Descent of Orpheus: Opera Atelier
Opera Atelier invites you on a hero’s journey of the heart.
Marc Antoine Charpentier’s extraordinary masterpiece recounts the timeless story of the poet Orpheus and his journey to hell and back to rescue his lover from death. Charpentier’s opera unfolds with all the extravagant splendour and drama unique to the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV.
Opera Atelier’s elite cast of singers, dancers, and soloists from Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra welcome American tenor Daniel McGrew, who makes his Canadian debut in the title role.
Charpentier’s miniature masterpiece, The Descent of Orpheus, is an exciting introduction to opera and ballet for your family and friends, and becomes all the more accessible with a subscription!
Join us for this fully staged Canadian premiere in the glorious acoustic of Toronto’s Koerner Hall.
Dog Days: Tapestry Opera and Against the Grain Theatre
Dog Days is a contemporary opera that combines classical vocals with dark ambient noise and amplified electric guitars. Set during a fictional wartime blackout, the story follows a rural working-class family attempting to survive amidst military collapse and severe food shortages. The psychological drama explores human resilience, desperation, and moral breakdown when social structures disintegrate.
Critically acclaimed by The New York Times, this breakthrough work from the writing team of composer David T. Little (Soldier Songs, JFK) and Canadian librettist Royce Vavrek (Angel’s Bone, Listen, Quiet) put them on the map. They have since gone on, both together and in collaboration with others, to revolutionize opera in North America.
Komponist (Cover): Ariadne auf Naxos - Canadian Opera Company
What begins as a frantic rehearsal for both an opera and a comic play spirals into creative mayhem when the wealthy patron funding the event decrees that both must be performed simultaneously. The result is a joyous, touching collision of tragedy and comedy, revealing both the absurdity and the beauty of making art.
Director Paul Curran’s new staging divides itself between a grand Viennese villa and a miniature Baroque theatre. This shifting visual world mirrors the opera’s musical dialogue between classical formality and contemporary wit—a daring fusion of opera seria and commedia dell’arte.
Conducted by Johannes Debus, the COC Orchestra captures both the sparkling humour and emotional grandeur of R. Strauss’s score.
Cecile: Empire of Wild - Canadian Opera Company
Empire of Wild bursts onto the operatic stage with a story as haunting as it is heart-pounding. A fusion of myth, mystery, and raw human emotion, this new Canadian opera plunges audiences into a world where love, loss, and legend collide.
Based on Cherie Dimaline’s bestselling novel, Empire of Wild unfolds against the landscape of Georgian Bay, where a woman searches for her missing husband—all the while treading a delicate line between their small-town life and the eerie allure of the spirit world.
Music Director Johannes Debus leads the COC Orchestra through composer Ian Cusson’s electric score, which thrillingly evokes the myth of the Rogarou, a Métis werewolf-like figure that stalks both the forest and the human heart.
Les nuits d'été : Victoria Symphony
A festive Danish curtain-raiser by Friedrich Kuhlau (Beethoven’s contemporary and a composer central to Denmark’s musical identity) sets the tone for a season that celebrates place and belonging in a time when national songs resonate more than ever. Berlioz, another nineteenth-century visionary who expanded the orchestra’s expressive range, turns that brightness inward with Les Nuits d’été, a tender farewell to summer sung by mezzo-soprano Alex Hetherington. Britta Byström’s A Walk to Beethoven, commissioned by Christian Kluxen during his Arctic Philharmonic tenure, answers across time with a luminous bridge leading naturally into Beethoven’s radiant Seventh Symphony—a “celebration of humanity being unworried and free.”
Clara, Robert, Johannes: Coda - National Arts Centre Orchestra
The relationship between Johannes Brahms and the Schumanns—composer-pianists Clara and Robert—is one of the most moving in music history. As friends, romantic partners, and close collaborators, their intertwined lives produced some of the most mesmerizing and emotionally vulnerable music of the 19th century.
Violinist James Ehnes and cellist Nicolas Altstaedt share the spotlight as soloists in Brahms’s Double Concerto—a work teeming with drama and joy in which violin and cello interweave their voices with playfulness and tender affection. And although Robert Schumann’s only concerto for violin and orchestra went unperformed for 80 years, we have the chance to experience its profound lyricism in the hands of Ehnes, who sensitively portrays the different characters of the music.
After marrying Robert, Clara Schumann began writing intimate songs for voice and piano to express a blossoming love for her new husband. Hear a selection of these poignant songs reimagined by Canadian composers Sarah Slean and Cecilia Livingston, who draw from the orchestra’s rich palette of musical colours to showcase the breadth of Clara’s expressive voice.
Werther: Charlotte (Cover) - Canadian Opera Company
A tragedy about impossible love and dangerous obsession makes its first COC appearance in 30 years in a new production from Alain Gauthier.
This rare operatic gem from one of French opera’s great composers tells the story of a young man’s romantic infatuation and the spiral of despair that consumes him when that love is denied. Massenet’s sumptuous score delves into the tortured passions of a young mind while shining a light on the social conventions he rejects, as well as those whose lives are forever altered by his desperate final act.
Erwartung: Die Frau (Cover)- Canadian Opera Company
In Bluebeard's Castle, Duke Bluebeard warns his new wife Judith that it could be dangerous for her to know what is behind the seven locked doors in his castle.
In Erwartung, a woman anxiously awaits her lover, only to find a dead body.
Procession: National Ballet of Canada and National Arts Centre
Partners and choreographers Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber are taking the dance world by storm. Known for their “uniquely expressive language of movements, which range from the bright and angular to the jaunty and syncopated....” (LA Weekly), Smith and Schraiber’s intensely emotional works serve a double dose of ingenuity.
To open its 2025-2026 season, The National Ballet of Canada has commissioned the pair to create a new full-length production. Procession explores the ritual of moving together in formation and celebrates the power of performance. Featuring a newly arranged Baroque-inspired score infused with a modern touch, Procession is a bold and captivating commission that reflects the company’s spirit of creativity under the leadership of Hope Muir, Joan and Jerry Lozinski Artistic Director.
Prepare to be moved!
Lord Nelson Mass: Boston Baroque
Presenting Haydn’s choral masterwork, the Missa in Angustiis (Lord Nelson Mass) coupled with Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor. Patrick Dupré Quigley is joined by Lauren Snouffer, soprano, Alex Hetherington, mezzo-soprano, Andrew Haji, tenor, and Philippe Sly, bass-baritone, all making their Boston Baroque debuts.
Union Station: Opera Express
The COC’s beloved partnership with Union Station returns for the annual holiday concert in the Opera Express series.
Returning for Union Station’s annual concert series are COC Teaching Artists Annemarie Cabri, Isabella Fassler, Timothy Cheung with COC Chorus member Ross Mortimer, alongside special guest and past COC Ensemble Studio artist Alex Hetherington as they reimagine favourite holiday classics through movement, visual art, and song.
Join us as we share some festive cheer in the West Wing of Union Station.
Merry and Bright: A Celebration of Brass and Voice
Orpheus reunites with the acclaimed Hannaford Street Silver Band to celebrate the holiday season in style. Hear your favourite holiday classics performed majestically by combined choir and brass forces, as well as former Scholar and rising-star mezzo soprano Alex Hetherington. A world premiere by Ottawa-based Haitian composer Christopher Ducasse will cap this festive and vibrant program.
Distillery District Winter Village
Canadian Opera Company artists present a beautiful holiday evening performance; alongside a reimagined musical exploration of Ezra Jack Keats’ timeless classic, "The Snowy Day".
Distillery District Winter Village
Canadian Opera Company artists present a beautiful holiday evening performance; alongside a reimagined musical exploration of Ezra Jack Keats’ timeless classic, "The Snowy Day".
Queen of the Night Communion
Sneak into church after dark for an unexpected opera experience that turns sacred space into sonic rebellion. Opera’s most fascinating characters – the mad, the misunderstood, the magnificent – come to life in this immersive musical journey.
Stewardess: Flight - Vancouver Opera
From “the Mozart of the 21st century” comes a work of stunning emotional breadth. Though it draws inspiration from the heart-wrenching true story of an Iranian refugee bureaucratically marooned in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport for 18 years, Jonathan Dove’s Flight pulls off an improbable feat: it’s a wildly-engaging, melodically-accessible comedic romp, a triumph of pathos, and an absolute must-see!
All around The Refugee, the airport swirls with colourful characters: Bill and Tina, who hope to stoke the embers of a dull marriage; The Steward and The Stewardess, whose embers require no additional stoking; a diplomat and his very pregnant wife; a woman awaiting a lover 30 years her junior; the Immigration Officer – all while The Controller oversees operations high above the concourse, hitting decidedly high notes (like the rare airspace occupied by an incredible F-sharp above high C!).
Called the greatest new work of the past 30 years, this compassionate contemporary classic is led by the beloved Vancouver creative team of director Morris Panych and set designer Ken MacDonald, while Dove’s propulsive music is steered by the baton of Leslie Dala, Vancouver Opera’s Head of Music and Associate Conductor, whose recent VO projects include 2022–2023’s The Flying Dutchman and the blockbuster 2023–2024 presentation of Carmen.
Conductor: Leslie Dala
Director: Morris Panych
Controller: Caitlin Wood
Tina: Andriana Chuchman (Company Debut)
Older Woman: Catherine Daniel (Company Debut)
Stewardess: Alex Hetherington (Company Debut)
Minskwoman: Allyson McHardy
Refugee: Cameron Shahbazi
Bill: Asitha Tennekoon
Steward: Clarence Frazer
Minskman: Neil Craighead
Stewardess: Flight - Vancouver Opera
From “the Mozart of the 21st century” comes a work of stunning emotional breadth. Though it draws inspiration from the heart-wrenching true story of an Iranian refugee bureaucratically marooned in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport for 18 years, Jonathan Dove’s Flight pulls off an improbable feat: it’s a wildly-engaging, melodically-accessible comedic romp, a triumph of pathos, and an absolute must-see!
All around The Refugee, the airport swirls with colourful characters: Bill and Tina, who hope to stoke the embers of a dull marriage; The Steward and The Stewardess, whose embers require no additional stoking; a diplomat and his very pregnant wife; a woman awaiting a lover 30 years her junior; the Immigration Officer – all while The Controller oversees operations high above the concourse, hitting decidedly high notes (like the rare airspace occupied by an incredible F-sharp above high C!).
Called the greatest new work of the past 30 years, this compassionate contemporary classic is led by the beloved Vancouver creative team of director Morris Panych and set designer Ken MacDonald, while Dove’s propulsive music is steered by the baton of Leslie Dala, Vancouver Opera’s Head of Music and Associate Conductor, whose recent VO projects include 2022–2023’s The Flying Dutchman and the blockbuster 2023–2024 presentation of Carmen.
Conductor: Leslie Dala
Director: Morris Panych
Controller: Caitlin Wood
Tina: Andriana Chuchman (Company Debut)
Older Woman: Catherine Daniel (Company Debut)
Stewardess: Alex Hetherington (Company Debut)
Minskwoman: Allyson McHardy
Refugee: Cameron Shahbazi
Bill: Asitha Tennekoon
Steward: Clarence Frazer
Minskman: Neil Craighead
Stewardess: Flight - Vancouver Opera
From “the Mozart of the 21st century” comes a work of stunning emotional breadth. Though it draws inspiration from the heart-wrenching true story of an Iranian refugee bureaucratically marooned in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport for 18 years, Jonathan Dove’s Flight pulls off an improbable feat: it’s a wildly-engaging, melodically-accessible comedic romp, a triumph of pathos, and an absolute must-see!
All around The Refugee, the airport swirls with colourful characters: Bill and Tina, who hope to stoke the embers of a dull marriage; The Steward and The Stewardess, whose embers require no additional stoking; a diplomat and his very pregnant wife; a woman awaiting a lover 30 years her junior; the Immigration Officer – all while The Controller oversees operations high above the concourse, hitting decidedly high notes (like the rare airspace occupied by an incredible F-sharp above high C!).
Called the greatest new work of the past 30 years, this compassionate contemporary classic is led by the beloved Vancouver creative team of director Morris Panych and set designer Ken MacDonald, while Dove’s propulsive music is steered by the baton of Leslie Dala, Vancouver Opera’s Head of Music and Associate Conductor, whose recent VO projects include 2022–2023’s The Flying Dutchman and the blockbuster 2023–2024 presentation of Carmen.
Conductor: Leslie Dala
Director: Morris Panych
Controller: Caitlin Wood
Tina: Andriana Chuchman (Company Debut)
Older Woman: Catherine Daniel (Company Debut)
Stewardess: Alex Hetherington (Company Debut)
Minskwoman: Allyson McHardy
Refugee: Cameron Shahbazi
Bill: Asitha Tennekoon
Steward: Clarence Frazer
Minskman: Neil Craighead
Handel's Messiah: Chorus Niagara
Gather family and friends for TWO special presentations of Handel’s festive Messiah. For Messiah in ALL its glorious splendour, attend our evening complete performance of Handel’s supreme masterpiece and ‘rejoice greatly’ in what makes this one of the most enduring choral works of all time.
Be part of the afternoon magic with our Children's Messiah, a one-of-a-kind relaxed and interactive 75-minute concert, designed to ignite the love for music in young audiences, with stunning solo arias, glorious orchestral sounds and powerful choruses – over 100 singers and players!
Children’s Messiah: Chorus Niagara
Be part of the afternoon magic with our Children's Messiah, a one-of-a-kind relaxed and interactive 75-minute concert, designed to ignite the love for music in young audiences, with stunning solo arias, glorious orchestral sounds and powerful choruses – over 100 singers and players!
Beethoven 9 at 200
Chamberfest presents Beethoven’s Ninth like we’ve never heard it before! To celebrate the work’s 200th anniversary, Hinrich Alpers returns to perform the entire symphony in a special transcription for solo piano by Franz Liszt. He will be joined by the Ottawa Bach Choir and stellar soloists Meghan Lindsay, Alex Hetherington, Lawrence Wiliford, and Philippe Sly.
Hinrich Alpers, piano
Meghan Lindsey, soprano
Alex Hetherington, mezzo soprano
Lawrence Wiliford, tenor
Philippe Sly, bass-baritone
Dr. Lisette Canton, conductor
Ottawa Bach Choir, choir
Liederabend
An evening of art song!
Hinrich Alpers, piano
Meghan Lindsey, soprano
Alex Hetherington, mezzo soprano
Lawrence Wiliford, tenor
Philippe Sly, bass-baritone
Siebel: Faust- Canadian Opera Company
Disenchanted by his lifelong quest for knowledge, the ageing philosopher Faust makes a pact with the devil and trades his soul for eternal youth—to disastrous consequences.
Conductor: Johannes Debus
Director: Amy Lane
Set and Costume Designer: Emma Ryott
Lighting Designer: Charlie Morgan Jones
Choreographer: Tim Claydon
Price Family Chorus Master: Sandra Horst
Faust: Long Long
Méphistophélès: Kyle Ketelsen
Valentin: Szymon Mechlinski
Siebel: Alex Hetherington
Marthe: Megan Latham
Siebel: Faust- Canadian Opera Company
Disenchanted by his lifelong quest for knowledge, the ageing philosopher Faust makes a pact with the devil and trades his soul for eternal youth—to disastrous consequences.
Conductor: Johannes Debus
Director: Amy Lane
Set and Costume Designer: Emma Ryott
Lighting Designer: Charlie Morgan Jones
Choreographer: Tim Claydon
Price Family Chorus Master: Sandra Horst
Faust: Long Long
Méphistophélès: Kyle Ketelsen
Valentin: Szymon Mechlinski
Siebel: Alex Hetherington
Marthe: Megan Latham
Siebel: Faust- Canadian Opera Company
Disenchanted by his lifelong quest for knowledge, the ageing philosopher Faust makes a pact with the devil and trades his soul for eternal youth—to disastrous consequences.
Conductor: Johannes Debus
Director: Amy Lane
Set and Costume Designer: Emma Ryott
Lighting Designer: Charlie Morgan Jones
Choreographer: Tim Claydon
Price Family Chorus Master: Sandra Horst
Faust: Long Long
Méphistophélès: Kyle Ketelsen
Valentin: Szymon Mechlinski
Siebel: Alex Hetherington
Marthe: Megan Latham
Siebel: Faust- Canadian Opera Company
Disenchanted by his lifelong quest for knowledge, the ageing philosopher Faust makes a pact with the devil and trades his soul for eternal youth—to disastrous consequences.
Conductor: Johannes Debus
Director: Amy Lane
Set and Costume Designer: Emma Ryott
Lighting Designer: Charlie Morgan Jones
Choreographer: Tim Claydon
Price Family Chorus Master: Sandra Horst
Faust: Long Long
Méphistophélès: Kyle Ketelsen
Valentin: Szymon Mechlinski
Siebel: Alex Hetherington
Marthe: Megan Latham