An opera based on Margaret Atwood's prize-winning novel The Handmaid's Tale will have its national premiere at the Canadian Opera Company this fall.
The COC will balance the modern with the classic in its 2004/2005 season, offering Puccini's romantic crowd-pleaser La Bohème and the psychologically powerful Siegfried, the latest of its Wagner offerings.
“This is a season about the way in which real emotion is played out on a theatrical stage,” COC general-director Richard Bradshaw said. “What the season really deals with again and again is the human mind, the human psyche, and how we give that dramatic realization.”
The Handmaid's Tale adaptation, by Danish composer Poul Ruders, is based on Atwood's depiction of life for women after society's takeover by religious fundamentalists. In her bleak description, civil rights have been suspended and fertile women are kept as chattel to bear children for the elites. Lead role Offred — literally “of Fred,” her master — will be sung by Canadian mezzo-soprano Stephanie Marshall.
This will be the first COC performance for Marshall, who garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal of the role at the English National Opera. She will be supported by Helen Todd (Aunt Lydia), Jean Stilwell (the Commander's wife), and William Webster (Professor Pieixoto).
Paired with The Handmaid's Tale this fall will be Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, based on the novel by Sir Walter Scott. Described as an opera about power, love and madness in the Scottish highlands, it tells the story of Lucia, who is deceived by her brother into betraying the man she loves and marrying another.
The tale of two young lovers in Paris' Latin Quarter, the always-popular La Bohème opens the winter season. It will be followed by Siegfried, the second instalment of Wagner's epic journey. The saga tracks Siegried's journey toward self-discovery, with consequences for the fate of both gods and mankind.
Bayreuth veteran Christian Franz, a German heldentenor, will make his COC debut as Siegfried. He will be joined by Canadians Frances Ginzer and Peteris Eglitis, cast as Brünnhilde and Wotan in Die Walküre, which will be performed at the tail end of the 2003/2004 season.
“Siegfried contains some of the greatest music in the whole Ring Cycle. You have a mixture of great nobility and an element of fantasy,” Mr. Bradshaw said. “You need a director who can cope with that and we have the right person in François Girard.”
The season will finish with Il Trovatore. and the COC premiere of Tancredi. The latter, the story of an 11th-century knight, his lover and a duplicitous king, is the first dramatic opera by Rossini that the COC has undertaken.
