COC Social Media Releases

The young artists of the COC Ensemble Studio will give a special performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute tonight with the COC Orchestra and Chorus, giving Toronto audiences a chance to see Canada's rising young opera stars as they begin their careers. 

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 performance allows the young Canadian artists of the Ensemble Studio to be highlighted in principal roles on the COC’s mainstage. In the 2011/2012 season, the Ensemble members will have the opportunity to sing the principal roles in a performance of Handel's Semele.

COC Ensemble Studio alumni have appeared at all the world's greatest opera houses, and include Ben Heppner, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Robert Gleadow, and Krisztina Szabó. Some current Ensemble Studio members are already working with major opera companies both in Canada and worldwide: soprano Simone Osborne will sing Juliette in Roméo et Juliette with Vancouver Opera next season, as well as Mozart's Requiem with TSO and an East coast tour with Debut Atlantic; Ileana Montalbetti recently understudied the role of Anai in Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon in Rome under the baton of Riccardo Muti; and Wallis Giunta has been invited to join the Metropolitan Opera's prestigious Lindemann Program.  

Photos:

Blogging about The Magic Flute? We encourage you to use these photos in your post, but be sure to use the full photo credit. All photos are by Michael Cooper, 2011. If you need high-resolution images, email me at cecilyc@coc.ca and let me know.

Download A scene from the COC Ensemble Studio performance of The Magic Flute, 2011. Conductor Johannes Debus, director Diane Paulus, set and costume designer Myung Hee Cho and lighting designer Scott Zielinski.

Download A scene from the COC Ensemble Studio performance of The Magic Flute, 2011. Conductor Johannes Debus, director Diane Paulus, set and costume designer Myung Hee Cho and lighting designer Scott Zielinski.

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Following a sold-out world premiere engagement in Toronto and standing ovations at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Opéra de Lyon, Robert Lepage’s critically acclaimed The Nightingale and Other Short Fables makes its anticipated US premiere at BAM. 

Under the direction of Robert Lepage, the opera is transformed into a magical chinoiserie centered around a moonlit lake—created by filling the orchestra pit with nearly 12,000 gallons of water. The musicians and chorus are placed onstage, allowing the audience to see and hear the various musical layers that make this production so entrancing. Traditional pan-Asian water puppets, created by Tony and Emmy award-winning designer Michael Curry, float and are manipulated by the same singers whose roles they represent, telling the tale of the ethereal nightingale who persuades Death to spare the Emperor.

An audio recording of the full production is available on our website.

Critical Acclaim:

". . . Lepage’s production is a masterpiece! . . . Through brilliant use of scale, the designers created the illusion that the small Bunraku puppets were normal-sized, so the semi-submerged singers . . . seemed like giant, guardian spirits for their puppet-characters."

Tamara Bernstein, Globe and Mail

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The Canadian Opera Company premiere of Nixon in China took place Saturday, Feb. 5. The production will run for eight performances through Feb. 26. 

About the Music

Composing Nixon in China

Note that the singers are amplified as per the intent of the composer.

Director James Robinson discusses his history with the groundbreaking work in his Director's Notes:

"As a graduate student in Composition and Theory at the University of Minnesota, I was part of an unforgettable discussion in the Composition Seminar that followed the first television broadcast of Nixon in China. We were an opinionated and serious lot, usually found lazily agonizing over the merits of the twelve-tone system versus Neo-Romanticism, or trying to outdo each other with clever excuses for skipping performances of landmark 20th-century works or newer compositions that would doubtless enhance our knowledge and prospective careers. The day after the Nixon broadcast, however, was different: the conversation was fresh and biting, fists pounded the table, the air was electric with opinion and, yes, even a few tears were shed. In short, it was a wonderfully polarizing event that made me realize how relevant a new opera can be—and how quickly it can transform our view of the world."

Critical Acclaim:

“The COC’s first-ever production, created by James Robinson for Opera Theatre of St. Louis in 2004, takes careful stock of the work in all its registers of meaning. It draws out themes that were less explicit in the realistic debut productionof 1987.” – The Globe and Mail

“Thanks to this smart, engaging and viscerally satisfying collaboration, this substantial, three-act opera feels even more compelling and actual in 2011.” – Toronto Star

"Nixon in China proves what an exhilarating experience modern opera can be." - Eye Weekly

Read patron reactions here.

About the cast and creative team: 

• The majority of the principal singers in our production, including Robert Orth (Richard Nixon), Maria Kanyova (Pat Nixon), Thomas Hammons (Henry Kissinger), and Chen-Ye Yuan (Chou En-lai) make up the cast of the highly acclaimed 2009 Naxos recording of Nixon in China. Of this recording, the Financial Times notes that "this release has caught the attention of critics throughout the classical music industry from Opera News and BBC Music Magazine to the Financial Times and e-Music. Music lovers and critics across the country and around the world are praising this release as a new standard in the genre." 
• Robert Orth is today's definitive interpreter of Richard Nixon, having played the role both in the 2009 Naxos recording (see above) and multiple stage productions. The Globe and Mail wrote of his performance in Vancouver: "he is Richard Nixon: The hunched shoulders, used-car salesman’s smile; the fawning, dog-like efforts to impress; and the paranoid facial mannerisms all ring true. So does Orth’s singing. His diction was immaculate, and each syllable was masterfully inflected. Dissimulation,  weakness, pride and, ultimately, pathos: All co-existed uneasily in Orth’s multifaceted characterization." 
• Thomas Hammons, who will sing Henry Kissinger, originated this role in the 1987 premiere of the opera.

Articles, interviews and profiles: 

• Maclean's article on Nixon in China's increasing popularity 
• Toronto Star interview with set designer Allen Moyer
• Globe and Mail interview with John Adams
• Opera 101 interview with Robert Orth (audio download)
• Definitely the Opera review of John Adams' autobiography
• Toronto Star interview with John Adams and Robert Orth
• IN Toronto interview with Robert Orth
• Classical 96.3 FM interview with Thomas Hammons (audio)
• Blog entry by John Adams about the Nixon in China vocal writing
• Newsweek article about Nixon in China

Photos:

Below are our production photos for Nixon in China. Click on the "download" link for the larger images. When using these photos on your blog, make sure to use the full photo credit.

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