The Canadian Opera Company Presents Richard Wagner's DIE WALKÜRE Featuring Christine Goerke, 1/31-2/22

By: Dec. 16, 2014
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Richard Wagner's Die Walküre is opera at its most epic with incredible vocal demands, a 110-piece orchestra and a story about gods and mortals, all played out to one of opera's most powerful and iconic scores. This immense work returns to the Canadian Opera Company this winter with a critically acclaimed production by renowned Canadian directorAtom Egoyan, with COC Music DirectorJohannes Debus conducting, and one of the most hotly anticipated role debuts of the opera world this season: Grammy Award-winning soprano Christine Goerke as the Valkyrie Brünnhilde. Die Walküre is sung in German with English SURTITLESTM and runs for seven performances at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts on January 31,February 4, 7, 10, 13, 19, 22, 2015.

The COC first presented Atom Egoyan's production of Die Walküre in 2004 and then in 2006 as part of the company's full Ring Cycle, a demanding four-part opera cycle considered to be Wagner's defining artistic achievement. Egoyan's internationally renowned production has been described as "powerful and moving" (Globe and Mail) and "as thoughtful and poetic as it is gripping" (National Post) with Canadian Michael Levinedesigning "striking to behold" (Opera, U.K.) industrial-themed sets along with elements of traditional, yet also deconstructed, Victorian-era costumes. Lighting is by David Finn. COC Music Director Johannes Debus conducts his first Die Walküre with this 2015 presentation, leading the COC Orchestra through a score that features some of the most powerful music ever conceived.

A star-studded cast is featured in this masterwork about a passionate, forbidden love igniting a war between gods and mortals, and a warrior goddess who risks everything to preserve the future. One of the most exciting dramatic sopranos in the world, AmericanChristine Goerke makes her debut with the COC in her first fully staged performance as the mighty Valkyrie Brünnhilde. Recently named Musical America's Vocalist of the Year for 2015, Goerke has been described as the Wagner-Strauss soprano the opera world has been waiting for, a multi-hued miracle of gale-force power, and pinpoint control, effortlessly riding over the most clamouring orchestra. Goerke goes on to sing Brünnhilde with Houston Grand Opera immediately following her Toronto engagement, with future plans to reprise the role in full Ring Cycles at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera and Houston Grand Opera. She also returns to the COC as Brünnhilde for Wagner's Siegfried(2015/2016) and Götterdämmerung (2016/12017).

Highly sought-after Danish baritone Johan Reuter, "fast making a name for himself in the opera world as a singer of extraordinary versatility" (MusicalCriticism.com) makes his COC debut as Wotan, king of the gods. American tenor Clifton Forbis, "a robust and impetuous Siegmund" (New York Times), returns to the COC as the half-mortal son of Wotan - a role he sang to rave reviews with the company in 2004 and 2006. He's paired with American soprano Heidi Melton in her COC debut as Sieglinde, Siegmund's lover and his unknown twin sister, a role in which she's been described to "[steal] the show with her huge, expressive voice and powerful singing...[bringing] across Sieglinde's hope, fear, and grief" (Operapalais).

As Brünnhilde's Valkyrie sisters, the COC has brought together an international roster of some of opera's most exciting established and emerging voices in the Wagnerian repertoire. COC Ensemble Studio alumna mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb returns as Waltraute and current Ensemble members, soprano Aviva Fortunata and mezzo-soprano Charlotte Burrage, are Helmwige and Grimgerde respectively. They are joined by Swiss sopranoMona Somm as Ortlinde, British soprano Elaine McKrill as Gerhilde, American mezzo-soprano Laura Tucker as Siegrune, American mezzo-soprano Lindsay Ammann as Schwertleite and Canadian mezzo-soprano Megan Latham as Rossweisse.

Die Walküre premiered in Munich in 1870 and is the most popular of Wagner's four Ring Cycle operas: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung. The COC presented Canada's first full Ring Cycle in 2006 to open the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. The opera company previously produced Die Walküre in 1962, 1971, 1976, 2004 and 2006.

Ticket Information
Single tickets for Die Walküre range from $59 - $424 and are available online at coc.ca, by calling 416-363-8231, or in person at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts Box Office (145 Queen St. W.). All evening performances of Die Walküre begin at7 p.m.

For more information on specially priced tickets available to young people under the age of 15, standing room, Opera Under 30 presented by TD Bank Group, student groups and rush seating, visit coc.ca.

Photo credit: Christine Goerke stars in COC's Die Walkure. Photo: Gary Mulcahey



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