Parlando: The COC Blog

By Suzanne Vanstone, Senior Communications Manager, Editorial at the Canadian Opera Company.

After splitting the demanding title role in the Ensemble Studio performance of Semele this past spring, sopranos Mireille Asselin and Ambur Braid are both excited to join us this fall to share the charming role of Adele in Johann Strauss II’s operatic frolic Die Fledermaus.

Both sopranos have been busy over the summer months. Ambur had a few stops: Santa Fe to coach upcoming roles with Anne Larlee and Matthew Epstein; then to the Chautauqua Institution to work with Richard Bonynge; followed by a stint at the Steans Institute in Ravinia. Mireille left Toronto the day after Semele closed to travel to Glimmerglass where she performed Phénice/Lucinde in Lully’s Armide with Opera Atelier as well as being involved to a lesser extent with Aida and The Music Man.

Both agree that the Ensemble Studio program has helped in their preparation for the larger roles they have been offered recently. “The first year was so unlike anything I’d ever experienced,” says Ambur. “But you put things together in a way that works for you. My second year involved a series of small roles, understudying Clémence in Love from Afar and performing Semele. Clémence is the biggest role I’ve ever learned, never mind the most difficult, but that made learning Semele so much easier. It’s made me a better musician and made me organize my time in a different way. In Fledermaus I am not as concerned about the music as I am about all that German dialogue! It will be so much fun, but you have to have that fluidity with the language.”

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