Pacific Opera Victoria has announced its 2022/23 schedule and casting, featuring brilliant performers making their Pacific Opera debuts along with returning favourites from seasons past.
The new season explores the greatest of all human conditions—love! Founding artistic director, Timothy Vernon, will conduct Pacific Opera’s productions of three engaging love stories: Georges Bizet’s Carmen in October 2022, The Birds by Walter Braunfels in February of 2023 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Così fan tutte in April 2023.
Instantly recognizable and utterly unforgettable, Georges Bizet’s Carmen is the ultimate return to opera at a grand scale. Canadian mezzo-soprano Carolyn Sproule makes her Pacific Opera debut in the title role. Sproule made her Houston Grand Opera debut as Carmen during the 2021/22 season.
Returning to Pacific Opera in the role of Don José is Adam Luther, with Lauren Margison making her company debut as Micaela. Opening on October 12, with stage direction by François Racine, Carmen is overflowing with bold harmonies and irresistible melodies that have become an indelible part of popular culture.
When two disillusioned humans journey into the realm of thrushes, wrens and ravens, their ill-advised counsel leads to a thunderous reckoning with the gods in Walter Braunfels’ The Birds, opening on February 22. Making her Pacific Opera stage debut in the role of Nachtigall (Nightingale) is Claire de Sévigné, recently named one of CBC’s Top Young Canadian Classical Musicians. Returning to Pacific Opera are Justin Welsh as Wiedhopf (Hoopoe), Jacqueline Woodley as Zaunschlüpfer (Wren) and Rebecca Cuddy as Drossel (Blackbird or Thrush).
Stage director Glynis Leyshon is joined by Pam Johnson as set designer and Nancy Bryant as costume designer. The trio will be remembered by Pacific Opera audiences for their incredible work on Handel’s Rinaldo in 2018.
A co-production with Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Mozart’s Così fan tutte is a quirky comedy about two men as naughty as Mozart himself, and the women who teach them a lesson.
Australian native soprano Lauren Fagan will be making her Pacific Opera debut in the role of Fiordiligi, with Chinese mezzo-soprano Hongni Wu making her Pacific Opera debut as Dorabella. Owen McCausland as Ferrando, Christopher Dunham as Gugliemo, Phillip Addis as Don Alfonso and Cecile Muhire as Despina are making their returns to the Pacific Opera stage.
This international co-production, opening in Victoria on April 12 under the stage direction of Laurent Pelly, will next be performed in Tokyo.
Tickets for single performances start at $29, with series subscriptions starting at $72. To keep Pacific Opera accessible to students, families and community organizations, Community Preview tickets are available for $15. For more information about the 2022/23 season including tickets, visit:
pacificopera.ca/