Welcome to our charmingly vintage website from 2011.
Your best bet is to view on a laptop or desktop. A website update is on our to-do list for some day in the future times. Until then, thanks for stopping by and enjoy the retro aesthetic!
—
Download the program for September 22, 2024’s workshop performance:
In Her Hands program cast and team image – download full program for complete info
In Her Hands program thank-yous image – download full program for complete info
—
IN HER HANDS: The Tragedy of Lady Macbeth
IN HER HANDS: The Tragedy of Lady Macbeth
Essential Opera presents workshop performance of a new opera by Fiona M. Ryan, directed by Emily Jewer.
Performance: Sunday, September 22, 7:30PM
Venue: Motyer-Fancy Theatre, Sackville, NB
Tickets:$25/$20/PWYC online and at the door (cash)
Essential Opera presents In Her Hands: The Tragedy of Lady Macbeth by Fiona Ryan in workshop production
Inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth, composer/librettist Fiona M. Ryan has masterfully created a hauntingly beautiful score that gives a powerful voice to Lady Macbeth (Erin Bardua). Ryan’s libretto combines Shakespeare’s words with new text, highlighting the machinations of the goddess Hecate (Maureen Batt), the Weird Sisters (Thera Barclay, Winona Myles, Elizabeth Stepkowski Tarhan) and the figure of Duncan (Danielle Buonaiuto) to reimagine this classic tragedy.
In the words of Ryan’s version of Hecate: “What stories would my followers tell / If the chroniclers had sought them out to record their words?”
Featuring a team of artists from New Brunswick, Halifax, NYC, Vancouver, Toronto, and Calgary, this spellbinding performance is the result of a week-long experimental workshop process. The performance takes place on Sunday, September 22, 7:30pm, in the Motyer-Fancy Theatre, Purdy Crawford Centre for the Arts, Sackville, NB. Tickets $25/$20/pay-what-you-can
https://tinyurl.com/InHerHands2024
Essential Opera first began developing In Her Hands with Ryan in 2020, and gave the work first-stage exploratory workshops in 2022. This second-stage production directed by Emily Jewer brings the work further to life with staging, special effects, and a perfectly cast team of vocal and instrumental artists. The instrumental ensemble features the talents of Joël Cormier, percussion, and Kirsty Money, violin and nyckelharpa.
Audiences who can get to Sackville, NB (broom travel highly recommended) can come get their fill of pre-Hallowe’en/Samhain eeriness, and see what we’ve been brewing up.
Creative Team
In Her Hands: The Tragedy of Lady Macbeth
Based on Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Composed by Fiona M. Ryan
Edited and additional text by F. M. Ryan
Directed by Emily Jewer
Weird Sister 1 – Thera Barclay, soprano
Weird Sister 2 – Winona Myles, soprano
Weird Sister 3 – Elizabeth Stepkowski Tarhan, mezzo
Lady Macbeth – Erin Bardua, soprano
Duncan – Danielle Buonaiuto, soprano
Hecate – Maureen Batt, soprano
Violin/Nyckelharpa – Kirsty Money
Percussion – Joël Cormier
Poster image and design by Emily Jewer
—
AUDITION CALL
JULY 2024
AUDITION CALL: IN HER HANDS
Essential Opera is casting for a workshop performance of a new opera by Fiona Ryan, “In Her Hands: The Tragedy of Lady Macbeth”. Composer Fiona Ryan will be in residence for this workshop directed by Emily Jewer.
Submission deadline: July 15, 2024*
Rehearsal dates: September 15-21, 2024
Performance: September 22, 2024
Venue: Motyer-Fancy Theatre, Sackville, NB
*We’re reviewing materials as we receive them.
Among other things, we are looking for professional opera artists and vocalists. The score for “In Her Hands” incorporates traditional Western classical notation, graphical elements, and semi-improvised elements. The musical style includes hints of the Medieval and Renaissance eras, Celtic folk, classical, and some out-of-the-box character voice work. Some experience singing contemporary classical music will be an asset.
ROLES AVAILABLE
Roles are scored for soprano, mezzo, alto voices. Artists who identify as transgender or non-binary are encouraged to apply.
Weird Sister 1 (soprano, some improvised singing, character voices)
Weird Sister 2 (soprano or high mezzo, some improvised singing, character voices)
Weird Sister 3 (mezzo, some improvised singing, character voices)
Duncan (soprano, mezzo, or alto comfortable in Medieval and/or Renaissance styles; Duncan is written as transgender, nonbinary, or otherwise non-gender-conforming)
Attendant, Apparitions (non-singing roles)
SUBMISSION SUGGESTIONS (not requirements)
Please email your submission to essentialopera@gmail.com If you have submitted audition materials to us in the past, you can send us an email stating your interest in this specific project and point us back to those materials.
Please send us 2 videos of you singing. As we are casting for a new opera, it could be useful for you to send us contemporary material and/or to tell us your experience with singing new music.
We’re happy to hear your adventurous work as well as your party pieces. Send us the materials you have on hand right now that show you in your artistic element.
If you don’t have video of yourself singing, feel free to send us audio plus a short video introduction and/or a video of yourself in a non-singing performance (i.e., monologue, scene work, clown performance, improv, conducting, playing an instrument, other). Video from a phone or other mobile device is totally fine.
If you don’t have audio or video material and want to introduce yourself, we would still love to meet you. Please get in touch and let us know about your work.
If you have a resume, CV, bio, or website, please feel free to include it with your submission.
We won’t be able to reply to all submissions because we are just two humans. But since this project is happening in September, singers who are cast will hear from us within the summer months.
As always, we will keep all submitted materials on file for future projects if it turns out that this project isn’t the exact fit.
Thank you very much for your interest in our company, our work, and Canadian opera!
Erin and Maureen
Essential Opera
COMPANY INFORMATION
Founded by sopranos Erin Bardua and Maureen Batt in 2010, Essential Opera is committed to increasing equity, diversity, and inclusion in all forms for all humans. Recently, we have focused on doing this in the spheres with which we are most familiar: gender inclusiveness, disability, and advocacy for neurodiversity and mental health.
This translates to a mission to create and produce works that will allow us to employ a diverse group of artists, particularly women (including, of course, trans women), non-binary people, and non-cisgender men, as well as Black, Indigenous, 2SLGBTQIA+, disabled, neurodivergent/neuroqueer, and other frequently excluded and underrepresented people. We are striving to continue to improve our own contributions to this goal with each successive project.
ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION
The rehearsals and performance take place in a wheelchair-accessible venue with excellent air exchange (9 min) and airflow separation between audience and stage.
Artists who are cast in this project will be asked to adhere to a community agreement that includes safety practices for avoiding covid and other illnesses just before and during the rehearsal period to protect all involved and reduce likelihood of cancelled contracts.
Examples of aspects that could be in the community agreement:
-5 days prior: Masking indoors in all spaces that aren’t your own home and around people who aren’t members of your household
-Rehearsal period: masks will be worn at all rehearsals; masking at all indoor spaces outside of rehearsal will also be expected
—
Essential Opera Showcasing at the ECMAs!
ECMA Classical Showcase
Presented by the Canadian Music Centre and Debut Atlantic
Hosted by Lindsay Connolly
1:30-3:30pm
(Doors open at 1:00)
St. Paul’s Anglican Church
101 Prince St.
Charlottetown, PEI
Free admission
Essential Opera is performing at the Classical Showcase celebrating Monica Pearce’s Classical Composer of the Year nomination for Etiquette!
We’ll be performing works by Monica Pearce and Fiona Ryan
with Tara Scott on piano and Brad Reid on clarinet!
—
Courage, Curiosity, Compassion
Wednesday, April 24, 7:30pm
The Music Room Chamber Players Series
Peggy Corkum Music Room
6181 Lady Hammond Road, Halifax, NS
Live-stream tix available
Tickets HERE
Video trailer HERE
Essential Opera has been invited to do the final concert of the Music Room Chamber Players Series on Wednesday, April 24 at 7:30pm Atlantic Time.
Co-artistic directors Erin Bardua and Maureen Batt are joined by Tara Scott (piano) and Hilary Brown (cello). We’re performing hilarious and heartwarming works by Hope Salmonson, Monica Pearce, Anna Höstman, Rosśa Crean, Saman Shahi, Erin Bardua, Ann Southam, and Srul Irving Glick as well as standards and gems by Barbara Strozzi, Kurt Weil, Leonard Bernstein, Jules Massenet, and Richard Strauss. This program embraces courage, ignites curiosity, and celebrates compassion. Expect cozy-quirky times, lush lines, and a bit of a wild ride.
—
Welcome Etiquette film and JUNOfest Classical Showcase audiences!
Get your copy of the film credits & libretto by clicking here:
Etiquette JUNOs Programme
—
Etiquette Film Release
March 26, 2024, 7pmET/8pmAT
Broadcast première March 26, 7pmET / 8pmAT
On-demand viewing March 26-April 3
Your ticket(s) to Etiquette is good from the premiere on March 26, 2024 at 7pmET/8pmAT, till April 3, 2024. Please feel free to join us for the first ever viewing of this film and the following live chat, and/or watch later in the week! You’ll receive an email with the viewing link on or before March 26.
It’s New Year’s Eve, 1927.
Journalist and poet Dorothy Parker pours herself a generous drink in her Art Deco styled apartment. She’s up against a brutal deadline: write a review of socialite Emily Post’s 684-page tome on Etiquette by morning. The audience is swept up by Dorothy’s Roaring Twenties energy, as she disregards Etiquette in favour of a night of partying.
A few weeks later.
Emily sits down to tea in the elegant home of trailblazing politician Nancy Astor. Mrs. Astor challenges Emily to defend her idealistic views on the human condition. Despite the tension between them, the two women realize they share a history of disappointments and betrayals.
Flashback to Dorothy’s apartment.
The harsh light of day shines on a disheveled Dorothy and her typewriter. She attacks her review with a fresh burst of scathing wit and exuberant music.
Essential Opera’s film version of Etiquette, an opera by Monica Pearce, is directed by Tom Belding, stars Maureen Batt as Dorothy, Erin Bardua as Emily, and Lucy Hayes-Davis as Nancy. Music direction by Tara Scott, piano, with Brad Reid, clarinet.
Watch our behind-the-scenes trailer!
—
Essential Opera is performing at JUNOFest!
—
Fundraiser!
Update: we have extended our musical greeting fundraiser until May 2024. If you want to buy someone a unique gift, head to our ETSY store.
At this time of year, there are a lot of options for expressing romantic love. We wanted to offer something a little different as well.
From now until the middle of the month you can express however you feel to your dearest friends and closest enemies with a musical greeting.
This fundraiser supports the next stage of development for “In Her Hands” by Fiona Ryan.
$1 from each musical greeting purchase will go toward The Youth Project, making Nova Scotia healthier, happier and safer for 2SLGBTQIA+ youth.
Here’s a video walk-through of the fundraiser process and a chat with composer Fiona Ryan!
Here’s the EO Musical Greeting TRAILER and here’s our BLOOPER reel.
—
December on demand this month!
TICKETS HERE
We’re re-releasing your favourite queer holiday opera, December!
Buy a ticket and stream on demand between December 21-31, 2023.
TICKETS HERE: TICKET HALIFAX
This is a fundraiser for an upcoming workshop of a new* opera by Fiona Ryan.
*also queer, also seasonal (just not this season)
Your ticket purchase goes toward the creation of In Her Hands, Fiona’s reimagining of Macbeth, a project dear to our hearts that we’ve been working on since 2020.
Thank you for supporting Essential Opera and new, Canadian works and artists!
$35 Household bundle (a bunch of people watching the stream)
$20 General ticket
$15 Discount ticket (for anyone who needs a discount)
PWYC via e-transfer to essentialopera@gmail.com
You can also buy a ticket for either price above (or any amount you choose!) using e-transfer.
—
Etiquette – EP Release
LISTEN HERE
OUT NOW
Essential Opera and Leaf Music Present
Etiquette
(Halifax/Kjipuktuk, NS) Composer Monica Pearce’s one-act opera Etiquette is being released by Leaf Music and Essential Opera. The twenty-one minute work features three influential 1920s women: author, critic and satirist Dorothy Parker (known for her wit and wisecracks), author and socialite Emily Post, and American-born British politician Nancy Astor. Etiquette in Society, in Business, in Politics, and At Home (the book by Emily Post) was published in 1922, noting the importance of etiquette in all aspects of life: “Consideration for the rights and feelings of others is not merely a rule for behavior in public but the very foundation upon which social life is built.” When reviewing the work, however, Parker observed that, “Those who have mastered etiquette seem to arrive at exquisite dullness.”
Commissioned by Essential Opera, this world-premiere recording was made possible with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and Arts Nova Scotia. The album was recorded at St. Andrew’s United Church in Halifax. A stylish short film is also being released in the coming months.
Monica Pearce composed the music, and the librettist is John Terauds. The recording features sopranos Maureen Batt and Erin Bardua, mezzo-soprano Lucy Hayes Davis, pianist Tara Scott, and clarinetist Brad Reid.
Please head to our Etiquette page for more info!
—
Equity & Belonging Survey
Call for Participation
Essential Opera, an indie producer of live and filmed opera based in the Maritimes, will be facilitating a series of conversation sessions on the topics of equity and belonging in the fields of Western opera/classical voice. These community chats will take place in the coming fall, culminating with in-person/hybrid sessions in Halifax. Essential Opera will provide a travel and accommodation allowance to facilitate in-person participation in Halifax.
EO has launched a survey to find participants to discuss the systemic issues that limit equity and belonging in our industry, and ways forward:
tinyurl.com/essentialoperasurvey
Please share your interest by filling out the survey by September 15*. Participants and facilitators will be invited following the survey.
This program is funded in part by a Canada Council for the Arts Strategic Initiative Seed Grant, and as such, is designed to be the very first stage of an action plan. Later stages will be defined by these community conversations.
Invitations to participate in and/or learn about some of these updates will be posted on social media and included in the company’s newsletter. You can follow EO’s socials, see what else they’re working on, or sign up for the newsletter here: https://linktr.ee/essential_opera
*UPDATE
If you see this and it’s past Sept. 15, please feel free to submit a survey response.
Thank you to all who filled out the survey for our Equity and Belonging Community Chats! We appreciate your time, thoughtful responses, and interest in this first step toward an action plan. We’re better together! 🎉
Although we are swimming in other funding applications and already beginning to collate our data, we still welcome further survey responses!
tinyurl.com/essentialoperasurvey
—
Dear singers,
—
SINGERS!
Please read below to read our general audition call. This is a chance for you to introduce yourself to us. This is also a chance for you to re-introduce yourself and your work to us if we’ve worked together in the past. We cast and will be casting from audition submissions in upcoming seasons. If we’re already familiar with your current work, you can send us a submission that acts more as an expression of interest.
If you are not a Western classical opera singer specifically – because you are a professional singer within another tradition or method, or if you know someone who you think we should meet, please direct them to this call. You will notice that our call is very open with regards to submission suggestions.
There are no limitations or restrictions with regards to this call.
Our current deadline is the end of August.
But since we’re human, we’re not likely to get to submissions right away, i.e. that deadline isn’t super finite – if you’re reading this beyond the end of August and still want to reach out, please do.
—
AUDITION CALL 2022
Essential Opera is holding general auditions for upcoming projects
Among other things, we are looking for professional opera artists and vocalists, including those who have not followed the conventional Western classical training path. We have multiple projects coming up over the next couple of years — some will take place in Mi’kma’ki, aka the Maritimes including Halifax/Kjipuktuk, some in and around Toronto/Tkaronto. If you have a particular connection to those places, you can always tell us, and it’s important to note that living in/around these areas is never necessary.
We want to meet you for the first time. We want to meet you again if we already know you. We want to meet the new you.
We want to hear your adventurous work as well as your party pieces. We are strongly encouraging you to send us materials that might share our vision.
Essential Opera was founded by sopranos Erin Bardua and Maureen Batt and is entering its 13th year.
Essential Opera’s mission includes presenting opera from the tried and tested, to the brand new. We are committed to equity, diversity, and inclusion in all forms for all humans. This translates to a mandate to create and produce works that will allow us to employ a diverse group of artists, particularly women (including, of course, trans women and transfeminine people), non-binary people, and non-cisgender men, as well as Black, Indigenous, 2SLGBTQIA+, disabled, neurodivergent/neuroqueer, and other frequently excluded and underrepresented people. We are striving to continue to improve our own contributions to this goal with each successive project.
SUBMISSION SUGGESTIONS (not requirements)
Please email your submission to essentialopera@gmail.com
If you have it, please send us videos of you singing 3 things.
Tell us why you sent this material. (Your fav party piece? You love contemporary music? Something you’ve always wanted to perform but haven’t had the chance to do publicly yet?)
If you don’t have video of yourself singing, feel free to send us audio plus a short video introduction and/or a video of yourself in a non-singing performance (i.e., monologue, scene work, clown performance, improv, conducting, playing an instrument, other). Video from a phone or other mobile device is totally fine.
If you don’t have audio or video material and want to introduce yourself, we would still love to meet you. Please get in touch and let us know about your work.
If you have a resume, CV, bio, or website, please feel free to include it with your submission.
TIME FRAME
We plan to review materials as we receive them until the end of August. As this is a general call, we won’t be able to reply to all submissions, but we will keep your materials on file for future projects.
Thank you very much for your interest in our company.
Erin and Maureen
Essential Opera
—
Catch December opera again this December!
And bonus short opera film, Aunt Helen!
We’re fundraising for another Monica Pearce short opera film!
Essential Opera presents
December with bonus short Aunt Helen
Music and libretti by Monica Pearce
Dec. 21-31, 2021, online
Featuring sopranos Erin Bardua, Maureen Batt, and Danielle Buonaiuto with music direction by Tara Scott
Tickets available here: Side Door
Read about both films, including info about the casts and creative teams
–
Subscribe to Essential Opera on YouTube HERE
We gratefully acknowledge the support of Arts Nova Scotia and the Canada Council who have made the première possible.
Thank you to you, our donors and the SOCAN Foundation for supporting the creation of this work.
Thank you, Music Nova Scotia, for supporting the Aunt Helen film.
—
Essential Opera celebrates its 10th year with Canadian operas!
—
December
Essential Opera presents
December
Music and libretto by Monica Pearce
World Première on YouTube
Monday, December 21, 2020, 8pm Atlantic Time
Featuring sopranos Erin Bardua, Maureen Batt, and Danielle Buonaiuto with music direction by Tara Scott
Tickets available here: https://www.tickethalifax.com/events/109547610/essential-opera-presents-december-by-monica-pearce!
Read all about it, including info about the cast and creative team
–
Subscribe to Essential Opera on YouTube HERE
We gratefully acknowledge the support of Arts Nova Scotia and the Canada Council who have made this première possible.
Thank you to you, our donors and the SOCAN Foundation for supporting the creation of this work.
—
Mirror, mirror
Essential Opera presents
Mirror, Mirror
Music and libretto by Anna Pidgorna
YouTube Video Première
Wednesday, October 28, 2o2o
8pm AT/ 7pm ET/4pm PT
Watch the film here: Mirror, Mirror on YouTube
Watch the pre-film chat here: Composer Chat
History of the work:
This 15-minute work was originally written for solo voice and electronics. It was created for and premièred by Janice Isabel Jackson in 2012. In 2015, Anna created a stunning visual score you can see here: (http://www.annapidgorna.com/mirror-mirror-on-display/). In 2016, Essential Opera programmed it for our “She’s The One” production, where Anna adapted it for two voices: sopranos Julie Ludwig and Maureen Ferguson. Now, EO co-founders and co-ADs Erin and Maureen are thrilled to present this work in a short film.
Stay tuned for our next production of a work by a Canadian woman composer/librettist – Monica Pearce’s December, coming up guess when!
Happy World Opera Day!!!
~Erin and Maureen,
Essential Opera
—
International Women’s Day
For International Women’s Day, EO invites everyone in our weird and wonderful field of opera to do the following:
-hire a woman to direct your next production
-hire a woman to conduct/music-direct your next production
-hire a woman to design your next production
-hire a woman to stage-manage your next production
-hire a woman for that top-tier administrative job
-commission your next new work from a woman composer and a woman librettist
-choose repertoire by women for upcoming seasons
-cast more women
-pay these women the same amount you would have paid men for these jobs
The women working in our field are amazing! They are talented, they’re innovative, their skills are on point, they have put in the work. Opportunities don’t tend to come their way unless it’s the result of special efforts to provide them, so their resumes may not reflect their abilities and their efforts. Instead of following the status quo, get to know women in our field, find out about their ideas, and trust in their skills.
The women singing in our art form right now are amazing! They come in all shapes, sizes, and colours, but we rarely see the reality of our communities on the stage. The “canon” repertoire is full of mostly male lead characters in operas written by men. And then even crowds and secondary characters default to being men.
Rewrite roles for women. Re-cast a lead as a woman. Fill the chorus of politicians/townspeople/elders/courtiers with women. Men being more visible and more audible than women is everyday reality; simply replicating that onstage is uninteresting, not an incisive social commentary.
Question adherence to tropes and norms – what impact do they really have?
Let’s all keep rethinking how and why we do what we do.
~Erin and Maureen
—
Fundraiser for Commissioning Matching Funds Winding Up for a Home Run
Sports metaphor!
WE MADE IT PAST $2000 max matching funds from the SOCAN Foundation! Thank you so much to all our donors!!! YOU ARE INCREDIBLE!!! WE ARE SO HAPPY!!! THANK YOU FOR HELPING US MAKE NEW OPERA!!!
Psst. If you wanted to send something and missed the Feb. 28 cut-off for our commissioning matching deadline- you still can (and, really, at any time) using the same methods listed below. Anything we raise at this point is going towards our production costs!
Thermometer By ABC Fundraising®
—
Essential Opera Announces New Commission with Monica Pearce
“December” will be a poignantly funny one-act opera for women’s voices. The plot focuses on a couple facing a relationship crossroads, culminating with an unexpected proposal in a most unromantic location: the airport security line.
Here’s how you can be involved:
Donations are appreciated via PayPal, e-transfer, and cheque:
Paypal: https://www.paypal.me/EODonations
E-transfer: Email us at essentialopera @ gmail dot com
Cheque: Email us at essentialopera @ gmail dot com for a mailing address to send a cheque
In the fall, we launched a fundraising campaign to help us execute this project. We applied to SOCAN for a commissioning matching grant, meaning that the first $2000 we raise will get matched by SOCAN. And then that money goes to our composer – yay! After $2000, all the money raised will go toward the production itself.
In December we got word that our SOCAN matching grant was accepted!!!!! So your support goes even further!!!
Thermometer By ABC Fundraising®
Meet the composer in a video here:
For more information on our history with Monica Pearce, visit Past Shows in the drop-down menu.
—
Collaboration: Gianni Schicci
Read more about this centenary performance, including the cast and creative team!
Essential Opera and Orchestra Toronto are coming together this spring to bring you our production of Puccini’s classic comedy, Gianni Schicchi. Join us on Sunday, April 22 at 3pm for this hilarious and touching performance in the George Weston Recital Hall at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. Visit the Orchestra Toronto site for tickets and more!
—
Auditions
Thank you to all the singers who submitted during our video upload audition period!
—
Indie Opera TO News
Indie Opera TO launched its website in August 2016, bringing together 11 independent companies producing opera in the Toronto area. Check out our page: http://indieoperatoronto.ca/company/essential-opera/
Scroll on downfor our video and to sign up for our (infrequent!) newsletter.
This is all thanks to the hard work of the Indie Opera group and executive, and to an OPERA America grant for audience development. The Indie Opera TO website is a one-stop shop for your Toronto opera needs! The main site has more info on how the collective operates and all the companies involved.
Here’s our intro video – we had a blast filming it with filmmaker Darren Bryat during rehearsals for She’s the One and in Dahlia Katz’s studio.
—
Opera Peep Show
Essential Opera joins several other indie opera companies for an unusual pay-as-you-go opera experience at Campbell House Museum (160 Queen St. West, Toronto). April 28, 29 and 30. Details here.
Opera Peep Show explores feelings of intimacy, voyeurism and lets the audience take control over their own experience. With four Toronto indie opera companies to sample, a bar and party room, Opera Peep Show will be a fun and unique night out. Facebook event here.
Join us on April 28 and 29 for an EO Reunion with a collection of opera faves, featuring EO cast members from the past six seasons. We have a glittering array of singers and repertoire for you to choose from, with pianist Jennifer Tung. On April 30 we’re presenting a quick collage of contemporary opera, celebrating and exploring women’s lives through Canadian and American contemporary opera, with pianist Cheryl Duvall. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Tickets! http://operapeepshow.brownpapertickets.com/
—
She’s The One
Learn more about our upcoming performance on April 8 in Toronto! Including cast, ticket link, repertoire and more.
—
Save the Date
Save the date for our upcoming performance in Toronto on April 8, 2016 in Heliconian Hall at 7:30 pm. “She’s the One” is a collage of contemporary Canadian and American operatic works and excerpts that trace a path through the lives of women. Over the next few weeks we’ll be updating you on the cast and programme details. Stay tuned!
—
Opera Lyra Ottawa announcement
We were devastated to learn that Opera Lyra Ottawa ceased operations on Wednesday, October 14. We are so sad and disappointed not to get to share our double-bill of short, Canadian operatic works in concert with Ottawa audiences. We are also brokenhearted for staff and other colleagues who have lost jobs and opportunities. Our thoughts are with everyone there, and with Ottawa’s arts community.
Opera Lyra press release
—
Video Interview
We were interviewed for Schmopera: http://www.schmopera.com/check-out-essential-opera/ If you’re new to Essential Opera or want to know more about why & how we do what we do, take a look at this short clip!
—
Fall 2015 begins on the road
Essential Opera is starting off the 2015-2016 season in Halifax at the Gilsig Series in Jewish Arts & Culture, where we are presenting Regina on October 8, 2015.
More info
Immediately following our Halifax performance, Essential Opera joins Opera Lyra Ottawa to present Regina and Etiquette on October 16, 17, and 18! Read the Opera Lyra 2015-2016 season brochure
More info
We are thrilled to be presenting these contemporary works for a growing audience across Canada, and hope to see you there!
—
Announcing our season 5 winter show:
Essential Zarzuela!
—
Thank you to all the singers who auditioned for us in January 2015!
—
Essential Opera is Growing
Read more about our expansion on our Blog page!
—
Proudly announcing our
Season 5 opening performance
Gluck: Paride ed Elena
(Paris and Helen)
Toronto: Saturday, September 27, 8:00 pm; Trinity St. Paul’s Centre
Kitchener: Wednesday, October 1, 7:30 pm; Registry Theatre
—
Summer 2014 Festival Appearances:
New Hamburg Live! Festival of the Arts
Two Weddings & A Reunion
Saturday, June 7, 2:00 p.m.
Steinmann Mennonite Church, Baden, ON
More info and tickets: www.newhamburglive.ca
Essential Opera presents “Two Weddings & A Reunion”, a newly-formed double bill of Haydn’s “The Deserted Island” (L’isola disabitata) and Donizetti’s “The Night Bell” (Il campanello) – two charming comedies. In Italian with English text onscreen.
Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound
Etiquette / Regina / Heather (CINDY + MINDY = BFFs 4EVER)
Sunday, June 15, 7:30 p.m.
The Registry Theatre, Kitchener, ON
More info and tickets: www.openears.ca
Essential Opera presents its triple bill of new Canadian works with a brilliant cast and chamber ensemble.
—
Info about our Season 4 spring performance:
Etiquette / Regina / Heather
Threw new works by Canadian Composers
New Works – Info, Cast and Musical Team
—
Info about our Season 4 opening production:
The Deserted Island
Haydn’s L’isola disabitata
Friday, November 8, 7:30 pm; Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Ave., Toronto
—
Info about our Season 3 productions:
Two Weddings and a Funeral
Gianni Schicchi (Puccini) and Il campanello (Donizetti)
Friday, March 15th, 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Ave., Toronto
$20
Tickets available online or at the door. Buy Tickets Now
Info about our S3 fall production:
The Threepenny Opera
Kurt Weill
Wednesday, November 7, 2012, 7:30 p.m.
Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Ave., Toronto
Tickets: $20
Sung in German and English, with English translation (if you’ve been good)
Info about our Season 2 productions:
Alcina
G.F. Handel (with orchestra)
Toronto: Trinity St. Paul’s, 427 Bloor St. W, May 25, 2012, 7:30 PM
Tickets available at the door: $20
New Hamburg Live! Festival of the Arts: Thursday, May 31, 2012, 7:30 PM
What happens when a pair of sister sorceresses fall in love with the wrong men? Handel tells the story of Alcina, a sorceress who gives up her powers for the love of a handsome knight, and her sister Morgana, who has to choose between a faithful lover and a mysterious stranger. Dramatic and heartbreaking in true opera seria style, with quests, betrayals, and love conquering all.
Details, meet the cast & orchestra
Chérubin
J. Massenet
7:30 p.m., Saturday, November 12th, 2011
Heliconian Hall, 35 Hazelton Avenue, Toronto, ON
Continuing the hilarious (and sexy!) exploits of the exuberant page Chérubin, last seen making trouble in The Marriage of Figaro. Now he’s off to enjoy the privileges of his officer’s commission in the army, but not before sampling all the pleasures Spain has to offer. Written in the sumptuous, frivolous style of Paris’ Opera-Comique, Massenet’s light-hearted romance follows Chérubin while he trades the temptation of the beautiful Countess Almaviva for the passion of an exotic dancer (yes, that kind of does mean what you’re thinking), and finally falls for the girl next door… but has she really fallen for him?
Info about our inaugural production:
Le Nozze di Figaro
W. A. Mozart
7:30 PM, Saturday, February 26, 2011
Calvin Presbyterian Church, 26 Delisle Avenue, Toronto, ON