Stage Door News
Stage Door News
Today, Opera Canada Publications announced the three distinguished honourees who will receive the 2018 Opera Canada Awards. They will be celebrated at a gala award evening on October 22, 2018 at First Canadian Place in downtown Toronto.
The 2018 Opera Canada Award honourees are:
• Wayne Gooding, opera educator and Editor, Opera Canada (1994-2017)
• Dominque Labelle, soprano and vocal pedagogue
• Alexander Neef, General Director, Canadian Opera Company and Artistic Director, Santa Fe Opera
In 2000, Opera Canada magazine introduced the Opera Canada Awards, nicknamed ‘The Rubies,’ in honour of its founding Editor, Ruby Mercer. This gala evening celebrates the talent and accomplishments of Canadians who have made a significant contribution to the opera world as artists, builders, administrators and philanthropists.
The Opera Canada Awards Committee is comprised of both representatives of Opera Canada Publications and leading opera professionals from across Canada. Members of the 2018 committee are: Wendy Nielsen, soprano; Head of Voice, University of Toronto; Head Vocal Consultant, Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio. Ian Rye, CEO Pacific Opera Victoria. Richard Turp, writer and lecturer on opera; Artistic Director, Les Concerts Lachine. David Giles (ex-officio), Chair, Board of Directors, Opera Canada Publications. Gianmarco Segato (ex-officio), Editorial Director, Opera Canada Publications.
There are a number of sponsorship opportunities available ranging from $3,000 to $5,000, including acknowledgement in the gala program, in print and online. To book or for more information, contact Robert Morassutti, 416-928-1525; robert.morassutti@sympatico.ca.
Individual gala tickets will be available in late August and are $300 per person. Contact Robert Morassutti, 416-928-1525; robert.morassutti@sympatico.ca for more information or to purchase online, visit operacanada.ca/rubies.
Honouree biographies
Wayne Gooding was Editor of Opera Canada magazine from 1994-2017. A noted opera educator, he regularly lectures for the Canadian Opera Company in their Pre-Performance Chat and Opera Talks series and leads opera courses for the Royal Conservatory of Music. In his earlier incarnation as a business journalist, he wrote for such publications as The Financial Post, Report on Business, Policy Options and served as editor of Canadian Business, Marketing Magazine and Financial Post Magazine. Over the past decade, he has increasingly focused on a lifelong interest in opera and music theatre. Besides Opera Canada, his byline has appeared in Playbill, Opera Now, American Record Guide and The Wagner Journal.
Dominique Labelle was born in Montréal and trained at McGill and Boston Universities. She is Professor of Voice at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. Renowned for a voice that has been called “angelic,” “silvery,” and “vibrant,” she is indisputably one of the great baroque and classical sopranos of our time. Throughout her long career, she has collaborated with a number of the world’s most respected conductors and composers, such as Iván Fischer, Nicholas McGegan, Jos van Veldhoven, Jean- Marie Zeitouni, Robert Shaw and the Pulitzer Prize winning composer, Yehudi Wyner. Her extensive recorded repertoire can be heard on the Virgin Veritas, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, RCA Victor Red Seal, Koss, Denon, Naxos, New World, Carus and Musica Omnia labels. Her recording of Handel’s Arminio (Virgin Classics) won the 2002 Handel Prize. Her latest recital recording, Moments of Love (Bridge Records), is with pianist and composer Yehudi Wyner and includes songs by Britten, Hahn, Ravel, Saint- Saëns and Wyner.
Alexander Neef, General Director of the Canadian Opera Company since 2008, has worked with some of the most prestigious arts organizations in the world. His career as an artistic administrator has taken him from the Salzburg Festival to the RuhrTriennale in Germany, Opéra national de Paris and New York City Opera, to leading the COC. In 2018, he was appointed the first Artistic Director of Santa Fe Opera. At the COC, Neef has cultivated strong relationships with co-producers such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, Royal Opera House in London, Teatro Real Madrid, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Neef has also significantly raised the profile and professional development opportunities of the COC’s Ensemble Studio program, a training program for young opera professionals, including the 2011 launch of the Ensemble Studio Competition in which members of the public are invited to attend the final round of auditions for the Ensemble Studio.
Opera Canada magazine has been connecting the vibrant world of opera in Canada since 1960 with high quality professional arts journalism, in-depth interviews with its creators, artists and decision-makers as well as beautifully-illustrated features and reviews about productions from across the nation and internationally.
Opera Canada offers a comprehensive review of opera in Canada and of Canadians working in the opera world at large. In addition to our quarterly full-colour publication we deliver all the latest opera news through our website, operacanada.ca, and on our active social media channels. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all things Canadian and operatic!
Opera Canada, a registered Canadian charity, is the oldest, continuously published arts periodical in Canada and is available quarterly by subscription and on select newsstands.
Opera Canada's vision is to continue to be the voice of all opera in Canada, and of Canadians working in opera throughout the world, as we move into our next 50 years.
Opera Canada's mission is to actively promote opera and opera professionals across Canada as well as Canadians involved in opera throughout the world. We aim to inform, educate, and celebrate Canadian opera in all its facets.
Supporters of Opera Canada include BMO, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, Heritage Canada, Magazines Canada and the Ontario Media Development Corporation as well as donors, arts patrons, corporations, internationally recognized Canadian artistic creators and performers, plus, legions of committed opera fans.
Photo: Alexander Neef. ©2018.
2018-07-17
Toronto: Opera Canada announces the 2018 Opera Canada Awards