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By Jenna Douglas on April 20, 2015
In the West, one of our ongoing cultural discussions is the divide (which seems to grow wider) between audiences of Classical music and popular music. I had always vaguely wondered if this perceived divide exists elsewhere in the world, or if it was unique to Europe and North America.
(Continue reading)By Jenna Douglas on March 25, 2015
The opera scene in Canada can be divided into two broad groups: those with real estate, and those without. Companies like the Canadian Opera Company own the Four Seasons Centre, which they use for their whole season. Other companies, like Opera 5, move between various venues for their shows. There is indeed a blurry line between a company owning its primary performance space, and a company's having a history of regular use in a specific venue, the way l'Opéra de Montréal uses space at Place des Arts. Generally speaking, though, larger opera companies have a fixed performance venue, and smaller, independent companies are more nomadic...
(Continue reading)By Jenna Douglas on March 10, 2015
I loved my time in university. For the first time in my life, I was surrounded with everything I needed to do exactly what I wanted: make music, listen to music, scour libraries for music, nerd out about music. I even found like-minded friends, and our relationships grew out of our mutual love of our work. I still remember those inspiring times, even when I look back with exasperation on the disproportionate amount of training for the amount of payback (financial and otherwise)...
(Continue reading)By Jenna Douglas on February 17, 2015
This week, I'm helping out on a remount production of Semele. I first worked on it in 2012 during my time in the COC Ensemble Studio, and this March, Zhang Huan's Semele is heading to the Brooklyn Academy of Music...
(Continue reading)By Jenna Douglas on February 3, 2015
In the last few weeks, a recurring topic has come up among my artist friends. The crux of the issue can actually be boiled down to one question: are you still an artist if you can't survive on your artist income?...
(Continue reading)By Jenna Douglas on January 20, 2015
This past weekend, I attended The Opera Exchange, an event presented semi-regularly by the Canadian Opera Company to discuss relevant opera topics, structured around the COC's current season. With Dmitri Tcherniakov's production of Don Giovanni set to open on January 24th at the Four Seasons Centre, it was a good opportunity to chat about that polarizing topic, Regietheater, or director's theatre...
(Continue reading)By Jenna Douglas on January 5, 2015
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By Jenna Douglas on December 13, 2014
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By Jenna Douglas on December 1, 2014
Opera doesn't make money, it never has, and we all know it. I was recently asked about opera's economy and why opera companies have never functioned as a for-profit theatre company. The theoretical comparison was between the Canadian Opera Company and Mirvish Productions. My initial response to the question of a business model was that there was simply not enough money. Opera is expensive to put up, and expensive to maintain; Mirvish Productions was funded with Ed Mirvish's wealth, and designed to make money from its theatres and productions. As with most opera and theatre companies worldwide, the COC receives government grants, and both corporate and individual donations to supplement their revenue from ticket sales. Without that kind of support, the math simply wouldn't add up. We know this in the theatre industry; it's nothing new. So, with all the generous donors keeping opera afloat, why hasn't there been a notable attempt to invest in starting an opera company that will eventually self-sustain?
(Continue reading)By Jenna Douglas on November 12, 2014
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