From just a face in the crowd to the big boss
Carmen director Joel Ivany started out small, but now he runs the show at the COC
Joel Ivany has come a long way in the past decade: from being an extra in a crowd scene in the opera Carmen to its director in Canada’s premier opera house.
As he embarked on a career in the arts, he became curious about opera. To assist his research, he volunteered to be a supernumerary, or extra, for the Canadian Opera Company’s 2005 production of Carmen. A production photo shows him in a crowd of admirers surrounding a bullfighter.
“I was thinking how incredible it was to be performing onstage in an opera with the Canadian Opera Company,” Ivany says.
There, in the footlights, he realized that opera was for him and he pursued it with a vengeance.
“It definitely inspired me to learn even more about opera. I wanted to be involved and do whatever I could to be a part of this incredible storytelling.”
Gradually he moved from performing to directing, and he became a founding member of the Toronto indie opera collective Against the Grain Theatre.
He has written numerous Englishlanguage librettos for established op- eras, moving them to the present day with performances in bars and wedding halls.
“It’s certainly more comfortable behind the scenes. Acting and singing, however, is much more liberating. You can be someone else and you can apply a craft in a live, real-time experience,” Ivany says.
“I came in to directing from a per- formance background.”
He is also married to an opera singer, soprano Miriam Khalil.
Alexander Neef, the COC’s general director, picked Ivany to helm its 2016 spring production of Carmen, starring Anita Rachvelishvili.
It opened April 12 to rave reviews and Ivany, uncharacteristically in a suit, took his bows onstage with the creative team.
“I was very happy! It was one of the calmest openings I have had,” he said. “The COC is my hometown opera company and I know everyone who works there. I hoped that people would appreciate what we were trying to do, but I had a lot of confidence in the singers, production team and myself.”
Carmen runs to May 15, but Ivany is already on to another opera, Against the Grain’s interpretation of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, titled A Little Too Cozy.
It runs May 12 to 21.