As the sun sets on the summer of 2016, the staff of the COC have been reminiscing about our various opera-themed journeys over the past few months. Enjoy a selection of photos and stories from our staff travelling abroad!

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Gianmarco Segato, Adult Programs Manager

I had the great fortune of travelling to Central Europe in May, partaking in an opera marathon seeing performances every night for 18 days straight! In this picture, I’m at Prague’s gorgeous National Theatre just before a performance of a Czech rarity, Bohuslav Martinů’s Julietta.

Then in July I traveled with the choir of Toronto’s St. Simon-the-Apostle Anglican Church to England where we sang Evensong and Sunday services at Lincoln and Chester Cathedrals—two magnificent examples of English Gothic architectural splendour. The picture below is of me in the Chester Cathedral.

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Francesco Corsaro, Senior Development Officer, Institutional Gifts

I spent two weeks over June and July visiting friends in Rome. One of my friends is the director for the Teatro di Roma, housed in historic Teatro Argentina. The Teatro Argentina is where Rossini’s The Barber of Seville premiered on February 20, 1816. Working at the COC makes visits like this extra interesting as I get to see how a large Italian theatre company (close to 700 curtain calls per year between two venues!) operates from the top down. Working in fundraising brings another interesting perspective to these visits. Italians and Romans do not have the same culture of philanthropy as we do in Canada, which highlights, for me, the importance of connecting with our audience, donors and the larger community to ensure we can produce excellent, relevant productions for our patrons.

   

Behind the scenes at Teatro Argentina.

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Claudine Domingue, Director of Public Relations

Unfortunately, on my trip to London last May I wasn’t able to see any opera, but I did visit the house where Handel spent much of his life. Located just a few streets from Oxford Circus is the Georgian building where Handel made his home from 1723 until his death in 1759. Which means that this is where Handel composed the Messiah, The Royal Fireworks and so many other pieces and operas, including this season’s Ariodante. After his death and over two centuries of renovations and structural changes, the house has been restored to its former layout and design reflecting Handel’s era. Little did he know that 200 years after his residency, another musician, Jimi Hendrix, would move in right next door. The Handel Hendrix Museum has connected the two flats so you can see both in one visit. Needless to say, Hendrix’s bedroom looks a bit different from Handel’s!

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Keith Lam, Ticket Services Representative

This August, I headed up to the beautiful county of Haliburton again for my fourth season with the Highlands Opera Studio. This year I sang various roles in Dean Burry's The Brothers Grimm and The Bremen Town Musicians, two operas the COC performs regularly through its annual school tour. I played six different characters in total. What a challenge, but quite thrilling too! I had some scary quick costume changes, one of them was only 10 seconds. The double-bill was directed by my mentor, Canadian tenor Richard Margison, and on the piano was the incomparable Julie Gunn. Another highlight for me was having Dietlinde Turban Maazel from the Castleton Festival on faculty. She held acting classes for the participants which were quite invaluable. As an actor, nothing makes me happier than to be able to dissect monologues and sonnets.

 

Keith Lam as Rumpelstiltskin (right) in The Brothers Grimm, photo: John Martens.

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Gianna Wichelow, Senior Manager, Creative & Publication

I spent a month in Florence, Italy, and visited the site of the first opera performance ever, which was Jacopo Peri's Dafne in 1597. This momentous event took place at the Palazzo Tornabuoni on Via de' Tornabuoni, now Florence’s fashion avenue. In its current iteration the palazzo is an upmarket residence managed by Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts (who also named our opera house, coincidentally!).

I also took a side trip to Venice and saw Robert Carsen’s beautiful La Traviata. His production marked the re-opening of the Teatro La Fenice in 2004, after it was rebuilt following its destruction by arson in 1996. This production is available on DVD and I recommend it highly. I cried like a baby through Act II!

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Steve Kelley, Chief Communications Officer

The first time I met Jamie Barton was when she sang Suzuki in a production of Madame Butterfly at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. It’s a spring to summer festival, informal, with picnics before the opera and after every performance, the artists and audience mingle “under the tent.”  I’ve been a fan of hers ever since that night in late May of 2008.

 

Photo credit: Tiziana Caruso as Desdemona and Jamie Barton as Emilia in ​Otello​ (COC, 2010), photo: Gary Beechey

I was thrilled when she won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in both opera and art song a couple of years later, so imagine how happy I was to read that she would be appearing at Koerner Hall last summer. I read the press release, logged onto the web and bought a pair of tickets. It was wonderful to listen to this gorgeous instrument again—and a real treat to hear Jamie sing songs. (Not that I don’t love arias!) And when she kicked off her heels to sing the last part of the recital, it was great to know that my pal from OTSL is still an “anti-diva,” a real artist who hasn’t forgotten where she came from.

Photo credit: Jamie Barton as Adalgisa and Sondra Radvanovsky as Norma in Norma (San Francsico Opera, 2014), photo: Cory Weaver

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Meighan Szigeti, Associate Manager, Digital Marketing

In June, I travelled around Hungary and managed to make a quick day trip from Sopron to Vienna to see the sights of the traditional music capital of Europe. Joining the long rush line outside to hear Anna Netrebko in Manon Lescaut was, unfortunately, not an option, but I did manage to enjoy a tour of the Wiener Staatsoper. The house has a very complex history owing to both world wars. Most of the house did not survive an American bombing during the last months of the Second World War, but the front entry and salon were somehow saved from the fire and destruction. The rebuild began after the war, and you can see a slight difference in style between the 19th-century main staircase and entrance, and the rebuilt boxes, auditorium and stage. One minute you’re enjoying the ornate, classical style typical of older European opera houses then you realize your surroundings feel a bit more contemporary and modernized.

A neat bit of information to keep in mind if you’re ever enjoying a performance at Wiener Staatsoper and feel like being a bit fancy: if you have an extra 500 Euros lying around, you can reserve the Emperor’s Tea Room for yourself and other guests during the intermission!

 

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 Photo credit (top image): a scene from Hercules (COC, 2014), photo: Michael Cooper