Stage Door News

Toronto: VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert presents the Canadian premiere of Gluck’s “Alceste” January 12, 2025

Friday, December 13, 2024

VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert presents the Canadian Premier of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Alceste on Sunday, 12 January 2025, at 2:30 pm at Jeanne Lamon Hall, Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre. “We are thrilled to be making our VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert debut at this esteemed, acoustically excellent hall,” says OIC’s Silva-Marin. “Named in honour of Tafelmusik’s late Music Director, the intimacy will add greater impact to our performances of rarely heard opera performed by emerging and established Canadian artists.”

With Suzy Smith as Music Director and Pianist, the performance features soprano Lauren Margison in the title role, back on the OIC stage after resounding successes in Germany. Colin Ainsworth as Admete also returns to OIC following triumphs with leading Orchestras and Opera houses in Europe and North America. Alceste also features emerging, new generation artists Sebastien Belcourt as Hercule, Ryan Hofman as the Infernal God, Austin Larusson as High Priest and Joseph Ernst as Apollo. Robert Cooper will direct the VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert Chorus, and Guillermo Silva-Marin will guide the cast as Dramatic Advisor.

Perhaps the finest example of Gluck’s reformist operas with librettist Calzabigi, the French version of Alceste premiered in 1767 at the Paris Opera. Along with Orfeo, it was an attempt to return to the natural and poetic origins of opera, breaking with the opera seria tradition of superfluous embellishments by virtuoso singers and repetitive da capo arias. Mozart was later to embrace Gluck’s reforms most evident in his Idomeneo. Gluck’s masterpiece encompasses heroism, self-abnegation and total surrender to the gods in pursuit of saving the life of a loved one. The choral writing is distinguished, and highly emotive in the best dramatic exposition of text.

VOICEBOX: Opera in Concert is supported by the Jackman Foundation, Classical 96.3 FM Radio, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council. Single tickets and subscription packages are available through RCM Tickets by calling 416-408-0208 or visiting in person at 273 Bloor Street West. Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, located at 427 Bloor Street West near the intersection of Bloor West and Spadina Avenue, is wheelchair-accessible and conveniently close to public transit and municipal parking. For more details, please visit www.operainconcert.com.