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La Reine-garçon

La Reine-garçon

Bilodeau/Bouchard

January 31 - February 15, 2025 Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
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La Reine-garçon

Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts

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La Reine-garçon

Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts

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Queen Christine of Sweden was raised as a boy by her father during a period of extraordinary change. At the height of the Scientific Revolution, she employed the philosopher René Descartes as her tutor, sparking an intellectual and spiritual transformation of massive historical significance. 

The first-ever co-commission between the Canadian Opera Company and Opéra de Montréal, La Reine-garçon marks an important chapter in Canadian operatic storytelling. Sopranos Kirsten MacKinnon and Kirsten LeBlanc star as the Swedish queen who navigated a course between faith and knowledge, love and duty.

More of this, please

Lev Bratishenko, Opera Canada

Synopsis in a Minute

Uppsala Castle, 1649. Queen Christine, more masculine than her men of war, more erudite than her scholars, brings René Descartes to her kingdom to teach her the mechanism of the passions that inhabit the soul. Torn between the masculine and the feminine, between faith and knowledge, between her love for a woman and the State which demands an heir, she seeks the truth, her truth–despite the rapacity of the nobles, the ardour of the suitors, her mother's madness, and, above all, despite the outbursts of her own passions.

Performance Information

  • Performance time is approximately two hours and 45 minutes, including one 25-minute intermission
  • Sung in French with English SURTITLES™
A portrait of composer Julien Bilodeau

Composed By Julien Bilodeau

A portrait of composer Julien Bilodeau

Julien Bilodeau

Julien Bilodeau (Québec, 1974) is one of the most prominent composers of his generation. Winner of two first prizes with major distinctions at the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal, he then placed in Paris (IRCAM, CCMIX) and in Frankfurt (Ensemble Modern Akademie, Frankfurt). In 2006, the Canada Council for the Arts awarded him the Robert Flemming Prize in recognition of his promise as a young composer. His works, whose style and aesthetics are very open and varied, have been performed around the world by leading ensembles including the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Modern Ensemble, the Itinerary Ensemble, the Orchestra from the Americas of New York, the Metropolitan Orchestra of Greater Montreal and the New Modern Ensemble.

In 2011, Maestro Kent Nagano commissioned “Un cri élève nos chants,” a work premiered by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra on the occasion of the inaugural evening of the Maison Symphonique de Montréal. Julien Bilodeau is a Fellow of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Arts and Letters Council of Quebec and the Quebec Research Fund, Society and Culture. His first opera, Another brick in the wall, directed by Dominic Champagne on the libretto by Roger Waters, was premiered in March 2017 by the Opéra de Montréal.

A portrait of librettist Michel Marc Bouchard

Libretto by Michel Marc Bouchard

A portrait of librettist Michel Marc Bouchard

Michel Marc Bouchard

Playwright, screenwriter, librettist and teacher, Michel Marc Bouchard was born in February 1958 in Saint-Coeur de Marie (Alma) at Lac Saint-Jean, Quebec, Canada.

Bouchard has written more than 25 plays that have been translated into several languages and performed in the most prestigious theatres and festivals worldwide. His best known works are: Lilies (Les Feluettes); The Orphan Muses (Les Muses orphelines); Down Dangerous Passes Road (Le Chemin des passes dangereuses); The Tale of Teeka (L’Histoire de l’oie); The Coronation Voyage (Le Voyage du Couronnement); Heat Waves (Les Grandes Chaleurs); Tom at the Farm (Tom à la ferme); Christina, the Girl King (Christine, la reine-garçon); The Divine, a Play for Sarah Bernhardt (La Divine Illusion) and The Night Logan woke up (La Nuit où Laurier Gaudreault s’est reveille) and Kisses Deep (Embrasse).

His works have been performed in more than fifty countries and to date, there are more than 450 productions in twenty languages.

Cast

A portrait of Kirsten MacKinnon

Kirsten MacKinnon

Christine
A portrait of Kirsten LeBlanc

Kirsten LeBlanc

Christine (February 7)
A portrait of Philippe Sly

Philippe Sly

Karl Gustav
A portrait of Isaiah Bell

Isaiah Bell

Johan Oxenstierna
A portrait of Daniel Okulitch

Daniel Okulitch

Axel Oxenstierna
A portrait of Owen McCausland

Owen McCausland

René Descartes
A portrait of Aline Kutan

Aline Kutan

Marie-Éléonor
A portrait of Alain Coulombe

Alain Coulombe

Assistant to Déscartes

Queen Hezumuryango

Ebba Sparre

Originally from Burundi, Queen Hezumuryango holds both her master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from the University of Montreal, where she earned a number of prizes that include the Ferguson Scholarship, the Gadbois Bursary, and the support of the Jeunesses Musicales Canada foundation. Performance credits include Marquise de Berkenfield in La fille du régiment (Festival d'opéra de Québec), Mercédès in Carmen (Canadian Opera Company), Larina in Eugene Onegin (Highlands Opera Studio), and Carmen in La tragédie de Carmen (Atelier d'opéra à l'Université de Montréal). Hezumuryango was a semifinalist in the OSM Competition in 2021 and has participated in several prestigious programs including the Canadian Vocal Arts Institute, the Toronto Summer Opera Workshop, and the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance. 

Creative

A portrait of conductor Johannes Debus

Johannes Debus

Conductor

Angela Konrad

Director

Anick La Bissonnière

Set Designer

Sebastien Dionne

Costume Designer

With the COC Orchestra and Chorus

A co-production with Opéra de Montréal

The COC Orchestra is generously sponsored by The Schulich Foundation and by W. Bruce C. Bailey

Presented at

Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts