement with Hendon Music, Inc., a Boosey & Hawkes company, publisher and copyright owner

first Performance: Brown Theatre, Wortham Center, Houston October 22, 1987 COC Premiere Co-production of Opera Theatre of St. louis, Chicago Opera Theater, Opera Colorado, Houston Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Portland Opera february 5, 9, 11, 13, 19, 22, 24, 26, 2011 four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto Sung in english with english SUrTITleSTM

The CAsT (in order of vocal appearance)

Chou En-lai, Chinese Prime Minister Richard Nixon, President of the U.S. Henry Kissinger, American Secretary of State Nancy T’sang, First Secretary to Mao Second Secretary to Mao Third Secretary to Mao Mao Tse-tung, President of China Pat Nixon, Richard Nixon’s wife Chiang Ch’ing, Mao Tse-tung’s wife Conductor: Director: Set Designer: Costume Designer: Choreographer: Lighting Designer: Sound Designer: Associate Director: Video Designer: Chorus Master: Stage Manager: SURTITLESTM Producer:

Chen-Ye Yuan Robert Orth Thomas Hammons Lauren Segal Rihab Chaieb Megan Latham Adrian Thompson Maria Kanyova Marisol Montalvo Pablo Heras-Casado* James Robinson Allen Moyer James Schuette Seán Curran Paul Palazzo Brian Mohr Michael Shell Wendall K. Harrington Sandra Horst Cynthia Toushan Gunta Dreifelds

Performance time is approximately two hours, 50 minutes with one intermission. Production Co-sponsors:

* Mr. heras-Casado’s performance is generously sponsored by Kristine Vikmanis.

This production of Nixon in China is being recorded for future broadcast on CBC radio Two (94.1 fM in Toronto) on Saturday Afternoon at the Opera. Program information is correct at time of printing. All casting is subject to change.

Please visit coc.ca for additional information

dIreCTOr’S nOTeS

DIRECTOR’S NOTES MinneAPOlis, MinnesOTA 1988 As a graduate student in Composition and Theory at the University of Minnesota, I was part of an unforgettable discussion in the Composition Seminar that followed the first television broadcast of Nixon in China. We were an opinionated and serious lot, usually found lazily agonizing over the merits of the twelve-tone system versus Neo-Romanticism, or trying to outdo each other with clever excuses for skipping performances of landmark 20th-century works or newer compositions that would doubtless enhance our knowledge and prospective careers. The day after the Nixon broadcast, however, was different: the conversation was fresh and biting, fists pounded the table, the air was electric with opinion and, yes, even a few tears were shed. In short, it was a wonderfully polarizing event that made me realize how relevant a new opera can be – and how quickly it can transform our view of the world. It was also the day I realized that a life dedicated to composition was (mercifully) just not in my future, but a life working in opera and music theatre (hopefully) might be. After class that day, everyone agreed that the best place for a composer to make his mark was in the opera house and that this thing called “minimalism” might just be where it’s at. One professor, however, when asked about Minimalism, smiled and sang, “I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it…” all the way back to his office. ClAreMOre, OKlAhOMA 1972 As a 10-year-old child in front of a large walnut-grain stereo console television, I still vividly recall watching (albeit with

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

reluctance) as our president, Richard Nixon, visited China in February of 1972. Clearly it was a momentous occasion, for it pre-empted many of my favourite programs, and it piqued my curiosity about Richard Nixon and Communism. At that time, I only knew that Communism was a scary and terrible thing, and God save you if you turned into one. I knew even less about our president. Try as they might, my patient parents could not quite convey the importance of Nixon’s trip to China, but it did make me acutely aware that our smart walnut-grain stereo console television had become not just a gathering place for discussions, meals or sibling warfare, but a place where a quickly changing, frightening and exciting world was increasingly commanding my attention. Later in front of that same TV, I shrugged when Nixon resigned and groaned when the endless Watergate trials forced me to actually go outside and play with the other kids on the block. BrOOKlyn, new yOrK 2004 As a director who has been working almost exclusively in opera for the past 12 years, I still recall the day that Colin Graham called to invite me to mount a new production of Nixon in China for Opera Theatre of St. Louis and the absolute delight I felt at the prospect. I have taken on many new or newer works over the years (and continue to do so), but most of them have been in the “neglected but interesting” category or (as was the case with Miss Havisham’s Fire) have needed some reconstruction or revision. For me Nixon was the perfect modern opera: smart, relevant, fresh and complete. And Adams’ music, still curiously

dIreCTOr’S nOTeS

labelled “minimalist,” soared with lyrical beauty and shimmered with dazzling orchestration. It was also an opera happily married to a marvellous first production by a director whose work I admire to this day. “How can such a legendary event be challenged?” I asked myself. My initial enthusiasm gave way to despair. But after a lively discussion with my design colleagues, during which we talked about everything from American politics to Mao’s poetry to our memories of our family’s televisions, renewed excitement pulled me from an abyss of insecurity. We agreed that our shared experiences in viewing Nixon’s historic trip on television, and the perspective we have gained from the event as it has impacted not just our country but the world, were shaping our vision of Adams’ opera. So with this new production of Nixon in China for Opera Theatre, we present a lyrical fantasy-journey, a collision of East and West and a theatrical history basking in the romantic bluish glow of the television screen.

spectacle, rehearsed and prepared, fine tuned and orchestrated. I’ve just returned from a long rehearsal to watch coverage of Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington, D.C. on CNN. How oddly familiar… James robinson

P.s. TOrOnTO, OnTAriO 2011 It is truly wonderful to be back at the glorious COC presenting this production, but what a difference a few years can make! Looking over my original program notes (see above) I realize now just how the world has changed in terms of the position of China in our global awareness. Nixon in China seems even more prophetic than it ever has and each day in rehearsal I marvel at how insightful the words of Alice Goodman have turned out to be. Our 24-hour, cable-driven, editorial-based news television cycles now reveal just how every major political event has become its own operatic

Please visit coc.ca for additional information

SynOPSIS

SYNOPSIS ACT I scene i The airfield outside Peking: it is a cold, clear, dry morning: Monday, February 21, 1972. Contingents of army, navy and air force circle the field and sing “The Three Main Rules of Discipline and Eight Points of Attention.” Premier Chou En-lai, accompanied by a small group of officials, strolls onto the runway just as “The Sprit of ’76” taxis into view. President Nixon disembarks. They shake hands and the President sings of his excitement and his fears.

ACT II scene i Snow has fallen during the night. In the morning Mrs. Nixon is ushered onstage by her party of guides and journalists. She explains a little of what it feels like for a woman like her to be First Lady, and accepts a glass elephant from the workers at the Peking Glass Factory. She visits the Evergreen People’s Commune and the Summer Palace, where she pauses in the Gate of Longevity and Goodwill to sing, “This is prophetic!” Then, on to the Ming Tombs before sunset.

scene ii An hour later he is meeting with Chairman Mao. Mao’s conversational armoury contains philosophical apothegms, unexpected political observations, and gnomic jokes, and everything he sings is amplified by his secretaries and the Premier. It is not easy for a Westerner to hold his own in such a dialogue.

scene ii In the evening, the Nixons attend a performance of The Red Detachment of Women, a revolutionary ballet devised by Mao’s wife, Chiang Ch’ing. The ballet entwines ideological rectitude with Hollywood-style emotion. The Nixons respond to the latter; they are drawn to the downtrodden peasant girl – in fact, they are drawn into the action on the side of simple virtue. This was not precisely what Chiang Ch’ing had in mind. She sings “I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung,” ending with full choral backing.

scene iii After the audience with Mao, everyone at the first evening’s banquet is euphoric. The President and Mrs. Nixon manage to exchange a few words before Premier Chou rises to make the first of the evening’s toasts, a tribute to patriotic fraternity. The President replies, toasting the Chinese people and the hope of peace. The toasts continue, with less formality, as the night goes on.

inTerMissiOn

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

ACT III The last evening in Peking.

MusiC sTAff

Rachel Andrist Susan Ball Stephen B. Hargreaves AssisTAnT COnduCTOr

Derek Bate AssisTAnT direCTOr

Graham Cozzubbo AssisTAnT sTAge MAnAgers

Tiffany Fraser Liliane Stilwell AssisTAnT lighTing designers

Wendy Greenwood Jareth Li dAnCers

Ryan Adkins Lisa August Nora Brickman (Dance Captain) Cheng-Ni Ho Sarah Matton Jacques Monfiston Joe Perez Tyler Evan Webb Niki Wozniak undersTudies

Chou En-lai Henry Kissinger Nancy T’sang Second Secretary to Mao Third Secretary to Mao Pat Nixon Chiang Ch’ing

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Adrian Kramer Robert Pomakov Wallis Giunta Karen Olinyk Wendy Hatala Foley Ileana Montalbetti Teiya Kasahara

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES RIHAB CHAIEB second secretary to Mao

Tunisian-born mezzosoprano Rihab Chaieb is a new member of the COC Ensemble Studio. She recently appeared as the French Mother in Death in Venice. She graduated from the Schulich School of Music at McGill University with a bachelor of music in vocal performance, where she performed the title role in Carmen, Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress, Sister Mathilde in Dialogues des Carmélites and Suzy in La Rondine. Ms Chaieb recently performed Dido in Dido and Aeneas with the McGill Chamber Orchestra and Third Spirit in Die Zauberflöte with Opéra de Montréal. She has studied with the Franz Schubert Institute in Baden bei Wien (Austria), Opera Nuova in Edmonton and the International Vocal Art Institute in Tel Aviv. With the COC this season, Ms Chaieb will also perform the roles of the Third Lady in the Ensemble Studio performance of The Magic Flute and Tisbe in La Cenerentola, and will understudy Dryad in Ariadne auf Naxos. THOMAS HAMMONS henry Kissinger

American bass-baritone Thomas Hammons makes his COC debut with this production. Mr. Hammons created the role of Henry Kissinger in the world premiere of Nixon in China for the Houston Grand Opera in 1987, and his iconic portrayal has since been seen in Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt and Los Angeles, along with recent revivals at Cincinnati Opera, Opera Colorado and

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Vancouver Opera. His association with John Adams continued in the inaugural performances of The Death of Klinghoffer at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, with subsequent performances in Lyon, Vienna, San Francisco and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Additional recent engagements include his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as Schigolch in Lulu, Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Benoît/Alcindoro in La Bohème with Opera Colorado, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro and in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Cleveland, and Dansker in Billy Budd and Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore at the Santa Fe Opera. Mr. Hammons made his debut at the Met as the Sacristan in Tosca during the 1996/97 season, and has returned every season thereafter for numerous productions. MARIA KANYOVA Pat nixon

American soprano Maria Kanyova makes her COC debut with this production. Career highlights include Violetta in La Traviata at Lyric Opera of Chicago and Portland Opera; Madama Butterfly at Lyric Opera and Florida Grand Opera; Marie Antoinette in The Ghosts of Versailles at Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Wexford Festival Opera; Nedda in Pagliacci at New York City Opera and Dallas Opera; Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at Los Angeles Opera and Opera Colorado; both Adina in L’elisir d’amore and Tatiana in Eugene Onegin at Boston Lyric Opera; the title role in Jen˚ufa at Glimmerglass Opera; and, Mimì in La Bohème at Houston Grand Opera and New York City Opera (telecast across the U.S.).

ArTISTS’ BIOGrAPHIeS

She has created roles in the world premieres of Tobias Picker’s Emmeline (also telecast) and William Bolcom’s A Wedding (directed by Robert Altman), and has recorded the role of Pat Nixon for Naxos. MEGAN LATHAM Third secretary to Mao

Canadian mezzo-soprano Megan Latham previously appeared with the COC as Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro and Florence Pike in the 2004 Ensemble Studio production of Albert Herring. Most recently, she was heard as Eduige in Rodelinda with Pacific Opera Victoria, Marcellina for Vancouver Opera and was featured in The Sound of Music at the Princess of Wales Theatre. She has a master’s degree of performance in opera from the University of Toronto’s Opera Division, and has performed with the KitchenerWaterloo Symphony, Abbotsford Symphony and the Aldeburgh Connection. Highlight performances with the UofT Opera Division include Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Ruggiero in Alcina and Boulotte in Barbe-bleue. Ms Latham previously studied at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, where she performed the roles of Florence Pike and Marcellina. She was the 2003 winner of the Marilyn Horne Foundation Song Competition which resulted in her 2004 New York City recital debut at the Kosciuszko Foundation and Carnegie Hall. Future engagements include Verdi’s Requiem with the Regina Symphony.

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

MARISOL MONTALVO Chiang Ch’ing

American soprano Marisol Montalvo makes her COC and role debut with this production. Operatic credits include the title role of Lulu with Opéra national de Paris, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro de la Maestranza, Opéra de Toulouse and Theater Basel; the world premiere of Mainz’s Maldoror at the Münchener Biennale and Theater Basel; Herodiade Fragmente with the Philadelphia Orchestra, ORF Symphoniker, Saarbrücken Orchester and Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk Orchester; Eötvös’ Love and Other Demons with the Lithuania National Opera; Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Orchestre de Paris and Bamberger Symphoniker; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Christoph Eschenbach conducting the National Symphony; Der Neue Orpheus with the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk Orchester; Carmina Burana in São Paolo; and, Fiakermilli in Arabella at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Future engagements include the world premiere of Il re oroso with Opéra Comique and Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Lulu with the Berlin Komische Oper and the Polish National Opera, further performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Bamberger Symphoniker, Poulenc’s La voix humaine in Santiago de Compostela and Despina in Così fan tutte with Theater Basel. ROBERT ORTH richard nixon

American baritone Robert Orth previously appeared with the COC as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Dr. Koletany in The Makropulos Case. Recent engagements have included his definitive portrait of Richard Nixon with Vancouver Opera,

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Ensemble Studio. Photo: Chris Hutcheson

Ensemble Studio The Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio is the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier opera training program. Since 1980, more than 150 young Canadian singers, stage directors, apprentice opera coaches and conductors have acquired their first professional operatic experience through this program, including such well known singers as Ben Heppner, Joanne Kolomyjec, Wendy Nielsen, Joni Henson, John Fanning, and Isabel Bayrakdarian. For more information about supporting the COC Ensemble Studio, please call 416-847-4949 or visit coc.ca.

ArTISTS’ BIOGrAPHIeS

the world premiere of Brief Encounter with Houston Grand Opera, the world premiere of Moby Dick with Dallas Opera, Frederick in A Little Night Music with Central City Opera and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte with Portland Opera. Other operatic credits include the Lodger in The Aspern Papers in its east coast premiere at the Kennedy Center; the Lecturer in A Waterbird Talk in Chicago; the Father in Six Characters in Search of an Author in its second professional production; the title role in Harvey Milk for Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, and San Francisco Opera; Frank Lloyd Wright in Shining Brow; Owen Hart in the world premiere of Dead Man Walking with San Francisco Opera; and, Uncle John in the world premiere of The Grapes of Wrath with Minnesota Opera. LAUREN SEGAL nancy T’sang

Canadian mezzo-soprano Lauren Segal, a graduate of the COC Ensemble Studio, recently appeared with the COC as Mercédès in Carmen. Previous COC appearances include Sonya in War and Peace, Aljeja in From the House of the Dead and Siebel in Faust. Other credits include Maddalena in Rigoletto for Opéra de Montréal, Messiah with Vancouver Bach Choir, Dorabella in Così fan tutte with Pacific Opera Victoria, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with Manitoba Opera, Sesto in La clemenza di Tito for the Orford Arts Festival, Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus for Opera Hamilton and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with the Toronto Summer Music Festival. Ms Segal has sung in opera galas for the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and with Toronto’s Mendelssohn Choir and was a recitalist at Festivoix and the Westben and Bayfield festivals. This season with the

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

COC she is also appearing as the Third Lady in The Magic Flute and Dryad in Ariadne auf Naxos. ADRIAN THOMPSON Mao Tse-tung

English tenor Adrian Thompson makes his COC debut with this production. Mr. Thompson trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where he is now a professor. Operatic credits include the title role in Peter Grimes, Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte, and Valzacchi in Der Rosenkavalier at Royal Opera House Covent Garden; Prologue in The Turn of the Screw with Grand Théâtre de Genève; Erik in Der fliegende Holländer with Opera Zuid; the title role in Janáˇ cek’s The Diary of One who Disappeared at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; Osud with Garsington Opera; Mr. Upfold in Albert Herring and Monsieur Triquet in Eugene Onegin at the Glyndebourne Festival; and, Great Convict in From the House of the Dead at Teatro Massimo. His contemporary performances have included Judith Weir’s A Night at the Chinese Opera and Lutoslawski in Paroles tisées. Future engagements include Eisslinger in Die Meistersinger at the Glyndebourne Festival and Mime in Siegfried with Nationale Reisopera. CHEN-YE YUAN Chou en-lai

Baritone Chen-Ye Yuan makes his COC debut with this production, reprising a role he has performed with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Chicago Opera Theater, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Colorado and, most recently, Vancouver Opera. Recent engagements include Renato in Un ballo in maschera with Boston Lyric Opera;

Amonasro in Aida and Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor with Houston Grand Opera; the title role of Rigoletto with Palm Beach Opera and Welsh National Opera; Guglielmo Wulf in Le Villi with Shanghai Opera House; Escamillo in Carmen and Zhou LuoPing in A Village Teacher (world premiere) with National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing; Yang ShaoShan in Song of Farewell (world premiere) at Beijing Music Festival; and, soloist in Song of the Earth with Bamberger Philharmoniker in Germany. Upcoming engagements include Chou En-Lai with San Francisco Opera, Yang ShaoShan with Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Rigoletto, Escamillo, Cheng Ying in Sacrifice (world premiere) with NCPA in Beijing and as a soloist in Des Knaben Wunderhorn with China Philharmonic Orchestra.

PABLO HERAS-CASADO Conductor

Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado makes his COC debut with this production. Recent engagements include appearances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie – Orchester Berlin, BBC Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony. Past seasons have seen Mr. Heras-Casado perform with the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Cleveland Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. He has conducted The Elixir of Love for English National Opera, Rigoletto for Welsh National Opera, the world premiere of Marc-Olivier Dupin’s ballet Les enfants du paradis for Opéra national de Paris, and new productions of Offenbach’s La Périchole

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with Opéra national de Bordeaux and Weill’s Mahagonny at Teatro Real Madrid. Future engagements include performances with Radio Philharmonique de Radio France, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, NHK Symphony Orchestra, the world premiere performances of Hosokawa’s Matsukaze with Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie and his debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and Chicago Symphony. Mr. Heras-Casado’s recent DVD of Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France will be released on the Naïve label in 2011. JAMES ROBINSON director

American director James Robinson’s previous COC credits include Il viaggio a Reims (2002); and Elektra (1997), Turandot (1998) and Norma (1999), all three of which earned him Dora Award nominations for Outstanding Direction. Other directing credits include Il Trittico for San Francisco Opera, Bernstein’s Mass for the London Symphony Orchestra, The Golden Ticket for Wexford Opera, Handel’s Rinaldo for Opera Australia, Antheil’s Transatlantic and Casanova’s Homecoming for Minnesota Opera, The Rake’s Progress and Così fan tutte for Santa Fe Opera, Giulio Cesare and Salsipuedes for Houston Grand Opera and numerous productions for New York City Opera. He has directed The Ghosts of Versailles, this production of Nixon in China and the world premiere of The Golden Ticket for Opera Theatre of St. Louis, where he currently serves as artistic director.

ArTISTS’ BIOGrAPHIeS

ALLEN MOYER set designer

American set designer Allen Moyer returns to the COC after designing the sets and costumes for The Flying Dutchman (Dora Mavor Moore nomination), as well as the sets for Il viaggio a Reims and Norma. Set design credits include Orfeo ed Euridice for the Met, directed by Mark Morris; Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All, Il Trittico, and La Bohème, broadcast on Live from Lincoln Center for New York City Opera; as well as productions for Wexford Festival, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Houston Grand Opera, Scottish Opera, Glimmerglass Opera and Welsh National Opera. Broadway credits include After Miss Julie, Thurgood, Little Dog Laughed, In My Life, Twelve Angry Men (including the National Tour), The Constant Wife, Reckless, The Man Who Had All the Luck and Grey Gardens, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award and won the 2006 Hewes Award from the American Theater Wing. His dance credits include the set design for Romeo and Juliet: On Motifs of Shakespeare for the Mark Morris Dance Group. Mr. Moyer is the recipient of a 2006 Obie award for sustained excellence. JAMES SCHUETTE Costume designer

American designer James Schuette makes his COC debut with this production. His recent work includes La Cenerentola (Minnesota Opera), Ricky Ian Gordon’s Sycamore Trees (Signature Theatre), Tarrell Alvin McCraney’s Brother/Sister plays (McCarter Theatre, Public Theatre and Steppenwolf Theatre),

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

Ghosts of Versailles directed by James Robinson (Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Wexford Festival), Endgame (Steppenwolf Theatre) and Tracy Letts’ Superior Donuts (Broadway/Music Box). His designs have been featured with numerous companies both in North America and internationally, including the American Repertory Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Arena Stage, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Court Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Minneapolis Children’s Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights Horizons, the Public Theatre, Papermill Playhouse, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, Vineyard Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Boston Lyric Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Minnesota Opera, Glimmerglass Opera and Opera Colorado. Upcoming projects include La fille du régiment and The Death of Klinghoffer with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Carmen with Glimmerglass Opera. SEÁN CURRAN Choreographer

American choreographer Seán Curran makes his COC debut with this production. A graduate and guest faculty member of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Mr. Curran danced with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company from 1983 to 1993, and was an original member of the New York cast of Stomp, performing in the show for four years. Recent projects for Mr. Curran include: Salome at Opera Theatre of St. Louis and the San Francisco Opera; Romeo and Juliette at the Met; New York City Opera productions of L’étoile,

Take Home an Operatic Souvenir! For the operatically inclined on your gift list, visit the Opera Shop on the main floor of the Isadore and Rosalie Sharp City Room, open before, during and (sometimes) after performances. Necklace by P. J. Bundy

This winter we recommend the following recordings of The Magic Flute from Universal Classics: ON CD: With Uwe Heilmann, Ruth Ziesak, Michael Kraus, Sumi Jo and Kurt Moll. Vienna Philharmonic, Vienna State Opera Chorus, Sir Georg Solti, conductor. Decca, 2 CDs, $52.75 including taxes. The Vienna Philharmonic has this music in their blood, and Sumi Jo’s singing of the Queen of the Night is dazzling and spectacular, while exhibiting incredible precision.

ON DVD: With Kathleen Battle, Francisco Araiza, Manfred Hemm, Luciana Serra and Kurt Moll. Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus, James Levine, conductor. Deutsche Grammophon DVD, $25.75 including taxes. An all-star cast, and a classic, whimsical production by artist David Hockney make this a first choice among DVDs of The Magic Flute!

And don’t forget Valentine’s Day! We offer a fine selection of opera recordings on CD and DVD, opera-related books and giftware, COC souvenirs, and – perfect for Valentine’s Day – one-of-a-kind jewellery. On Sunday Feb. 13 and 20, meet P. J. Bundy who presents a trunk show of her designer jewellery, utilizing vintage pieces! This will take place pre- and postshow and during intermission.

Shop for much more at the Opera Shop or online at coc.ca! The Opera Shop is a project of the Canadian Opera Company, in partnership with L’Atelier Grigorian and Decca – The Opera Label. All proceeds support the Canadian Opera Company.

ArTISTS’ BIOGrAPHIeS

Alcina, Turandot, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Capriccio and Acis and Galatea; and, the Playwrights Horizons’ production of My Life with Albertine. Mr. Curran’s work has appeared on Broadway in James Joyce’s The Dead for Playwrights Horizons and The Rivals at Lincoln Center Theater. He has created works for numerous companies including American Ballet Theatre’s studio company, Denmark’s Upper Cut Company, Sweden’s Skänes Dance Theater and Dance Alloy. He is currently the artistic director of the Seán Curran Company. Upcoming engagements include directing Salome at Opéra de Montréal. PAUL PALAZZO lighting designer

American lighting designer Paul Palazzo makes his COC debut with this production. A graduate of the New York University MFA program in theatrical design, he has worked in opera, theatre, and ballet all over the world. His operatic credits include designs for Eugene Onegin and Rigoletto at Boston Lyric Opera, Nabucco at Dallas Opera, Don Pasquale and Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Houston Grand Opera, L’elisir d’amore and La Bohème with Opera Colorado and Der Rosenkavalier with Seattle Opera. On Broadway he designed the lighting for the successful revival of Twelve Angry Men. He has also designed a unique effects projection system, the EFX Plus, winning product of the year at Lighting Design International 1998. Mr. Palazzo has an international base of corporate clients including IBM, SAP and Sony Electronics.

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

BRIAN MOHR sound designer

American sound designer Brian Mohr makes his COC debut with this production, having also designed this production for Portland Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Cincinnati Opera and Opera Colorado. As the assistant sound designer to John Adams, he has designed productions of The Death of Klinghoffer, On the Transmigration of Souls, The Dharma at Big Sur with violin virtuosa Leila Josefowicz, and assisted on productions of Doctor Atomic. He has also designed three productions of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar and mixed the world premiere of The Bonesetter’s Daughter, based on the book by Amy Tan. Other engagements include extensive touring with the Kronos Quartet, and being the resident sound designer for the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, whose guests this season included Garth Brooks, Itzhak Perlman, Jennifer Koh and Emanuel Ax. Mr. Mohr is a graduate of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film, Television and Digital Media. MICHAEL SHELL Associate director

American director Michael Shell makes his COC debut with this production. After making his directorial debut in 2006, Mr. Shell has gone on to direct for Virginia Opera, Piedmont Opera, Opera Tampa, Opera Omaha and the A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute. He has worked as assistant director at Glimmerglass Opera, Opera Omaha, Portland Opera, Dallas Opera, Wexford Festival Opera and Opera Theatre of St. Louis (OTSL). He has worked on three world premieres, including OTSL’s production of The Golden Ticket. He has

written and directed three cabarets, including All about Love and The Glamorous Life – A group therapy session for Opera singers, both for OTSL. Mr. Shell has been a guest faculty member at the North Carolina School of the Arts, teaching Opera Workshop and directing the 2009 Undergraduate Opera Workshop performance. He was the 2009 honouree of the OTSL Charles MacKay Career Development Fund. Future engagements include directing The Barber of Seville for Opera Theatre of the Rockies, The Marriage of Figaro for Opera North, H.M.S. Pinafore for Piedmont Opera, Così fan tutte for OTSL and co-directing Don Giovanni for OTSL. WENDALL K. HARRINGTON Video designer

American projection designer Wendall K. Harrington makes her COC debut with this production. Ms Harrington received the Drama Desk, the Outer Critics Circle and American Theatre Wing awards for The Who’s Tommy. She has designed for opera, theatre, ballet, concerts, and sports events. Ms Harrington’s operatic credits include productions of Brundibar, Rusalka, The Grapes of Wrath, A View from the Bridge, The Photographer, La fanciulla del West, Die tote Stadt and Die Gezeichneten. Broadway credits include Driving Miss Daisy, Grey Gardens, The Good Body, Putting it Together, Freak, Ragtime, The Capeman, Company, Having Our Say, The Heidi Chronicles, My One and Only and They’re Playing Our Song. Off-Broadway credits include Angels in America, Les MIZrahi, As Thousands Cheer, Merrily We Roll Along and Hapgood. She is the recipient of the 1995 Obie award and the Michael Merritt award for Design and Collaboration. She lectures widely on

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projection design and is on the faculty of the Yale School of Drama. SANDRA HORST Chorus Master

Chorus master Sandra Horst’s recent credits include Aida, Death in Venice, Idomeneo, Maria Stuarda, The Flying Dutchman, Otello, Carmen, Madama Butterfly and The Nightingale and Other Short Fables for the COC and The Marriage of Figaro, Eugene Onegin and The Golden Ticket for Opera Theatre of St. Louis. As director of musical studies for the University of Toronto’s Opera Division, she has most recently conducted Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges and L’heure espagnole, as well as productions of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, J. Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Nicolai’s Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and John Beckwith’s Taptoo! Ms Horst conducted Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims for the COC, has been chorus master of Edmonton Opera, served as a judge for the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions and has been on the music staff of the Juilliard Opera Center, Chautauqua Institute, Boston Lyric Opera, Edmonton Opera, Banff Centre for the Arts, Opera Ontario and Opera Saskatchewan. With the COC this season she is also the chorus master for The Magic Flute, La Cenerentola and Orfeo ed Euridice. CYNTHIA TOUSHAN stage Manager

Cynthia Toushan has been a member of the COC for over 20 years as a stage manager and choreographer. She last appeared with the COC as stage manager for From the House of the Dead in 2008.

ArTISTS’ BIOGrAPHIeS

Past COC productions include Faust, Turandot, Jen˚ufa, Xerxes, Hänsel und Gretel and Il viaggio a Reims. Ms Toushan was the production stage manager as well as resident director on Jersey Boys in Toronto from 2008 to 2010. She has completed 14 seasons with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, where she has stage managed numerous productions including Kiss Me Kate, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof and Oklahoma! Ms Toushan had a long association with choreographer/ director Alan Lund, working as his assistant on numerous productions. In addition, she was the senior stage manager for Pope John Paul II’s visit to Toronto in 2002. DEREK BATE Assistant Conductor

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

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

This season with the COC Mr. Bate is also the assistant conductor for La Cenerentola. GRAHAM COZZUBBO Assistant director

Calgary-native Graham Cozzubbo has previously directed the Xstrata Ensemble Studio School Tours of The Brothers Grimm and Isis and the Seven Scorpions and has served as an assistant director on over 17 productions with the COC. He spent two seasons at Alberta Theatre Projects as an artistic associate and co-founded New Century Stage. Mr. Cozzubbo’s theatre credits include productions of Krapp’s Last Tape, featuring John Neville, for the DuMaurier World Stage and Soulpepper Theatre and the first two instalments of the Canada House trilogy. He has directed for the opera companies of Calgary, Québec, Edmonton, Victoria, Houston and Cincinnati. Committed to the creation of new work and professional training, he was the assistant artistic director of the Contemporary Opera program at the Banff Centre for the Arts, where he directed the premiere of Henze’s El Cimarrón and wrote and directed Erik Satie: The Velvet Gentleman. Recently he directed Massenet’s Cendrillon for The Glenn Gould School, the first opera produced in Koerner Hall. Upcoming engagements include a new production of Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci for Opera Hamilton this spring. 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.

Shannon Mercer, Krisztina Szabó and Joni Henson in the COC’s Così fan tutte, 2006. Photo: Michael Cooper

Friends of the COC Join us! Today’s performance has been made possible, in part, by the generosity and loyal support of the Friends of the COC. Our Friends also support our education and outreach programs, Free Concert Series and Ensemble Studio training program. Become a Friend of the COC* and you can join us in the Friends Lounge at all COC performances, enjoy special behind-the-scenes working rehearsals and events, receive our newsletter Prelude, as well as gain access to single tickets one week prior to the public. All gifts will be gratefully acknowledged with a charitable tax receipt. For more information, please stop by the Friends Lounge located on Ring 3, visit coc.ca, or call 416-847-4949.

*Friends of the COC give a charitable membership gift between $150 – $2,249 annually.

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Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Photo: Sam Javanrouh

Corporate Sponsorship The Canadian Opera Company welcomes financial support from corporations that appreciate the advantages of partnering with one of Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s premier performing arts companies. A variety of sponsorship opportunities can be customized to meet branding, marketing and corporate entertainment needs including production, performance, official orchestra and chorus sponsorships, as well as official supplier partnerships at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Corporate sponsorship offers exciting privileges that you and your company can enjoy all year long. For further information please contact Carlie Weppler at 416-306-2321 or carliew@coc.ca.

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY ORCHESTRA VIOLIN I Marie Bérard, Concertmaster The Concertmaster’s chair has been endowed in perpetuity by Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Benjamin Bowman, Associate Concertmaster, on leave of absence diane Tait, Assistant Concertmaster Jayne Maddison, Acting Assistant Concertmaster Anne Armstrong Sandra Baron Bethany Bergman nancy Kershaw, on leave of absence dominique laplante yakov lerner renée london neria Mayer Aya Miyagawa

CELLO Bryan epperson, Principal, on leave of absence Alastair eng, Associate Principal Paul Widner, Assistant Principal Maurizio Baccante Olga laktionova elaine Thompson

ALTO SAXOPHONE leslie Allt

BASS Alan Molitz, Principal robert Speer, Assistant Principal Tom Hazlitt Paul langley, on leave of absence robert Wolanski

TRUMPET robert Grim, Principal Brendan Cassin Valerie Cowie

FLUTE douglas Stewart, Principal Shelley Brown

BASS TROMBONE Herbert Poole

ALTO AND TENOR SAXOPHONE Wallace Halladay TENOR AND BARITONE SAXOPHONE Peter lutek

TROMBONE robert ferguson, Principal Ian Cowie

PERCUSSION Trevor Tureski*, Principal

VIOLIN II Paul Zevenhuizen, Principal Csaba Koczó, Assistant Principal James Aylesworth elizabeth Johnston Hiroko Kagawa louise Tardif Marianne Urke Joanna Zabrowarna

PICCOLO Shelley Brown douglas Stewart

VIOLA nicolò eugelmi, Principal, on leave of absence Theresa rudolph Koczó, Acting Principal Joshua Greenlaw, Assistant Principal rhyll Peel Angela rudden Beverley Spotton yosef Tamir

CLARINET Max Christie, Acting Principal Colleen Cook James Ormston

ASSISTANT MUSIC LIBRARIAN Capella Sherwood

Eb CLARINET Max Christie

STAGE LIBRARIAN Paul langley

BASS CLARINET Colleen Cook

PERSONNEL MANAGER Ian Cowie

SOPRANO SAXOPHONE robert Carli

*Trevor Tureski is the electronic consultant for Nixon in China.

OBOE Mark rogers, Principal lesley young ENGLISH HORN lesley young

PIANO rachel Andrist Stephen Clarke SYNTHESIZER Susan Ball LIBRARIAN Wayne Vogan

CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY CHORUS SOPRANOS Mary Bella Margaret evans laura Klassen Alexandra lennoxPomeroy Ingrid Martin eve rachel Mcleod Victoria Pinnington Jennifer robinson Catherine Tait Teresa van der Hoeven

MEZZO-SOPRANOS Susan Black Sandra Boyes Wendy Hatala foley Sonya Gosse Heather Jewson lilian Kilianski Kathryn Knapp Anne McWatt Karen Olinyk Vilma Indra Vitols

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TENORS Vanya Abrahams Craig Ashton Stephen Bell Taras Chmil Sean Clark Stephen erickson John Kriter Jason lamont James leatch Stephen McClare

BARITONES/BASSES Grant Allert Kenneth Baker Peter Barnes Sung Chung Michael downie Jason nedecky niculae raiciu Michael Sproule Gene Wu Michael york

BOARD OF DIRECTORS OFFICERS Mr. Paul B. Spafford, Chair Mr. Philip C. deck, President Mr. Paul A. Bernards, Treasurer Mr. John H. Macfarlane, Secretary Mr. Alexander neef, General Director (ex officio) Mr. robert lamb, Managing Director (ex officio) MEMBERS Mr. H. Anthony (Tony) Arrell Ms nora Aufreiter Mr. Barry Avrich Mr. david Broadhurst Mr. robert Brouwer Ms Marcia lewis Brown Mr. Stewart Burton

Mr. George S. dembroski dr. fayaz dossa Mr. William fearn (ex officio) Mr. david C. ferguson Mr. david forster Mr. Mike french Mr. Adam froman Mr. Michael Gibbens Mr. John Gagliano dr. linda Hutcheon Ms Trinity Jackman Ms Pamela Jeffery Mr. Jeff lloyd Mr. Stephen O. Marshall Ms Judy Matthews Mr. Geoffrey Matus Ms Marina Mcdougall (ex officio) Ms Trina McQueen

Mr. Jonathan Morgan Mrs. Sue Mortimer Mr. nicholas Mutton Mr. Ian Pearce Ms frances Price Mr. John rothschild Mr. Arthur r. A. Scace, C.M. Ms Colleen Sexsmith Ms Sandra Simpson Mr. Philip Smith Ms Kristine (Kris) Vikmanis Ms Karen Walsh Mr. John H. (Jack) Whiteside Mr. Tom Woods HONORARY DIRECTORS 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 Tom Anderson, President northumberland Opera Guild Thais Donald, President Oakville Opera Guild Margaret Parker, President Peterborough Opera Guild June Wilson Thexton, President Quinte Opera Guild Dorothy Temple, President Sudbury Opera Guild Mike Humphris, President Western new york Opera Guild Dorothy K. Piepke, President

ARIAS: Canadian Student Opera Development Fund Arija Stiver, Chair Marina Mcdougall, President Arija Stiver, Past-President lisa Teskey, Vice-President Kai Christine liu, Vice-President TBA, Secretary lisa Teskey, Treasurer

CANADIAN OPERA FOUNDATION Mr. William fearn, Chair Mr. derek Brown Mr. J. rob Collins Mr. Philip C. deck (ex officio) Mr. david forster Mr. George Hamilton, Treasurer Mr. roy d. Hogg, fCA Hon. dennis lane Mr. Peter MacKenzie Ms Kathleen Mclaughlin Mr. david e. Spiro, Secretary Mr. edzo Wisman

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

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

ADMINISTRATION AND STAFF AleXAnder neef, General director Managing Director robert lamb Music Director Johannes debus EXECUTIVE OFFICE Executive Assistant to the General Director Marguerite schabas ARTISTIC ADMINISTRATION Artistic Administrator roberto Mauro MUSIC Music Administrator sandra gavinchuk Chorus Master sandra horst Music Librarian, Coach, Chorus Administrator wayne Vogan Head of the Ensemble Studio & Coach elizabeth upchurch Resident Conductor derek Bate Music Staff rachel Andrist susan Ball Jean desmarais Albert Krywolt Anne larlee Ben Malensek steven Philcox elizabeth rowe felice Venanzoni Company Manager Olwyn lewis Scheduling Manager Kathryn garnett Administrative Assistant, Music Karen Olinyk Archivist, Joan Baillie Archives Birthe Joergensen Orchestra Personnel Manager ian Cowie Assistant Librarian Capella sherwood COC Ensemble Studio Ambur Braid rihab Chaieb neil Craighead Chris enns wallis giunta Adrian Kramer Anne larlee ileana Montalbetti simone Osborne Michael uloth Jacqueline woodley Production Assistants Ariel Martin-smith Aislinn ritchie PROGRAMMING Director of Programming – Free Concert Series nina draganić PRODUCTION Production Manager lee Milliken Technical Director david feheley Associate Technical Director Barney Bayliss Lighting Co-ordinator wendy greenwood Assistant Technical Director Melynda Jurgenson Head Electrician Janice fraser

Assistant Electrician Joel Thoman Production Electrician Ashley rose Head of Sound Al Merson Head Carpenter Paul watkinson Assistant Carpenter Mike gelfand Head Flyman rupert Baker Head of Properties Alison Potter Core Crew guy Campagnaro scott Clarke Terry hurley Paul Otis Scene Shop Supervisor Patrick wood Head Scene Shop Carpenter david Middleton Assistant Scene Shop Carpenter larry Pratt Carpenters doug Closs hugh Maclachan Jim nutt rob rea dave retzleff Andrew Vukovic Andrew walker Mark washuck Head Scenic Artist richard gordon Assistant Head Scenic Artist Jana Osterman Scenic Painters Katherine lilly daniela Mazic heather Midwinter lisa Petrocco Andrze Tarasium Carolina Valenzuela Rehearsal Head Technician scott williamson Properties Supervisor guy nokes Resident Properties Builder/Co-ordinator stephanie Tjelios Properties Buyer/ Co-ordinator Kathy frost Properties Co-ordinator Tracy Taylor Properties Builders Carolyn Choo wulf Costume Supervisor sandra Corazza Costume Co-ordinator Chloe Anderson Assisted by Kate day Costume Assistant Jazlyn dow lina Marques Resident Tailor sue furlong Assisted By deniz Cakin gulay Cokgezen Karen donaldson helen flower sharon gashgarian Karen hancock ilana harendorf Krista nauman Barbara nowakowski Additional Costumes by ina Kerklaan Additional Dyeing by Chrome yellow Wardrobe Mistress Marilyn rodwell

Wardrobe Assistant rafe Macpherson Wig & Make-up Supervisor sharon ryman Head of Wig & Make-up Crew Cori ferguson Production Co-ordinator shawna green Production Intern Morgan leigh hearty SURTITLES™ Producer gunta dreifelds SURTITLES™ Editor gillian Bartlett SURTITLES™ Assistant Vanessa Macdonald DEVELOPMENT Chief Development Officer Marion york Director, Individual Giving Christie darville Senior Development Officer, Individual Giving dawn Marie schlegel Senior Development Officer, Annual Programs Peter hussell Donor Relations Officer natalie sandassie Development Officer, Individual Giving leeAnne rorabeck Individual Giving Co-ordinator stephanie hunt Individual Giving Co-ordinator stephen radbourn Development Officer, Friends of the COC Aisha Talarico Development Co-ordinator, Friends of the COC lucia ly Senior Development Officer, Corporate Programs Carlie weppler Development Officer, Corporate & Foundation Giving sybil Choles Manager, Special Events Tracy Briggs Special Events Co-ordinator Christine Tizzard Donation Database Officer Kira egorova Data Processing Co-ordinator Olena Moldovan FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION Director of Finance and Administration lindy Cowan, CA Finance Manager ray gooden, fCA (uK) General Accountants florence huang Zoran Orlić (fSCPA) Payroll Accountants Jovana Božović Jeanny won Public Affairs Manager Amy Mushinski Manager, IT Services steven sherwood IT Services Assistant Tony sandy

Computer Services Assistant nick Mitropoulos Receptionist/Switchboard Katarina Božović Mailroom Clerk/Courier Branka hrsum

Education and Outreach Programming Co-ordinator Carly Anderson Education and Outreach Assistant gillian story

BUILDING SERVICES COC & FSCPA Building Services Manager Michael Tremblay Assistant Building Services Manager Piro Milo Security Supervisors Videsh dookhu dave samuels Maintenance Assistants Tymen de Vries (fsCPA) James esposito (fsCPA) ryszard gad (COC) Branislav Peterman (COC) Julian Peters (COC) wojtek Plichta (fsCPA) Piotr wiench (fsCPA) Security Officers Tammy hill natalia Juzyc heather reid Building Operators radu Chereji dan Popescu Hurley Supervisor Paula da Costa

TICKET SERVICES Ticket Services Manager Alan Moffat Assistant Ticket Services Managers Andrea salin nikki Tremblay (on leave) Group Sales Co-ordinator david nimmo Ticket Services Supervisors erin Cook lilian fung Victor widjaja Ticket Services Representatives Becky Bridger Terry Bursey ernest Cayemen holly Coish danielle d’Ornellas Anna Kay eldridge Chelsea ireton Keith lam Julia lederer ian Mcdonnell diana Merta Amber Mills Kelly noordermeer Kevin Pook Mary Porter Maria serreno Mitch yolevsky

COMMUNICATIONS Director of Public Relations Claudine domingue Director of Marketing Jeremy elbourne Senior Manager Sales and Customer Service Phil stephens Senior Communications Manager, Editorial suzanne Vanstone Senior Communications Manager, Creative gianna wichelow Communications Manager, Special Initiatives Caitlin Coull Digital Marketing Manager Jennifer dougall Media Relations Manager Jennifer Pugsley Social and Interactive Media Co-ordinator Cecily Carver Marketing Co-ordinator eldon earle Retail and Editorial Co-ordinator gianmarco segato Volunteer and Creative Assistant John Kriter Communications Assistant Vanessa smith EDUCATION AND OUTREACH Senior Manager, Education and Outreach Katherine semcesen Education and Outreach Programming Manager Jessica lovett

CALL CENTRE Call Centre Manager sarah frankel Call Centre Representatives Alex gladwell stephen Kreuger david Ontonovich richard Paradiso Tim sell Adriano sobretodo Margaret Terry FOUR SEASONS CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS Director of Facility Operations Alfred Caron Business Manager elizabeth Jones Patron Services Manager Jefferson guzman Assistant Manager, Front of House Kim hutchinson-Barber Assistant Manager, Food & Beverage Brigitte lang Patron Services Supervisors Kelly Bailey Melissa lapczynski Adam Orr Brynn Pearson rebecca riddell Ashley westlake Kimberly wu

FSCPA – Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts

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E. LOUISE MORGAN SOCIETY The e. louise Morgan Society was created to reflect the vision and commitment of its founder and the members who have created a legacy of leadership, passion and philanthropy in support of the goals of the Canadian Opera Company. each of these donors has contributed a cumulative total of more than one million dollars over the past 15 years. Their support is critical to the company’s success and we are forever indebted to their commitment and generosity. dr. larry M. Agranove

Kolter Communities

ArIAS: Canadian Opera Student development fund

The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen foundation roger d. Moore

The Gerard & earlaine Collins foundation The late John A. Cook

MAJOR GIFTS & SPECIAL PROJECTS every year, the Canadian Opera Company has unique projects operating beyond regular annual activities, each of which relies on private funding to ensure its success. These include: transition and endowment funding, production underwriting, artist and performance sponsorship as well as training, education and outreach programs. $500,000 - $999,999 The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen foundation $100,000 – $499,999 Anne & Tony Arrell david G. Broadhurst The estate of Horst dantz & don Quick‡ Jean davidson & Paul Spafford Philip deck & Kimberley Bozak George S. dembroski Trina & don McQueen Tim & frances Price Colleen Sexsmith Sandra l. Simpson The Slaight family Anonymous‡ $25,000 - $99,999 estate of daphne Bell ethel Harris & the late Milton e. Harris ronald Kimel & Vanessa laPerriere estate of Aldo & Anita Maggiorotti Jill & Geoff Matus Melanie Whitehead Mersch roger d. Moore

e. louise Morgan Joey & Toby Tanenbaum

david Stanley-Porter The Stratton Trust françoise Sutton William & Phyllis Waters UP TO $24,999 Cecily & robert Bradshaw Ian & June Cockwell david & Kristin ferguson Peter & Hélène Hunt Hon. Henry n. r. Jackman‡ Patrick & Barbara Keenan J. Hans Kluge Jo lander Marjorie & roy linden In loving memory of Sandra Papsin david roffey & Karen Walsh Katalin Schäfer Janet Stubbs Ms Kristine Vikmanis & Mr. denton Creighton estate of evelyn Ann young Anonymous INDIVIDUAL ANNUAL SUPPORT GOLDEN CIRCLE GOLD, $50,000 + Anne & Tony Arrell*** david G. Broadhurst* In memory of Gerard H. Collins**** Jerry & Geraldine Heffernan**** The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen foundation**** roger d. Moore**** Arthur & Susan Scace**** Colleen Sexsmith** Sandra l. Simpson*

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SILVER, $25,000 – $49,999 Andrew Peller limited Paul Bernards*** Cecily & robert Bradshaw Philip deck & Kimberley Bozak*** George S. dembroski**** Mr. & Mrs. W. Humphries*** ronald Kimel & Vanessa laPerriere**** Susan loube & William Acton* The Stratton Trust* BRONZE, $12,500 – $24,999 dr. & Mrs. Hans G. Abromeit**** Mark & Gail Appel** Philip & linda Armstrong* Ms nora Aufreiter Melissa & Barry Avrich John & Claudine Bailey*** Barbara Black* Mr. Philip J. Boswell†**** Walter M. & lisa Balfour Bowen**** Susanne Boyce & Brendan Mullen*** rob & Teresa Brouwer* Marcia lewis Brown Stewart & Gina Burton* dr. John Chiu in memory of yvonne Chiu, C.M.**** The Max Clarkson family foundation**** J. rob Collins & Janet Cottrelle**** Sydney & florence Cooper* Mr. & Mrs. leslie dan** Jean davidson & Paul Spafford**** david denison & Maureen flanagan* dr. fayaz & Mrs. Sandra dossa david & Kristin ferguson**** George fierheller**** Margaret & Jim fleck* 23

lloyd & Gladys fogler*** david & elizabeth forster** four Seasons Hotels & resorts** Adam & Sharin froman John & rita Gagliano roger & Kevin Garland** Michael & lora Gibbens Ira Gluskin & Maxine Granovsky Gluskin** James & Joyce Gutmann**** ethel Harris & the late Milton Harris**** dr. W. P. Hayman & dr. M. l. Myers*** nona & William Heaslip foundation**** douglas e. Hodgson**** Michael & linda Hutcheon**** William Ip & Kathleen latimer* dr. Amy Kaiser & Ken rotman* Jeff lloyd & Barbara Henders Mr. & Mrs. J. S. A. Macdonald**** Judy & Wilmot Matthews Jill & Geoff Matus* John & esther Mcneil*** Trina & don McQueen* Johanna Metcalf*** Bruce & Vladka Mitchell delia M. Moog** Jonathan Morgan* Sue Mortimer in memory of Clive Bennett Mortimer**** nicholas & rosemary Mutton Mrs. & Mr. Christl & Karl niemuller** donald O’Born** Peter M. Partridge**** Ian & Michelle Pearce Tim & frances Price**** david roffey & Karen Walsh*** rose family fund at the Toronto Community foundation*** John A. rothschild Katalin Schäfer** Philip & Maria Smith** Stephen & Jane Smith**** Marion & Gerald Soloway* david e. Spiro*** david Stanley-Porter**** Ms Kristine Vikmanis & Mr. denton Creighton**** Jack Whiteside** Tom & ruth Woods*** PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL COMMITTEE Mary-Catherine Acheson diane Adamson-Brdar Thomas J. Burton Gladys fogler Sue Mortimer

Katalin Schäfer Colleen Sexsmith (Chair) Kristine Vikmanis Karen Walsh TRUSTEE, $7,500 – $12,499 à la Carte Kitchen Inc. laurie & fareed Ali* Margaret Atwood & Graeme Gibson** Mr. & Mrs. Alexander Christ**** Andrew fleming** The Hon. William C. Graham & Mrs. Catherine Graham**** Al & Malka Green* rainer Hackert*** Maggie Hayes* Trinity Jackman Bernhard & Hannelore Kaeser**** J. Hans Kluge* Murray & Marvelle Koffler**** Mr. Gurney Kranz*** Anne & Wilf lewitt* Jerry & Joan lozinski**** Bobby & Gordon Macneill* Hon. Margaret & Mr. Wallace McCain** John McVicker & B. W. Thomas**** Mrs. louise O’Shea**** françoise Sutton** Ms r. raso*** dr. david Shaw* Anonymous (1) PATRON, $3,750 – $7,499 Clive & Barbara Allen**** Mr. Peter Allen* Sue Armstrong** ron Atkinson & Bruce Blandford*** Salah Bachir* Mrs. n. A. Balciunas**** robert & Mona Bandeen** Schuyler Bankes & family*** Karen & Bill Barnett l. H. Bartelink in memory of Oskar & Irmgard Gaube** dr. Thomas H. Beechy**** Mr. & Mrs. eric Belli-Bivar** Mr. & Mrs. Avie Bennett**** Mr. roland Bertin**** Tom Bogart & Kathy Tamaki* William & Anna Maria Braithwaite* dr. david & Constance Briant**** dr. Jane Brissenden & dr. Janet roscoe**** Mrs. donna Brock** Margaret & derek Brown**** Murray & Judy Bryant** Thomas J. Burton*

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

Sharon & Howard Campbell* Joe & laurissa Canavan Cesaroni Management limited** Mr. douglas W. Chaddock Paul G. Cherry & dean C. noack**** Peter & frances Chiddy* frank Ciccolini**** Marilyn Cook Mr. & Mrs. William J. Corcoran** Tim Costigan & Kathleen Mclaughlin lindy Cowan† & Chris Hatley** Mrs. ninalee Craig** norman Curtis**** C. M. dare**** raul Werneck de Castro** dr. Jeanne deinum**** Carol derk & david Giles* Mrs. A. ephraim diamond and family**** Bernard & francine dorval** Peter & Anne dotsikas* Vreni & Marc ducommun** Bud & leigh eisenberg** Mr. & Mrs. John J. elder**** Joseph fantl & Moira Bartram* Graham farquharson** fleur-de-lis Interior design Kimberley fobert & robert lamb†*** The fraser elliott foundation**** dr. & Mrs. Wm. O. Geisler** The Hon. & Mrs. Alastair W. Gillespie**** Ben & Sarah Glatt**** Peter & Shelagh Godsoe* rose & roger Goldstein *** Michael & Anne Gough**** dr. noëlle Grace & The Shohet family*** ronald & Birgitte Granofsky*** douglas & ruth Grant John & Judith Grant* John Groves*** George & Irene Hamilton**** Hampton Securities ltd. Scott & ellen Hand** Mr. & Mrs. William B. Harris** Hon. & Mrs. Paul Hellyer**** Ava Marion Hillier* Prof. Michiel Horn**** Scott Irvine† & Joan Watson†** dr. Melvyn l. Iscove** The Jackman foundation*** Victoria Jackman** dr. Peter Janetos* Mr. robert C. Jefferies*** dr. Joshua Josephson**** lorraine Kaake**** Patrick & Barbara Keenan****

dr. Joel Keenleyside**** Jim & diane King* Joseph Kerzner & lisa Koeper*** Jean V. Kramar* The Hon. dennis lane, Q.C. & Mrs. Sandra lane**** Harold & larraine langer**** Mr. Philip lanouette* John B. lawson, Q.C.**** Paul lee & Jill Maynard**** daniel & Janet li* Michel lislois** Vincent & Helene lobraico Angelo & Grace locilento* douglas l. ludwig & Karen J. rice** John Macfarlane Christa & robert Mcdermott* The Hon. Barbara Mcdougall*** Paul & Jean McGrath**** June Mclean**** Mr. Michael J. McMurray* Sam Meister Mr. Ulrich Menzefricke**** Melanie Whitehead Mersch** Mr. Albert Merz* dr. Thomas & Mrs. Catherine H. Millar dr. Judith A. Miller*** Beatrice & Arthur Minden foundation**** Professor david J. Murray** eileen Patricia newell** Mrs. Sally-Ann noznesky**** e. Oliana & A. Iu** Keith & Brenda Ottaway** dr. & Mrs. William M. Park**** Mr. douglas l. Parker**** John & Gwen Pattison* Polk family Charitable fund** Julian Porter, Q.C.* Samuel A. rea & Wendy J. Thompson**** rob & Penny richards** Gordon robison & david Grant* Margaret A. riggin Joseph l. rosenmiller* Maxwell l. rotstein & nancy-Gay rotstein**** Mr. & Mrs. r. T. ruggles**** Annie & Ian d. Sale Judy & Hy Sarick**** Sam & esther Sarick*** Helen & John Scott* Katherine & Gary Shaw* dr. ralph Shaw & June Shaw**** Allan & Helaine Shiff**** Judy & Hume Smith*** dr. John Stanley & dr. Helmut reichenbächer** drs. Wayne Stanley & Marina Pretorius doreen l. Stanton****

dr. richard & Jane Stoneman* Carol Swallow** Mr. & Mrs. Michael Tatham* Kathryn J. Thornton*** Anthea Thorp*** Vincent Tovell, O.C.*** rosalind & dory Vanderhoof donald & Margaret Walter**** Hugh & Colleen Washington* William r. Waters*** Mr. & Mrs. richard Wookey*** Peter Webb & Joan york**** ruth Watts-Gransden**** dr. Jack Williams & dr. dorothy Pringle** l. r. Wilson* linda young The youssef-Warren foundation*** Helen Ziegler** Sharon Zuckerman**** Helen & Walter Zwig**** Anonymous (6) MEMBER, $2,250 – $3,749 Mr. Herb Abramson** The Acheson family foundation** d. C. Adamson-Brdar**** dr. & Mrs. larry M. Agranove**** donna & lorne Albaum* Mr. & Mrs. roberto & nancy Albis** Mr. Thomas Allen* Mr. & Mrs. Howard Alpert** dr. d. Amato & Ms J. Hodges**** rod Anderson & Merike lugus**** Andrée Appleton & Alexander leman* Anne-Marie H. Applin** Valerie Armstrong*** Philip Arthur Virginia Atkin** John Bailey* Marilyn & Charles Baillie**** James C. Baillie* Andrew & Cornelia Baines**** Janice A. Baker**** richard J. Balfour*** lindy Barrow Ms roxanne Bartel dr. frank Bartoszek & Mr. daniel O’Brien**** florence Sharpe Barwell**** Julia Bass & david Hamilton** Alice & Tom Bastedo** Mr. & Mrs. Peter & Sondra Beck Mr. doug & Mrs. Alison Bell Ms Marie Bérard†** dan Bereskin, Q.C. & rhoda Gryfe* dr. Catherine Bergeron** nani & Austin Beutel****

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John n. & Miranda A. H. Birch J. Bismillah* Anneliese and Walter Blackwell**** Susanne Blake*** Ms lynn Blaser & Mr. John van Ogtrop**** Ian & Janet Blue** John & Ila Bossons* Mr. W. Bowen & Ms S. Gavinchuk†*** david Boyd-Thomas*** Mrs. Carolyn Bradley-Hall & Mr. William Bradley** Mrs. richard Bradshaw** Sylvia Brander**** Peter Brieger & Beverley Hamblin Brian Bucknall & Mary Jane Mossman**** Alice Burton** Barrie & Betty Cade** Maureen Callahan & douglas Gray* Margaret Harriett Cameron**** della H. Campbell**** Ken & denise Cargill** Brian & ellen Carr**** Gail Carson**** Wendy M. Cecil**** dr. & Mrs. Albert Cheskes** Birte von Chlumecky-Bauer** dr. Howard M. Clarke** The rt. Hon. Adrienne Clarkson Cogeco data Services edward Cole & Adrienne Hood** Brian Collins & Amanda demers* Murray & Katherine Corlett*** Harold & Anita Corrigan*** dr. lesley S. Corrin**** Gay & derek Cowbourne* eloïse Crabtree & don Carmichael* Ms Wanda Crickmay Susan Crocker* Irene & Keith Croot*** Mary Beth Currie & Jeff rintoul Carrol Anne Curry** Ms lindsay dale-Harris & Mr. rupert field-Marsham**** doris J. daughney M. P. davies* dr. & Mrs. Michael & Ute davis* Brian J. dawson** Juleth dawson Jill denham & Stephen Marshall* Michael & Honor de Pencier*** Mrs. rosario de Wit-farro** Mrs. leonard G. (Anne) delicaet & Mrs. Kendra Anne delicaet-Almasi*** Mary-Kathleen delicaet & John young Perry & rae dellio**

Angelo & Carol delZotto** Mr. & Mrs. elvio delZotto* Mr. & Mrs. A. J. diamond Steven & linda diener** J. diGiovanni Olwen & frank dixon* James doak & Patricia Best** Sandra Z. doblinger* Ms Petrina dolby** dr. James & Mrs. ellen downey* John duffy & Jill Presser Marko duic**** H. I. dunlop*** Ms Judy dunn ron dyck & Walter Stewart** William & Gwenda echard**** Jean edwards* Wendy & elliot eisen*** robert elliott & Paul Wilson* Genia & Stan elkind**** dr. & Mrs. John evans** Virginia evans* fabris Inc. George A. farkass* Gail & Bob farquharson Catherine fauquier*** Bill fearn & Claudia rogers*** lee K. ferrier*** William & rosemary fillmore** Mr. & Mrs. Cosimo & Christina fiorenza** dr. Sidney M. fireman* robert & Julia foster* Margaret & david fountain**** Mr. Michael A. french* Judith Ann fullerton* robert fung** rev. Ivars Gaide & rev. dr. Anita Gaide** Tom & Helen Galt**** Ann Gawman** dr. Barry A. Gayle**** Martin & Mindy Gerskup* The Honourable Irving Gerstein & Mrs. Gail Gerstein* Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Giancamilli * Ann J. Gibson**** William & Marika Glied** Mary & lionel Goffart dr. eudice Goldberg dr. fay Goldstep & dr. George freedman* deanna A. Gontard**** Tina & Michael Gooding** Wayne A. Gooding**** Goodman family david & Janice Gordon** Jane Greene* Mr. finn Greflund & Mrs. M. Ortner* Carmen & Vittoria Guglietti* ellen & Simon Gulden**** Anna l. Guthrie****

Mr. & Mrs. Henry Hackenspiel**** Gudrun Hackert*** dan Hagler & family** Ms francess G. Halpenny**** John & ruth Hannigan Beverly Hargraft* Paul & natalie Hartman Paul & Margaret Harricks Michael Harris & Carol rak* Valerie & Brian Harris*** Mr. d. Harrison & dr. e. fischer* lloyd Heaslip**** Jenny Heathcote**** Mr. Thomas G. Heintzman & Ms Mary Jane Heintzman** Caroline Helbronner & douglas Klaassen** Jacques & elizabeth Helbronner** Ann & lyman Henderson**** Thea Herman & Gregory King** The donald Heskins Philanthropic fund of The foundation for Jewish Philanthropies* William e. Hewitt*** Sam & libby Ho** Chris Hoffmann & Joan eakin* Sally Holton & Stephen Ireland*** emmy & Walter Homburger** Mr. roland Hoy** drs. Walter & Virginia Hryshko Ken Hugessen & Jennifer Connolly* Anthony C. J. Humphreys**** Gillian Humphreys Peter & HĂŠlĂ¨ne Hunt**** Mrs. Wilma Hysen*** Infonex Inc.* Prof. Christopher Innes & Brigitte Bogar William Innes diana & Philip Jackson in memory of ethel B. Jackson*** elliott Jacobson & Judy Malkin* lynne Jeffrey*** laurence Jewell* The norman & Margaret Jewison Charitable foundation**** Ms elizabeth Johnson* dr. Albert & Bette Johnston* Joyce Johnston** H. l. Katarynych** Joseph & Maureen Katchen david W. & Sheryl l. Kerr Inta Kierans**** Peter Kingsmill ellen & Hermann Kircher**** dr. elizabeth Kocmur**** Michael & Sonja Koerner** robin Korthals & Janet Charlton* dr. robert Kosnik****

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

richard J. Kostoff** Valarie Koziol William & eva Krangle*** elizabeth & Goulding lambert*** leslie & Jo lander**** richard T. la Prairie dr. Connie lee** dr. richard lee & Mr. Gary Van Haren* linda lee & Michael Pharoah**** neal lee & dominique lee* Alexander & Anna leggatt** Joy levine** Mr. Jonathan C. levitt & Ms ethel Mah Mr. Peter levitt & Ms Mai Why** Cheryl lewis & Mihkel Voore** Justin S. linden Marjorie & roy linden**** dr. & Mrs. W. G. lindley**** Janet & Sid lindsay** Anthony lisanti** dr. Vance logan*** A. Benson lorriman**** Ms Jane loughborough* dr. robert G. luton**** Jonathan & dorothea lovat dickson* Mary lu & Bruce Macdonald**** James & Connie Macdougall**** Mr. Jed MacKay**** dr. & Mrs. richard Mackenzie**** Mrs. r. MacMillan**** Tom & Catharina MacMillan**** Macro Properties ltd.* Mrs. Janet Maggiacomo* Susan & Scott Maidment** dr. Colin McGregor Mailer**** Mrs. ettore Mazzoleni** robert Mansell & elizabeth Mitchell* r. Manke**** dr. & Mrs. M. A. Manuel Mr. & Mrs. r. Gordon Marantz**** Gerald & Helen Marr**** Kenneth & Kathleen Mathieson Pauline and dipak Mazumdar at the Toronto Community foundation*** dr. & Mrs. John A. McCallum**** Wendy & Chris Mcdowall* Anne Mcfadyen dr. & Mrs. donald C. McGillivray**** darcy & Joyce McKeough* Guy & Joanne Mclean*** M. e. Mcleod**** Jean M. Mcnab**** Margaret C. Mcnee Mark & Andrea McQueen*** Mr. Ian McWalter* Shawn Mcreynolds & elaine Kierans

dr. don Melady & Mr. rowley Mossop** MI9 Business Intelligence Systems Ingrid & daniel Mida Marvene (Cox) & Gordon Miller* lee Milliken† & doug Macnaughton* dr. William & Mrs. Sharon Millman* Patricia & frank Mills** Ms Kamini Milnes* Audrey & david Mirvish** dr. david n. Mitchell & dr. Susan M. Till** robert & Janet Mitchell dr. eva Mocarski dr. & Mrs. S. Mocarski donald Moggridge & Susan Howson** Anne Moore*** Mr. robert Morassutti**** ruth Morawetz & Ken Judd** Alice Janet Morgan** Ada & Hugh G. Morris edith Patterson Morrow*** Ms rosalind Morrow* drs. Christopher & Pippa Moss** Mr. noel Mowat* Walter & Susan Mozek Mr. Joseph Mulder* Taketo & Vija Murata* ethel Myers**** david & Mary neelands** dr. Shirley C. neuman* dr. John & Pamela newall**** dr. Steven nitzkin*** Mr. Jean-Claude noel* Simon & Marlene nyilassy dr. James & Mrs. Valda Oestreicher** Janice Oliver** Martin & Myrna Ossip* Benson Orenstein** Julia & liza Overs*** dr. & Mrs. n. Pairaudeau*** Isabel Pargana & raimondo Maltese Mrs. Margaret Ann Pattison**** John & Penelope Pepperell* dr. r. G. Perrin* Stephanie Perry & ronan McGrath Mr. William Perry* John & Carol Peterson** M. J. Phillips**** June C. Pinkney**** Johann C. Pinto robin B. Pitcher*** Wanda Plachta*** Mary Jean & frank Potter*** Georgia Prassas**** Margrit & Tony rahilly****

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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.

MAJOR CORPORATE SPONSORS 2010/2011 SEASON

Sun life financial Accessibility Program encompassing SUrTITleS™, Wheelchair Seating, Hearing-Assistive and Vision-Impaired devices

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

Xstrata ensemble Studio School Tour

BMO financial Group Pre-Performance Opera Chats and BMO financial Group Student dress rehearsals Aida Opening night Sponsor

Presenting Sponsor Opera for a new Age and Operanation VII

Production Co-sponsors Adam’s Nixon in China

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Official Media Sponsors

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

Presenting Sponsor, free Concert Series in the richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre

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PROGRAM SPONSORS Budd Sugarman foundation, Create an Opera Supporter Great West life, london life and Canada life, Opera Storytime Program Supporter The Globe and Mail, Subscriber Ticket Back Sponsor KPMG llP, Xstrata ensemble Studio School Tour Performance Sponsor Standard life, Xstrata ensemble Studio School Tour Performance Sponsor Torys llP, After School Opera Program Supporting Sponsor

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ArIAS CTVglobemedia Burgundy Asset Management davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg llP delvinia fionn MacCool’s four Seasons Hotels and resorts HSBC Bank Canada louis Vuitton PwC Standard life OPENING NIGHT SPONSOR fionn MacCool’s HOSTING SPONSOR

2010/2011 MEDIA SPONSORS & IN-KIND SUPPORTERS CBC radio Two remenyi House of Music ltd. ANNUAL FINE WINE AUCTION 2011 host sponsor Crush Wine Bar OPERANATION VII PresenTing sPOnsOr Td Bank financial Group OffiCiAl frAgrAnCe Calvin Klein Beauty dinner sPOnsOr e-l financial limited

$10,000+ Audrey S. Hellyer Charitable foundation The Hope Charitable foundation The Hal Jackman fund at the Ontario Arts foundation The Mclean foundation $5,000 to $9,999 225490 Investments limited Britten-Pears foundation IATSe local 58 Charitable Stage Technicians Toronto SnC lavalin Unit Park Holdings Inc. William and nona Heaslip foundation $3,000 to $4,999 The Calgary foundation – nellie Hicks Memorial fund The Keg Spirit foundation $2,000 to $2,999 Classical 96.3 fM MAC Cosmetics Mercedes-Benz Canada Inc. Vida Peene fund – Canada Council $1,000 to $1,999 Milgram Group of Companies ltd. Powis family foundation

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

OPerATing grAnTs

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts which last year invested $26.3 million in music throughout Canada. nous remercions de son soutien le Conseil des Arts du Canada, qui a investi 26,3 millions de dollars l’an dernier dans la musique à travers le Canada.

enseMBle sTudiO

sPeCiAl PrOJeCT funding for the many programs and special initiatives undertaken each year by the Canadian Opera Company, we gratefully acknowledge project funding from: department of Canadian Heritage Human resources and Skills development Canada

CREDITS & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Canadian Opera Company would like to thank all those who volunteer both on a daily basis and for special events with the company. Michael Cooper: Official photographer The COC is a member of Opera America and Opera.ca. The COC operates in agreement with Canadian Actors’ equity Association. The COC operates in agreement with I.A.T.S.e., local #58 and local #822.

SUPERNUMERARIES John Allemang liz Allemang Marie Colucci Hannah Corbett Glenn Howard

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

SUN LIFE FINANCIAL

We are pleased to support the Sun Life Financial Accessibility Program, at the Canadian Opera Company, which encompasses SURTITLESTM, wheelchair seating, hearing-assistive and vision-impaired devices.

SURTITLES is a registered trade-mark of the Canadian Opera Company.

速 Making the Arts More Accessible is a registered trade-mark of Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada.

NIXON IN CHINA

CLASH OF THE TITANS BY ERIC DOMVILLE

ohn Adams has established himself as a leading composer in many musical fields, perhaps most notably in opera. He was born in 1947 in Worcester, Massachusetts, to parents who had performed in big swing bands, a sound world which permeates sections of Nixon in China (1987). After graduating from Harvard he moved to the West Coast. His music also moved stylistically from Serialism to Minimalism to freer forms of expression including elements of jazz, rock and other world musics, evolving an idiom one might term “the higher eclecticism.” His varied stage works offer also a critique of operatic conventions from Handel, Mozart, Verdi, and Wagner, to Philip Glass. The last named has also sought to revitalize the “museum art” of opera by focusing on actual historical figures such as Gandhi in Satyagraha (1980). Adams acknowledges this work’s impact: “the debt to Philip Glass’s Satyagraha is unmistakable.” The idea for Nixon came from the innovative director Peter Sellars, a frequent collaborator with Adams. Sellars brought

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

The COC presents Nixon in China. A scene from the Opera Theatre of St. Louis production, 2004. Photo: Ken Howard

together with Adams two important figures: Mark Morris, the choreographer, and Alice Goodman, a poet and translator of plays who had never written a libretto. In any event, it proved a winning combination. Goodman’s subtle use of eight-syllable lines rhyming in pairs (but with near-rhyme rather than perfect rhyme) keeps the ear and emotions constantly engaged, for example in Chou En-lai’s aria which ends the work: Put down my work and go to bed. How much of what we did was good? Everything seems to move beyond Our remedy. Come, heal this wound. Goodman’s text, and indeed the whole scenario, skillfully blends the imagined

with the actual. Margaret MacMillan, the distinguished historian, comments in an e-mail: “And when I read the libretto I was struck by how much of it drew on the historical record. The lines in the meeting between Mao and Nixon, for example, came from the actual transcript.” (quoted with permission) In his engrossing memoir Hallelujah Junction (2008), Adams has this to say: “Nixon’s visit to China, itself a carefully staged media event, overflowed with an abundance of themes to pick from. On one level it signified a clash of the titans. Nixon and Mao virtually embodied the 20th century’s great agonistic struggle for human happiness: capitalism versus communism: the market economy versus the social welfare state. The lead characters

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NIXON IN CHINA: Clash of the Titans

The COC presents Nixon in China. Tracy Dahl as Chiang Ch’ing in the Opera Theatre of St. Louis production, 2004. Photo: Ken Howard

were so vivid they literally cried out for operatic treatment, and Alice shrewdly caught the essence of each.” (p. 136) No matter how fine the libretto, however, in opera music predominates. Put Goodman’s verse together with the pulsation, frequent repetitions and roiling harmonies of Adams’ score, and you have a modern classic. As may happen, sometimes words and music work together, sometimes against each other. The tensions and anxieties of the participants come alive. The double helix of politics and show business becomes apparent as soon as the Nixons emerge from Air Force One in the opening scene. The “Tricky Dicky” aspect of the President sounds immediately in the elongated phrase on “Smoother” as he describes their flight; he is indeed outwardly a “smooth” man. Yet the insecurities which plague him as to the outcome of this huge political gamble are also realized in his entrance aria “News has a kind of mystery” with its seemingly pointless repetitions and rapid pulse. Here

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

is a conflicted character only too well aware that the eyes and ears of the world are upon him, revelling in the publicity, dodging the strong possibility of failure. The “dissolve” into the scene in Mao’s study extends this sense of tension. Mao’s role is purposely set uncomfortably high and also requires a voice of heldentenor amplitude, conveying effort. The Chairman is already ill but still capable of high energy, a quality demanded of all the principals. Act I is dominated by male characters in the public realm, whereas Act II belongs more to the female figures. Much of the drama here derives from the stark contrast between the quintessential middleAmerican Pat Nixon and the coarse and domineering Chiang Ch’ing, Mao’s third wife and the driving force behind the Cultural Revolution, which destroyed so much culture and so many lives. On a tour of “typical” Chinese sights, Pat stops at the Gate of Longevity and Good Will to express her vision of an America at peace:

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NIXON IN CHINA: Clash of the Titans

The COC presents Nixon in China. Maria Kanyova as Pat Nixon in the Opera Theatre of St. Louis production, 2004. Photo: Ken Howard

In the midst of this bedlam, she sings her aria “I am the wife of Mao Tse-tung.” Her vision ends: Let me be A grain of sand in heaven’s eye And I shall taste eternal joy.

This is prophetic!... The simple virtues root and branch And leaf and flower The aria duly flowers into the lyrical high point of the opera (in line of descent from great 19th-century outpourings): the hope that the American Dream may become a reality. Her Chinese counterpart, on the other hand, unleashes a violent opera The Red Detachment of Women, in which the heroine, Wu Ching-hua, is chained and whipped by a lustful overseer, Lao Szu, before escaping and leading a revolution. This opera within an opera morphs into a phantasmagoria as the American onlookers become embroiled in the action. Which is the “opera” and which is “reality?” Henry Kissinger appears to turn into the repellent Lao Szu, while Pat, outraged at the injustice and cruelty of the story, forces her reluctant husband to join in comforting Ching-hua. Chiang Ch’ing also intervenes, firing a revolver which may use live ammunition.

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

This opera/ballet is presented as the crudest propaganda, but it undeniably provides an overwhelming climax to the act. The real-life Nixon is reported to have enjoyed the original performance immensely. In this sequence, East/West are intentionally confused. The Eastern story is set to a parody of Western music. Adams observes: “I’d noticed when watching films of these Chinese Communist ballets that the music, rather than being indigenous Chinese music, faithful to the sources of the stories, had sounded instead like very bad imitations of Russian and French ballet music.” (p. 141) How to follow this Dionysian frenzy? The last act serves as a kind of Apollonian antidote. It is not an anticlimax but a digging deeper into the psyches of these world leaders. With the exception of Kissinger, who ignominiously bolts for the toilet “at the double,” the characters spend a sleepless night meditating on the formative experiences of their lives. Mao recounts the Long March and his meeting with Chiang Ch’ing. They dance. Nixon recalls his service in World War II as a naval supply officer in the Pacific, with Pat receiving his letters at home. Chou En-lai hopes that something worthwhile will come of all this. Their soliloquies weave in and out of each other like symphonic strands, an immense nocturne of memories and

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NIXON IN CHINA: Clash of the Titans

hopes, edging towards a new day, a new age. Adams humanizes his characters rather than demonizing them: he is an artist, not an ideologue. This respect for his creations has led him on occasion into trouble with audiences and critics, most notoriously with his next opera, The Death of Klinghoffer (1991). The often beautiful music given to the Palestinian terrorists has offended many, but Adams responds about the text and music: “they would be true expressions of the feelings of the characters that sing them.” (p. 164) So it is in this opera and also in Doctor Atomic (2005), which intertwines personal feelings with the events leading to the explosion of the first atomic bomb in 1945. In her detailed and insightful historical study, also titled Nixon in China (2006), Margaret MacMillan presents not only the summit but also the stages leading up to and away from that fateful week in February 1972, when Nixon took the courageous step of visiting China after more than 20 years of enmity between the two great nations. But the intoxicating

triumph proved short-lived. In June 1972, four months later, there occurred the break-in at the Democratic Party offices in the Watergate Hotel, the episode which eventually brought about Nixon’s resignation as President on August 8, 1974. Two years later still, on September 9, 1976, Mao died. Formal diplomatic relations were not established until 1977. Adams’ opera does not deal with any of that. It has enough to do in capturing the essence, through the interplay of fact and imagination, of those heady few days which became, as the subtitle of Margaret MacMillan’s book puts it: “the week that changed the world.”

Eric Domville is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Toronto. He lectures and broadcasts on opera, and is a member of the Volunteer Speakers Bureau of the Canadian Opera Company. For further insights into Nixon in China, please read Suzanne Vanstone's interview with set designer Allen Moyer in the winter issue of Prelude, available online at coc.ca.

The COC presents Nixon in China. Robert Orth as Richard Nixon in the Opera Theatre of St. Louis production, 2004. Photo: Ken Howard

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

INTRODUCING THE 2011/2012 SEASON BY GIANMARCO SEGATO

he Canadian Opera Company has been acknowledged to possess an opera house which rivals the best in the world as well as an unparalleled orchestra and chorus. Now, as we unveil our exciting 2011/2012 season, we enter a new era with an even greater commitment to bringing our audiences the best international artists along with visually-stunning, dramaticallyengaging productions both home-grown and from around the world. The season opens with the company premiere of Gluck’s classical lyric tragedy, Iphigenia in Tauris starring renowned mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, the world’s leading Iphigenia, making her muchanticipated COC debut. Graham leads a dream cast which includes Russell Braun as Iphigenia’s brother Orestes, and former COC Ensemble member, tenor Joseph Kaiser as his best friend, Pylades. Robert Carsen, who will stage our Orfeo ed Euridice this spring, returns to direct a production which has already played to great acclaim in London, Chicago and San Francisco. Ms Graham triumphed as Iphigenia in each of those cities in a portrayal heralded for its “nobility and vibrant vocal beauty” (Chicago Tribune) as well as its “continuous dramatic power and musical mastery” (Chicago Sun-Times).

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

She enthusiastically returns to Carsen’s staging this fall in Toronto: “I can’t stress enough how visually exciting the piece is,” she says, “And I think the star dressing room should be given to the dancers and the lighting designer! The dancers are a kind of Greek chorus who tell the story – they play the Priestesses on stage, they tell the ‘back’ story, they are the nightmare – they’re everything.” With Iphigenia in Tauris, Gluck had the greatest triumph of his long career, composing a score of refined, classical beauty which lays bare the searing emotions of this Greek tragedy. Facing imminent death at the hand of her own father, Iphigenia is rescued by the goddess Diana and transported to the island of Tauris. She is made a priestess and must sacrifice any stranger who appears on the island. In a tragic twist of fate, one of those victims is her long-lost brother, Orestes. The young Spanish conductor Pablo HerasCasado, who is currently leading our winter 2011 performances of Nixon in China, returns to conduct. In addition to being a champion of contemporary music, Heras-Casado also performs and records with the Compañía Teatro del Príncipe in Aranjuez, an early instrument group which he co-founded. The fall also marks the return of Verdi’s perennial favourite, Rigoletto, in a new production set in the rich, ribald surroundings of a 19th-century gentleman’s club. In this patriarchal world, the desires of powerful, aristocratic men are given free reign over the women whose bodies, and very lives, are at their mercy. The jester Rigoletto facilitates his master’s debauchery but pays the ultimate price with the sacrifice of his own most precious and hidden love. The COC presents Love from Afar. A scene from the Vlaamse Opera production, 2010. Photo: Annemie Augustijns

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

INTRODUCING THE 2011/2012 SEASON

Christopher Alden, who directed the COC’s highly acclaimed production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman last season, brings his singular vision to this new production. “Often people are dulled to what the true intent of a piece is by decades of seeing it done in a comfortable way,” he says. “I try to get at something which does get back to the original kick that the piece had when it was first performed.” Our cast includes a tantalizing selection of some of the operatic world’s top up-andcoming singers: baritones Quinn Kelsey and Lester Lynch share the role of Rigoletto; his daughter Gilda is sung by sopranos Ekaterina Sadovnikova (who recently appeared as Gilda at Covent Garden) and COC Ensemble member Simone Osborne (one of our winter 2011 Paminas in The Magic Flute) while tenors Dimitri Pittas and David Lomelí appear as the Duke. COC Music Director Johannes Debus leads the forces onstage and in the pit. Winter 2012 opens with Puccini’s Tosca, one of opera’s hallmark “diva” roles which will be sung by our own internationallyrenowned diva, Adrianne Pieczonka. Saying it has “always been a dream role,” her Los Angeles debut as Tosca drew high praise from the Los Angeles Times: “Adrianne Pieczonka sang the role for the first time Saturday. The Canadian soprano will surely be singing it for a long time. She was radiant.” Tosca is one of the most popular operas of all time, and for good reason: its fast-paced plot is full of romance and intrigue, its characters are vivid and larger-than-life, and it features some of Puccini’s most deeply felt melodies. Set in Rome in the year 1800, its heroine is a famed opera singer whose lover has revolutionary sympathies. In her struggle to protect the man she loves from the corrupt and bloodthirsty Chief of Police, she is forced to make a terrible choice. Alternating with Ms Pieczonka as Tosca

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

The COC presents Iphigenia in Tauris. Susan Graham (top) as Iphigenia in the Lyric Opera of Chicago production, 2006. Photo: Dan Rest

is COC favourite Julie Makerov who in recent seasons has sung the title role in Rusalka and Senta in The Flying Dutchman to great critical and audience acclaim. Uruguayan tenor Carlo Ventre and ItalianBrazilian tenor Thiago Arancam make their COC debuts as Cavaradossi as does American baritone Mark Delavan as Scarpia. The cast will inhabit the COC’s lavish 2008 production, featuring Empire-era costumes and stunning sets depicting the churches and palaces of Rome. Combining an opulent production with a renowned cast, this well-loved Puccini classic will be brought to the stage in grand style. The winter of 2012 also marks the COC and Canadian premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Love from Afar (L’amour de loin) which debuted at the 2000 Salzburg Festival and has since gone on to become one of the most performed operas of its time. It will be presented in a new staging by Daniele Finzi Pasca, best known for his work with Cirque du Soleil. As the Swiss director has remarked, “Saariaho’s music is absolutely sensual and

“ Ì Ì Ì Ì/4… feverish romance” –Toronto Star, 2010

“ electrifying performances” –National Post, 2010

“ Ì Ì Ì Ì Ì/5… nothing short of thrilling” –Toronto Sun, 2010

“ the audience exploded in a rapturous ovation” –The Globe and Mail, 2010

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Xiao Nan Yu and Jiří Jelinek in Onegin. Photo by Aleksandar Antonijevic.

INTRODUCING THE 2011/2012 SEASON

fluid… I want to make the production dance with this fluidity.” Finzi Pasca uses innovative “cirque” skills to conjure a dreamlike atmosphere in which reality isn’t quite as it appears. Composer Saariaho drew her inspiration from the life and song texts of Jaufré Rudel, a French prince and troubadour of the 12th century. As the opera begins, Jaufré has grown weary of his current, aimless life and is anxious to explore love’s frontiers. By way of a traveling Pilgrim he learns of Clémence, a beautiful woman living in Tripoli. The Pilgrim carries messages of yearning between the lovers, until the troubadour finally journeys to meet his distant desire and at last, his real and fantasy worlds come together. The score’s rich tapestry of sound emerges from Saariaho’s innovative combination of the traditional instrumental sections of the orchestra with electronics. The resulting music contains striking harmonies which are so thick they almost “appear” as sound colour. Above all though, this is opera and the vocal line remains firmly in the foreground, never overshadowed by the lush orchestral structure. Saariaho enriches her sound world further with allusions to the medieval songs of the troubadours. As Clémence we welcome Erin Wall, one of the most exciting young sopranos on the current operatic scene. Company favourite, baritone Russell Braun returns to the COC as Jaufré while the enigmatic Pilgrim is sung by mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó, whose most recent COC appearance was as Idamante in last season’s Idomeneo. COC Music Director Johannes Debus presides from the pit. Spring 2012 will truly sparkle when Jacques Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann returns to the COC for the first time in 30 years. Offenbach called it an opéra fantastique and it represented the

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

culmination of a lifetime of composing operettas, during which he sought to write a “real opera.” The title character is a writer of fantastical fables whose dark reminiscences recount his many failed attempts to find love. This demanding tenor role will be shared by American Russell Thomas and COC favourite David Pomeroy, who recently made his Met debut as Hoffmann. A woman is at the heart of each of the three stories Hoffmann tells, and we have three outstanding sopranos to sing these roles. The first is Winnipeg-born Andriana Chuchman whose virtuosic coloratura talents will be on display as Olympia, the exquisite doll-like girl who sings the famous “Doll Song.” In the second tale Calgary-born Erin Wall makes her second COC appearance of the season portraying Antonia, the gentle artist whose vocal gifts threaten her very life. Finally we meet the Venetian courtesan, Giulietta, sung by the rising American soprano, Keri Alkema. Two prominent Canadians complete the cast: bass John Relyea makes his longawaited COC debut as Hoffmann’s four nemeses, Lindorf, Coppelius, Dr. Miracle and Dapertutto, while mezzo-soprano Lauren Segal (The Magic Flute, Nixon in China) returns as Hoffmann’s companion Nicklausse. Johannes Debus conducts a score which is by turns playful, haunting, raucous and, above all, memorable! The spring of 2012 continues with a double-bill of darkly witty, one-act operas: Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy and Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. They will be presented in a new production by Catherine Malfitano, one of the world’s most acclaimed sopranos who is now a busy opera director. Sir Andrew Davis, conductor laureate of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra who leads this spring’s Ariadne auf Naxos, returns to conduct.

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Alan Opie as Scarpia and Eszter Sümegi as Tosca in the COC's production of Tosca, 2008. Photo: Gary Beechey

Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy is based on an unfinished play by Oscar Wilde. Its language is florid and clever, as you would expect from Wilde, and the story is set to an almost Straussian score, redolent of lush, cinematic romanticism. This opera is a COC premiere and a chance to discover a rare gem of the repertoire. Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi is a fast-paced comedy about a greedy, old-money family who are dismayed to discover they have been excluded from a wealthy, deceased relative’s will. They hire the street-smart, nouveau-riche Schicchi to help them out of their dilemma only to suffer the consequences! Puccini’s rare foray into comedy is lavished with his characteristic, sun-drenched melodies including one of the most famous of all soprano arias, “O mio babbino caro.” Schicchi and Simone (in Florentine Tragedy) are played by the renowned American bass-baritone Alan Held. Our 11/12 season closes with a stunning production of Handel’s Semele, directed by famed Chinese sculptor and performance artist Zhang Huan, who envelops elegant Baroque melody within a Chinese setting, that is by turns whimsical, fantastic, and grandiose. An actual Ming Dynasty ancestral temple, made out of carved wood and salvaged by Huan from a small town outside Shanghai, serves as the backdrop for the entire production. To this are added dazzling and innovative visual effects

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

involving enormous mirrors, puppetry, a spectacular dragon, stunning Chinese period costumes, and artists that sing as they move suspended through the air. In Semele, a love affair between the god Jupiter and Semele goes awry when the human princess sets her mind to become immortal. Handel produced a score of great beauty and sensuality which includes one of his most well-known tunes, “Where’er you walk.” Nova Scotia coloratura soprano Jane Archibald (who makes her COC debut this spring as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos), is the flighty, narcissistic Semele and she leads a cast which also includes former Ensemble Studio member, mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy (War and Peace, Eugene Onegin, Madama Butterfly) as Jupiter’s jealous wife, Juno. Italian Baroque opera specialist Rinaldo Alessandrini makes his COC conducting debut. With four company premieres, eye-catching new productions and the return of two timeless classics, our 11/12 season continues to build the Canadian Opera Company’s future as one of the world’s leading opera companies!

Gianmarco Segato is Retail and Editorial Co-ordinator at the Canadian Opera Company. For further insights into the COC's 2011/2012 season, please read the special supplement in the winter issue of Prelude, available online at coc.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 will be audible to other patrons. Turn off all electronic devices, avoid talking, coughing, humming, moving loose seats, kicking the backs of seats, rustling programs, and unwrapping candies or cough drops. In consideration of patrons with allergies please avoid wearing strongly perfumed beauty products and fragrances. Please remain in your seat until the performance has completely ended and the house lights have been turned on. Electronic Devices Wristwatch chimes, cellular phones, pagers and all other electronic devices are extremely disruptive and must be turned off before the performance. If a patron has an emergency and must be contacted during a performance, he or she should contact Patron Services for assistance before the performance. Cameras/Recording Devices The use of cameras, video cameras or sound-recording devices of any kind is prohibited in R. Fraser Elliott Hall. These devices MUST be checked at the coat check before entering the auditorium. Any person using an unauthorized recording device will be required to surrender or erase any recordings, photographic or digital images and may be asked to leave. No refunds will be issued. Latecomers In the interest of safety and for the comfort of all patrons and performers, latecomers may not enter the auditorium or be seated unless there is a suitable break in the performance (usually intermission). Patrons leaving the auditorium during the performance or returning late after intermission will not be readmitted and are invited to view the performance on the large monitor in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre (located between Rings 3 and 4). Children and Babes-in-Arms All patrons, including children, must have a ticket for the performance. All children must be seated next to an accompanying adult. Young children should be able to sit quietly throughout the performance. If unable to do so, children and their accompanying adult will be asked to leave the auditorium. Babes-in-arms will not be admitted. Patron Services Located in the Lower Lobby, the following services are available: Coat and Parcel Check – Rental of back supports, binoculars and infrared hearing assistive devices Booster Seats – (on a first-come, first-served basis) Medical Emergencies and First Aid A house doctor is present at all performances. Please contact an usher if medical services are required. Lost and Found During performances please speak with an usher or visit Patron Services at the Coat Check on the Lower Lobby. Following performances, all lost and found items will be stored at the security desk at Stage Door. Please call 416-363-6671 for information.

Canadian Opera Company 2010/2011 Season

Ticket Services Canadian Opera Company subscriptions and single tickets are available through COC Ticket Services ONLINE: www.coc.ca BY PHONE: 416-363-8231 or long distance 1-800-250-4653 Monday to Friday – 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday – 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. IN PERSON: Four Seasons Centre Box Office 145 Queen St. W. Monday to Saturday – 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. or through first intermission Sunday (performance days only) – 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. or through first intermission The Four Seasons Centre Box Office also services ticketing needs for The National Ballet of Canada and all other Four Seasons Centre Events. Group Sales Groups of 10 or more enjoy savings on regular single ticket prices. For more information or to reserve seats call 416-306-2356. 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 www.greenp.com. Four Seasons Centre Facility Tours Regularly scheduled tours of the Four Seasons Centre take place on most Saturdays at noon. Please visit www.coc.ca for complete schedule. To inquire about private group tours please call 416-363-6671. 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 We are pleased to offer, for the convenience of all of our patrons, a pre-order system for intermission purchases. Our pre-order system is designed to decrease your wait time at the bar during intermission and we invite you to make use of it at every COC performance. Bars are located throughout the Isadore and Rosalie Sharp City Room’s many levels. Food and beverages are not permitted in R. Fraser Elliott Hall. Special Events and Catering The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is available for rental for all of your presentation, meeting or special events needs, with spaces accommodating from 20 to 2,000 people and full catering services. For further details visit www.fourseasonscentre.ca or call 416-363-6671. The Opera Shop Located on the orchestra level of the Isadore and Rosalie Sharpe City Room, the COC's Opera Shop offers a fine selection of opera recordings on CD and DVD, as well as opera-related books, giftware and COC souvenirs.

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