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NOTEBOOK
ƛƲƞƥƢƳƚƛƞƭơƛƨưƦƚƧ
Save the date: November 6,
2023. We will host our annual
Rubies Gala honouring five
well-deserving (soon-to-be
announced) Canadian
contributors to opera at
Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre
for the Performing Arts—it is
sure to be a magical evening.
With summer in full swing, the content in
this issue is all about boldness, colour, and
vision. Canadian soprano Ambur Braid
with her resonant authenticity is the per-
fect cover artist—her journey is inspiring
and shows the devil is in the detail, and
patience paired with hard work is par-
amount. Also featured is Academy
Award-nominated director, Atom Egoyan,
about intertwining his two loves—film
and opera—in his upcoming Salome-
inspired silver screen release. Canadian
baritone Étienne Dupuis and Australian
soprano Nicole Car discuss their new
Artistic Directorship at the Canadian
Vocal Arts Institute. Ottawa-born Bryan
Wagorn, collaborator to the stars and
Assistant Conductor at The Metropol-
itan Opera, shares his journey with us. We
dig deep into a music streaming platform ƟƨƮƧƝƢƧƠƞƝƢƭƨƫ
dedicated to classical music and creating Ruby Mercer
community engagement. Furthermore we Summer 2023
celebrate the important contributions Vol. LXIV, No. 1
Canadian director Michael Albano has Edition 256 $9.95
made during his time at the University ƩƮƛƥƢƬơƞƫ
Opera Canada Publications
of Toronto—a true influencer. And with
operacanada.ca
many voice students contemplating their
ƛƨƚƫƝƨƟƝƢƫƞƜƭƨƫƬ
future studies, we dive into how to choose
Eva Innes, Chair
the right teacher. Robert Morassutti,Vice Chair
In our regular columns, we have Paulina Abramowicz
expanded this issue’s Take Note to high- Stephanie Applin
light the announced 2023/24 opera Davida Aronovitch
Dorian Block
seasons across Canada. We have added a
Curtis Fichtner
section to the magazine that highlights Jason Howard
a handful of the many reviews we offer ƚƝƯƢƬƨƫƲƜƨƮƧƜƢƥ
online (thanks to the feedback from our Margaret Genovese
readers!). We hope to encourage readers James Warrillow
to visit operacanada.ca regularly between ƞƝƢƭƨƫƢƧƜơƢƞƟ
our print issues to stay in touch, engage Elizabeth Bowman
with us, and stay informed about all elizabeth@operacanada.ca
things Canadian opera. ƝƢƠƢƭƚƥƜƨƧƭƞƧƭƬƩƞƜƢƚƥƢƬƭ
Angela Bell
I’m excited to work with emerging
opera artists at The Banff Centre for Arts
outreach@operacanada.ca
and Creativity this July. The program, led ƜƢƫƜƮƥƚƭƢƨƧŻƦƚƫƤƞƭƢƧƠ
ƦƚƧƚƠƞƫ
by Joel Ivany, offers a unique opportu- Stacey May Fowles
nity for eight singers, a director, and a stacey@operacanada.ca
repetiteur to learn from artists special- ƬƮƛƬƜƫƢƩƭƢƨƧƬŻƜƮƬƭƨƦƞƫ
ƬƞƫƯƢƜƞ
izing in a range of areas including design,
stacey@operacanada.ca
creation, composition, and produc-
ƚƝƯƞƫƭƢƬƢƧƠŻ
tion—I’ll be using my background as an ƦƚƫƤƞƭƢƧƠƞƧƪƮƢƫƢƞƬ
industry publicist to help them with their Kathryn Laceby
PR strategy. It’s a joy to have an opportu- publishing@operacanada.ca
nity to connect with these artists and I ƝƨƧƚƭƢƨƧƬŻƬƩƨƧƬƨƫƬơƢƩƬ
will, no doubt, learn a lot through these Sofia Harwell
fundraising@operacanada.ca
conversations. It is an important part of
keeping one’s finger on the pulse! ƚƫƭƝƢƫƞƜƭƢƨƧƚƧƝƝƞƬƢƠƧ
Fresh Art & Design Inc.
Finally, I want to thank all those who
contributed to my marathon fundraiser ƞƧƠƚƠƞưƢƭơƮƬ
for Opera Canada. It was a wonderful
success with $3,000 raised and we are
truly thankful for the support. Long
ƜƨƯƞƫƩơƨƭƨ
story short, after a leg cramp at mile A portrait of soprano
16, the donations gave me the drive to Ambur Braid
continue—mission accomplished! Photo: Rebecca Wood
—editorial@operacanada.ca
SUMMER 2023 3
CONTENTS
COVER STORY F E AT U R E S

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 Summer 2023

Summer 2023

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BMO Financial Group, Suzanne & Tony Cesaroni,
Stephen Clarke/Estate of John Stratton, Jackman
Foundation, Marjorie and Roy Linden, Kris Vikmanis
& Denny Creighton
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Pamela Austin, J. Peter & Hélène Hunt, Eva Innes
& David Medhurst, Robert Morassutti, Dr. Michael
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Opera Canada is published by Opera Canada
Publications, 82 Laird Drive, Suite 304, Toronto,
Ontario M4G 3V1.
publishing@operacanada.ca
Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect
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Outside Canada: US$29.50 (individuals) or US$39.50
(institutions). Opera Canada is available on newsstands
/HQD+HOOVWU¸P)¦UQO¸I across Canada. For subscription enquiries, email
DEPAR TMENT S 7KHLPSRUWDQFHRIEDODQFLQJ stacey@operacanada.ca
SK\VLFDOFRQGLWLRQLQJDQG If you are moving, please email your new address to:
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SHUIRUPDQFH Copyright: © 2023 Opera Canada Publications.
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
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'HHSD-RKQQ\ RIYRLFH Opera Canada Publications is a non-profit, charitable
organization that publishes this magazine with the
financial assistance of the Canada Council and the
Ontario Arts Council. We also extend special thanks
to private donors whose continuing support is vital to

26 making this publication possible.

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This project has been made

possible in part by the
Government of Canada.

SUMMER 2023 5
 TAKE NOTE

2023-2024
ANNOUNCED
CANADIAN OPERA
SEASONS

QUÉBEC

Opéra de Montréal
Mozart The Marriage of Figaro 23 Sept-1 Oct, 2023
Monteverdi The Coronation of Poppea 18-19 Nov, 2023*
Bilodeau/Bouchard La Reine-Garçon 3-11 Feb, 2024
Burgan/Schmitt Enigma 7-13 Apr, 2024
Verdi La traviata 4-12 May, 2024
RSHUDGHPRQWUHDOFRP

Opéra de Québec
Donizetti Lucie de Lammermoor 21-28 Oct 2023
Strauss La Chauve-Souris 11-18 May 2024.
RSHUDGHTXHEHFFRP

6 OPE R A C A N A DA
O N TA R I O

Opera Atelier
Gluck Orpheus and Eurydice 26 Oct-1 Nov 2023
Various All is Love 11-14 Apr 2024
RSHUDDWHOLHUFRP

Canadian Opera Company

Beethoven Fidelio 29 Sept-20 Oct 2023
Puccini La bohème 6-28 Oct 2023
Janáček The Cunning Little Vixen 26 Jan-16 Feb 2024
Mozart Don Giovanni 2-24 Feb 2024
Donizetti Don Pasquale 26 Apr-18 May 2024
Cherubini Medea 3-25 May 2024
HAUI x Sean Mayes Aportia Chryptych 14-16 June,2024**
coc.ca

Tapestry Opera
Williams/Chatterton Rocking Horse Winner 1-12 Nov 2023
Full season to be announced in September
WDSHVWU\RSHUDFRP

SUMMER 2023 7
TAKE NOTE

MANITOBA

Calgary Opera
Mozart The Marriage of Figaro 14-20 Oct 2023
Giannini Beauty and the Beast 24 Nov-3 Dec 2023***
Donizetti The Elixir of Love 3-9 Feb 2024
Wagner Das Rheingold 20-26 Apr 2024
FDOJDU\RSHUDFRP

MARRIAGOE OF

TH E
Manitoba Opera
Weisensel/Kusturok/Steele Li Keur:
FIGAR
By Wolfgang rt
Amadeus Moza

Riel’s Heart of the North 18-24 Nov 2023

Bizet Carmen 13-19 Apr 2024
PERSHUDFRP

A L B E R TA

Edmonton Opera
Bizet Carmen 19-24 Oct 2023
Mozart Don Giovanni 1-3 Feb 2024****
Wijeratne/Grant Identity 23-24 Feb 2024**
Wagner Das Rheingold 28 May-1 June 2024.
HGPRQWRQRSHUDFRP BE AU T Y BE A S T
By Vittorio Gianni
ni
AN D
THE

N OV E M B E
R 24, 25,
DECEMBE & 26
R 1, 2, & 3
, 2023 C A LG A RYO
P E R A .C O M

8 OPE R A C A N A DA
BRITISH COLUMBIA

Vancouver Opera
Mozart The Magic Flute 21-29 Oct 2023
Donizetti Don Pasquale 10-18 Feb 2024
Bizet Carmen 27 Apr-5 May 2024
YDQFRXYHURSHUDFD

Pacific Opera Victoria

Wagner Die Walküre 12-21 Oct 2023
Golijov Ainadamar 21-27 Feb 2024
Mozart The Marriage of Figaro 3-9 Apr 2024
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SUMMER 2023 9
REVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
At OperaCanada.ca, we share
reviews of productions involving
Canadian opera artists in Canada
and abroad!
HE RE A R E S O ME HIGHL I GH T S
Manitoba Underground
Opera
Gow / Remoto The Mansplaining Division
May 24-26, 2023
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The Metropolitan Opera
Mozart Die Zauberflöte
May 19-June 10, 2023
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Michael Levine
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10
Opéra de Québec
Puccini Madama Butterfly
May 13-20, 2023
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as Macduff in the Canadian Opera Company’s
Macbeth
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Handel Ariodante VRSUDQR(ULQ0RUOH\DV3DPLQDŴ\LQJKLJK
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April 20-May 20, 2023
politan Opera’s 'LH=DXEHUŴ¸WH
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D’Angelo in the title role
OPE R A C A N A DA
 '21ō70,66285
ARTIST OF THE
WEEK AND OPERA
PLACES FEATURES
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Houston Grand Opera Manitoba Opera

R. Strauss Salome
April 28-May 12, 2023
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Mozart Così fan tutte
April 22-28, 2023
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Canadian Opera Company
Verdi Macbeth
April 28-May 20, 2023
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Amici Chamber Ensemble
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SUMMER 2023 11
NE W ON T HE S CE NE

DEEPA ƛƲƞƥƢƳƚƛƞƭơƛƨưƦƚƧ

JOHNNY
 Omani Canadian mezzo-soprano Deepa Johnny
is a gifted storyteller—a natural at drawing in an
audience with the many colours in her voice.
I first heard Johnny in the Concours musical
international de Montréal (CMIM) in 2022;
she showed impressive musicality and poise
in both the art song and aria categories and
unsurprisingly won the André-Bourbeau
Award for best Canadian artist, as well as the
ICI Musique People’s Choice Award. Before
These days, the Canadian mezzo is
based in Los Angeles and is a member of
LA Opera's prestigious Domingo-Colburn Speed Round with
Stein Young Artist Program which she con- DEEPA JOHNNY
tinues for the 2023-24 season. One of the
highlights from her current season was
singing the role of Eliza in Rhiannon Gid- ƟƚƯƨƮƫƢƭƞƥƢƩƬƭƢƜƤƘ
that she was the winner in the Western dens and Michael Abels’s Pulitzer-winning 5DUH%HDXW\EUDQGLQ
Canada District of the Metropolitan Opera
National Council Auditions in 2020.
Johnny was born in Muscat, Oman,
before immigrating to Red Deer, Alberta
when she was nine years old. It was there
she was introduced to classical music and
opera through her first teacher Dr. Wendolin
Munroe; she continued her studies with Dr.
Munroe through her Bachelor of Music
degree at Burman University in Lacombe,
Alberta. Her studies continued at the Jacobs
School of Music at Indiana University where
she achieved a Masters under the tutelage
of Cuban tenor Carlos Montané.
ƫƞƧƨƭƨƧ
Deepa Johnny jumped into the spotlight
PHOTO: JONATHAN JACOBS AND NISHA JOHNNY
last fall with her professional debut singing
Cherubino in Opera San José’s Le nozze di
Figaro, followed by singing the role of Meg
Page alongside the legendary Welsh bass-
baritone Bryn Terfel in Falstaff's title role
at Aspen Summer Music Festival—quite an
auspicious career start!
opera Omar at LA Opera. Johnny said of the 'HOLJKWVKDGH
experience: “The power and impact of this
piece was palpable throughout the theatre ƟƚƯƨƮƫƢƭƞƦƮƬƢƜ
ƬƭƫƞƚƦƢƧƠƩƥƚƭƟƨƫƦƘ
every single night. There is no other way to
6SRWLI\
describe it other than electric. The ripple
effect of this piece is long-lasting as it has
ƢƧƬƭƚƠƫƚƦƭƢƤƭƨƤ
prompted people across communities to ƨƫƟƚƜƞƛƨƨƤƘ
have necessary conversations about the his-
7LN7RN
tory of slavery and race relations around the
world.” She continues, “after all, this is what
ơƨưƝƨƲƨƮƭƚƤƞ
opera and theatre are all about: to educate, ƲƨƮƫƜƨƟƟƞƞƘ
to inspire, and to ultimately heal.” :LWKDVSODVKRIRDWPLON
Highlighting her flexible range, her dream
roles right now are Debussy’s Mélisande (Pel- ươƞƧƲƨƮ
léas et Mélisande) and Mozart’s Dorabella ƬƭƚƠƞƲƨƮƥƢƤƞƭƨ
(Così fan tutte). Furthermore, she won't shy *RKLNLQJZLWKP\GRJ
away from crossover genres, film acting,
and other collaborations—the world is her
oyster. Ultimately, Deepa Johnny is impas-
sioned by strong stories that need to be
shared. And we look forward to following
her creative journey ahead.
SUMMER 2023 13
S TA GE BU SINE S S

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14 OPE R A C A N A DA
 LU CI A CE S AR O N I, OP ER A C ANA D A C O NTR IBUT O R A ND PRI N CI PA L
AT C E S AR O N I C O N S U LT I N G , R E F L E C T S O N T H E PA S T, P R E S E N T, A N D
P O S S I B I L I T I E S F O R T H E B U S I N E S S O F O P E R A I N C AN A D A
C 
O M I N G O F A G E in the performing arts in
Toronto meant absorbing all flavours
of past tense. Teachers, producers
and agents discussed industry days
gone by in grammatical shrugs and wistful
past participles.
There were CBC symphonic recordings,
the big-budget concerts at Harbourfront,
Ontario Place, the tours—oh, the tours, they
sighed, in an endless litany of backward
glances. And then, the reality check—
the money was gone, the CBC Symphony
Orchestra disbanded (1964) and finally, the
used-tos. We used to work with the Canadian
Opera Company and the Toronto Symphony,
but that was years ago. They told us it was all
about money—gone, spent, defunded. They
were wrong. There is so much wealth as yet
untapped for the arts in Canada.
It’s not about money. It’s about leader-
ship and vision, building relationships that
strengthen reach. Money follows charisma
and a great story and a higher purpose.
This country needs opera evangelists. I
will continue to yell into the void about the
enormous, potential energy which is poised,
PHOTO: SAM GAETZ PHOTOGRAPHY
waiting and vibrating in the performing arts.
World-class art and expression are happening
all around us but without evangelists, few
outside our often self-important, in-group
SUMMER 2023
conoscenti are aware of their existence, let
alone sermonized and converted to the value
of arts and artists.
A very relevant definition of intelligence for
our creative purposes is one’s ability to make
connections. Cue persuasive evangelist leaders
to reconnect our silly silos of acronym salad.
Fun fact: The largest cultural institutions in
Toronto (TIFF, COC, AGO, ROM, TSO, The
National Ballet, Harbourfront Centre, Soul-
pepper Theatre) have styled themselves ‘The
Big Eight’ and meet monthly, ostensibly to
coordinate and exchange ideas and best prac-
tices. Combined, they represent many millions
of public money and direct lines to our sys-
tems of government, banks and universities.
Where, then, are the big collaborative ideas,?
Where is my generation’s Karen Kain, emulsi-
fying the effervescent energy of which artists
are made? There are fabulous projects on offer,
but they are finite in scale and closed-loop in
scope. No one is envisioning decades or years
of partnerships and community building. I
want to see sharing of resources, recruitment
initiatives and innovation with other sectors,
never mind other arts organizations.
To the management and directors, the
board and the believers: there is a shining
opportunity to make the case for the big-
ness that we are, the stories we tell and the
15
STAGE BUSINESS

,WDOLDQ&DQDGLDQ
soprano Lucia Cesaroni
VHDPOHVVO\ZRUNV
EHWZHHQWZRZRUOGV
business (she’s the
principal at Cesaroni
Consulting) and opera
(she has a full performing
calendar)

16 OPE R A C A N A DA
 shared, cathartic experience we give, gener-
ously. When was the last time opera leaders
together, in phalanx formation, showed up
and proselytized at the chambers of com-
merce or trade commissions or hospital galas
or think tank dinners or political operatives’
parties? I know of what I speak–I join, I listen
and I learn. Why aren’t we at the table?
We are raised in scarcity and it is killing
us. We are surrounded by abundance, but
the effect of generations inhaling ‘too many
singers and no jobs’ creates risk-aversion,
provinciality and the necessity to go abroad
rather than create here at home. Many might
be familiar with The 7 Habits of Highly Effective
People, in which Stephen Covey articulates:
“The abundance mindset flows from a deep
inner sense of personal worth and security. It
is the paradigm that there is plenty out there
and enough to spare for everybody. It results
in sharing of prestige, of recognition, of profits,
of decision making. It opens alternatives and
creativity. It recognizes the unlimited possi-
bilities for positive growth and development.”
Smashed together and in communion, from
schools to producers to artists, we are pow-
erful, more efficient and strategic as we dictate
the zeitgeist. But we must see this potential
through a true believer’s eyes. Covey has this
covered, too: “Leadership is communicating
others’ worth and potential so clearly that they
are inspired to see it in themselves.”
Going out, gathering in. To strike a final,
major chord we highlight some of the inter-
and intra-sector evangelism happening
right now. Lavazza’s IncluCity Film Festival
is a 3-week multicultural bonanza, screening
films from all over the world at sunset in
Toronto’s historic Distillery District. Art
installations and aperitivi cocktails spon-
sored by Campari Group prepare the stomach
and the soul for a shared, cultural experi-
ence. And on July 14, it will feature its first
opera, Carmen: The Mash-Up, starring CBC’s
PHOTO: SAM GAETZ PHOTOGRAPHY
Julie Nesrallah and yours truly! Using art to
bring banking, tech, hospitality, marketing
and many others together, this event boasts
a VIP Backstage Bash for new connections
and networking (but call it a vibe).
We are raised in scarcity and it is killing us.
We are surrounded by abundance, but the
effect of generations inhaling ‘too many
singers and no jobs’ creates risk-aversion,
provinciality and the necessity to go abroad
rather than create here at home.
Another big-picture project comes via
Nick Di Donato and The Liberty Group with
their Symphony in the Gardens concerts,
juicing Casa Loma as a landmark for all it’s
worth, all summer long. Maestro Paolo Busato
and the Casa Loma Symphony Orchestra play
accessible, European-style outdoor concerts
amidst a more-is-more offering of food and
wine and through these, transubstantiate
concert to experience.
Finally, Kimberly Barber’s work in reestab-
lishing the learn-by-doing pipeline between the
opera program at Laurier and the Kitchener-
Waterloo Symphony (KWS) merits a national
spotlight. Small roles and chorus parts in KWS
shows are filled by students– which is a wel-
come contrast to opera companies, where
excellent learning opportunities are gobbled
up by low-pay young artist programs. Yes, it
takes more planning and sharing between
bureaucracies, but it creates real-world, expe-
riential learning and networking for the next
generation. Brava, Kimberly.
More abundance, please. Canada must
demand the gerund tense in culture, the
growing-connecting of the moment-ing.
And from leadership, the sexy if/when sub-
junctive vision to ground us in possibility.
We are proudly immigrant-rich, so let us see
our country through their eyes–as one brim-
ming with potential. Our cities are full of open
spaces and untapped human resources. New
leaders collect and are poised, ready to cele-
brate more, be joyful more. Be more, more.
SUMMER 2023 17
 LE T TER FROM BENDIGO
WHEN WAGNER PREMIERED HIS EPIC DER
Ring des Nibelungen in Bayreuth in 1876,
another story about the powerful lure of
Wayne Gooding gold was playing out in the Australian city
takes us down under of Bendigo, almost 16,000 km away in the
to Bendigo, Australia; Southern Hemisphere. Then known as Sand-
the host of Melbourne hurst until it reverted to the locale’s original
name in 1891, it was deemed “the richest city
Opera’s monumental
in the world,” the result of the discovery of
Ring cycle
huge goldfields in 1851. Located about 155
km north of Melbourne, the gold rush trans-
formed Bendigo from a sprawling, squalid
18 OPE R A C A N A DA
mining encampment into a proper Victo-
rian city with imposing public buildings and
a rich social and economic life. Trappings
of the English motherland may have set the
overall tone, but the population was diverse.
Germans made up one of the most important
ethnic groups, their expertise and influence
central to everything from mining to vini-
culture, commerce to construction. Some
PHOTOS: ROBIN HALLS
of the most impressive period buildings still
standing are the work of architect William
Vahland, who migrated from near Hanover in
 1854 to find gold but made his fortune capital-
izing on the community wealth it generated.
With such a history and associations, it was
canny of Melbourne Opera (MO) to launch its
new Ring cycle not in one of the grander the-
atres in its home city, but in Bendigo’s 950-seat
Ulumbarra Theatre, a space created when the
fort-like 19th century Sandhurst Jail was con-
verted into a performing arts centre in 2015.
Billed as Australia’s first “regional” Ring and
boasting an all-Australian cast, orchestra and
(with one key exception) creative team, MO
staged three complete cycles over six week-
ends from March 24 to April 30, scheduling
an array of events around and between Ring
performances. There were lectures, discus-
sions and recitals; German tenor Siegfried
Jerusalem, one of the most illustrious Wagner-
ians in his heyday, was invited for a panel and
masterclass; and you could even go down the
Central Deborah Gold Mine museum—Cana-
da’s Agnico Eagle, still mining in the Bendigo
area, is a major sponsor—for performances
underground of Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll and
Wesendonck Lieder. MO did its best to create
a Bayreuth-like festival experience, the choice
of Bendigo bettering its German model with an
Australian soprano Deborah
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artist Steven Stanley greets patrons
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SUMMER 2023
arguably equal selection of dining options and
an undoubtedly better selection of local wines.
“Ulumbarra” means “gathering place” in the
language of the Dja Dja Wurrung people, who,
along with the neighbouring Taungurung, are
the traditional custodians of the land across
Bendigo. For travelling Ring junkies—Ring-
heads in more polite terms—Bendigo promised
a unique and refreshing adventure beyond the
homogenous casting and often-outlandish
interpretative ambitions of better-known stops
on the international Wagner circuit.
There have been few complete stagings of
Wagner’s Ring in Australia, starting with one
in English when the touring Quinlan Opera
Company from England set out to introduce
the work to major cities around the British
Empire and performed it in Melbourne in
1913. (Quinlan got as far as Montreal to stage
Canada’s first Ring cycle in 1914, but either
for lack of interest or because of looming
war didn’t make it, as scheduled, down the
St. Lawrence to Toronto.) The State Opera
of South Australia mounted the first local
productions in Adelaide in 1998 and again
in 2004, and Australian Opera celebrated
the Wagner centennial with a production in
19
LE T TER FROM BENDIGO
MO has never received any State or Federal subsidy,
despite the company’s strong track record in
productions and employment over decades.
20 OPE R A C A N A DA
Melbourne in 2013. (AO will mount a new pro-
duction in Brisbane, Queensland, in December
2023.) It was gutsy and risky for a smaller com-
pany to take up the huge challenge, though
the Bendigo Ring marks the culmination of a
decade-long record that has turned MO into
a serious Wagner company.
Founded in 2003, MO has mounted three or
four operas a year, initially in English but later
in the original languages. Its first Wagner, in
concert, was the Australian premiere of Rienzi
as part of the Melbourne Ring Festival of 2013,
but then came fully staged productions of
Tannhäuser (2016), Lohengrin (2017), Tristan
und Isolde (2018), Der fliegende Holländer
(2019) and now The Ring. COVID upended
some original plans, but the new Das Rhein-
gold was staged in Melbourne in 2021 and Die
Walküre in 2022. There was a single concert
performance of Siegfried later last year, but its
premiere staging as well as the introduction of
Götterdämmerung were part of the excitement
around the first Ring cycle in Bendigo. That’s
a remarkable record for any company—since
that first Rienzi there have been a dozen non-
Wagner operas, too—but especially since MO
is in some respects an outlier on the Austra-
lian opera scene. As Resident Conductor and
Ring producer Greg Hocking pointedly noted
in the program book: “This Ring Cycle proves
the depth of talent available here—we hope our
heavily subsidized colleagues take note. MO
has never received any State or Federal subsidy,
despite the company’s strong track record in
productions and employment over decades.
This Ring Cycle is only taking place due to the
amazing long-term support of our loyal spon-
sors, philanthropic supporters and audience.”
In Bayreuth, which enjoys huge public subsi-
dies, many ticket holders like to walk from their
lodgings through the historic town and up the
Green Hill to the Festspielhaus as a kind of tux-
edoed pilgrimage. Bendigo is much less formal,
but you can make a similar approach to the the-
atre along a couple of routes. From the Deborah
Mine to the Ulumbarra is about the same dis-
PHOTOS: ROBIN HALLS
tance as from the Steingraeber piano factory
(founded months after the discovery of gold
in Bendigo) to the Festspielhaus. One route
'LVSOD\LQJWKHSRZHUIXO
SDUWQHUVKLSRI5RE6RZLQVNLōV
colourful lighting design and
$QGUHZ%DLOH\ōVVHWGHVLJQLQ
Das Rheingold
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in the title role of Siegfried
takes you along High Street, past the tall spire
of the huge Sacred Heart Cathedral (begun in
1896 but not completed until 1977), then past
the Alexandra Fountain on to Pall Mall, past
the Soldiers Memorial Hall, old post office and
law courts on the north side and the vener-
able Hotel Shamrock and architect Vahland’s
imposing Town Hall to the south. At the end
of Pall Mall, near the Vahland Fountain, you
veer left up Bridge Street, skirting the corner
of Rosalind Park and its noisy colony of Flying
Foxes, up to the Dai Gum San Chinese precinct
and the Golden Dragon Museum, which cel-
ebrates the waves of Chinese immigrants who
came to Bendigo and, guides proudly tell you,
is home to Loong, the world’s oldest Imperial
Dragon, who paraded along city streets from
1892-1970, and his successor Dai Gum Loong,
the world’s longest Imperial Dragon. From their
SUMMER 2023
lair to Wagner’s Fafner, it’s a short walk up the
slope of Park Road to the Ulumbarra.
From the front, the inverted V roof of the
theatre recalls that of the Festspielhaus, but
the resemblance ends there. Given its orig-
inal purpose, the Ulumbarra is mainly brick
and stone not wood and plaster; it’s enclosed
by a high wall and its entrance is flanked by
two circular watchtowers. Inside, a few prison
cells and cell rows have been preserved but the
rest has been hollowed out and renovated to
accommodate the theatre and large, well-ser-
viced spaces inside and out for audiences and
other communal events. There was even room
during The Ring cycles for an exhibition from
the Australian Performing Arts Collection of
elaborate samples and designs of soprano
Joan Sutherland’s costumes, including one
of Michael Stennett’s for her role debut as
21
LE T TER FROM BENDIGO
$XVWUDOLDQKHOGHQWHQRU:DUZLFN
Fyfe as Wotan in Die Walküre
Deborah Humble (Waltraute)
and Antoinette Halloran
Ophelia in Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet at the
Canadian Opera Company in 1985.
In performance, the Bendigo Ring was less
akin to the large-scale productions at Bayreuth
than to the scaled-down presentations at
of the earlier renowned English Wagnerian,
Reginald Goodall, Negus is recognized now as
an outstanding Wagner conductor, and has
helped MO develop its repertoire by taking
the podium for Holländer, Tristan and now
The Ring. No doubt his long experience was
a major asset for MO’s reduced orchestra of
about 90 musicians in this epic Wagner series.
If there were glitches and unpolished pas-
sages in the pit throughout The Ring, there
was no lack of commitment in the playing,
and Negus’s firm control and dramatic pacing
ensured that the musical impact of the
whole was greater than the sum of the parts
throughout the cycle. Onstage, considerably
more Wagner experience was evident in a fine
cast of singers who enjoy good careers in Aus-
tralia and abroad, though in Europe rather
than North America. Just to take a couple of
outstanding examples of singers new to me:
baritone Warwick Fyfe proved a vocally accom-
plished, technically assured singer-actor who
%U¾QQKLOGHLQ*¸WWHUG¦PPHUXQJ
Longborough Festival Opera, the English
country-house theatre that has also become a
Wagner destination (and which, next summer,
presents its own new Ring). There’s a real con-
nection, too, since that one key non-Australian
on Bendigo’s creative team was Longborough’s
Music Director, Anthony Negus. A protégé
22 OPE R A C A N A DA
compellingly projected both the strengths and
weaknesses of the central character of Wotan;
Bradley Daley had the ringing, open-throated
tenor you want for Siegfried and the stamina
PHOTOS: ROBIN HALLS
to maintain a heroic, thrilling performance
to the end; and soprano Antoinette Halloran,
another nuanced actor, was in complete
musical command of the full range of the three
Brünnhildes Wagner portrays across the cycle.
What impressed most, however, was the depth
of the vocal lineup in Bendigo, which resulted
in a vivid individuation of characters across
the board and keenly dramatic interactions
between them in ensemble.
Director Suzanne Chaundy, who has staged
all of MO’s Wagner operas along with many
others, deserves much credit for creating the
space for singers to focus on character. The
staging lets the complicated story play out
as Wagner wrote it, without any contem-
porary political or social gloss overlaid, and
following the composer’s hugely demanding
stage directions as written as far as possible.
Designer Andrew Bailey’s clever set, with its
ever-present ring motif and ingenious moving
platform to create the cycle’s underground,
aboveground and aerial geography, proved
hugely adaptable with the transformational
addition of Rob Sowinski’s lighting and Chris
Hocking’s video projections. Harriet Oxley’s
often playful costumes were based mainly on
individual character traits (the trickster Loge’s
Fellini-esque striped suit, for example) and
steered clear of historical references to help
give a timeless look and feel to the whole pro-
duction. The creative team brought a variety
of techniques to bear on the storytelling; while
spooky high tech video projections of a blind
seer helped create an otherworldly tone for
the Wotan/Erda encounters, for example,
street theatre—the aerial dance troupe Sway
on their swinging 15-foot poles—provided an
entertaining solution for swimming Rhine-
maidens and flying Valkyries. Quite apart
from its high musical values, MO struck its
own gold in Bendigo with the sheer theatri-
cality of an enterprise that demonstrated that
a compelling Ring cycle is by no means beyond
the means of smaller companies. 
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UN GIORNO DI REGNO
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ERNANI
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The Battle at Legnano
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SUMMER 2023 23
OU T SIDE T HE B O X

Essential
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Business
Experts ƛƲƥƮƜƢƚƜƞƬƚƫƨƧƢ

Interpret ƝƞƫƫƢƜƤƜơƮƚ, an entertainment and corporate lawyer and

Opera an award-winning theatre producer, is a champion of Canadian new
works and artists
…
/&What’s the best thing/most challenging
thing about producing theatre in Canada?
'& The remarkable, diverse, emerging
talent I continue to discover is absolutely
the best part. The regular travel to NYC,
Edinburgh, London, Chicago, etc., to see
theatre is great, too, and I continue to be
inspired by the work being produced right
here in Canada.
The challenge is always a lack of funding
and space. Canada has the skill, talent,
and creativity to produce some of the best
theatre in the world, but not the funding
required to consistently sustain those
productions. Space has become a huge
challenge, both in terms of affordability
and supply. It’s getting harder and harder
to find appropriate space to create, to work,
to rehearse and to perform.

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for The Ex-Boyfriend
Yard Sale (nominated
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24 OPE R A C A N A DA
 /& In the U.S.? Could you speak to the birds-
eye-view differences in audiences? Producers
and theatres?
'& I closely follow the NYC / Broadway
market, which, during the holidays and
many recent weeks, has returned to
pre-pandemic audience numbers and con-
tinues to be optimistic. But off-Broadway
and other cities outside of NYC seem to be
experiencing greater difficulty with their
audiences returning. One fear which may
be more immediately felt in the US, with
less public funding in general and more
pressure for box office revenue, is that
there appears to be a shift in demand to
more familiar and more popular program-
ming, with fewer chances being taken on
the adventurous and challenging artistic
work. We do feel it in Canada as well, and
there are more productions of tried and
true shows like Jersey Boys, Mamma Mia
and The Sound of Music this summer than
I ever remember, with fewer new works.
/& You’ve sat on many panels, boards and
advisory committees for the performing
arts in Canada. What’s working? How can
we improve?
'& This is such a huge question, to which
people have devoted theses, seminars, and
presentations. Most of Canada’s performing
arts organizations are not-for-profit, gov-
erned by a board. In Ontario alone, there
are about 58,000 not-for-profit organiza-
tions working under the same set of laws/
rules which were not really created with the
performing arts in mind. The one thing I
PHOTO: DAHLIA KATZ
would encourage as far as “improving”, is for
those people on the panels, boards and advi-
sory committees, those that are ostensibly
governing the performing arts organization, or Canadian Opera Company or National
to really, truly and meaningfully engage with Ballet of Canada, but having a clear and
the artists who form the organization— detailed “Business Plan” or “Strategic Plan”
not just as part of a one-time interview or which integrates both business and artistic
annual retreat, but on a regular basis such strategy, is continually updated and deals
that what happens at the governance level with short, medium and long-term, is a best
is not separated from what happens during practice I feel more arts organizations could
the creative process and in the rehearsal hall implement. Many are so preoccupied with
and on the performing stages, or from the planning and getting through this season
artistic values and practices. and the next, and don’t devote the necessary
time and resources to this kind of planning
/& How best to foster and support new that is necessary to focus on the organiza-
works (theatre and music)? Pipeline? Educa- tion’s priorities, practices and needs. 
tion? Public or private money? Collaboration
between institutions?
'& I’m a huge believer in education, and
in ensuring that theatre and music are part Speed Round with
of curriculum throughout grade school and
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high school. If attending live artistic events
is a regular practice in school, if students are
taught by passionate arts educators, they
ƧƨƭƭƨƛƞƦƢƬƬƞƝ
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versal recognition of the essential role of the A Midsummer Night’s
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Absolutely more money is great, and defi-
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/& What’s one best practice from law or
the corporate sector arts organizations
ƥƚƬƭƛƨƨƤƲƨƮƫƞƚƝƘ
could immediately implement?
The Story of UsE\
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'& Some of the more ‘corporate’ entities
already do this, like the Stratford Festival
SUMMER 2023 25
 TRIBUTE

26 OPE R A C A N A DA
MICHAEL
ALBANO A Fond Farewell
ƮƧƢƯƞƫƬƢƭƲƨƟƭƨƫƨƧƭƨƦƮƬƢƜƟƚƜƮƥƭƲƀƈƆƇ        ƁſƁƂ

2YHUWZRKXQGUHGSHRSOHJDWKHUHGRQWKH Over the course of 45 years,

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Albano has staged over 50 opera
productions at U of T, including
several Canadian premieres.
In addition to his directorial savvy,
he is a prolific writer, having penned
the libretto to many new works.
I’ll never forget the hilarious Rob
Ford, the Opera, staged nearly
a dozen years ago, starring none
other than tenor Andrew Haji in
a blond wig, as the former Toronto
mayor. A hugely entertaining piece
that tickled the funny bone with
its rollicking theatricality and
insightful social commentary.

,bW
ZDVKHDUWZDUPLQJ to hear the tributes from Albano’s colleagues, among
them Dean of Music Ellie Hisama, Director of Music Studies Sandra Horst,
U of T Opera graduate and mezzo Janet Stubbs, and former colleague Ste-
phen Ralls. To continue Albano’s legacy, Stubbs has established the Michael
Albano Opera Directing Scholarship, an annual award designed to support a graduate
student interested in pursuing opera directing. There were also performances given by
present and former students in selections from Die Fledermaus, tenor Matthew Cairns
serenading Michael with Gershwin’s “Of Thee I Sing,” and soprano Monica Whicher
in a touching rendition of Ivor Novello’s “We’ll Gather Lilacs In The Spring,” one of
Albano’s favourite songs.

SUMMER 2023 27
 TRIBUTE

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A few days after the celebration, I visited Michael

Albano in his soon-to-be vacated office for a long,
wide-ranging conversation, during which he reflected
on his long career and his thoughts on the future.

JS Congrats on your wonderful retirement bash! It

was great to see so many people there.

MA That was fun! I was dreading it beforehand…

that it might feel like a eulogy. No, it had a feeling of
celebration. I was astounded by how many former
students came!

JS An academic career of 45 years is remarkably long

by any standards. I understand that you came to study
with Dr. Herman Geiger-Torel in 1974 and ended up
being hired in 1978. Tell us about those early years.

MA I was astounded that Dr. Torel accepted me as
an apprentice—he was General Director of the Cana-
dian Opera Company, and I was a nobody. I wrote to
him, and he gave me an interview. I had heard of this
program that if you find an established stage director
first thing I did in 1974 was when Dr. Torel gave me
the fourth act of The Marriage of Figaro to stage,
which includes Susanna’s “Deh vieni, non tardar.”
I worked with one of the undergraduates on this
aria. It’s incredible music, and I loved it! The experi-
PHOTO: (OPENING SPREAD) COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO; (ABOVE) RICHARD LU

who’s willing to take you on as an assistant, the Ontario ence of working with young people always feels new,
Arts Council would give you a stipend. I was expecting because they are new to the material and bring their
some advice from him, but he took me on. energy and commitment to it.

JS Looking back on your career, what’s the first thing JS Do you find that working with young people
that comes to mind? keeps you young?

MA I’ve read recently in someone’s biography that
nobody’s life ends up the way they thought it would.
I knew I wanted a career in theatre and in music. But
I never thought that I would have devoted so much
of my time to teaching, which I love so much. The
MA It keeps you from getting old (laughs)—they won’t
let you! They reflect a modern perspective and modern
taste. They have very interesting ideas and thoughts,
and they want to be heard—if you coax it out of them.
That’s part of what I try to do. I always ask them: “what

28 OPE R A C A N A DA
do you think about this?” The young students are the
future. They are what will drive the art form forward.
JS In the Opera Canada Rubies interview you gave
in 2017, you were very optimistic about the future of
opera. Now that we’ve gone through three years of a
pandemic, and the attendance is not like what it used
to be, do you still feel as optimistic?
MA I do! During the pandemic, we were all sitting
home, suddenly realizing that we were all missing live
performances so much. After the audience started to
gather again, the first thing I went to see was the ballet.
I remember when the first music came out of the pit, I
thought: “ah, that’s the experience!” Nothing can replace
live performances. The clarifying thing about the pan-
demic is how important live theatre, live music is to us.
JS What made you decide to say farewell?
MA Two things, one is instinctive—for a long time,
I couldn’t imagine myself not being here. Then one
morning I woke up and I could imagine myself not
A scene from
being here (laughs)! The other thing is way more
Mozart’s La Finta
pragmatic—there are just so many hours in the day Giardiniera directed
and there are so many things I want to do. I have by Michael Albano
at The University of
done more and more writing over the years, more and 7RURQWRLQ
more librettos. I’ve been in touch with other univer-
sities where I’d love to do some classes. I don’t want
to do a production—the costumes, sceneries, lights,
etc.—where teaching doesn’t get as much attention.
JS Are there other universities in Canada with an
opera directing program like the U of T, or is it unique?
It’s such a rare field of study.
SUMMER 2023 29

MA Not that I know of. I am very proud
of who have come through our program
here and I’m so happy for their successes.
You can’t get it out of a textbook; you only
learn by doing it.
JS Do you feel opera directors need to
be musically educated or at least musi-
cally informed?
MA If I can just rephrase it—if you don’t
have musical knowledge, it’s very diffi-
cult. Because in opera there tends to be
a lot of elongation, meaning there’s more
music than you need. Sometimes in an
aria, where a singer sings half a sentence
and then there’s a 14-bars interlude before
singing the rest of the sentence, what do
you do with that? Without the knowledge
of music, it would be very difficult, like
directing a film without knowing how the
film [process] works.
JS You mentioned you want to do more
writing—do you have in mind more
librettos?
MA I want to write a play on Lorenzo Da
Ponte, a fascinating character. I feel that
the length of 19th Century works don’t
30
TRIBUTE
fit well with our modern-day audiences. One of my projects is
“Figaro in Seventy-Five Minutes.” I have so many of these proj-
ects, you should see my desk at home! I think I’ll have some fun
re-inventing some of the standard pieces.
JS If a student comes to you and says, “I want to go into stage
directing”, what qualities do you look for in a prospective stu-
dent? What advice would you give them?
MA I’d say to them, “You only need two things. You have to
have ideas, and you have to know how to express them. The
rest can be learned.”
JS By the same token, what qualities do you think are important
in a director? Would you say a director has to be a people person?
MA Yes, you have to like singers. I like them and respect them.
I had the happiest time working with them.
A scene from JS Given what you’ve accomplished over your long career, what
Katharine gives you the most satisfaction?
3HWNRYVNLōVMaid &
Master: The Massey
MurderRQHRIWKH MA I am most proud of the student-composer course at the Fac-
operas composed
LQWKHVWXGHQW ulty of Music which I helped to establish, and which generates a
composer course new student-written opera every season. Our last offering was Dis-
that Albano helped
to establish obedience, for which I wrote an original libretto debating the very
purpose of theatre, a question we should all be asking. Indeed, my
advice to young librettists and directors is to stop following Euro-
pean traditions but to get ahead of the game with bold, forward
and original thinking. I can’t say it any better than our own hockey
superstar, Wayne Gretzky, who said: “I never skate towards where
the puck is; I skate towards where I think the puck is going to be.”
JS What are some of the most memorable moments you’ve had
over your career, happy or sad, ones that stick out in your mind?
I know it’s probably difficult to limit it to one or two.
PHOTOS: (LEFT) RICHARD LU; (ABOVE) RICHARD LU; (RIGHT) COURTESY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
MA There’s such satisfaction in seeing students going into
the opera world to sing professionally, students whom I’ve
worked with, to see them sing a leading role. That’s such a high.
I remember being in New York at the time when John Fanning
went on in Tales of Hoffmann, replacing Bryn Terfel who had
hurt his back. John phoned to tell me that he was doing the
Saturday Matinee, and I wept…
I suppose my biggest career disappointment was in 1991
when I was contracted to direct Donizetti’s The Daughter of
the Regiment for the Boston Lyric Opera. As you know, The
Duchess of Krakenthorp has a speaking role in the final scene
and this part is often done by a celebrity, like Bea Arthur at the
OPE R A C A N A DA
 A University of Toronto
SURGXFWLRQRI+XPSHUGLQFNōV
Hansel and Gretel directed by
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Studies for the University of
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Met! In Boston, it was to be done by Julia Child and I had great

fun writing a solo monologue for her, which according to her
agent, she liked. But all this occurred at a time when her hus-
band was seriously ill and ultimately Ms. Child had to withdraw.
I was disheartened because I was so looking forward to working
with her and I knew she would have been sensational!

JS What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given that has
helped you in your career?

MA Oh, that’s easy! Take your work seriously and never your-
self, meaning one should continually strive for the very best you
can do in your craft, and keep your ego in check. For performers,
I recommend a quote from the great violinist, Jascha Heifetz, ,DPPRVWSURXGRIWKHVWXGHQW
who felt that discipline and spontaneity in performance were FRPSRVHUFRXUVHDWWKH)DFXOW\
not mutually exclusive. He said: “Rehearse like your life depends
upon it and perform like you don’t give a damn!” RI0XVLFZKLFK,KHOSHGWR
HVWDEOLVKDQGZKLFKJHQHUDWHV
JOSEPH SO LV3URIHVVRU(PHULWXVDW7UHQW8QLYHUVLW\+HLVDOVRD DQHZVWXGHQWZULWWHQRSHUD
ORQJWLPHFRQWULEXWRUWRLa Scena Musicale, Opera/RQGRQ8.DQG
Opera Canada+HKDVFRHGLWHGDERRNOpera in a Multicultural
HYHU\VHDVRQ
World: Coloniality, Culture, PerformanceSXEOLVKHGE\5RXWOHGJH
7D\ORU )UDQFLV*URXS

SUMMER 2023 31
 S TA G E S C E N E S

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Patricia YatesVKLQHVWKHVSRWOLJKWRQWKH&DQDGLDQGLYD

32 OPE R A C A N A DA
SUMMER 2023 33
 S TA G E S C E N E S

5HŴHFWLQJRQKHUWLPHLQWKH&DQDGLDQ2SHUD The work of which Braid speaks was

&RPSDQ\(QVHPEOH6WXGLR%UDLG
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would do three shows at one time… [with]
ƓYHWHDFKHUVDWRQHWLPH,WōVDORWRIKDQGV
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you have so many people telling you these
ideas… just truly being you is the most
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34 OPE R A C A N A DA
earlier in her career, a reaction to the
“mind game” of the industry, paired with
vocal challenges and burnout. “When
you’re a young artist starting out, you’re
not getting all of the gigs, and you’re
not as busy as the person to the right or
the left. Everybody’s comparing every-
thing, and you feel like a failure, even
though everyone has to move at their
own pace. Everyone’s idea of success is
going to be different. Figuring out, and
bouncing back from challenges… that’s
a career.” Soon after the COC Ensemble,
Braid was living between Vienna and
London, securing contracts internation-
ally to sing such dramatic coloraturas as
the Queen of the Night and Konstanze in
Mozart’s German operas, and would soon
Ambur Braid in be singing her first Violetta (La Traviata)
DZRUNLQJVHVVLRQ
with Romanian in Arizona. She arranged to sing for leg-
soprano Marina endary Violetta, Romanian soprano Ileana
.ULORYLFLLQ$WKHQV
Greece Cotrubas, , “only one Vitellia aria. Once. She
told me to cancel everything I had in the
calendar and move to Athens to study
with Marina Krilovici. I did not cancel
my contracts. I needed the money. One
day, a few months later, I was walking to
a coaching in London and the thought of
Marina and Greece popped into my head.
I emailed her. By the time I came out of the
coaching, there was a response with about
nine hundred exclamation points:
“‘You must come to Kefalonia to work.
We need a Tosca.’
“I laughed, ‘Ha ha very funny, I’m not a
Tosca, I sing Queen of the Night.’
“‘You are Tosca. Cotrubas, and I have
spoken.’”
So Braid upped and left, to live and
study with Krilovici, as a sort of protegée,
an uncommon situation nowadays.
PHOTO: (OPENING SPREAD) ANYA SHOR; (LEFT) REBECCA WOOD
Although a novel and challenging experi-
ence, Braid describes this decision as, “the
most important thing I ever did.” She and
Krilovici spent long days together, starting
at 9am with a long session consisting only
of elementary warm-ups (Ambur dem-
onstrates this to me with two simple
three-note vocalises on “ah”), followed by

a long lunch, running personal errands for
Krilovici, before continuing similar vocal
work in the afternoon. “Slow and steady.”
This was the process of Braid finding her
true voice. Braid offers that this was the
start of a longer learning process, only
after ten years of which, would she “finally
feel comfortable and know exactly when
things are lined up in certain ways.” But
it was what she needed. “I would not say
this opportunity was conventional, but it
PHOTO: MONIKA RITTERSHAUS
was how she did it when she was younger.
Marina had one teacher who gave her
that solid foundation. Marina was the
tenth teacher I had worked with. To have
someone be able to commit that amount of time to me, was
extraordinary and absolutely rare nowadays. I needed to be able
to stop everything and take it slow and she gave me that.”
Braid’s time in Athens initiated a broader shift in her repertoire,
from coloratura soprano roles towards the more dramatic and
spinto repertoire found in Tosca and Salome. This shift was gradual
as Braid’s career progressed, singing a melange of roles between the
two fachs. Then, having debuted Salome with Oper Frankfurt in
2020, Braid returned to her homeland of Canada to sing the role in
Atom Egoyan’s revival with the COC in February 2023. The role of
Salome is no easy undertaking, neither musically nor emotionally
and mentally. Braid’s portrayal in Toronto earned her a stream of
rave reviews, many remarking that she was born to play Salome.
It really feels as though Braid is closing in on signature territory
here, and her connection to the role is clear. Asked about this con-
nection, Braid said, “I think that any woman can relate to Salome,
ƭƨơƚƯƞƬƨƦƞƨƧƞƛƞƚƛƥƞƭƨ
ƜƨƦƦƢƭƭơƚƭƚƦƨƮƧƭƨƟƭƢƦƞƭƨƦƞ
ưƚƬƞƱƭƫƚƨƫƝƢƧƚƫƲƚƧƝƚƛƬƨƥƮƭƞƥƲ
ƫƚƫƞƧƨưƚƝƚƲƬŐ
especially teenage girls who are still hyper-sexualized under the
male gaze. They make men so uncomfortable and it’s the men
who can’t control themselves, not the girls. They’re girls. Salome
can be an intensely gratifying mirror on society as a woman. And
women are still blamed for men’s actions. Just read the news.”
The secret to playing this role, for Ambur, lay in the vulnerability,
Braid in the title the humanity and the honesty. “For me, the biggest compliment
UROHRI%DUULH
.RVN\ōVSURGXFWRQ
would’ve been, you understood why Salome made those choices,
RISalome at Oper and you’re crying at the end. Atom, in rehearsals, said that he’s
)UDQNIXUW never cried at the end, and when we did it the first time, when
he saw how I did the ending, he was weeping and started filming
it. I think that’s in the movie [laughs].” Atom Egoyan’s film, Seven
Veils, starring Amanda Seyfried and the cast of the COC’s Salome,
will be released in the not-too-distant future. The cast shot scenes
for the film between shows. Between 12-hour days on set, and the
challenge of playing a version of herself as well as Salome, Braid
found the experience to be rewarding, but tiring. Using music
from Strauss’s opera, the cast sung live, straight into the camera.
This “drop-the-needle” style of performing is rare. There was little
musical or dramatic context to many takes, nor any cutting in
from pre-recorded audio in post-production. Everything is live.
Quite the difference in experience from Braid’s first movie feature,
SUMMER 2023 35
 S TA G E S C E N E S

in The Upside. This film used pre-recorded audio (but live singing breaking the ice, making the audience feel
nonetheless in the takes—this was not a lip-sync-for-your-life!), included with jokes and anecdotes, “to be
and was closer to home for Ambur. ”People are fascinated about charming and not to dumb it down by any
the opera world. I think it is a fascinating subject for a film. There means, because people want to be chal-
could be more movies about certain singers of the past, who had lenged.” But “The Hammer” can be seen
fascinating lives. These people are larger than life, and it’s not just nowhere so clear as in her collaborations
Callas. There are some characters.” with rock bands such as Broken Social
Our conversation soon moved to Braid’s rock star alter-ego, Braid giving Scene, the Sam Roberts Band, and Drag-
an extraordinary
whom she calls “The Hammer”. She has shown up in many of SHUIRUPDQFH onette. Performing arias such as “Der hölle
Braid’s opera performances, certainly in Salome; neighbours from as Salome in Rache,” Braid, with the band, recreates
$WRP(JR\DQōV
her rural Ontario home watched the performance in Toronto and production at the
heavy metal versions of the operatic scores.
described Braid as “a heavy metal rock star,” stunned to see Ambur Canadian Opera Once the music was sorted, she says, “my
out of her woodland custom of “rubber boots and dirty hair.” The Company this high-kicks and fist pumping happens natu-
past spring
rock star was present too, in Christof Loy’s Norma (Bellini) with rally when you have to rev up an audience…
Oper Frankfurt. “There’s a moment where I get knocked to the Opera singers are the original rock stars,
ground before the “Guerra” chorus. Slowly, like Elvis in the gospel so it’s a natural progression going from
church, I get up to rouse the people with fist pumps and a visceral the opera stage to the rock stage.”
PHOTO: MICHAEL COOPER

tribal dance that just comes from the earth. It was liberating, pow- Along with new heavier repertoire,
erful, possibly hilarious, but absolutely effective.” Braid developed came the need for a longer period allotted
this rock star persona while working the crowds at donor events, to studying the roles. She fully realized this

36 OPE R A C A N A DA
 ƭơƞƫƞƜƨƮƥƝƛƞƦƨƫƞƦƨƯƢƞƬƚƛƨƮƭ
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ơƚƝƟƚƬƜƢƧƚƭƢƧƠƥƢƯƞƬƭơƞƬƞƩƞƨƩƥƞ
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ƣƮƬƭƜƚƥƥƚƬŐ

need after a post-COVID-lockdown per-
formance of Ariadne auf Naxos had her
preparing the title role in just 2 weeks.
Now, she says, “luxuriating in it is the ideal
situation and I no longer do things at the
last minute… Learning how to learn is also
part of the process in this career. Before it
was always just survival.” And these last-
minute “jump-ins” were vital for launching
Braid’s career, and gave her “nerves of
steel.” There is no regret in Ambur’s resolve
as she tells me that “no” was never a pos-
sible answer for these opportunities. But
now, it’s all about longevity: these roles
need a longer cooking time.
With regards to the actual process,
Braid ideally takes a year, and allows the
role to “simmer” after a solid period of pri-
vate vocal work. “I’ll have Marina warm
me up over Skype. When she warms me
up, her ears are nuts. Everything is completely lined up, so I’m not
going to make any strange sounds. Then I sit alone. I learn and I
rehearse the music, and there’s no one else that’s listening to me.
It does not even touch other people’s ears until I’m fully aware of
everything that I’m doing.” This process has led to Braid feeling
more comfortable at the beginning of a rehearsal process. Plus,
it’s more efficient, because it goes into the body immediately; the
dramatics come naturally to her.
We finished our chat talking about present and future projects.
As we talk, she is about to launch into rehearsals for Rudi Stephan’s
Die Ersten Menschen with Oper Frankfurt, playing Chawa (Eve).
“It’s difficult as a modern woman to play Eve, who was blamed
as the original destroyer of mankind. The fury unleashed against
Eve is so extreme; and so exaggerated is the picture of women’s
fatal and all-powerful charms and men’s incapacity to resist. It’s
intense to have this libretto from 1908, with words that are still
being used by certain politicians to repress. It’s the hardest thing
I’ve done psychologically, and musically.” Upcoming appearances
with Oper Frankfurt include Kosky’s Salome again, in January
2024, and as Rachel in Halévy’s La Juive in June 2024. Plus, an
exciting role debut with Opéra National de Lyon, Braid will play
Die Färberin in Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten, this October.
From Salome and Norma, to Eve, Rachel and Die Färberin,
Ambur Braid continues from strength to strength, never one
to shy away from tackling operas displaying sensitive topics, or
characters demonstrating the raw experience of humanity. Braid
succinctly sums up her motivation for taking on these feats of
music and drama: “Everything I do is sensitive. Every character I
play, I’ve chosen because the issues matter to me. These are the
most extreme characters who are going through very serious and
visceral human scenarios. The productions can be a mirror of
society and our society is broken. When there’s an opportunity to
make a statement with honest portrayals, we can and should.” 
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SUMMER 2023 37
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The Institute was founded in February 2004 and led for the last 20 years by highly
respected coach Joan Dornemann, and conductor emeritus Paul Nadler. Both will be
back in Montreal this summer while the wind of change also brings a new General
Director, baritone and audio producer Marc-Antoine d’Aragon, and an impressive line
up of coaches and teachers, many of them invited by Car and Dupuis.
Having closely followed Dupuis and Car’s flourishing careers for the last 15 years,
I was surprised they could set aside the time required to handle this new chal-
lenge. I wanted to know more about their vision and contacted them in early May.
They were in Vienna, where Car was about to make an exciting (and unexpected)
role debut as Blanche de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues de Carmélites, while Dupuis
was caring for their son Noah and preparing for upcoming recitals at the Wiener
Konzerthaus and Wigmore Hall.

ÉD They called us in the midst of our
season, so we said right away what we
wanted… but we were handed a program
that was already on its tracks. This will
not truly be our first full season.
NC Having said that, we’ve been really
clear in saying that our priority is giving
the singers a thorough and fruitful expe-
rience. It’s important to give back what
the industry has given you.
Dupuis went through the Atelier
Lyrique at Opéra de Montréal. He also
had previous CVAI experiences: he par-
ticipated twice in Montreal and twice in
Israel. CVAI stems from the International
Vocal Arts Institute (IVAI ) which ceased
to operate in 2018.
Car spent two years in the Young
Artist Program at Opera Australia but
could never experience a summer fes-
tival, because in Australia the season

SUMMER 2023 39
goes from January through December
and they do not have a summer break in
July and August.
NC It’s a shame because I see what they
have to offer and I think that all young
artists would benefit from doing some-
thing like that at any level. We think the
performers, conductors, singers, direc-
tors, who are in the industry at this time
can really offer a lot to younger people
starting out and that’s what we are
hoping to translate: What is it to be a
singer, to be a conductor, in the industry
right now? What does it take? What do
you need? How to better prepare for it?
It takes people working at a certain level
and in a certain age bracket, at a certain
professional time in the career to really
communicate that. We are very excited
to accept the challenge and to take the
time to do that.
Indeed, most of the faculty for ICAV
2023 is currently very active on the
international scene. French conductor
Victorien Vanoosten will conduct a pro-
duction of La bohème staged by tenor
Marc Hervieux on July 30. Star tenors
Michael Fabiano and Matthew Polenzani,
French coach and pianist Laurent
Philippe, and Canadian pianist Marie-
Ève Scarfone (currently at Zurich Opera),
will provide coaching. They will be joining
Mexican pianist, conductor and coach
Teresa Rodriguez, and seasoned teachers
Benjamin Butterfield and Tracy Dahl.
From Australia, Car invited Feldenkrais
practitioners (mindful movement) Fran-
cesca White and Stephen Grant (who is
also an early music expert), as well as pia-
nist and former Artistic Director of Opera
Australia Anthony Legge. Deborah Birn-
baum, voice teacher renowned for her
expertise in bel canto breath technique
is returning from New York, Thomas
Jaber, Director of Music and Organist at
Rice University will travel from Houston,
while Montreal-based conductors Julien
Proulx and Alain Trudel, pianist Francis
Perron, choreographers Stephanie Fro-
PHOTOS: (OPENING SPREAD) DARIO ACOSTA; (OPPOSITE PAGE) DARIO ACOSTA
mentin and Katie Ward, and producer
and stage director Nathalie Deschamps
will also join the faculty. Canadians
Benoît Brière and Claude Webster will
lead audition preparation.
Forty applicants have been accepted
and will come to Montreal in July. They
are relatively young, on the verge of
becoming professional. Not many of
them have significant stage experience
yet, but they all have a very well-formed sopranos today sing that exact same aria, sound’. What we are hoping to offer at
technique that they will have the oppor- but I found what YOU did really, really CVAI is a broad enough range of coaches
tunity to fine tune during the summer. special, or very touching. and performers and other artists so that
What happens at University, and it someone will be able to say ONE thing
ÉD So, we are not focusing on teaching is a good thing, is all that is stripped that will inspire the participants to for-
how to sing. away. Because you don’t want the bad mulate who they are as artists.
habits to sneak in, you need the body to While auditioning the participants,
NC No, for us, it is how we can help them be a vessel, you need the voice to work Car and Dupuis opted to select the
offer something of themselves, some- as organically as possible. So when young strongest voices, gathering what they
thing that will set them apart from the artists emerge from University, they tend describe as an exceptionally high level
others, something that will make a com- to present a specific ‘Curtis sound’ a of talent in this cohort. Workshops,
pany say: Hey I have heard twenty other specific ‘AVA sound’ a specific ‘McGill recitals, masterclasses will be offered
during the three weeks, a gala will be
presented at the end of the Academy,
as well as a production of La Bohème on
July 30th, which presents some difficulty
While auditioning the participants, Car and Dupuis opted since the number of female applications
widely outnumbered men’s.
to select the strongest voices, gathering what they describe
as an exceptionally high level of talent in this cohort. ÉD For Bohème we need four strong
men's voices, I mean as strong as they
can be in their twenties and early

SUMMER 2023 41

thirties, and that’s a challenge. Rodolfo,
for example, is a very big role and you
might have a tenor able to sing it but is
it a good move for him?
NC We are aware that young voices in par-
ticular are very fragile and I would rather
not put on a show than put someone in
danger vocally. I won’t do it. I have seen
too many people fall by the wayside and I
refuse to be a part of that problem.
ÉD That might be an issue in the business
right now and this is the part that really
gets to us because we have seen those
singers who were there getting to the
highest level for a few years and then we
see their slow or quite quick disappear-
ance and you wonder ‘What happened?’
Since Dupuis and Car had agreed that
selecting the applicants with the stron-
gest voices was a priority for this young
artists program. Two former CVAI par-
ticipants will complete this year’s cast
for La bohème.
The scarcity of male voices might
bring casting challenges to opera compa-
nies while the crowded ranks of sopranos
make it more difficult for aspiring
Mimìs. I asked Car what her advice is
for sopranos?
NC I become more cynical as I get
older. I tell them that if they can imagine
themselves doing something else, they
should, because it is a really hard career.
And I tell them that having a great voice,
having great technique, being ready to
go on stage definitely does not mean
that they are going to have a career. Half
of the sopranos and the tenors might
still have a very good career. There are
so many of us and you just have to be
lucky, especially as a lyric soprano. If
you are a high coloratura, things will
come your way, if you are a dramatic
soprano, things will come your way.
For lyric sopranos, it is a very difficult
42
The scarcity of male voices might bring casting
challenges to opera companies while the crowded ranks
of sopranos make it more difficult for aspiring Mimìs.
path. It comes down to being unique
and realizing that you will not be every
opera company’s choice, you will not
sing the same repertoire in every house,
you will seem lighter in some, heavier in
others. I hear the applicants and I think,
‘Wow I am very lucky to be on stage at
the opera!’ Why am I on these stages
and these women are not yet?
Many singers today describe their job
as running a small business. The time
spent performing on the stage represents
only a fraction of the work. Taking care
of social media, gaining representation,
finding an in to opera houses and young
artists programs, and of course planning
repertoire, finding dresses, teaching and
coaching, learning new languages, takes
a lot of time.
NC Oh my gosh, I am a travel agent, I
must find hotels, a babysitting agency,
dog sitting services, so many things
you have to learn. It would be great
if there was a handbook. I would love
to pass it on to people, but it is ever
evolving. Also many auditions are done
online now. So you have to present
yourselves in a small package of two
minutes. Étienne and I have been lis-
tening to all the applications for ICAV
and I would say that in the first, maybe
30 seconds, we know if we are going to
take them or not. So what the young
artist has to realize is that choosing
the repertoire is very important, how
you present yourself is very important,
being able to be ‘ON’ and show who
you are and what you can bring in that
short time is very important.
For the first time in 2023, ICAV will
also welcome young aspiring opera
OPE R A C A N A DA
pianists and conductors. Full bursaries
are available to those who need finan-
cial support. Another new feature of this
year’s Academy is The Audition, taped in
front of an audience and broadcast live
for theatre directors around the world.
NC We have reached out to all of our
contacts and plan to expose these young
artists to the people we know in opera
houses around the world. The idea is to
have the singers choose, with our help
or the guidance of our coaches, a reper-
toire that is appropriate for them, that
they are ready to show, and to invite
directors, conductors, agents to access
these auditions online. It will be like a
live audition, without any editing, using
the same microphones for everybody. I
doubt the singers will have a contract
directly from that but I am 100% sure
that they will be contacted by these
houses to come in for a live audition if
they are interested.
ÉD We want to use technology in a way
to make the planet a bit smaller. In a
well-filmed, well-recorded audition, you
can see and hear, right away, that an
PHOTOS: (OPPOSITE PAGE) DARIO ACOSTA
artist has something to say that one is
interested in.
It will be exciting to see what these
two successful artists will bring to the
young singers they are engaged in nur-
turing this summer.
ƬƲƥƯƢƚƥōnjƜƮƲƞƫLVDPXVLFRORJLVW
DVVRFLDWHSURIHVVRUDW8QLYHUVLW«GH
0RQWU«DODQGbUHJXODUFRQWULEXWRUWR
Opera Canadab6KHUHFHQWO\UHWLUHG
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DWRadio-Canada
SUMMER 2023 43
 S TA G E S C E N E S

ATOM EGOYAN ––—–

and

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44 OPE R A C A N A DA
In early 2023, Atom Egoyan remounted
his production of Salome for the Canadian
Opera Company (COC), and then
immediately began filming Seven Veils,
a new movie starring Amanda Seyfried
as theatre director Jeanine who is
remounting her former mentor’s most
famous work: Salome. I spoke with Egoyan
at his studio in Toronto, surrounded by
KLVXSFRPLQJƓOP
a lifetime of movie ephemera and sharing
handfuls of peanut-butter candy.
SUMMER 2023
/% What is your ambition with Seven Veils?
$( My production of Salome was first
presented in 1996, so this is the seventh
presentation. And when the COC said that
they were remounting it, that raised a lot of
issues for me, because this isn’t 1996 any-
more. At the time it was considered kind of
Egoyan in action a protofeminist approach, and I believe it is
behind-the-
probably the first production that used the
scenes directing
dance of the seven veils to tell another story.
Seven Veils
Now other productions have taken
with Director
RI3KRWRJUDSK\ this approach, and I am also aware that
Paul Sarossy and the images that I was showing in 1996
actor Amanda
6H\IULHQGLQUHG are problematic today. And though I
think what they’re telling narratively is
progressive, they went very far. Those
images could be triggering for certain
people. So as I re-evaluated it, I felt that
there was something also problematic
about someone now in their early sixties
presenting this piece. And so I began to
imagine what it would mean if there was
another director who took it on. And so
I created this narrative of someone—like
me—who perhaps had been a mentor to
a young female director, who had maybe
had an intense affair with this person,
and who had actually taken aspects of
her history, her narrative, and reinter-
preted them—in a way that she was
overwhelmed by at the time, but now
she sees as being complex. This young
director, Jeanine, accepts this opportunity
to remount her mentor’s piece, and she
comes back to the world of opera.
I felt it was important to use the
opportunity of the remount to explore
the power politics within the opera
company on a number of levels. Because
it’s the original director’s wish that she
remount it, but the company is not
obliged to invite her back. But they do.
And that raises all sorts of issues as well,
because they just want her as a figure-
head, not understanding that she has an
emotional investment in the changes that
she wants to make. She takes the oppor-
tunity to go further, and that becomes the
main plot of the film.
45
 S TA G E S C E N E S

an extraordinary libretto, and Strauss actu-

ally remained quite faithful to to the actual
text so the overwrought nature of the lan-
guage serves Strauss’s ambitions very well.
And, you know, when people talk about
this as being a breakthrough piece of music
theatre, it’s not, I would suggest, in terms of
it breaking through in tonalities, but what
it’s able to do is illustrate every nuance of
the text. It gives it this unbelievably pris-
matic chromaticism.
There are so many things in it that
you’re quite literally overwhelmed by
what’s happening musically, but at its core,
it’s about what happens when you don’t
have access to what you desire and how
that compels you to behave. There are per-
versions of behaviour. It’s about stories that
can’t be expressed in ways that are simple.
It was smart of Richard Bradshaw to
watch my film, Exotica, and think there
is a link between that film and Salome
because, to be honest, it took me a
Today we understand that trauma is something that is stored couple of listenings of the opera before I
in the body, and that it’s possible to have a creative process of understood it was actually terrific mate-
dealing with trauma, but it presupposes that the creator has some Atom Egoyan rial for me. There’s this dynamic where
and the late
control. So what’s interesting about this story is, what happens Christopher you have someone whose attention is
when there’s a structure which is monitoring your ability to actu- Plummer on set drawn to somebody who’s not returning
IRUWKHƓOP
ally reclaim your own story? Remember
their gaze, whose attention is drawn to
released in 2015 someone who’s not returning their gaze,
/% Tell us about how that first production of Salome happened and then you have Salome looking at a
in 1996, and what it is about this story that keeps bringing you Jokanaan who’s not returning her gaze.
back to it? So a web of frustrated desire is this motor
that drives the whole opera, which is very

PHOTO: (OPENING SPREAD) ANONYMOUS; (LEFT) SOPHIE GIRAUD / SERENDIPITY POINT FILMS; (RIGHT) NIV FICHMAN
$( Well, I wasn’t raised with opera. I come from theatre and much embedded in Exotica too. Once I
I’ve been doing live theatre since high school. When I first came understood it from that perspective, I got
to Toronto, one of the reasons was to be an actor—and to study really excited.
classical guitar at the University of Toronto. But my first profes-
sional gig was actually as a playwright with the Playwrights Unit /% There aren’t many directors who
at the Tarragon Theatre. So I was writing plays and performing in move between film and opera. What do
plays, and I got involved in student production of Georg Büchner’s you like about doing both?
Woyzeck. I played the doctor and so in preparation for that, I got
introduced to Berg’s opera and it just changed my world. It was $( With opera you get this visceral
mind blowing—this fusion of text and music—and the operas that moment of what the voice means and
I’m most drawn to are those where you can feel that the composer what it means to be live. A film only exists
was excited by a piece of drama, like Jenufa or Lulu or Salome. in my head until it all comes together. I’m
I think Salome is a major work of art because of what Oscar trying to convince people and get them
Wilde originally did by taking this biblical story and reconfig- on board. But when you’re doing live the-
uring it to express so many issues that he was wrestling with at atre, everyone sees what’s working and
the time. It’s a very difficult play to present, but it ends up being not working.

46 OPE R A C A N A DA
 We’re only a few weeks into this edit of Seven Veils. It’s going to
change a lot. Is that line going to stay there? Is that scene going to
be like where it is? We’re trying different combinations because it’s
not a traditional narrative film, it’s loose. All my original scripts,
not like films that I’ve done as a director-for-hire, but for the stuff
that I’m writing has a fluidity that can be restructured.
I can see that there’s a moment when I started doing opera that
my film scores changed; they became more full throttled. I just have
a really special relationship with composer Mychael Danna. One
of the next challenges will be asking him, in terms of your musical
contribution, am I giving you enough space? It’s very different than
working with an opera composer. I can’t ask them to modulate that
or to emphasize this—it’s their show.
/% One of the clips we watched touches on the differences of
directing but between theatre and opera, not opera and film: the
orchestra rehearsal scene.
$( Right, Jeanine is triggered into stopping a late orchestra
rehearsal with an idea, which is something that actually
SUMMER 2023
happened to me. It was my first time
doing this opera and no one had told
me how rehearsals are scheduled. I’d
been quite freely starting and stopping
the accompanist, but no one told me
that once the orchestra is there that you
cannot stop. So I did at one point and my
Assistant Director came and stopped me
/5$FDQGLG from trying to stop the orchestra. In the
RIIFDPHUDSKRWRV scene Johannes Debus does a great job of
RISeven Veils
actors Douglas
acting shocked.
Smith and
$PDQGD6H\IULHG
/% There’s another recent film, Tàr, that’s
with soprano
$PEXU%UDLG also about power relations of classical
baritone Michael music. Have you seen it? What do you
.XSIHU5DGHFN\
tenor Michael think of Seven Veils in this company?
6FKDGHDQG
director
Atom Egoyan $( Yeah, I’m happy that it’s coming
unexpectedly into the conversation. Tàr’s
dealing with the working environment
of a symphony orchestra and the status
of a star conductor, but Jeanine is not a
star director. In fact, she’s in the shadow
of a legend. She’s on the margins. She’s
got more in common with the under-
study. And that’s what the whole story is
about, how all these understudies, both
the Salome understudy and the Jokanaan
understudy have their own ambitions and
the only way they can actually advance is
if they get to sing on that stage. The only
way Jeanine can advance is if she gets to
direct on that stage. So it’s the question,
how can existing structures possibly be
challenged or displaced? Tàr is dealing
with it from a different perspective. But
it was valuable to see it and I think by the
time we release there might be some sort
of a dialog between the two.
/% When will it be released? We should
mention that.
$( It would be late fall or winter.
ƥƞƯ ƛƫƚƭƢƬơƞƧƤƨōV ZULWLQJ RQ PXVLF
KDV DSSHDUHG LQ Classical Voice North
America, Ludwig Van Toronto, The Mon-
treal Gazette, Maclean’s, Opera Canada,
DQGOpera News
47
 S TA G E S C E N E S
ƛƲƬƜƨƭƭƫƨƬƞ
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7KHGHPDQGLQJSRVLWLRQHQWDLOVGXWLHVVLPLODUWR
WKRVHRIDUHKHDUVDOSLDQLVW7KHWLWOHRI$VVLVWDQW
&RQGXFWRUKRZHYHUFDQEHDOLWWOHWULFN\
WRSX]]OHRXW&ODULW\FRPHVIURPWKLQNLQJ
RIDSLDQLVWZLWKWKLVMREDVEHLQJDVXSSRUW
WRWKHFRQGXFWRURIDQ\JLYHQSURGXFWLRQ
In
other words, Wagorn is an opera conduc-
tor’s assistant. He coaches singers in their
roles. He plays piano for rehearsals until the
orchestra gets involved. As Assistant Con-
ductor, moreover, Wagorn frequently goes
above and beyond, for example, playing in the pit during per-
formances when a score calls for one keyboard instrument or
another. The more you research this Assistant Conductor’s job
responsibilities, the more job responsibilities you learn he has.
48 OPE R A C A N A DA
7KH2WWDZDERUQSLDQLVWQRZ
enjoying a stellar career with
7KH0HWURSROLWDQ2SHUD
UHPDLQVJUDWHIXOIRUWKHPXVLFDO
education he received when
FRPLQJRIDJHLQ&DQDGD
Many highly accomplished singers esteem Wag-
orn’s extraordinary talents as a collaborative pianist.
Stars with whom he has appeared in recital include
Joyce DiDonato, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Angel Blue,
and Ambur Braid. We can understand the confidence
these singers place in him begins by listening to a
recording of him with soprano Nadine Sierra—avail-
able on Youtube—interpreting Debussy’s 1882 setting
of Paul Verlaine’s Clair de lune. Every last detail in the
piano part, even a languorous left hand broken octave,
is palpably shaped with intelligence. The introduction’s
dense chords in sixteenths are sensitively, seductively
voiced. As Sierra evokes the poem’s emotional chiar-
oscuro, Wagorn’s piano seems to breathe, phrase,
and feel with her as one. The final image in the text
is of fountain shimmering under silvery moonlight;
and as Wagorn plays the postlude with its echoes of
the opening sixteenth chords, one realizes that these
sixteenth figures are ethereal tone painting, aural rep-
resentations of the nocturnal, luminous fountain.
 As a child, Wagorn would spontaneously sing
along with music from a radio. His mother noted his
innate musicality. As at the time there were no voice
teachers near Carp, Wagorn began studying piano.
He says, “I started around six, and loved it from the
beginning. I was always very excited to come home
and practice.”
Wagorn has tremendous praise for the Royal Con-
servatory of Music’s examination system. “I started
with the RCM’s examination system when I was about
10. I really loved having access to that. Each year, I’d
take a practical exam, which motivated me to prepare
a good balance of repertoire. The exams presented me
with such great goal posts, always motivating me to
be my best. From a young age, I had excellent theory
and history teachers. And I took the RCM exams in
Music Theory and Music History too. A lot of my Cana-
dian musician friends agree, this was a wonderful way
to challenge ourselves, and to ensure a well-rounded
musical education. We’re really lucky to have had that.”
SUMMER 2023
Wagorn earned degrees in piano performance
from the Royal Conservatory of Music in 2000 and
the University of Ottawa in 2006. Between 2003 and
2005, he attended the National Arts Centre’s Summer
Music Institute directed by Pinchas Zukerman. One
especially beguiling video, available on Youtube, has
Wagorn and Zukerman playing a Sicilienne by Maria
Theresa von Paradis. “I studied at NAC’s Summer
Music Institute,” Wagorn tells me. “and later, I taught
there as well. That really was one of my most important
formative experiences.”
It was at the NAC’s Summer Institute that Wagorn
met celebrated American sorpano Benita Valente. “She
told us that when she herself was studying, she ran into
a vocal crisis arising from having over-complicated her
technique. Fortunately, she was subsequently able to
simplify things, returning to her pure, natural manner
of singing. So, she frequently talked to students about
simplifying—as much as possible—the mechanics of
sound creation. She wanted singers to express their own
49

voice in its purest form. At the same time, there was
always great depth to her musicianship. ‘You all have to
find the gold in yourselves,’ she would say. And, Valente
successfully helped me to prepare for my Met audition.”
In 2008, Wagorn earned a master’s from the Mannes
College of Music. Then in 2013, he earned his Doctor
of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of
Music (MSM), where he studied with Andre-Michel
Schub. Today, he is on MSM’s Collaborative Piano Faculty.
Which approaches to playing the piano have brought
Wagorn the best results?“As a student,” he says, “I often
got very physically tense, because I was so emotionally
invested in the music. A lot of my growth came from
training myself to stay as relaxed and fluid as possible.
A lot of
my
training growth came f
my rom
DQGŴXL self to stay as r
GDVSR
VVLEOHŐ elaxed
Then too, Stéphane Lemelin, my teacher in Ottawa,
impressed on me the importance of listening—criti-
cally and objectively—to the sounds I create. That skill
is extremely important for all musicians. It helps us to
make sure that the sounds we transmit to an audience
are as we imagine them in our inner ear.”
Is Wagorn the sort who can take five days off and
return with no issue, or does he need to ‘remake his fin-
gers’ after being away from the keyboard? “I think part
of it is psychological,” he says. “During the pandemic,
I took long breaks because I didn’t have a piano in my
apartment. Sometimes, when I’ve gone back into it
after some time off, I’ve felt totally comfortable. Other
times, though, I’ve found that my fingers seemed quite
stiff. When I’m trying to get back into shape, I like to
practice very slowly, staying as relaxed as possible, lis-
tening very carefully to the sound. And more generally,
in any event, I like to practice by exaggerating dynamic
and expressive elements. Often, when we play, we think
we’re accomplishing certain effects of expression and
color. But then, listening to our recorded selves, we’re
disappointed, because the music doesn’t sound as we
had hoped and believed. That can be countered, when
practicing, by exaggerating everything—dynamics,
50
S TA G E S C E N E S
nuances, rubato, articulation. Vladimir Horowitz rec-
ommended this strategy, by the way.”
On getting his start accompanying singers, he says,
“My first experience was playing for the choir in high
school. From there, I started working with individuals.
I only really became immersed in it, though, when I
moved to New York.”
As a teen, was Wagorn excited about opera? “I loved
listening to singers’ recordings,” he says. “But I didn’t
start developing a more thorough knowledge of opera
until I was an undergrad at the University of Ottawa,
where the wonderful pianist Jean-Paul Sevilla taught
an Opera seminar. Each week, we studied a different
work, and I absolutely loved it, though, at the time, I
didn’t know I would wind up working in the field. It
still seems almost incredible to me that so many of the
singers and conductors I heard on recordings back then,
I got to work with later at The Met.”
Did Wagorn every study singing? “I never took voice
lessons,” he tells me, “but I’ve learned an immense
amount by playing for voice lessons. It’s amazing, the
way truly great voice teachers can accurately analyze
what’s happening with a student, physically, without
being able to see the inside of their vocal apparatus.
Whereas what pianists do is largely visible from outside,
most of what singers do, technically, to produce sound
is internal. There are, nevertheless, some basic parallels.
To avoid fatigue, both singers and pianists must use the
biggest muscle groups in their bodies. And, for both,
avoiding unnecessary tension is crucial, as unnecessary
tension produces less pleasant sounds.”
Between 2011 – 2013, Wagorn was in The Metro-
politan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development
Program, where he studied with, among others, Ken
Noda. “Already when I was a student at Mannes, I heard
Noda give a masterclass and thought, ‘This is exactly
the kind of musician I want to become.’ In the Linde-
mann program, he was so creative and inspiring. A
brilliant mind, an incredible pianist, and a very gifted
PHOTOS: (OPENING SPREAD) RUBÉN SOSA; (ABOVE) KEN HOWARD MET OPERA
communicator; never pedantic.”
Even though Wagorn’s work most often has him
behind-the-scenes, he appears in enough videos that
through them, one can cultivate a good sense of his
affable nature, his sensitive musical personality, and the
warm rapport he has with his fellow artists.
“To work in an opera house, good people skills are
essential,” he says. “Daily, we work with so many different
people. And of course, compromise is always involved.
Not even the greatest stars get everything they want. You
OPE R A C A N A DA
 go with the flow, but also, stand up for things you think
are important. That said, I enjoy being around people.
%U\DQ:DJRUQ
shines on stage in And I love making my friends and colleagues feel good.”
the role of pianist The first opera Wagorn worked on at The Met was
%ROHVODR/D]LQVNL
RSSRVLWH5RVD the 2013 Falstaff starring the Italianissimo Ambrogio
Feola as Olga in Maestri. “In the months leading up to that,” he says, “I
Giordano’s Fedora
at The Met—a big practiced hours every day, carefully studying the
change for Wagorn orchestration as well as every single word. I also lis-
ZKRUHJXODUO\
performs in the
tened to lots of different recordings. What most stands
orchestra pit out from the process, though, is how supportive all my
colleagues were. I was incredibly nervous, but every-
body was so kind. My fellow Assistant Conductor
Jonathan Kelly gave me tons of helpful advice on how
to adapt an orchestral score for piano. Any pianist
working in opera must have that skill. All too often,
the vocal scores with piano accompaniment are either
unplayable, or missing crucial material.”
Wagorn loves working with Maestro Yannick Nézet-
Séguin. He says, “It makes me feel so proud to have a
fellow Canadian as our Music Director. He’s such a
great musician; so sensitive and expressive. And he has
a great ear. Beyond that, he has an outstanding talent for
SUMMER 2023
keeping everybody’s spirits up throughout the process.”
On December 31, 2022, Wagorn’s star shone that
much more brightly when he assumed the role of pia-
nist Boleslao Lazinski in the Met’s new production of
Fedora, Umberto Giordano’s verismo gem. As seen live,
New Year’s Eve, Wagorn was a buoyant, charismatic
presence, charming Fedora’s guests by tickling the ivo-
ries, as downstage, Sonya Yoncheva’s Fedora and Piotr
Beczala’s Count Loris Ipanov were involved in a tense
dramatic exchange. Wagorn co-starred with Beczala
soon again elsewhere; the two were featured artists for
the February 6 Palm Beach Opera Gala.
What will Wagorn be doing this summer? “Nor-
mally,” he says, “I like to take time off from opera in
the summer, to teach, give recitals, and have a little
vacation. But this year, I was invited to work on Verdi’s
Macbeth at the Salzburg Festival. Such an exciting pros-
pect! How could I possibly turn it down?”
SCOTT ROSE LVD1HZ<RUN&LW\EDVHGZULWHU+LVZRUNKDV
DSSHDUHGLQPDQ\SXEOLFDWLRQVLQFOXGLQJOpera Canada,
Opera News, OperaWire, Bon Appétit,DQGWine Spectator
51
 :LWKDOORIWKHPXVLFVWUHDPLQJSODWIRUPVDYDLODEOH
Gideon Dabi H[SORUHVZK\,'$*,2LVUHVRQDWLQJ
ZLWKWKHFODVVLFDOPXVLFFRPPXQLW\
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soprano Soula
Parassidis in the
WLWOHUROHRI%RVWRQ
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exclusive streaming
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IDAGIO

52 OPE R A C A N A DA
 IDAGIO CEO Till Janczukowicz doesn’t hate tech companies.
“I don’t mean it as a negative! I founded a technology company,”
he says proudly. “But tech companies have to know the threats and
dangers of tech.” When I ask him if he views the newly launched
Apple Classical as his chief competition, he jokingly references
Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings’s famous quote from 2017
that the company’s greatest competition was sleep. “And we’re
winning,” Hastings later boasted. Then getting more serious,
Janczukowicz says, “No. What we’re doing at IDAGIO has meaning.”

Founded in 2015 by Janczukowicz and
Christoph Lange, IDAGIO is a multimedia
streaming service that boasts the largest
streaming classical library in the world at
over 250,000 entries. The Berlin-based com-
pany is run by a small team, many former
or current musicians. Though technolog-
ical expertise is important and abundant
among IDAGIO’s major competitors, the
curation and cataloguing of classical music
has proved no easy task for the other
streaming giants. The relationship between the user,
the music, and the artist in classical music presents
different challenges from that of conventional music,
as well. The advantage of having musicians on staff
is the ability to create that connection with the user.
The New York Times’s former chief music critic,
Anthony Tommasini, recently wrote, “No, I am not
getting rid of my thousands of CDs.” He is not alone,
especially in the world of classical music lovers.
Many are clinging to their old LP’s like family relics.
In some cases, they even are family relics as there
are still many beloved recordings that are unavail-
able on any streaming service, and many are out of
print. Furthermore, the way classical music is often
consumed does not comport as easily to the playlist-
geared presentation of streaming services. This has
been an issue for classical music listeners since the
digitalization of music. The original iPod interface
allowed users to sort their music by song title, artist,
album, genre, composer, and playlist (also known as
a track’s metadata). For the regular listener, this was
more than enough. After all, there was only one U2,
one “Stairway to Heaven,” and one White Album.
But for classical music enthusiasts, the organiza-
tion proved awfully vexing. Sure, there was only one
Luciano Pavarotti, but what if he were singing while
Herbert von Karajan was conducting? Who would
be the “artist” in that scenario? Both? Whose name
was first in the sorting? The way many of the early
recordings were codified, Puccini himself may have
been the credited “artist.” Then there were the track
titles which were a battle in and of themselves. If one
wanted to listen to “Ach, ich fühl’s” from Mozart’s Die
Zauberflöte, where might that be among the song list?
Sometimes it had quotes in the title, and other times
it didn’t. And sometimes, just for good measure, every
single track on the recording unhelpfully began with
“Die Zauberflöte, K. 620” followed by the track title.
Thanks to the full title (complete with Köchel cata-
logue number), the actual ensemble or aria couldn’t
fit in the interface forcing the listener to wait until the
title would slowly scroll itself to the right revealing
the rest. Many streaming services still suffer from this

SUMMER 2023 53
 inability to properly curate titles and composers. In
late March of 2023, Apple launched Apple Classical, a
classical-only extension to its Apple Music subscrip-
tion. This endeavour is a rebranding and adoption of
a former competitor to IDAGIO, Primephonic, which
was acquired by Apple in August of 2021. IDAGIO’s
creative director, Catherine Pisaroni, describes it as
“something of a David and Goliath situation.” Although
there are innovative features on Apple Classical such as
commentary on tracks by noted stars of the industry
like Hilary Hahn, the interface is still, according to
The New York Times review, “overwhelming.” This is
one of the strengths of IDAGIO, Janczukowicz tells
me, referring to their metadata usage as “optimized.”
“It’s important to understand that classical music is,
essentially, a system of cover versions.” IDAGIO under-
stands its customer, he tells me.
Starting piano at the age of five, Till Janczuko-
wicz knew that music would be his life but he “didn’t
know in what way.” After being accepted to music
college at the age of fourteen (“I wasn’t that bad,”
he assures me), Janczukowicz became close friends
with pianist Krystian Zimerman, a protégé of Arthur
Rubinstein and Leonard Bernstein. The relationship
with Zimerman would prove to be very influential as it
became Janczukowicz’s foray into artist management.
Janczukowicz was soon tasked with organizing and
fundraising a series of masterclasses including names
such as German mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig, pia-
nist Murray Perahia, and bass Hans Hotter. “I came
from a teaching family, so [education] was in my
DNA.” It was here in our conversation that Janczu-
kowicz grew more impassioned. “This passing of
knowledge from one generation to another genera-
tion, or also of people from one segment of society
or arts or creative industries to people in other arts
and creative industries, I think is a very fulfilling and
There is so much talent out
there that doesn’t get a chance.
My big vision is that we have an
opportunity to change that.”
54 OPE R A C A N A DA
healthy thing. This is driving change. This is enabling
innovation.” It is this innate need to “drive change,” as
he explains it, that helped eventually spearhead the
creation of IDAGIO. “The basic idea of IDAGIO was to
build a platform that connects artists and audiences
directly. When we raised the initial money from inves-
tors, we raised it for this platform—not for a music
streaming service. We have built the leading one, but
now our focus is to enable direct artist-to-audience
engagement on this foundation.”
Available for download on iOS, tvOS, Google Play
store, and desktop, IDAGIO isn’t merely a “classical
Spotify,” as Vogue magazine ham-fistedly described it.
It is a fully realized platform for consumers and artists.
Unlike its peers in the streaming industry, it presents
actual courses and conversations with the master art-
ists themselves in live interactive video. As a chief
example: last year, world-renowned baritone Thomas
Hampson hosted a month-long class he called “Mahler
Month” featuring interviews and discussions with
Marina Mahler (Gustav Mahler’s granddaughter), Jamie
Bernstein (Leonard Bernstein’s daughter), as well as
musicologist Jens Malte Fischer and others, where par-
ticipants were invited to ask questions and engage the
hosts and guests. It is about these programs and courses
that Till Janczukowicz gets most excited. He says, “I want
richer and deeper experiences. When TV was invented
the ratio of screen to in-person display was 1:99. We
are currently at 50:50. By 2030, the ratio will be 90:10!
This means we have to find ways to enrich peoples’
lives through classical music using a screen, and to do
this in a way that real human beings interact with other
real human beings, and not with algorithms!”
In 2015, a report from the Financial Times showed
that Pharrell Williams’s number-one hit, “Happy,” was
played a whopping 105 million times on the Pandora
streaming service. The total revenue of those streams
for Williams was a paltry $6300 USD. And this was the
figure before Sony Records took its share. “Conven-
tional streaming services are made for audiences, not
for artists. At IDAGIO, we always think of both artists
and audiences simultaneously,” Janczukowicz once
explained. “This starts with how we remunerate—user-
centric and per second (as opposed to per track).” This
pay model, dubbed the Fair Artist Payout Model—at
least a variation of it—was also used by Primephonic
but has not been adopted by Apple Classical after
the acquisition. The logic behind this model is rather
favourable to classical artists and labels. Whereas the
overwhelming majority of standard pop tracks range

around the three-to-four-minute mark, classical tracks
can vary greatly in length with several movements of
symphonies, consisting of a hundred or more musi-
cians, easily topping twenty minutes.
Till Janczukowicz continues to emphasize the artist,
both established and aspiring. After joining Columbia
Artists Management (CAMI) in New York in 1996, he
went on to establish their European office. “As a man-
ager, I was a gatekeeper,” he says with some pause. “I
PHOTO: (OPENING SPREAD) SAM BREWER; (ABOVE) DUSIA SOBOL
managed many prestigious names. But today, tech-
nology is able to empower people who were often
subject to the ego, subjectivity and the vanity of gate-
keepers. There is so much talent out there that doesn’t
get a chance. My big vision is that we have an opportu-
nity to change that. Today, there’s technology, channels
and tools that artists can use to advance their careers
on their own!” Launching by the time of the publication
SUMMER 2023
,'$*,2&(27LOO
-DQF]XNRZLF]
RXWVLGH%HUOLQōV
LFRQLF%UDQGHQEXUJ
Gate; the city he
calls home
of this piece, IDAGIO is introducing a
robust teaching portal complete with
scheduling capability, video interface, and
payment options. “Many artists are great
teachers by nature. This is very valuable to
our audience,” Janczukowicz emphasizes.
Invariably, the health of the arts and
of artistic properties and services is inex-
tricably linked. When asked what he feels
can be done to help boost audience partici-
pation and, consequently, customer base,
Janczukowicz starts with one word: soci-
ality. “Since man has been making music, it
has always been based on the togetherness
of musicians and listeners. The invention
of the sound recording separated the
music from the artist, and it separated the
artist from the listener. You didn’t need the
artist to be in the same room anymore. It
enabled the star system, it enabled the emergence of
the recording industry, but it also became a substi-
tute. It removed one of the most important elements
in music. Music is not a product. It’s something that
happens in a period of time while artists and audiences
are together. It’s the sociality of the music.”
When compared to the much deeper-pocketed
streaming giants, Janczukowicz stresses mostly the
“experience” behind his service: “The product I see offers
more than passive lean-back listening. It connects art-
ists and audiences directly and allows for mutual
inspiration”. I ask him what his main goal is with respect
to IDAGIO. “Meaning,” he says unflinchingly.
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where students embark on a four-year undergraduate degree, maybe a handful of
additional years as a grad student, and they’ve got to find just the right mentor to
take them on their journey. Even once a young singer takes that first leap and starts
shopping—ideally by having trial lessons with a prospective teacher to see if they
gel—the process is time-consuming, pricey, and potentially confusing for the voice.
There’s one way to at least halve the abundance of choice, and that’s by grouping
these university-level teachers into one of two ilks: those who teach full-time, and
those who balance part-time teaching with their own performing calendar.
Usually, the full-time teacher is someone with a singing career of their own already
under their belt; they’ve retired from the stage and now work as a professor with an

56 OPE R A C A N A DA
 established, regular studio. The part-timers are often younger and
perhaps with fewer years of teaching experience, and since they’re
still in the midst of their own singing career, they see their students
between gigs.
So here’s another question for singers: is there more to gain from
studying with someone whose time is fully dedicated to pedagogy?
Or is it better to learn from a true working singer, someone who $ERYH&RORUDWXUD And of course, young singers get a dash
soprano Tracy Dahl
literally practices what they preach and has a real-life connection teaching a Manitoba
of motivation from seeing their teacher out
to the professional world? Opera artist and about in the world’s big opera houses.
I spoke with over a dozen voice teachers—and plenty of their But there’s a caveat here, and I’d like to
students—and the short answer is, frustratingly: yes. %HORZ:HQG\ unpack it with a food analogy. There are lots
Nielsen—Head Vocal
Take Tracy Dahl: the acclaimed Canadian coloratura soprano Consultant for the of different foods that are considered healthy,
has taught for nearly 25 years at the University of Manitoba, and she Canadian Opera and probably even more that aren’t. Some
&RPSDQ\(QVHPEOH
says it’s precisely because she maintains her long-standing career 6WXGLRDQG foods that are good for some of us give
that she’s so sought after as a teacher. Only in the last four years has Associate Professor others digestive unpleasantness. Some foods
at the University
Dahl gone full-time at U of M, “because I didn’t want them to tell of Toronto—in a
are divine, but strictly in moderation. And
me that I couldn’t travel, and do the work that has actually made ZRUNLQJVHVVLRQ some foods you shouldn’t eat until you’re
me a good teacher—my performing.” ready—broccoli is healthy, sure, just not for
Dahl calls it “stepping outside my pool”, a newborn baby. You see where we’re going
PHOTOS: (ABOVE) COURTESY OF MANITOBA OPERA ; (RIGHT) KEITH MINCHIN

when she leaves the university bubble and with this, no? The food is voice teachers.
heads out, say, to sing in a Così fan tutte; the But in the formative years of an under-
professional gig is a way for her to bring real- graduate program where the priority is
world insight back to her students. “Even in the technical fundamentals of singing,
this last time, when I was in Toronto [for the the most irreplaceable tool is consistency.
Canadian Opera Company’s 2019 produc- (It’s so important, in fact, that consistency
tion of Così] I was with the [COC] Ensemble is something upon which every teacher
people,” Dahl says. “That’s a huge bonus for I interviewed agreed—a small miracle
me to know, who are the voices that are get- among voice educators.)
ting into the program? How many just did In practice, consistency means a stu-
the Met competition?” dent is taking weekly lessons with a

SUMMER 2023 57

Mezzo soprano Miriam Khalil teaching
at Against the Grain Theatre‘s Summer
Opera Intensive
dedicated teacher, regularly for several
years—throughout a full undergraduate
program, say. It’s an intensive time for
a young singer, and pedagogues say the
close, steady relationship between stu-
dent and teacher is the best way to lay
down a technical foundation. In the food
analogy, consistency is protein and plenty
of vegetables.
Darryl Edwards, Associate Professor of
Voice Studies at the University of Toronto
(U of T), considers “mindful repetition” to
be the best way for a singer to learn and
internalize new skills. “You have to do the
steps,” he says. “There’s no escalator to art-
istry, you have to take the stairs.”
A full-time focus on teaching is the
best way to give students that consis-
tency, say the teachers. “If the teacher
isn’t performing, then they can devote
themselves to the students, totally,” says
Nancy Hermiston, Chair of the Voice
and Opera divisions at the University of
British Columbia’s School of Music. “For
some students that’s really important, that
sort of consistency, no changes and no
58
disruptions.” It may be true that full-time
teachers can offer a stable environment
to their students, as Hermiston puts it,
“our profession is certainly not like that.”
The argument for the part-timers—
those dividing their energy between their
singing work and their students—is that
they’re a gateway into the professional
world, including the reality that a singer’s
schedule is ever-changing. “If you are still
performing actively, you are going to have
long periods of time where you are away,”
says Torin Chiles, “and those students will be
having to work very independently, without
you checking up on them on a weekly basis.”
Not that it can’t be done. Tracy Dahl has
a trusted circle of colleagues, including
fellow Manitoban soprano Andriana
Chuchman, whom she brings in to teach
her students when she’s away performing.
And Edmonton-based soprano Miriam
Khalil has support in her post as Assistant
Lecturer at the University of Alberta’s
Department of Music, where faculty are
encouraged to take gigs, even if it upsets
their regular teaching schedule. “It brings a
type of prestige to the University,” says Khalil.
But timing is everything. Often the
performer-teachers have more to offer
OPE R A C A N A DA
advanced students, rather than singers
still working out their instrument. “I will
often liken it to someone who wants me
to apply Lemon Pledge to their tree bark,”
smiles Edwards.
If a student really is ready, though,
learning from a working singer can be a
game-changer. “I think it’s really important
for a singer, at some point in their devel-
opment, to be across from somebody that
makes the same noise they do,” says Wendy
Nielsen, Associate Professor of Voice at the
U of T. “I think it’s crucial. It might be one or
two lessons, it might be a summer program,
it might be your graduate degree.”
And it’s not just about sharing a voice
type with one’s teacher. “I think there is
something really valuable about spending
time learning from someone who is at the
top of the field, and has put in a consistent
effort and stayed in the game and grown,”
says Canadian soprano Julia Dawson, cur-
rently based in Berlin.
Judith Forst, venerable Canadian mezzo-
soprano and a valuable mentor for today’s
singers, took the slow-and-steady track
with her own development—and she took
the reins when she decided it was time for
more. When she first moved to New York in
the late 1960s, “I got myself to an excellent
teacher, to sing through whatever it was to
make sure that I was in good vocal health,
that I was doing nothing that was going to
compromise the instrument.”
With the foundation laid, Forst then
sought out what she called “voice special-
ists” for fine-tuning of specific repertoire:
Joan Dornemann for bel canto, Stuart Ham-
ilton for French opera, Carol Isaac for Czech.
Forst became a sponge for details, even from
mentors who weren’t singers themselves.
“I think the combination is the way to
go,” Forst says. “I really appreciated having
these people that have played a lot of reper-
toire and had a lot of knowledge, to advise
PHOTO: (LEFT) DARRYL BLOCK; (RIGHT) SHAYNE GRAY
along with what I have to say about the
breathing and the technical aspects.”
That brings up a key point in this
whole student-teacher dynamic: it’s really
all on the student to take charge of their
learning. It’s another thing that nearly
all these teachers say, that no matter
how earth-shattering their pedagogical
wisdom may be—if a student doesn’t do
the work, it amounts to nothing.
It’s a unique point in a singer’s learning
process, to recognize that they are the sole
drivers of their own development and that
there is indeed no shortcut. “For decades I
did it myself,” says Kimberly Barber, Cana-
dian mezzo-soprano, Professor of Voice and
Associate Dean of the Faculty of Music at
Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU). “I went
to teacher after teacher—very expensive
teachers, I might add—where I was meta-
phorically taking my larynx out, putting it
on the piano, and saying, ‘fix this!’”
When Barber joined WLU in 2002, she
was still in the midst of her international
singing career and decidedly a notable
name. And she’s seen students come to her
studio with an expectation of success-by-
proxy. “There’s a part of them that actually
just wants me to wave my magic wand
over them,” she says.
Edwards sees the same phenomenon
in his studio. “My biggest observation is
the false meme that exposure is learning,
or that association with a person or an
institution is learning or skill-giving,” he
says. “Those things are not true.”
Universities, conservatories and
young artist programs often hire what
Edwards calls a “mascot teacher”, usually
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a well-known singer who is starting to
transition into teaching. They’re not
inherently sub-par teachers, but students
should be mindful to vet these famous
folks with the same care as they do any
other teacher who’s not a household name.
Star soprano Adrianne Pieczonka is
deft at spotting this phenomenon, par-
ticularly since joining the Glenn Gould
School of Music as Vocal Chair and Head
of the Vocal Department. Pieczonka’s shift
to teaching was recent and fairly abrupt;
she took on her first studio of just eight
students in the fall of 2020.
“Of course it’s impressive to have one’s
teacher go off and sing at Covent Garden,
but at the end of the day it kind of doesn’t
matter,” Pieczonka says, who adds that
she only ever studied with teachers who
Mezzo soprano Miriam Khalil balances
her University of Alberta teaching and her
RZQSHUIRUPDQFHFDOHQGDUFDUHIXOO\
SUMMER 2023
fit the full-time template. “It’s about that
[i] vowel, it’s about the tongue position.”
So, for the students who have done the
foundational work and really are ready for
polishing—role studying, even professional
networking—how do they discern a helpful
mentor from a so-called “mascot teacher”?
Julia Dawson admits it’s a conscious
effort for younger singers to follow the ped-
agogy instead of the famous name. “I think
that the student just needs to be honest with
themselves,” she says. ”Be honest about, how
much is my ego pushing towards someone
with a name, and not paying attention to
what we’re actually doing?” She encourages
her younger colleagues to “audition” poten-
tial teachers with trial lessons and observe
those teachers’ other students.
In a way, the hunt for the right voice
teacher is one of those major moments of
crisis for young singers. All along the way to
a successful singing career, there are check-
points where those who truly have what it
takes are filtered out from the rest; those
checkpoints happen when auditions don’t
seem to be going well, when bills can’t be
paid in singing money, when a life on the
road becomes a burden instead of a thrill.
“They have to learn their instrument.
They have to learn when it’s out of kilter.
They have to know when it’s good,” says
Forst, a firm believer that a singer is respon-
sible for their own training. “I’ll tell you
what, you don’t go in there wanting to hear,
‘It’s lovely, dear.’”
ƣƞƧƧƚƬƢƦƞƨƧƨƯLVDQ2QWDULREDVHGDUWV
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59
 MASTERCLASS

Physical
conditioning
+
emotional
equilibrium
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/HQD+HOOVWU¸P)¦UQO¸I

+HOOVWU¸P)¦UQO¸IOLYHVLQ6WRFNKROPDQGVKDUHV describes Hellström-Färnlöf as one of the most

her teaching between professional singers and
students at the Academy of Music and Opera at
Mälardalen University in Sweden where she is a
distinguished Professor and Artistic Director. She
is in high demand to teach Masterclasses all over
the world. Thanks to high-speed travel and new
digital mediums, such as Zoom, her Stockholm
studio is frequently visited by up-and-coming and
renowned opera singers from many different coun-
tries. Having worked with her, Canadian Opera
Company Ensemble Studio director Liz Upchurch
gifted and unique voice teachers she has had the
pleasure of sharing a studio with.
Considering the inner and outer journey of the
artist is an important foundation in the develop-
ment of singers. In Hellström-Färnlöf ’s view, there
are four central pillars: diet, sleep, physical condi-
tioning and emotional equilibrium. She reminds
singers they ARE their instrument 24/7. Therefore,
there is no escaping the fact that their life hygiene
matters. Before we delve into any subjects of musical
nature, Hellström-Färnlöf lists the many ways

60 OPE R A C A N A DA
singers can cultivate their equilibrium and health:
yoga, meditation, Qigong, psycho-therapy, neuro-lin-
guistic programming, physical training that builds
flexibility and suppleness in the body. All are things
she has practiced in her search for her best singing
and teaching self. The journey is different for each
person, but the universally shared fact is that each
must find what works best for them if they are going
to achieve their full potential.
Hellström-Färnlöf starts with breath and pos-
ture. Body mapping is key to ensure nothing is lost in
translation because in the end, the singer’s physical
awareness is the canvas. “The support is so many dif-
ferent things. It’s not one thing. It’s a balance with
numerous different muscles and muscle groups… I
want to simplify things that are highly complex.” In
order to do this, Hellström-Färnlöf uses an exten-
sive assortment of vocal and physical exercises. But
the most surprising might be the use of mechanisms
everyone is familiar with. Actions like sneezing or
laughing solicit a wide array of mechanisms and mus-
cles working in tandem (around the inner core and
diaphragmatic areas), and they even contain a breath
element, just like singing. Most singers will also be
familiar with the idea of yawning in order to access
elasticity and motion of the soft palate and pharyngeal
spaces. These types of cues are often used in teaching
to simplify what would otherwise be overly-compli-
cated. Imagine, all at once, trying to lower your larynx,
open your throat, lift your soft palate, stretch your
pharynx, lengthen the space between your molars and
inhale a sound? Or… you could try yawning and see
if that does the trick! However, as Hellström-Färnlöf
puts it: “If it was that simple, everyone could do it. I
find that in all art, not just in singing, but also in ballet
and visual art, when you have one element, you also
need to have its antagonist force going at the same
time.” In visual art, some may be familiar with the term
chiaroscuro which means ‘light-dark’. It is a term that
also belongs to the world of bel canto. It describes the
need for light and dark to achieve beauty of sound.
In singing, the same is true of vowels, for example,
singing the ‘ee’ vowel (as in leaf) also requires the pres-
ence of its opposite, ‘oo’ (as in you). You can also see
this concept present in the above description of a
yawn: one needs a high soft palate, with a low larynx.
You can appreciate why the art of practicing
is so vital for the singer. The careful repetition of
“ I find that in all art, not just in singing,
but also in ballet and visual art, when you
have one element, you also need to have its
antagonist force going at the same time.”
—ƥƞƧƚơƞƥƥƬƭƫǭƦƟƶƫƧƥǭƟ
technical processes eventually leads to an inte-
grated and sound technique they can rely on. “When
you program things into your muscles, they will
remember. This is good and it’s also bad because
muscles remember everything. But they don’t know
if it’s a good or a bad memory. So you have to make
sure you are programming the right thing. When
you’re singing at a high level, the technique is doing
so much good for the art, and the art is doing so
much good for the technique. We are aiming for both
to be perfectly wedded,” says Hellström-Färnlöf.
She encourages singers to inhale and sing vocal
exercises with a multitude of emotional intentions.
It ultimately leads their body to greater energy and
physical engagement, whilst also developing their
ability to balance a ‘cold head’ and ‘warm heart’. This
is because, although it may seem like your favourite
opera singers are entirely aflame on the stage, they
can never allow themselves to lose sight of the many
things that need to go right. Their ability to focus
and multitask is astounding.
In the end, Hellström-Färnlöf ’s particular
essence of acute intelligence married to pure fantasy
is what she wishes for singers. She tells me about
Pablo Picasso who “really studied art and then ended
up doing things that no one else had done before
him.” Technique is one thing, but its purpose is to
serve art and expression. So don’t let yourself be
misled, all this talk of technique is not a call to per-
fection. She reminds us that “if you are aiming to be
perfect, you might succeed, but that is also going to
be boring!”
ƟƫnjƝnjƫƢƪƮƞƯnjƳƢƧƚLVD&DQDGLDQRSHUDWLFVRSUDQR
DQGYRLFHWHDFKHUFXUUHQWO\WHDFKLQJDWWKH8QLYHUVLW\
RI7RURQWR
SUMMER 2023 61
F OR L O V E OF T HE OPE R A
Elizabeth WirthIRXQGHU
RI0F*LOO8QLYHUVLW\ōV
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I HAD THE PLEASURE OF MEETING
with this passionate, lively, enthu-
siastic woman who says she
created this prize “for the love of
the voice, for the love of opera,
for the love of McGill, and partic-
ularly its music school. We have
wonderfully talented singers at
McGill”, she adds, “and the best
opera program in Canada, but few
people really make a good living
from classical singing. Therefore
I sponsored the Wirth Prize to
help a singer start on the road
to making a career from his/her
talent and drive.”
Ms Wirth’s relationship with
the school reaches back to the
early 1990s. “I became involved
when Opera McGill was led by
the wonderful Dixie Ross Neill,
62
who died too soon in 2007. But
fortunately she was followed by
another outstanding American
opera director, Patrick Hansen
who, in context with our hugely
talented singers, inspired me to
donate the Wirth Vocal Prize. I
am immensely happy to be able
to do this, and look forward every
year to a thrilling vocal contest.
Our winners have been truly spe-
cial, and I love watching their
careers blossom. Helping them is
its own reward—no other dona-
tion but music gives a return you
can hear and feel and continue to
appreciate throughout your life.”
Most winners are graduate
students preparing for a master’s
degree and needing financial sup-
port to launch a career. Simone
McIntosch (2017 recipient) went
on to win First Prize at the Con-
cours musical international de
Montréal in 2022—she is active
on European stages, and will be
back at the Canadian Opera Com-
pany in February as Zerlina (Don
Giovanni). Anna-Sophie Neher
(2018 recipient) made her debuts
at the Paris Opera in 2020, sang
Micaëla (Carmen) in Toronto and
will return to the COC as Mar-
zelline in Fidelio in the fall; in
May 2023, she was a finalist at
the prestigious Queen Elisabeth
competition in Belgium.
Born in Vienna, young Eliza-
beth was introduced to opera by
OPE R A C A N A DA
her grandmother who invited her
to the Staatsoper. She was seven
when the family moved to Sault
Sainte-Marie, and fortunately
music remained present in her
life: “Voice has always been a
great love for me, and I sang in
choirs and as a soloist in my
teens, at one point thinking of a
career in musical theatre.”
An honours graduate in polit-
ical science and history at McGill,
Ms Wirth earned a degree in
international relations “with the
intention of entering the diplo-
matic corps or becoming a major
Broadway star. I ended up joining
the family business. I was good at
it, it’s in the genes I guess…”
Today, Ms Wirth is President
and CEO of WirthBrand Inc., as
well as chairperson and founding
director of M.F. Wirth Rail Corp.
The business deals with steel, but
music still occupies an immense
part of her life. She has been a
member of the Schulich School
of Music’s Faculty Advisory Board
for more than 20 years and its
Chair since 2008. She generously
supported renovations to Schul-
ich’s opera-training facilities to
create the Wirth Opera Studio.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF MCGILL UNIVERSITY
On June 7, 2023, she was awarded
an honorary degree in Music by
McGill. She might not be a star on
Broadway but she has certainly
earned the love and gratitude of
many talented future stars.
 SUMMER 2023 JUNE 14
Dubois’ Miguela
HIGHLIGHTS Festival Classica, Montreal
Dion Mazerolle, Fray Domingo
SOPRANO
Melody Courage JUNE 23 & 24
Natalya Gennadi The Magic Flute
Jennifer Maines Little Opera Company of Winnipeg
Jennifer Taverner Asitha Tennekoon, Tamino
Caitlin Wood
JULY 11 & 13
MEZZO-SOPRANO “Les Amours Masculines” Recital
Marjorie Maltais Acadie Love & Éte Musical de Barachois
Marion Newman Dion Mazerolle
Maria Soulis
‹ŽŽƒ”›—ơ‘”† JULY 13 & 14
La Traviata
COUNTERTENOR Brott Music Festival
Scott Belluz ‹ŽŽƒ”›—ơ‘”†ǡFlora
Daniel Cabena
JULY 16
TENOR “Opera in the Park”
Jacques Arsenault Vancouver Opera
Ian Cleary Clarence Frazer
Jean-Philippe Lazure
Ernesto Ramirez JULY 25
Asitha Tennekoon Recital with Emily Carr String Quartet
Victoria Summer Music Festival
BARITONE Marion Newman
Clarence Frazer
Dion Mazerolle JULY 29
Jorell Williams Bach’s ƒ‰‹Ƥ…ƒ–
Lamèque International Baroque Festival
BASS-BARITONE Dion Mazerolle
Giles Tomkins
AUGUST 18 & 19
STAGE DIRECTOR Cosi fan tutte
François Racine Opera Kelowna
Caitlin Wood, Despina

416.892.4382
kathy@domoneyartists.com
domoneyartists.com
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