The Canadian Opera Company (COC) is an

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

company in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada. It is the largest opera company in Canada and one of the largest producers of opera in North America. The COC performs at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, which was purpose-built for opera and ballet and is shared with the National Ballet of Canada. For forty years until April 2006, the COC had performed at the O'Keefe Centre (now known as Meridian Hall).

History

Nicholas Goldschmidt and Herman Geiger-Torel founded the organization in 1950 as the Royal Conservatory Opera Company. Geiger-Torel became the COC's artistic director in 1956 and its general director in 1960. The company was renamed the Canadian Opera Association in 1960, and the Canadian Opera Company in 1977. Geiger-Torel retired from the general directorship in 1976. Lotfi Mansouri was the COC's general director from 1976 to 1988. In 1983, the COC introduced surtitles (supertitles) to their productions, the first company to use them in an opera house. Productions included

Joan Sutherland Dame Joan Alston Sutherland, (7 November 1926 – 10 October 2010) was an Australian dramatic coloratura soprano known for her contribution to the renaissance of the bel canto repertoire from the late 1950s to the 1980s. She possessed a voice ...

's first performance of Donizetti's '' Anna Bolena''. Brian Dickie served as the COC's general director from 1988 to 1993. Dickie named Richard Bradshaw the COC's chief conductor and head of music in 1989. Elaine Calder was the COC's general director from 1994 to 1997. In 1998, Bradshaw was named general director. During his tenure, Bradshaw secured funding for the COC's new permanent home, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Previously, the COC had been performing at the O'Keefe Centre (renamed to the Hummingbird Centre and then the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts). In 2006, the COC opened its new opera house with an all-new production of Wagner's '' Der Ring des Nibelungen''. Michael Levine was the designer, and there were four directors: Michael Levine ('' Das Rheingold''),

Atom Egoyan Atom Egoyan (; ; born July 19, 1960) is an Armenian Canadians, Armenian-Canadian filmmaker. One of the most preeminent directors of the Toronto New Wave, he emerged during the 1980s and made his career breakthrough with ''Exotica (film), Exotica ...

('' Die Walküre''), François Girard ('' Siegfried''), and Tim Albery ('' Götterdämmerung''). In 2006, Bradshaw's contract as general director was renewed for another 10 years. Bradshaw died of a sudden heart attack on August 15, 2007. In June 2008, Alexander Neef was named the COC's general director; he formally assumed the position in October 2008. In October 2008, Johannes Debus made his debut with the COC as a conductor in a production of Prokofiev's '' War and Peace'', where he earned critical acclaim. In January 2009, the COC announced Debus's appointment as music director. Sandra Horst, who runs the University of Toronto's Opera Division, has long served as the company's chorus master. The 2019/2020 COC theatre season was cut short due to the global

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, on which the COC ceased all productions after March 2020 due to restrictions on large indoor gatherings. The COC hoped to restart the shortened 2020/2021 theatre season by January 2021, however on October 6, 2020, company management announced that the entire 2020/2021 COC theatre season was cancelled due to the ongoing pandemic. Neef became director general of the Paris Opera in September 2020 and was replaced by Briton Perryn Leech in March 2021. In June 2024, Perryn Leech left and was replaced as interim general director by David C. Ferguson, a retired banker and accountant.

Recent productions

2008/2009 season

* Mozart: ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...

'' * Prokofiev: '' War and Peace'' * Beethoven: '' Fidelio'' * Dvořák: '' Rusalka'' * Verdi: '' Simon Boccanegra'' * Puccini: ''

La bohème ''La bohème'' ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '':wikt:quadro, quadri'', ''wikt:tableau, tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto b ...

'' * Britten: '' A Midsummer Night's Dream''

2009/2010 season

*Puccini: '' Madama Butterfly'' *Stravinsky: '' The Nightingale and Other Short Fables'' *Bizet: '' Carmen'' *Verdi: ''

Otello ''Otello'' () is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's play ''Othello''. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, first performed at the La Scala, Teatro alla Scala, M ...

'' *Wagner: '' The Flying Dutchman'' *Donizetti: '' Maria Stuarda'' *Mozart: '' Idomeneo''

2010/2011 season

* Aida by

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi, his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma ...

* Death in Venice (opera) by Benjamin Britten * The Magic Flute by

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

* Nixon in China by

John Adams (composer) John Coolidge Adams (born February 15, 1947) is an American composer and conductor. Among the most regularly performed composers of contemporary classical music, he is particularly noted for his operas, many of which center around historical e ...

* La Cenerentola by

Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. He gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote man ...

* Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss * Orfeo ed Euridice by

Christoph Willibald Gluck Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; ; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period (music), classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of th ...

2011/2012 season

* Iphigénie en Tauride by

* Rigoletto by

* Tosca by

Giacomo Puccini Giacomo Puccini (22 December 1858 29 November 1924) was an Italian composer known primarily for List of compositions by Giacomo Puccini#Operas, his operas. Regarded as the greatest and most successful proponent of Italian opera after Verdi, he ...

* L'Amour de loin by Kaija Saariaho * The Tales of Hoffmann by

Jacques Offenbach Jacques Offenbach (; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera ''The Tales of Hoffmann''. He was a p ...

* Eine florentinische Tragödie by Alexander von Zemlinsky * Gianni Schicchi by

* Semele (Handel) by George Frideric Handel

2012/2013 season

* Il trovatore by

* Die Fledermaus by

Johann Strauss II Johann Baptist Strauss II (; ; 25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899), also known as Johann Strauss Jr., the Younger or the Son (), was an List of Austrian composers, Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas as well ...

* Tristan und Isolde by

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

* La clemenza di Tito by

* Salome (opera) by Richard Strauss * Dialogues des Carmélites by Francis Poulenc * Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti

2013/2014 season

* Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten *

Così fan tutte (''Women are like that, or The School for Lovers''), Köchel catalogue, K. 588, is an opera buffa in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was first performed on 26 January 1790 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria. The libretto was written ...

* Un ballo in maschera by

* Hercules (Handel) by George Frideric Handel * Roberto Devereux by Gaetano Donizetti * Don Quichotte by

Jules Massenet Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (; 12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era best known for his operas, of which he wrote more than thirty. The two most frequently staged are ''Manon'' (1884 ...

2014/2015 season

* Falstaff (opera) by

* Madama Butterfly by

* Die Walküre by

The Barber of Seville ''The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution'' ( ) is an ''opera buffa'' (comic opera) in two acts composed by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's French comedy ' ...

* Bluebeard's Castle by

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...

* Erwartung by

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

2015/2016 season

* La traviata by

*Pyramus and Thisbe by Barbara Monk Feldman * Siegfried (opera) by

* The Marriage of Figaro by

* Carmen by

Georges Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', w ...

* Maometto II by

2016/2017 season

* Norma (opera) by Vincenzo Bellini * Ariodante by George Frideric Handel * The Magic Flute by

* Götterdämmerung by

* Louis Riel (opera) by Harry Somers * Tosca by

2017/2018 season

* The Elixir of Love by Gaetano Donizetti * Arabella by Richard Strauss * Rigoletto by

* Abduction from the Seraglio by

* The Nightingale and Other Short Fables by

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

* Anna Bolena by Gaetano Donizetti

2018/2019 season

Eugene Onegin ''Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse'' (, Reforms of Russian orthography, pre-reform Russian: Евгеній Онѣгинъ, романъ въ стихахъ, ) is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. ''Onegin'' is considered a classic of ...

by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky *

Hadrian Hadrian ( ; ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian was born in Italica, close to modern Seville in Spain, an Italic peoples, Italic settlement in Hispania Baetica; his branch of the Aelia gens, Aelia '' ...

by Rufus Wainwright * Elektra by Richard Strauss *

La Bohème ''La bohème'' ( , ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '':wikt:quadro, quadri'', ''wikt:tableau, tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto b ...

2019/2020 season

* Turandot by

* Rusalka by Antonín Dvořák *

* Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck * Aida by
Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi, his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma ...
''(cancelled)'' * The Flying Dutchman by
Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...
''(postponed to 2022/2023 season)''

2020/2021 season (cancelled)

Due to the global

, the Canadian Opera Company cancelled all live in-person performances for the 2020/2021 season. The operas originally planned for that season were Parsifal, The Marriage of Figaro, Carmen, Katya Kabanova, La Traviata, and Orfeo ed Euridice.

2021/2022 season

Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the COC cancelled several planned performances for the 2021/2022 season, but managed to produce 10 digital productions and two in-person productions in the spring of 2022. * La traviata by

* The Magic Flute by

2022/2023 season

* The Flying Dutchman by

* Carmen by

* The Marriage of Figaro by

* Salome by Richard Strauss *

Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...

* Tosca by

* Pomegranate by Kye Marshall and Amanda Hale

2023/2024 season

* Fidelio by

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

* The Cunning Little Vixen by

Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, Music theory, music theorist, Folkloristics, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian folk music, Moravian and other Slavs, Slavic music, includin ...

* Don Pasquale by Gaetano Donizetti * Medea by Luigi Cherubini * Aportia Chryptych: A Black Opera for Portia White by HAUI x Sean Mayes

2024/2025 season

* Nabucco by

* Faust by Charles Gounod * Madama Butterfly by

* La Reine-garçon by and Michel Marc Bouchard * Wozzeck by Alban Berg *

by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky * Cavalleria rusticana by Pietro Mascagni

2025/2026 season

* Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod * Orfeo ed Euridice by

* Rigoletto by

* Bluebeard's Castle/ Erwartung by

* Werther by

Notable members

* Cornelis Opthof (bass-baritone), sang with the company for fifty years."In memoriam Cornelis Opthof (1930–2008)"
(March 22, 2009) The Free Library.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Canadian Opera Company Musical groups established in 1950 Canadian opera companies Musical groups from Toronto 1950 establishments in Ontario