When first announcing the 2020-21 season last month, the Canadian Opera Company had left the door open for the possibility of returning to the Four Seasons Centre.
Today, the COC has confirmed that due to the ongoing uncertainty around indoor gatherings, they will be cancelling the rest of its originally planned 2020/2021 season.
“Earlier this summer, our team made a promise to ourselves — and to our audiences — to explore every possible option for going ahead with our season,” writes COC General Director Alexander Neef in a letter to subscribers. “Since then, however, the changing local health situation has made it clear that cancelling our original winter and spring programming is the only safe decision for our staff, artists, and audience members.”
Cancelled in-person productions will include:
- Bizet’s Carmen
- Janáček’s Katya Kabanova
- Verdi’s La Traviata
- Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice
The COC will also be cancelling the world premiere of Fantasma, the Opera for Young Audiences production recently commissioned by the COC, as well as all special events, including the COC’s annual Operanation and Fine Wine Auction fundraisers.
“When we first announced our 20/21 season, we had called it ‘monumental — a larger-than-life year, full of bustling activity and bold new opera’,” added Neef. “What I’m realizing now is that this season is very much still monumental — even more so, in many ways, than our original plans. This is undoubtedly one of the most challenging times in our company’s history but, together, we are moving opera forward into an exciting future of new possibilities.
#LUDWIGVAN
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