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Toronto–Rigoletto is one of Verdi’s most popular and enduring works, a riveting drama that features some of opera’s most recognized and referenced arias and melodies. In some not-to-be-missed casting at the Canadian Opera Company this winter, baritone Quinn Kelsey—widely considered the world’s reigning Rigoletto—stars in the title role with COC Music Director Johannes Debus conducting this “musical jackpot” (The Globe and Mail) and masterpiece of Italian grand opera. Rigoletto runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on January 24, 28, February 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14, 2026.

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Toronto – A perennial audience favourite for its effervescent score and fast-paced, fun-filled storyline, The Barber of Seville is an ideal introduction to the opera-going experience. In this larger-than-life production, comedy and colour collide as the title town barber, Figaro, aims to scheme his way into a happy ending for sweet young Rosina. The Barber of Seville runs for eight performances on February 5, 7, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, and 21, 2026, at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, with an additional one-day-only performance on February 20, 2026, specially created for students in grades 6-12, and starring current and graduate artists of the COC’s Ensemble Studio.

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Toronto – When trailblazing journalist Nellie Bly suspected patient abuse at the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island in 1887, New York City, she bravely chose a dangerous path to uncover the truth: feigning mental illness herself in order to be admitted and investigate first-hand. What Bly uncovered was a shocking world designed to break the human spirit—and where women’s grief, poverty, and trauma were labelled as insanity. 10 Days in a Madhouse is a bold contemporary opera from innovative American composer Rene Orth and acclaimed Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch that will make its Canadian premiere in four performances at the Bluma Appel Theatre on June 16, 18, 20, and 21, 2026, produced by Tapestry Opera and co-presented by Luminato Festival, as part of Luminato’s 20th anniversary festival next June, and the Canadian Opera Company, in association with TO Live.

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Toronto – Soprano Nikan Ingabire Kanate of Ottawa won First Prize and the Audience Choice Prize at the Canadian Opera Company’s 12th annual Centre Stage: Ensemble Studio Competition on October 23, 2025 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Marci Ien hosted the spectacular evening that marked the grand finale of a national search for Canada’s top young opera singers, all vying for cash prizes and the chance of a coveted invitation to join the company’s prestigious Ensemble Studio training program.

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Toronto – In promising news for Canadian opera and the performing arts sector at large, the Canadian Opera Company’s 2024/2025 season saw more new audiences looking to experience live opera through the COC’s exciting lineup of newly commissioned opera and brand new-to-Toronto productions. In addition, the company’s community-rooted work to broaden opera awareness and accessibility has also been seeing notable gains, as shared today by COC Board Chair Marcia Lewis Brown and COC General Director David Ferguson at the COC’s Annual General Meeting held at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

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Toronto – Following a cross-country audition tour, seven of the country’s brightest new opera voices are about to step into the spotlight as finalists in the Canadian Opera Company’s Centre Stage: Ensemble Studio Competition, happening October 23, 2025 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The evening is the COC’s largest fundraiser of the year, with all proceeds supporting the company’s world-renowned Ensemble Studio; since 2013, Centre Stage has raised over $4.5 million for the innovative career development program for emerging opera artists.

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Toronto – This New Year's Eve, the romance, drama, and grandeur of opera's greatest hits return to Roy Thomson Hall for a one-of-a-kind concert event, co-presented by Attila Glatz Concert Productions and featuring the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra led by COC Music Director Johannes Debus.

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Toronto – Following widely acclaimed presentations around the globe, director Robert Carsen’s brilliant production of Orfeo ed Euridice is coming home to the Canadian Opera Company for a limited run of performances. Based on the classic Greek myth, Orfeo has recently lost his beloved wife, Euridice, and begs the gods to bring her back from the Underworld. His request is granted on a single condition: he’s forbidden to look at her through their entire quest home, at the risk of losing her forever. Orfeo ed Euridice runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on October 9, 11, 15, 17, 19, 21, and 25, 2025.

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Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company’s 2025/2026 season kicks off with a bold and colourful operatic take on literature’s greatest romance: Roméo et Juliette. Fate and timing are tragically misaligned when lovers from feuding families risk it all to be together in the masterpiece opera from French composer Charles Gounod. This fall marks the opera’s first appearance in over 30 years at the COC and, with a stellar cast supporting a fantastical new production, it’s one that audiences won’t want to miss! Roméo et Juliette runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on September 27, October 5, 8, 10, 14, 16 and 18, 2025.

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Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company welcomes Opera 5 as its newest Company-in-Residence. The two-year artistic residency will commence on July 1, 2025, with one of the major collaborations of the partnership being the creation of an operatic work slated for presentation at the Canadian Opera Company. The COC’s Company-in-Residence program has been in place since 2016; through it, the COC is able to offer support and industry guidance to local opera companies, helping to ensure a flourishing environment for the art form to evolve.

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Toronto–Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is one of opera’s most romantic masterpieces, an all-too-poignant case of too little, too late that has swept generations of audiences away with its soaring arias and rousing choral numbers. When the bookish Tatyana and worldly Onegin fall in love at first sight, her joy is swiftly dashed by the young man’s condescending rejection. It’s only years later that Onegin discovers the true cost of his own careless disregard. Eugene Onegin runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on May 2, 4, 7, 9, 15, 17, and 24, 2025.

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Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company has announced its 2025/2026 season today featuring bold new productions, blockbuster audience favourites, and landmark works from two of Canada’s leading creative visionaries. The exciting mainstage season, to be presented at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, includes a new-to-Toronto staging of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, an all-new co-production of Massenet’s Werther, Verdi’s always popular Rigoletto, Rossini’s family-friendly The Barber of Seville, as well as Robert Carsen’s haunting adaptation of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice and Robert Lepage’s captivating take on Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Schoenberg’s Erwartung.

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Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company welcomes Elisabeta Cojocaru and Kimly Mengyin Wang to the company’s Ensemble Studio as pianist coaches for the 2025/2026 season.

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Toronto - The Canadian Opera Company's prestigious Ensemble Studio for artist career development has invited five of the country's most talented artists to join next season, marking the 45th anniversary of the COC's innovative program for singers and pianists.

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Toronto – Mezzo-soprano Ariana Maubach of Toronto took home First Prize and the Audience Choice Prize at the Canadian Opera Company’s 11th annual Centre Stage: Ensemble Studio Competition on October 30, 2024 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The evening, hosted by television’s Emma Hunter (This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Royal Canadian Air Farce, Letterkenny), marked the grand finale of a national search for Canada’s top young opera singers, all of whom were vying for cash prizes and the chance to be invited for a coveted spot in the company’s prestigious Ensemble Studio training program.

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Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company’s 2023/2024 season saw the company connecting with all new audiences through a critically acclaimed lineup of mainstage programming that included several sold-out performances and a multi-award-winning production of Cherubini’s Medea. In addition, the COC’s long-term audience development strategy was enhanced through several livestreamed concerts and events, as reported today by COC General Director David C. Ferguson at the company’s Annual General Meeting hosted from the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

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Toronto - The first-ever co-commission between the Canadian Opera Company and Opéra de Montréal, La Reine-garçon is a stunning new Canadian-led opera from acclaimed composer Julien Bilodeau and award-winning librettist Michel Marc Bouchard that dives into the life of one of history's most fascinating royals.

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Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company launches its 2024/2025 season with a sweeping saga never before performed in the company’s 74-year history. In a dramatic tale of ruthless ambition, a dangerous love triangle, and unwavering hope in the face of unthinkable odds, Verdi’s Nabucco taps into the fundamental human experience, all set to one of the greatest opera scores ever written. The incredible work of raw power and epic storytelling calls for a cast of more than 120 performers and hundreds of costumes, creating a theatrical feast for the eyes as well as the ears. Nabucco runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on October 4, 6, 12, 17, 19, 23, and 25, 2024.

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Lineup includes the first-ever COC staging of Verdi’s Nabucco and Toronto premiere of La Reine-garçon

Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company announced its 2024/2025 season today with exciting programming comprised almost entirely of new-to-Toronto productions including the first-ever COC staging of Verdi’s Nabucco, the world premiere of a new production of Gounod’s Faust, and the Toronto premiere of La Reine-garçon, a new creation from Canadians Julien Bilodeau and Michel Marc Bouchard. Other featured operas include Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Berg’s Wozzeck and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, as well as a one-night-only concert presentation of Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana.

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Toronto – Seven of Canada’s most talented new opera singers have been named as finalists for the Canadian Opera Company’s Centre Stage: Ensemble Studio Competition on October 30, 2024 at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The annual fundraiser and vocal competition showcases the very best in emerging opera talent, with all proceeds supporting the COC’s prestigious artistic career development program, the Ensemble Studio.

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Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company is pleased to announce a new partnership with Michelin-recommended fine dining restaurant Lucie and The Social Catering & Co.

The Toronto French fine dining restaurant is named in memory of owner and restaurateur Yannick Bigourdan’s grandmother who played a very important role in his childhood growing up in the south of France. Exuding elegance, Lucie is the perfect combination of all the precious moments spent under the roof of his grandmother’s house, surrounded by her love and care.

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Toronto – One of the most beloved operas ever composed arrives at the Canadian Opera Company this winter, starring an internationally acclaimed cast led by renowned conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson.

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Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company welcomes three emerging Canadian artists who will join the company’s highly specialized development program for Canadian opera professionals in the 2024/2025 season: sopranos Emily Rocha and Gabrielle Turgeon, and bass Duncan Stenhouse. The talented young singers join six returning Ensemble Studio members: soprano Karoline Podolak, mezzo-soprano Queen Hezumuryango, tenor Wesley Harrison, baritone Korin Thomas-Smith, and pianist/coaches Brian Cho and Mattia Senesi.

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Toronto–Audiences are in for a darkly decadent treat when a brand new production of Faust, by Charles Gounod, premieres at the Canadian Opera Company this fall. In the opera, the aging philosopher Faust has grown disenchanted with his lifelong quest for knowledge and leaps at the chance to trade his soul for eternal youth…getting much more than he bargained for along the way. Visionary stage director Amy Lane returns to Toronto with a delightfully Burtonesque twist on the classic tale. Faust runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on October 11, 13, 16, 18, 24, 26, and November 2, 2024.

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Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company’s Free Concert Series in the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre Presented by TD Bank Group returns on September 25, 2024. The company’s “mind-blowingly free” (Toronto Star) programming features nearly 70 performances this season, providing an intimate platform for audiences to see their own stories reflected artistically through music, dance, poetry, and so much more in downtown Toronto.

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Toronto – Classical music lovers now have two additional opportunities to hear the Canadian Opera Company’s renowned COC Orchestra in concerts taking place this fall in Toronto.

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