Calgary Phil Traditional Christmas
JULIANE GALLANT conductor
CALGARY MEN'S CHORUS
CALGARY PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
NICOLE LEUNG soprano
TAYTE MITCHELL tenor
Celebrate the spirit of the season with a selection of holiday favourites performed by the Orchestra, Calgary Men’s Chorus, and alumni soloists from Calgary Opera's McPhee Artist Development Program. The beautiful Grace Presbyterian Church provides the backdrop for this beloved Calgary tradition.
December 10th, 11th and 12th, 2024
Ammolite Opera Holiday Pops Concert
CONDUCTED BY MARIA FULLER
Tenor Soloist
Come join us for a magical evening filled with beautiful music and holiday cheer at Grace Presbyterian Church.
To get you into the holiday spirit, our talented worldclass singers and orchestra will serenade you with Christmas carols and festive holiday arrangements by our very own Music Director Maria Fuller. On top of that, Ammolite Opera is so excited to present excerpts of an all new Messiah oratorio work titled The Return of the Messiah composed by Maria Fuller.
This concert is in collaboration with the Kensington Sinfonia, the Nightingale Arts Collective and guests.
Flight
DIRECTED BY MORRIS PANYCH
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR / TAYTE MITCHELL
Called the greatest new work of the past 30 years, this compassionate contemporary classic is led by the beloved Vancouver creative team of director Morris Panych and set designer Ken MacDonald, while Dove’s propulsive music is steered by the baton of Leslie Dala, Vancouver Opera’s Head of Music and Associate Conductor.
February 2025
Madama Butterfly
DIRECTED BY MO ZHOU
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR / TAYTE MITCHELL
The story of Pinkerton, an American Lieutenant stationed in Nagasaki, who marries a young Japanese girl, Cio-Cio-San. For him, it’s a marriage of convenience, a touristic fantasy abroad before he finds himself a “real” (American) bride. For Cio-Cio-San, it begins her story of tragically unrequited love.
April / May 2025
PAST ENGAGEMENTS
DieFledermaus
DIRECTED BY AHSLIE CORCORAN
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR / TAYTE MITCHELL
An audience favourite since its 1874 premiere, Die Fledermaus remains the most-performed operetta in the world for good reason. This vaudeville and farce-inspired comedy masterwork revels in effervescent odes to drinking, dancing, dining, laughing, and, well, more drinking, while a madcap plot pinballs through masquerade and mistaken identities, romantic dalliances, pranks and payback.
October / November 2024
Proving Up
CONDUCTED BY MARIA FULLER
DIRECTED BY TAYTE MITCHELL
CANADIAN PREMIERE
Proving Up is an opera about the American Dream, told through the story of Nebraskan homesteaders in the 1870s. A family dreams of "proving up" and obtaining the deed to the land they've settled. They obsessively list the requirements of the Homestead Act: five years of harvest, a sod house dwelling, and perhaps the most elusive element — a glass window. With their eldest son incapacitated, Ma and Pa Zegner send their youngest living child Miles on a mission to share the valuable commodity with their distant neighbors who are expecting a visit from a government inspector. Miles mounts his gray mare with the window wrapped in burlap and gallops across the land. The elements, natural and otherwise, have other plans, and Miles comes face to face with a strange man who turns out to be the ghost of a neighboring farmer, driven mad by the requirements of "proving up." The willowy figure knows all too well the cost of the American Dream, and the window soon becomes a broken mirror reflecting great tragedy.
August 2024
“Psst…I Love You”
AMMOLITE OPERA VALENTINE’S CONCERT
FEATURED SOLOIST
"Psst…I Love You" is not just a concert; it's an opportunity for our community to come together and make a difference. The event is dedicated to supporting Ammolite Opera’s Inaugural season in July and August 2024.
February 24th, 2024 @ 2pm
White Christmas
CONDUCTED BY MARK MORASH
DIRECTED BY KIM MATTICE WANAT
Bob Wallace
Veterans Bob Wallace and Phil Davis have a successful song-and-dance act after World War II. With romance in mind, the two follow a duo of beautiful singing sisters en route to their Christmas show at a Vermont lodge, which just happens to be owned by Bob and Phil’s former army commander. With a dazzling score featuring well-known standards including “Blue Skies,” “I Love A Piano,” “How Deep Is the Ocean” and the perennial title song, White Christmas is an uplifting, wholesome musical that will delight audiences of all ages.
December 2023
Empty the House
CONDUCTED BY MARIA FULLER
DIRECTED BY TAYTE MITCHELL
The Houston, 1995. Following a self-imposed estrangement of ten years, Faith returns to the small suburban house in which she grew up, to help her mother, Brenda, move out. Over the course of three days, mother and daughter pack up articles of the house into boxes, argue with each other, and share silent dinners, as time alternates between childhood and adulthood to reveal current and past recriminations and regrets.
La Traviata
CONDUCTED BY ALAIN TRUDEL
DIRECTED BY ANNA THEODOSAKIS
BROTT OPERA FESTIVAL
Alfredo
La traviata is a tragic tale about Parisian courtesan, Violetta, who attempts to leave the life she knows behind to try and finally find true love. When she meets romantic, Alfredo, the hypocrisy of upper-class society threatens their love – and someone must pay the ultimate price.
JULY 2023
Béatrice et Bénédict
CONDUCTED BY MARK MORASH
DIRECTED BY ROBERT HERRIOT
CALGARY
Bénédict
Both committed to the single life, Béatrice and Bénédict have individually rebuffed the idea of love, most of all with each other. All bets are off when their friends plot to trick them into falling for one another.
This playful and comedic battle of wits is inspired by Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and showcases the talents of Calgary Opera’s McPhee Artists.
MAY 2023
Macbeth
CONDUCTED BY JONATHAN BRANDANI
DIRECTED BY RACHEL PEAKE
CALGARY OPERA
Macduff (cover) + Assistant Director
The warrior Macbeth fights on the side of the King of Scotland. But when a coven of witches prophesy that he shall become king himself, a ruthless ambition drives Macbeth and his wife to horrific acts. Macbeth is one of the most memorable stories of how an obsession with power can destroy the people who wield it.
APRIL 2023
Carmen
CONDUCTED BY MARK MORASH
DIRECTED BY BRENNA CORNER
CALGARY OPERA
El Remendado
The ultimate femme fatale, Carmen, a strong, fiery woman is doing what she can to survive in a poor town, manipulating and seducing the men who try to control her. When one man’s obsession turns to wild jealousy, the consequences are tragic and shocking.
NOVEMBER 2023
Der Freischütz / La Traviata / Susannah
Summer 2022, I will be with Wolf Trap Opera for a second summer as a Studio Artist. I’ll be covering Alfredo (La Traviata by Verdi), Sam Polk (Suzannah by Carlisle Floyd) and in the chorus for Der Freischütz by Weber.
Here and After
This recital is our meditation on Covid-19 and the importance of live performance art. We feature songs by George Butterworth, Giacomo Puccini, Jonathon Dove and Henri Duparc.
88 Keys Grand Piano Society / 1622 10 Ave Fernie, British Columbia / May 6th, 2022 @ 7:30p
Vulcan Performing Arts Society / 529 Centre St. Vulcan, Alberta / May 10th, 2022 @ 7:30p
Mountain View Festival / Christ Church Calgary, 3602 8th Street SW. Calgary, Alberta / May 15th, 2022 @ 4p
The Miller’s Mind
DIRECTED BY TAYTE MITCHELL
Die schöne Müllerin by Franz Schubert and Wilhelm Müller is one of the most pinnacle German art song cycles ever written and we are realizing these 20 songs into a fully designed and staged performance at the King Edward CSpace South Studio Theatre in Calgary, Alberta.
April 19th and 21st, 2022
Namwayut
Namwayut is a word in Kwak'wala, the language of the Kwakwaka'wakw peoples from northern Vancouver Island, smaller surrounding islands and adjacent mainland BC in Canada, meaning "we are all one".
The piece grew out of Canadian opera singer and dramaturg Marion Newman’s artistic impulse to conceptualize and create an opera under Indigenous leadership in an entirely new way.
Workshop at Calgary Opera April 10th-20th, 2022
Joshua
Joshua
The epic story of the Children of Israel as they pass into a new land - a story to inspire our own times. Heroic battles, the fall of Jericho, the halting of the sun and moon... all portrayed with Handel’s incomparable genius and capped by the famous chorus, “see, the Conquering Hero Comes”.
Saturday, April 30 7:30pm
Knox United Church, 506 - 4th Street SW
Calgary Festival Chorus
La Traviata
CONDUCTED BY GORDON GERRARD DIRECTED BY ALAIN GAUTHIER CHOREOGRAPHED BY TANIA ALVARADO
Gastone
A blend of whimsical comedy, romance and the delights of Belle Époque Paris in all its effervescent splendor, The Merry Widow sets out to entertain and amuse at every pixie-booted step in a wonderfully lavish new staging by award-winning Israeli director Omer Ben Seadia.
Jan. 29th, Feb. 2nd & 4th, 2022
Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
The Merry Widow
CONDUCTED BY TANIA MILLER DIRECTED BY OMER BEN SEADIA
St. Brioche and covering Camille de Rosillon
A blend of whimsical comedy, romance and the delights of Belle Époque Paris in all its effervescent splendor, The Merry Widow sets out to entertain and amuse at every pixie-booted step in a wonderfully lavish new staging by award-winning Israeli director Omer Ben Seadia.
Jan. 29th, Feb. 2nd & 4th, 2022
Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
