For the past month we've followed director Peter Sellars, conductor Harry Bicket and the cast of Hercules as they rehearsed together for the first time in three years to recreate Sellars' emotional production of Handel's great opera. During rehearsals we had the opportunity to chat with bass-baritone Eric Owens (Hercules), mezzo-soprano Alice Coote (Dejanira), countertenor David Daniels (Lichas), soprano Lucy Crowe (Iole) and tenor Richard Croft (Hyllus) about the artistic process as they step back into the shoes of the complex characters they brought to life in Chicago in 2011. 

On Friday, April 4, join us as we explore Hercules and examine music’s role, both historical and contemporary, in the rehabilitation and re-integration of those touched by war. At this special Opera Exchange, Peter Sellars will be joined by former CBC war correspondent Brian Stewart, musicologists Kip Pegley and Susan McClary, 18th-century literary/drama scholar Brian Corman as well as veterans from World War II and the wars in Korea, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. 

This special Opera Exchange may be over, but you can watch the events unfold in the video below, you can also view the #OperaExchange hashtag to see what kind of conversations we had throughout the day.

By Claire Morley, Associate Manager, Editorial

If opera is a profoundly collaborative art form, it could hardly ask for a better keeper than Peter Sellars. “I don’t think of myself as a director ever,” he explains. “You have amazing people in the room – brilliant singers, composer, and usually somebody who wrote pretty amazing words. You have visual art and you have movement. Somebody has to invite all these elements to meet in interesting ways, to take risks and actually have a conversation about something that is difficult and not obvious. All of these complicated interactions need someone to help negotiate the exchange – my job is to be useful in those conditions.”