Atom Egoyan, Peter Sellars to direct COC operas in 2014
Toronto opera company to debut Hercules, Roberto Devereux, Don Quichotte
CBC News
Posted: Jan 23, 2013 3:15 PM ET
Last Updated: Jan 24, 2013 2:31 PM ET
Alice Coote as Dejanira and Eric Owens as Hercules in the Canadian Opera Company/Lyric Opera of Chicago co-production of Hercules, directed by Peter Sellars. (Dan Rest/COC)
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Canadian film and stage director Atom Egoyan will helm a new production of Mozart's Cosi fan tutte as part of the 2013-14 season of the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto.
He is one of several big names in the ambitious season announced Wednesday by the COC's general director Alexander Neef.
Renowned Canadian tenor Ben Heppner returns to the COC stage in Peter Grimes, Canadian diva Adrianne Pieczonka is to sing in Un ballo in maschera and Peter Sellars returns to direct Hercules.
The Opera Australia production of Peter Grimes is shown in 2009. Ben Heppner is to sing the title role in the COC production. (Branco Gaica/COC)COC premieres
The COC season includes three premieres — George Frideric Handel's Hercules, Gaetano Donizetti's Roberto Devereux and Jules Massenet's Don Quichotte.
Sellars, currently directing Tristan und Isolde as part of the 2013 season, plans a modern take on the Greek myth of Hercules that reflects on horrors of war and the complications faced by veterans returning home.
This is the same minimalist production of Hercules Sellars created for the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2011, with the same star-studded cast, including American bass-baritone Eric Owens as Hercules, British mezzo-soprano Alice Coote as his wife Dejanira, American countertenor David Daniels as his aide Lichas and American tenor Richard Croft as son Hyllus. Owens is making his COC debut.
The English-language version of Handel’s opera was hailed for impressive performances by Owens and Coote and for proving that Handel was ahead of his time for showing the long-term effects of war on veterans.
Atom Egoyan directs
Egoyan, who directed Salome in 2013, will explore themes of love, temptation and deceit in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s comedy Cosi fan tutte.
His production will play up the theme of a School for Lovers and progress stylistically through time from the 18th century to present day.
He will be working with the COC Opera Chorus, with soprano Layla Claire in her COC debut as Fiordiligi and Ensemble Studio graduate mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta as her sister Dorabella. American tenor Paul Appleby, bass-baritone Robert Gleadow and Canadian soprano Tracy Dahl, returning to the COC stage after a 19-year absence, also star.
More details of the 2013-14 season:
- La Bohème, in a new COC co-production with Houston Grand Opera and San Francisco Opera.
- Peter Grimes, starring acclaimed Canadian tenor Ben Heppner in the title role, with COC music director Johannes Debus making his Benjamin Britten debut.
- Un ballo in maschera, starring Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieczonka and tenor Dimitri Pittas, both making role debuts.
- Roberto Devereux with American soprano Sondra Radvanovsky, lyric tenor Guiseppe Filianoti and Canadian baritone Russell Braun.
- Don Quichotte with Italian Ferruccio Furlanetto and Russian mezzo-soprano Ekaterina Gubanova making their COC debuts.
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