Bugs Bunny, Brünnhilde and Me

 
 

Photo by Janice Saxon

“Being a journalist has taken me to places I never imagined as a kid — from crime scenes to the Juno Awards, up close with the pope, and now, the opera. During childhood, my understanding of opera came mostly from Saturday morning cartoons — Bugs Bunny in a tailcoat tuxedo, or whatever was playing on Teletoon that week.

Think of all the usual clichés: horned helmets, a voluptuous woman belting out high notes on a massive stage, an audience draped in feathered boas and monocles. And while Brünnhilde does make an appearance in this opera, what I experienced at the Edmonton Opera was nothing like what my imagination had prepared me for. Instead, it was emotional, intimate and physically dynamic.”

— Allison Stephen, Edify

A Die Walküre Preview by Alexander Carpenter

Jaclyn Grossman as Freia in Das Rheingold (Edmonton Opera, 2023/24)

Richard Wagner is surely the best-known name in the history of opera, and his operas are certainly among “the biggest” in the repertory.  The great German composer’s works are unparalleled in their scope and scale, relating epic tales of cosmological struggles between gods and their progeny, offering metaphysical accounts of the conflict between the scared and the profane, and exploring the eternal nature of love through heart-rending accounts of ill-fated lovers who expire from pure longing (with magic potions, giants, enchanted swords, and rings of power all thrown in for good measure).  These stories are so big, Wagner required new categories of singers, new and bigger instruments and his own theatre to stage—indeed, to contain—his epochal Romantic vision of opera-as-drama, as the “total work of art.”   

Yet, for all of their grandiosity, Wagner’s operas are also concerned fundamentally with the human condition: the experience of the widest range of feelings, from deepest love, reverence and piety to jealousy, fear and rage; what it means to be part of a family; and the search to find one’s identity and place in the world.  In this way, these operas can be “small”—ultimately, they are about people, relationships, moral struggles, and emotional truth.  To this end, Wagner eschewed the traditions of opera—aria and recitative as closed numbers—and developed an entirely new musical aesthetic, one that aims for naturalness of expression as it supports the unfolding of the drama, and that uses Leitmotifs—dedicated musical themes for specific emotions, concepts, and objects—to enhance the storytelling but to also open a window into the emotional and psychological depths of the characters.   

            Edmonton Opera’s upcoming production of Wagner’s Die Walküre (The Valkyrie)—the second work in his four-opera, Norse mythology-inspired Ring Cycle—faces the paradox of Wagnerian opera head on.  Die Walküre is a “big” opera, to be sure.  It features a pantheon of Norse and Germanic gods, demigods and humans locked in a multi-generational struggle to possess a powerful magical ring (a struggle that will culminate—spoiler alert—in the apocalyptic destruction of Valhalla, the home of the gods, in the fourth and final opera of the Ring Cycle).  But Walküre, among the most emotionally compelling of Wagner’s operas, also offers an intimate perspective on what is essentially a family romance, in which a husband and wife argue anxiously about their children, and the children find themselves caught between filial loyalty and romantic love.  Much of the story of Walküre unfolds not through action sequences, but through scenes of intense dialogue and lush, Leitmotif-driven music that allow us to recognize Wagner’s characters as complex, vulnerable, and often deeply flawed human beings. 

            Edmonton Opera’s artistic director Joel Ivany avers that Die Walküre is his “favourite opera”: an “edge-of –your-seat” music drama that “looks into the depths of our soul.”  In staging an alternative version of Walküre, with cuts and a reduced orchestra of just eighteen players, Ivany is aware of Wagner’s looming presence—“I feel the pressure”—and honours Wagner’s insistence upon opera as a pure synthesis of the musical and the theatrical, remaining true to the score while embracing the intimacy of the venue and the staging, providing audiences with the opportunity to experience a truly powerful and monumental work at close range. 

            Andy Moro, scene designer for Die Walküre, describes the production as “austere, clean, elemental,” drawing on the symbolism of circles and rings as it relates a “universal” if sometimes difficult story that blends folktale, mythology, and spirituality as it runs the gamut from “glorious to grody.” With its chamber orchestra, thrust stage, and spare design, this incarnation of Walküre places the “grandest expression into and immediate relationship with the audience,” making it an accessible and intimate experience. 

            Soprano Jaclyn Grossman, a self-described “Wagner nerd,” plays Brunhilde, the opera’s eponymous Valkyrie.  She echoes Moro’s description of Walküre’s accessibility, noting that audiences—who may be wary of Wagnerian opera—are in fact already primed for it, courtesy of familiar pop culture touchstones like Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, which likewise combine mythology, magic, and epic family drama.  But for Grossman, Walküre is really about “listening” to Wagner’s musical dialogue, and responding in a “human way” to the opera’s big questions:  What is good and evil? What does it mean to have and to wield power? How do we know what is right and what is wrong?  As a performer, Grossman welcomes the intimacy provided by the thrust stage, which provides the opportunity to be “right there,” surrounded by the audience while sharing an “electric energy.”  

            Edmonton Opera’s production of Die Walküre represents the first time the work has been staged in the city.  Over the next two years, Edmonton Opera will stage the remaining two operas in the Ring Cycle, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, offering Edmontonians even more chances to experience some of the greatest—and most challenging—works in the operatic canon, presented in new and exciting ways.   

 —Alexander Carpenter

Edmonton Opera Announces 2025/26 Season

 
 

Some legacies are passed down, and others must be claimed.

In the 2025/26 season, Edmonton Opera explores what it means to inherit, build, and redefine a legacy through a bold lineup of performances and special events. This season celebrates the voices that shaped the art form, the artists carrying it forward, and the ongoing evolution of opera as the living art form that continues to inspire new generations.

Edmonton Opera’s 2025-26 Season to Feature Miriam Khalil, Marion Newman & Jaclyn Grossman

 
 

The Edmonton Opera has announced its 2025-26 Season.

In a statement, Edmonton Opera’s Artistic Director, Joel Ivany said, “Our 2026/26 season is really about what we inherit, what we keep, and what we redefine. From celebrating opera’s greatest moments to championing new voices and groundbreaking works, we invite
audiences to be part of this living legacy that is Edmonton Opera, 62 years in the community.”

A Second Night at the Opera: Bluebeard's Castle

 
 

Photo by Janice Saxon

“We wanted to think about how that story would work in a more modern setting, and we came up with the idea of: Rather than an old man and a young girl, it’s an old man and an old woman who have been married for 40 years, and behind each door is a memory of that life together. But she’s actually living with dementia, so she’s no longer able to access these memories. Bluebeard has become her carer, and he’s living with the emotion and loneliness of caring for somebody living with dementia, so it immediately becomes a much more accessible and relatable story, because it’s kind of a reflection of society as it continues to stand with an aging population and overly strained health services.”

- Daisy Evans, Stage Director & Co-Creator of Bluebeard’s Castle

A RAM Tough Debate

 
 

Joel Ivany, the artistic director for the Edmonton Opera, says that when he first moved to this city to take the reins of that artistic organization, he looked immediately at the old RAM site and thought it was an ideal spot.

“Edmonton Opera, an arts institution in the City of Edmonton for over 60 years, has been looking for a space to innovate, welcome patrons and honour the deep legacy of community arts within the city,” Ivany says.