CALGARY’S NEW OPERA SEASON
Enjoy classics, collaborations and premieres
Animation, puppets, the Bard’s famously doomed lovers and a deadly disaster on Mount Everest will all be part of the 2018-19 season for Calgary Opera. But if there is an overriding theme to the eclectic offerings next season, it’s collaboration.
On Thursday, Calgary Opera announced the seven main productions that will make up its 2018-19 schedule, revealing a compelling mix of classics and new frontiers for the company.
It will include partnering with the Calgary International Film Festival, the National Music Centre, Alberta Ballet, The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, The Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Honens International Piano Competition and the Old Trout Puppet Workshop.
“There’s a real interest in collaboration and a willingness to think creatively about how these organizations can work together,” said Keith Cerny, Calgary ’s Opera’s new general director and CEO. “It’s important because a lot of us share the same donors. In the Canadian context, of course, that’s all the terrific support from the levels of government and all the private donors as well. A lot of audiences overlap as well.
“I think what a lot of donors are interested in seeing is that the organizations that they are generously supporting are working together, being good neighbours and also looking for opportunities to work at the boundaries of their respective art forms.”
Cerny joined Calgary Opera in January after an international search following the retirement of CEO Bob McPhee, who spent 19 years at the helm. He brings with him a degree from the Harvard Business School and a reputation for bringing financial stability to the Dallas Opera, where he was CEO and general director before coming to Calgary.
But while he may be focusing on donor satisfaction, the season is also artistically bold and modern, with even classics such as Charles Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette getting an update.
The season will feature two significant new works: The world premiere of Ghost Opera and the Canadian premiere of Everest.
In May 2019, Calgary Opera will join forces with the Old Trout Puppet Workshop and The Banff Centre for the world premiere of Ghost Opera, which will feature a score by composer Veronika Krausas and libretto by Giller-winning author Andre Alexis.
“This is a project that the Old Trouts have spearheaded and we are providing our emerging artists for the performance, and some of the music staff such as the conductor and the pianist and so on,” Cerny said. “That’s our focus on that. I’ve also been working with the Banff Centre and the leadership of the Old Trouts on making sure we can have a really meaningful number of performances of this world premiere, because it is such as major event to be working with Veronika Krausas and the Old Trouts and the Banff Centre.”
While in Dallas, Cerny commissioned composer Joby Talbot and librettist Gene Scheer’s Everest, which tells the story of the 1996 mountain climbing disaster that claimed the lives of 12 people. It focuses on the plight of Beck Weathers, an American pathologist who survived the ordeal and was the inspiration for Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air.
Conducted by David Briskin, the music director of the National Ballet of Canada, and directed by American theatre veteran and author Leonard Foglia, who was at the helm for the world premiere in Dallas, Everest will star bass-baritone Kevin Burdette as Weathers, a role he originated. It will also feature baritone Andrew Love, tenor Andrew Bidlack and mezzo-soprano Sarah Larsen. It will run Feb. 2, 6 and 8.
“This is an extraordinary opera by Joby Talbot that I think will have a lot of resonance here in Calgary because of the proximity to the mountains and the climbing community and the amount of people here who have summited Everest,” Cerny said.
Cerny said he was attracted to Calgary Opera by its track record of innovation and premieres and hopes to build on that. He said the opera’s emerging artists development program, one of only three nationally, will open “a lot of artistic opportunities for us in bigger productions and in smaller projects” that should open the door for unusual and contemporary works.
Not surprisingly, the main challenge he foresees in the next few years is fundraising, both from the government and private donors.
“That’s true of every opera company I can think of,” he said, “and I know a lot.”
Here are highlights of the other productions in Calgary Opera’s 2018-19 season:
Sept. 28: Magic Piano & The Chopin Shorts is a short animated film that will be accompanied by live music by Frederick Chopin. It will be held at the National Music Centre during the Calgary International Film Festival and in collaboration with the Honens International Piano Competition.
Nov. 17, 21 23: Cerny said new choreography has been incorporated into Charles Gounod’s classic opera based on Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo et Juliette. It will be directed by Jean Grand-Maitre, artistic director of Alberta Ballet, and performed with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. Professional dancers and students from Alberta Ballet will participate. Soprano Anne-Marie MacIntosh will perform as Juliette, and tenor Adam Luther is Romeo. Baritone Peter Barrett is cast as Mercutio, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Tritchew as Stephano and baritone Alexandre Sylvestre as Capulet.
December: Speaking of the emerging artists development program, Calgary Opera will dip into its budding talent for the Christmas production of Amahl and the Night Visitors, Gian Carlo Menotti’s story of a disabled boy in biblical times who offers his crutch to the three kings. Calgary Opera last performed this work 30 years ago.
April 6, 10, 12, 2019: Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto remains one of the world’s most famous operas and fits nicely into Calgary Opera’s mandate to offer go-to productions that attract opera newbies alongside more obscure work. That isn’t to say Rigoletto doesn’t have its own challenges, of course, but it’s sentimental and tune-filled and lends itself to a lavish production. Baritone Gregory Dahl will perform the angry, anguished title character, a jester whose daughter is pursued by the lecherous Duke on Mantua. Tenor Leonardo Capalbo will perform as the Duke.
August 2019: Opera in the Village will tackle another favourite with a take on George Bizet’s Carmen at Calgary Stampede’s Opera in the Village. Carmen in the Village will be a streamlined version of the famous tragedy featuring a narrator and five singers.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT CALGARYOPERA.COM.