Munich’s Bayerische Staatsoper and Madrid’s Teatro Real have unveiled their 2021/22 seasons, each with a small-but-mighty dose of Canadian artists onstage.
Canadian-American powerhouse soprano Sondra Radvanovsky will head to Munich for two of her signature Verdi roles. In the fall of 2021, she’ll bring her Leonore to Olivier Py’s production of Il trovatore, opposite Francesco Meli as Manrico; and in June 2022, Radvanovsky is Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, alongside Piotr Beczała as Riccardo and Carlos Álvarez as Renato.
In more signature roles, Canadian favourite Gerald Finley brings his Count Almaviva to Munich this July, in Christof Loy’s Le nozze di Figaro. Finley shares the role with French baritone Ludovic Tézier, and joins Alex Esposito as Figaro, Golda Schulz as the Countess Almaviva, and Anne Sofie von Otter as Marcellina. And later in July, Finley steps into Iago in Verdi’s Otello, opposite Anja Harteros as Desdemona and Arsen Soghomonyan in the title role.
Among Munich’s premieres is Christophe Honoré’s new production of Berlioz’s five-act grand opera Les Troyens, where Canadian contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux is set to sing the role of Cassandre. She shares the stage with Anita Rachvelishvili as Didon, and Gregory Kunde/Brandon Jovanovich as Énée. The production premieres on May 9, 2022.
Over in Madrid, Canadian stage giant Robert Carsen‘s Götterdämmerung goes up at Teatro Real, capping off his Ring des Nibelungen that started in in their 2018/19 season. And perhaps in the most curious Canadian artists news out of Madrid, singer-songwriter-composer Rufus Wainwright’s opera, Hadrian, gets its second airing on July 27, 2022. The semi-staged production is directed by Jorn Weisbrodt, and features Thomas Hampson in a reprisal of the title role.
Jenna is the editor and co-creator of Schmopera. She also writes for The Globe and Mail and Opera Canada. She’s a pianist and vocal coach, and working with singers is how she fell in love with opera.
