New Guard Four Talents to discover at the Atelier lyrique During the 2021 Talent gala last November, auditions were held for the Opéra de Montréal’s Atelier lyrique. Nine exceptional finalists succeeded one another onstage at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier. Four were given the nod by jurors, who felt each had the voice and potential for opera stardom.
Emma Fekete Emma’s big dream is to play the role of Anne Trulove in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, in Montréal. After five years at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where she completed a Master’s degree in Classical Singing and received the prestigious Holland Scholarship and Talent Grant, the 26-year-old soprano is enthusiastic about returning home. “Wilfrid-Pelletier is the stage from my childhood,” she says, “the place I would go to see Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. And I love what the Opéra de Montréal is becoming, opening up to young people, its contemporary works, its social role. This desire to reinvent itself speaks to me and inspires me.” Originally from Val d’Or, the avid crosscountry skier was bitten by the musical bug at the age of four, after hearing a neighbour playing the violin. “Once was enough for me to know that music would become my life.” It’s a great message to share with children all over the world.
Emma Fekete, 2021 Talent gala
Mikelis Rogers Jealousy — that’s what led Mikelis Rogers to opera. “I was six years old, and my older sister had just started singing lessons. I wanted singing lessons, too, and my parents said yes.” It was the right thing for them to do because, 20 years later, the Ontario baritone, who completed his Bachelor’s degree in Music at the University of Toronto, is about to enter the Atelier lyrique. There were a few detours along the way, of course, parti cularly into photographic and video production — but music was never very far away. “My mother comes from Lapland and, and although she is not a musician herself, singing is part of her culture. She once took me to a large festival near Riga. There were 40,000 choristers, all connected to one another by song. That magic is part of my heritage.” The first things he will do after arriving in Montréal? Go to an Alouettes game, and learn French, “so that I’m not an anglophone tourist in Quebec.”
Mikelis Rogers, 2021 Talent gala
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