On Nov. 7, three regulars at the world’s greatest opera houses took the stage at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts to celebrate the Canadian Opera Company’s (COC) 60^th anniversary. Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas, British tenor John Treleaven and Canadian baritone Russell Braun wowed the attendees with their powerful pipes and keen musicality under the baton of COC music director Johannes Debus. The three vocalists performed in place of Canadian tenor Ben Heppner, who was forced to withdraw from the concert due to illness in late October.

Having that kind of top-tier talent was only fitting for the COC’s diamond anniversary concert. As for this season’s program itself, the COC offers a stellar lineup of seven main-stage operas. It kicked off in September with Puccini’s classic, Madama Butterfly, and was followed by Stravinsky’s The Nightingale and Other Short Fables, staged by famed Quebec director Robert Lepage. Georges Bizet’s Carmen will take the stage in January; followed by Verdi’s Otello; a revision of the COC’s successful production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman; and Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda. Lastly they will perform Idomeneo, a Mozart masterpiece that Neef called “one of the most wonderful, human pieces that has ever been written,” in a September 2009 interview with Lifestyle. Neef is very excited for the Otello production, which runs in February. “It’s really one of the big pieces in the repertoire, and one of the pieces that is really difficult to do and difficult to cast, so when a company actually does it, it’s always an event,” he says.

German-born Neef was appointed general director in June 2008. The Toronto audiences, he says, have been a pleasure to work for. “The public here is extremely curious, they’re not judgmental before they’ve seen something, and they don’t have a prejudice about repertoire,” he says.

“An opera is just a score on the shelf if we don’t take it out and perform it.”

The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, the COC’s new home since 2006, is crucial to the opera company’s success. “It has changed everything for the company — from what the company is inside the company, and for what the company has become for Canada and the world,” says Neef. “It’s essentially the reason why I’m here, because it’s one of the best opera houses you could possibly have.” Neef cites the space’s excellent acoustics and intimate atmosphere as major highlights. “You can have a very intimate theatrical experience as a member of the public. You’re never really far away from the stage,” he says. “For North Americans it’s a rather small theatre, but this was a very conscious choice when the theatre was built.”

While Neef and the COC try to bring new, innovative operas to the Toronto public, they still perform classics that were written centuries ago. “I don’t believe we perform the pieces we perform because it’s beautiful music,” says Neef. “I believe we perform them because they have a message or some kind of relevance for us today, because we don’t perform them as 18^th- or 19^th-century people, we perform them as 20^th-century people.”

He stresses that he does not want the COC to act as an “opera museum,” and that it’s essential to have a contemporary understanding of the pieces performed. “It’s about finding the connection to us today and getting something out of the piece for today. It’s not like a painting that’s just there in a museum hanging on the wall. An opera is just a score on the shelf if we don’t take it out and perform it.” •