Fun Facts

Did you know:

. . . that the COC is a not-for-profit, charitable organization?
. . . that the COC is the largest producer of opera in Canada?
. . . that the COC is the owner of Canada’s first purpose-built opera house, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, inaugurated in June 2006?
. . . that the COC currently produces seven fully-staged opera productions and over 70 free concerts at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts?
. . . that the COC produced Canada’s first fully staged production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in September 2006?
. . . that the COC makes an ongoing effort to bring opera to new audiences through its numerous education and outreach activities such as Opera 101?
. . . that the COC reaches over 16,000 young people and from Nov. 8 – Dec. 5. 2010, completed its most ambitious tour of elementary schools to date with two productions travelling a combined 9,068 km in Ontario and northern Québec, and giving a collective 47 performances?
. . . that the COC presents public opera concerts and educational performances in concert halls, schools and community centres throughout Ontario?
. . . that the COC started the Ensemble Studio, Canada’s pre-eminent training program for young singers, directors and coaches. World-recognized alumni include Ben Heppner, Wendy Nielsen, Gidon Saks, John Fanning and Isabel Bayrakdarian?
. . . that COC artists have won Juno Awards for Classical Album of the Year for Vocal or Choral Performance: Soirée française (1998) and Mozart: Arie e Duetti (2007)?
. . . that COC artists won the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for the Arts in 1999?
. . . that COC artists have won 41 Dora Mavor Moore Awards since 1997?
. . . that COC artists won the 1997 Gabriel Fauré Award from France’s Académie du disque lyrique for Best Recording of Opera Arias: Soirée française?
. . . that COC artists won the 1993 Scotsman Hamada Festival Prize (£50,000) and Critics Prize for Music and Drama for Bluebeard’s Castle/Erwartung at the Edinburgh Festival?
. . . that the COC enjoys an international reputation for artistic excellence and creative innovation?
. . . that in the 2010/2011 season the Canadian Opera Company will perform more often than any other North American company except the Metropolitan Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago?
. . . that the COC continues producing broadcasts of its entire 2010/2011 opera season on CBC Radio 2 and Radio-Canada?
. . . that the COC has been invited to the prestigious Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in March 2011 to perform The Nightingale and Other Short Fables, having journeyed to the acclaimed Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and Opéra national de Lyon and still to arrive in Quebec in June and Amsterdam in 2012?
. . . that the COC showcases the brilliance of our national talent while attracting to our stage the best the world has to offer?
. . . that the COC invented SURTITLES™ – the technology which provides a simultaneous translation of the opera’s text projected over the proscenium arch?
. . . that the COC has approximately 140,000 audience members per season and approximately 13,000 annual subscribers. Over 16,000 people attended the free concerts and lectures in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre during the 2009/2010 season?
. . . that the COC employs approximately 90 full-time staff; over 350 contract and part-time staff; engages over 400 singers, instrumentalists, conductors, directors, designers and other artists; and relies on the support of over 250 volunteers including 40 board members?

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