For the 2018/2019 season, the Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio welcomes bass-baritone Joel Allison, mezzo-soprano Simona Genga, and sopranos Lauren Margison and Anna-Sophie Neher. The four singers join the Ensemble Studio in August 2018, and will hit the ground running in one of the most highly regarded training programs of its kind in North America.

The four emerging artists will be joining returning baritone Samuel Chan, soprano Lauren Eberwein, mezzo-soprano Simone McIntosh, and pianists/intern coaches Rachael Kerr and Stéphane Mayer. 

Built around an individually-tailored, multi-year program, the newcomers will learn what it takes to pursue a professional operatic career through collaborative coaching, language and acting studies, career skills development, understudying and performing mainstage roles, and participating in masterclasses with internationally renowned opera professionals. 

Jane Archibald was initially nervous about performing in Wajdi Mouawad’s production of  The Abduction From The Seraglio (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) during its first staging at Opéra de Lyon in 2016. Theatre directors, while meaning well, can often make demands on singers that aren’t technically feasible, and with no experience in opera, approach productions with what she calls “a great many opinions” on revolutionizing the art form. Working with the Lebanese-Canadian theatre artist, however, she experienced an open exchange of ideas and respect for music.

At the start of production, Archibald says the director “sent out a wonderful long introductory letter, with an almost-essay on his feelings about the piece and what he wanted to do. He had really thought about it—it wasn’t, “opera is easy; I’ll throw it together!” It was, “I’ve thought about this; this is what I think about the women and characters and their development.” That was automatically a lot more interesting.”

With a recently signed contract that will take his leadership through to the 2025/2026 season, General Director Alexander Neef is building on his first decade in Toronto by continuing to attract opera’s biggest names to the stage, investing in young artist training like never before, and advancing the conversation about the art form’s relevance and challenges in the 21st century. Interview conducted and condensed by Nikita Gourski.