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R<\/span>ufus Wainwright\u2019s second opera, Hadrian<\/em>, arrived this Saturday with the glamour and public resentment of a celebrity baby. Did it have to?<\/p>\n As the first COC commission to get a mainstage premiere since 1999, Hadrian<\/em><\/a> had the impossible task of justifying all the other operas that did not get made and all the composers who did not get a chance<\/a>\u2014or a second chance, after Wainwright\u2019s disappointing Prima Donna<\/em>, which also entered the world on a silver platter and not, like most new operas, on a shoestring.<\/p>\n Imagine instead if Hadrian was part of a dozen annual premieres across Canada: one-act operas written by emerging composers, others by veterans with a dozen attempts under their belts, a few by international artists invited here to get weird, and maybe one written by computer mashing together dictionaries with the howling of jealous European composers. Much less pressure to be an epic.<\/p>\n The problem is bigger than any one company, but despite being the wealthiest in Canada, COC seems reluctant to lead. Over the phone, Artistic Director Alexander Neef praises the recent surge of operatic variety in Toronto, which \u201cexposes people to things we couldn\u2019t provide them with\u2026 While we have assets others don\u2019t have, which invites a certain scope and scale of commissions for the big stage.\u201d This is the complaint of every big house afraid of unsold seats, and there are many tested strategies for how to manage the risk, from festivals to second stages and endless collaborations, some of which, like their work at Banff with Against the Grain, COC already participates in.<\/p>\n They could announce a decade of annual commissions with a clear theme, like Fort Worth did when they launched their Opera of the Americas cycle in 2013 and whose annual \u201cFrontiers\u201d recital presents six twenty-minute excerpts of new works (now in its seventh season.) Or lead a charge for new funding like an improved Canadian Opera Commissioning Fund <\/a>(ended by the Canada Council in 2011). That the current ecosystem is unbalanced makes it a worse place to live for everyone.<\/p>\n Neef explained that Hadrian<\/em> should be seen in the context of four other operas, Pyramus and Thisbe, Louis Riel, and two new works by Canadian composers that will be announced for premieres by 2023. He wants more work by Canadian composers but also \u201cmore work that picks up uniquely Canadian themes.\u201d Great, but why go it alone? And what stories won\u2019t make it because they\u2019re not \u201cbig\u201d enough?<\/p>\n It\u2019s obvious that the COC lavished money, attention, and hard work on Hadrian<\/em>, but the need to justify it as the right opera for today has them spinning it hard. The relationship the opera proudly (and tenderly and beautifully) puts centre stage is the old-fashioned kind, with an old, wealthy and powerful man falling for a boy finishing puberty. Hadrian sings \u201cI can almost feel a beard.\u201d Historically accurate? Yes, but the idea of homosexual love to celebrate in 2018?<\/p>\n T<\/span>he \u201cexplicit\u201d sex pruriently enjoyed in nearly every article<\/a> about the opera is also risk-free hype. The dancers wear g-strings, and Antinous makes sure he and Hadrian stay under the covers for their sex scene. We don\u2019t need to see penises to celebrate gay male love any more than we need to see vaginas to celebrate the straight kind, but after all the public pride, why this failure of nerve?<\/p>\n Hadrian<\/em> isn\u2019t activism and it doesn\u2019t need to be. Three people had lunch and the package came together: a suitably grand \u201coperatic\u201d subject \u2014 one of my favourite operas is about a nose, and there\u2019s one about Rob Ford\u2019s<\/a> hatred of bicycles \u2014 plus politics that are still exciting without causing real problems, plus old-fashioned titillation. It is always a bit like this. Risk management is only fair considering the financial peril of the archaic mega-commission model.<\/p>\n None of this has to be a problem. The COC should hire whoever they want to write whatever they want, especially if it expands who gets to try writing opera (maybe women of colour as well as millionaire pop stars?) But as long as they have an outsize presence on the national stage, their tendency to let the small companies take bigger risks will look cowardly.<\/p>\n![\"COC,](\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/10\/HADRIAN-18-19-02-crop.jpg\")