COC Media Releases

The Canadian Opera Company is dedicated to being one of the greatest opera companies in the world. Through the leadership of its artistic team and its management, the COC is committed to creating, innovating and delivering a live experience of the highest quality that reflects the passion, vitality, relevance and power of operatic theatre.

To reflect our ambitious new vision, the COC worked with its Agency of Record, Endeavour Marketing, over several months to refine and refresh its brand for the launch of the 2011/2012 season. The COC’s previous brand was created in 2005 and was focused more specifically on the opening of the COC’s opera house, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. As of the 2011/2012 season, the COC will have been in the opera house for five years, and the focus has moved more towards the company itself, and the promise of the future.

As COC General Director Alexander Neef has said, "Building the opera house was a great achievement, but now it asks for an even greater achievement."

The COC, under its new management of Alexander Neef and Music Director Johannes Debus, collaborates with the world’s greatest artists and some of the world’s most renowned opera companies. These new collaborations and the work that the COC has produced over the course of its 61-year history have helped define it as one of the best and largest opera companies in North America.

The COC’s new brand has a fresh look defined by simplicity, functionality and white space. The bold symbol of the logo represents both the intertwined "COC" letterforms as well as a timeless infinity symbol. As a palindrome, the logo reads both left-to-right and right-to-left. It nods to the COC’s history while looking ambitiously to the future, with opera always at its core. It serves both as a solid logo and also works knocked-out with imagery within it. It works equally well as a graphic feature for backgrounds.

"I am very pleased with the COC’s new look which will be unveiled over the course of the next several months," says Alexander Neef. "We are very grateful to Endeavour Marketing for helping us visually express our confidence and excitement for the future."

Toronto – Experience the rising young stars of the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studioperforming the lead roles in their own performance of The Magic Flute on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2011 at7:30 p.m. at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. All tickets to the Feb. 17 performance are only $22 or $55.

Under the direction of the same artistic team as for the mainstage cast, including conductor and COC Music Director Johannes Debus, director Diane Paulus, set and costume designer Myung Hee Cho and lighting designer Scott Zielinski, the Ensemble members will perform with the full COC Orchestra and Chorus. This special performance allows the young Canadian artists of the Ensemble Studio to be highlighted in principal roles on the COC’s mainstage.

Read more...

Toronto, Ontario – A defining moment in modern-day history takes centre stage this winter with the Canadian Opera Company premiere of John Adams’ Nixon in China.  Richard Nixon’s historic five-day trip to China in 1972 was a media phenomenon viewed simultaneously by millions at home on their television sets.  Adams’ unique lyrical score for Nixon in China intertwines occasions of grand, public spectacle with moments of quiet, private reflection to transform a political event into a story with universal appeal and significance.  American James Robinson returns to the COC to direct this highly-lauded and widely-seen production with award-winning Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado making his Canadian debut leading the COC Orchestra and Chorus.  Sung in English with English SURTITLES™, Nixon in China runs for eight performances on Feb. 5, 9, 11, 13, 19, 22, 24 and 26, 2011.

Nixon in China had its world premiere at Houston Grand Opera in 1987, followed quickly by performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Netherlands Opera.  One of the major operas of the 20th century, Nixon in China has spawned numerous productions that have been received all over the world, and, along with Philip Glass’s Einstein on the Beach, is considered one of the cornerstones of American Minimalist music. 

The COC premiere of Nixon in China brings together several cast members who have appeared in this production since its first staging at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 2004.  Hailed by critics in his “sensational portrayal of Richard Nixon” (Houston Chronicle) is leading American baritone Robert Orth, last seen with the COC in 1990’s The Barber of Seville, and American soprano Maria Kanyova revisits her critically-acclaimed role as Pat Nixon in her COC debut.  New to this production, and the COC, is British tenor Adrian Thompson as Chairman Mao, who previously sang this role with English National Opera.  Baritone Chen-Ye Yuan appears with the COC for the first time, revisiting the role of Premier Chou En-lai.  American bass-baritone Thomas Hammons makes his COC debut portraying Nixon’s diplomatic advisor Henry Kissinger, a role he created for the opera’s world premiere, and subsequently performed in Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt and Los Angeles.  Making her COC and role debut as Madame Mao is American soprano Marisol Montalvo, whose stage and vocal presence has made her a regular performer with many of the world’s finest opera houses.

Read more...