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CELEBRATED CANADIAN TENOR BEN HEPPNER MAKES HIGHLY ANTICIPATED RETURN TO COC MAINSTAGE IN A SIGNATURE ROLE
Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company opens its winter season with one of music history’s most influential works, Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. The COC’s 2013 presentation of Tristan und Isolde marks legendary director Peter Sellars’ company debut and the first time his original, awe-inspiring production has appeared in North America. This multi-sensory experience features video imagery by internationally renowned video artist Bill Viola, who “has come up with an image of the scale and scope, grandeur and immensity, and genuine transcendence that Wagner was imagining,” says Sellars. COC Music Director Johannes Debus, who conducts his first production of Tristan und Isolde, leads the COC Orchestra and Chorus through Wagner’s epic masterpiece as well as an acclaimed cast led by celebrated Canadian tenor Ben Heppner in a role for which critics have hailed him as “the great Tristan of this generation” (Associated Press). Last seen at the COC in 1987, Tristan und Isolde returns for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on January 29, February 2, 8, 14, 17, 20 and 23, 2013, and is sung in German with English SURTITLES™.
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CONDUCTING AND CAST CHANGES TO COC’S WINTER PRODUCTIONS OF TRISTAN UND ISOLDE, LA CLEMENZA DI TITO AND SPRING PRODUCTION OF SALOME
Toronto – Canadian Opera Company Music Director Johannes Debus conducts his first Tristan und Isolde when he leads the COC Orchestra and Chorus this winter in the company’s production of Wagner’s epic masterpiece. He replaces Jiří Bělohlávek, who has regrettably withdrawn due to health reasons.
Toronto – Bass-baritone Gordon Bintner of Regina took home first prize at the Canadian Opera Company’s Second Annual Ensemble Studio Competition on November 29, 2012, at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Bintner was selected from 10 finalists to receive the $5,000 award. TenorAndrew Haji of London, Ont., won the second prize of $3,000, and mezzo-soprano Charlotte Burrage of Woodstock, Ont., was awarded the third prize of $1,500. In addition, Bintner was selected by the audience as the winner of the People’s Choice Award, worth $1,500.