The Nightingale and Other Short Fables (COC, 2009) / Photo: Michael Cooper

Right now it’s the season of opera companies revealing their upcoming rosters of productions and casts for the following season. Each year these announcements are met with breathless excitement from opera buffs like me; very often we plan our lives around this stuff, though just as often announcements are also met with eyebrow raises, snickers, and/or sighs.

No such reactions, at least from my end, when it came to the Canadian Opera Company’s 2017-2018 season; it’s intriguing and genuinely balanced, and not exactly as safe as it may look from the outset. A revival of a hugely divisive, Christopher Alden-directed Rigoletto (a production that bravely tackles the work’s blatant misogyny) and the Canadian premiere of Richard Strauss’ Arabella (as the season opener, no less) are just two of the notable productions on tap. There’s also another revival, of the hugely successful The Nightingale And Other Short Fables, which, if you don’t live in Toronto, is very worth making a trip for. It’s a very special production involving a flooded orchestra pit, creative puppetry, and some very searing visuals. I can’t think of a better introduction to opera than this.

Just before I left for Europe (where I’m posting from — more on this jaunt in a future post), I had a chance to chat with COC General Director Alexander Neef. It was recorded via telephone, owing to a nasty cold I was (/am) enduring. (I’m still working out the particulars of my fancy new recorder, so please pardon the beeping; it’s not a heart monitor, honest.) Neef is always a good conversationalist, even if he and I don’t always see eye-to-eye in the opera sphere. For instance, I think L’elisir d’amore is far more interesting with older singers; to my ears, Donizetti’s gorgeous score only fully reveals its warm humanity with the timbre of mature voices — though I should add, I am allowing myself to remain totally open whatever surprises may be in the Ensemble Studio-populated production the COC has planned in the fall. Having soprano Jane Archibald as Artist-in-Residence is an equally intriguing prospect; along with performing in The Abduction from the Seraglio, she’ll be making two role debuts — in Arabella and The Nightingale. Archibald was so very affecting this past fall in the COC’s affecting production of Ariodante, and again, if you’re not an opera fan, hers is the voice that may make you a believer. Along with stellar technique, the soprano has a warm, human presence onstage, and she’s a great actor too.

So, without further ado, please enjoy. More audio interviews — and updates from Europe — to come. Stay tuned.

(Photo: Bo Huang)