{"id":57511,"date":"2018-12-11T18:01:19","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T23:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=57511"},"modified":"2018-12-11T18:19:51","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T23:19:51","slug":"the-scoop-canadian-opera-company-announce-two-new-operas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2018\/12\/11\/the-scoop-canadian-opera-company-announce-two-new-operas\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SCOOP | Canadian Opera Company Announce Two New Opera Commissions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Canadian Opera Company today announced two major opera commissions: The Old Fools<\/em> by Ana Sokolovi\u0107, and\u00a0La Reine-Gar\u00e7on<\/em>\u00a0by Julien Bilodeau.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Christmas has come early Canadian for opera lovers.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Opera Company today announced two new upcoming mainstage commissions:\u00a0The Old Fools<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0by Ana Sokolovi\u0107<\/strong>, and\u00a0La Reine-Gar\u00e7on<\/i><\/b>\u00a0by Julien Bilodeau<\/strong>. <\/i>The later is a co-commission between the Canadian Opera Company (COC) and the Op\u00e9ra de Montr\u00e9al (OdeM).<\/p>\n

The Old Fools<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0will be a two-act opera inspired by the poem of the same name by English poet Philip Larkin, and will premiere in Toronto, 2021. It will be sung in English and French.<\/p>\n

Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms<\/em>
\n Inside your head, and people in them, acting<\/em>
\n People you know, yet can\u2019t quite name; each looms<\/em>
\n Like a deep loss restored\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

[Extract from \u201cThe Old Fools\u201d by Philip Larkin, taken from High Windows<\/em>]<\/p>\n

\u201cPaired with Paul Bentley<\/strong> as librettist, the two have created something very special and unique for the COC stage; The Old Fools<\/em> takes what we assume to be one person\u2019s reality and opens our eyes to a whole other world within,\u201d said\u00a0COC General Director Alexander Neef in a press release statement.<\/p>\n

British writer and actor Paul Bentley <\/b>has written librettos for five other operas that include Poul Ruders\u2019 The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/i> (performed at the COC in 2004),<\/i> Philip Glass\u2019 Kafka\u2019s Trial<\/i>, and The Midnight Court<\/i><\/span> with Ana\u00a0<\/span>Sokolovi\u0107.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have created the central role in the opera for an old man, negotiating the end of his life,\u201d explained Sokolovi\u0107 in a statement. \u201cHe can\u2019t live at home anymore because he is no longer physically independent. The subject matter is universal and poignant, as we\u2019re seeing a growing phenomenon of more and more old people spending their last days outside of their homes. In spite of his frail physical appearance, the old man escapes his surroundings by climbing into the lighted rooms in his head. In these rooms, he recollects intense emotional moments of his life when he experienced overwhelming joy, friendship, and love.\u201d<\/p>\n

La Reine-Gar\u00e7on<\/i><\/b>,\u00a0composed by Quebec\u2019s Julien Bilodeau, with a libretto by Michel Marc Bouchard,\u00a0<\/i><\/b>marks the first-ever partnership between the COC and OdeM.<\/p>\n

The new opera is inspired by Sweden\u2019s Queen Christina, whose scandalously flamboyant and unconventional reign ended at 27 when she abdicated the throne. It is scheduled to premiere in Montreal during the 2023\u00a0season.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur artistic director, Michel Beaulac, and I are thrilled to offer our audiences this exciting new operatic adventure by two of Montreal\u2019s most eminent artists,\u201d says Patrick Corrigan, General Director of the Op\u00e9ra de Montr\u00e9al. \u201cThe Op\u00e9ra de Montr\u00e9al is truly delighted to partner with the Canadian Opera Company in our first co-commission of a new work together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWorking with Michel Marc is a true privilege,\u201d adds Bilodeau. \u201cHis gift for words and his sensibility for music have led to a collaboration that is rightly challenging for me, as a composer.\u201d<\/p>\n

La Reine-Gar\u00e7on<\/i><\/b> <\/i>will<\/i> be the third opera by Julien Bilodeau for Op\u00e9ra de Montr\u00e9al, which premiered Les Feluettes<\/em><\/strong> back in 2016. The second is\u00a0La Beaut\u00e9 du Monde<\/em><\/strong>, which will premiere before\u00a0\u00a0La Reine-Gar\u00e7on<\/i>\u00a0<\/i><\/b>in 2021, Montr\u00e9al.<\/p>\n

A prolific composer, Bilodeau recently composed the music of\u00a0Another Brick in the Wall<\/em><\/a>,<\/strong> an\u00a0opera based on the work of Pink Floyd and\u00a0Roger Waters, which opened Montreal in 2017. The opera will make it’s Toronto premiere next November at the\u00a0Sony\u00a0Centre for the Performing Arts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Old Fools and La Reine-Gar\u00e7on<\/em> are the sixth and seventh mainstage operas commissioned by the COC since 1950. The last mainstage commission from the COC was\u00a0Hadrian<\/em><\/a>, which premiered in October 2018 by composer Rufus Wainwright and librettist Daniel MacIvor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Canadian Opera Company today announced two major opera commissions: The Old Fools by Ana Sokolovi\u0107, and\u00a0La Reine-Gar\u00e7on\u00a0by Julien Bilodeau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":57514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14761,39,43],"tags":[266,628,25248,25246,2498,25247],"yst_prominent_words":[25260,25254,25249,6885,6871,25258,12700,25253,25234,25240,25256,25250,25236,25259,25252,6884,25231,25230,25257,25255],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/12\/COC-news-cover.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-eXB","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57511"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57511"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57522,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57511\/revisions\/57522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57511"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=57511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}