Returning Manitoba Opera productions bring the love

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This article was published 28/03/2024 (527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Love and laughter are in the air for the next Manitoba Opera season.

The organization’s 2024-25 schedule will open with The Elixir of Love in October and wrap up with La Bohème in April, it was announced Wednesday.

Following a season defined by new work in the form of Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North, the company is presenting a pair of returning productions.

“If you want to go to a show and leave the opera house humming a tune, next season is for you,” says Larry Desrochers, Manitoba Opera’s general director and chief executive officer.

“Both of these shows have great music, they’re very tuneful.”

The Elixir of Love — last performed locally in 2005 — is a magical Donizetti comedy that follows the antics of Nemorino, a poor farmer, and his quest to woo a wealthy landowner with the help of a promising potion.

American tenor Jonah Hoskins plays Nemorino and Winnipeg-born soprano Andriana Chuchman takes on the role of his uninterested love interest Adina — a character Chuchman has played previously with the Metropolitan Opera.

Canadian baritone Peter McGillivray returns to Winnipeg for the role of the potion-peddling Dr. Dulcamara and American baritone Jorell Williams makes his local debut as Nemorino’s nemesis, Sergeant Belcore.

“We always try to balance the season: Elixir is a comedy and La Bohème is a tragedy,” Desrochers says, adding that the opera tries to keep at least a 10-year buffer between returning shows.

The popular Puccini classic La Bohème returns to the Centennial Concert Hall in 2025 for the first time since 2014.

Set in Paris in the 1830s, the dark, romantic production follows the love affair of poet Rodolfo and seamstress Mimì, young bohemian artists living in the city’s Latin Quarter.

The all-Canadian cast includes soprano Suzanne Taffot as Mimì, tenor Zachary Rioux as Rodolfo, baritone Hugo Laporte as painter Marcello and soprano Charlotte Siegel as singer Musetta.

Both productions will be helmed by female directors, with Winnipeg’s Ann Hodges leading The Elixir of Love and Canadian director Anna Theodosakis running La Bohème.

Manitoba Opera’s current season wraps up next month with Carmen, premièring April 13. Visit mbopera.ca for more information.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

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