Praised by critics for her “soprano that charms and brightens a room”, as well as her “crystalline tone, agile coloratura” and “vivacious stage presence”, Mireille Asselin is a young artist at the onset of an exciting career. Mireille’s current season includes appearances with the Orchestra of the Southern Finger Lakes (New York), the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra (Wisconsin) and the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, and this is in addition to her many commitments at Yale University, where she is a Master of Music candidate. Ms. Asselin will be featured at Yale Opera this year in the role of Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), and in the title role of Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol. Recently, Mireille has performed the title role in Handel's Theodora with the San Diego Bach Collegium, under the baton of Maestro Richard Egarr, Eve with the Yale Glee Club in Haydn’s The Creation, Adele in Die Fledermaus with Opera Hamilton and Opera NUOVA, First Witch in Dido and Aeneas with Opera Atelier on their tour to Seoul, South Korea and Pamina in Magic Flute Diaries (a feature film by Sullivan Entertainment). Her other operatic credits include Norina (Don Pasquale), Ophélie (Hamlet) and Sophie (Werther).
Equally at home on the concert stage as in the operatic medium, Ms. Asselin is a great proponent of new music, having participated in several world premieres and performing regularly in the New Music New Haven concert series at Yale University, as well as with the New Music Ensemble of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Mireille is also in the planning stages of a series of benefit concerts, in affiliation with the MS Society, to raise funds for Multiple Sclerosis research, a cause that is close to her heart. Ms. Asselin received her B.Mus. degree from The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and is thrilled to be making her mainstage debut with Opera Atelier in their landmark 25th anniversary season.
João Fernandes
Polyphemus
Baritone
João Fernandes’s operatic engagements include Giove La Calisto (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Claudio Agrippina (New York City Opera), Bellone Les Indes Galantes (Paris Opera), Tiferne Eliogabalo (Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie and Innsbruck Festival), Orcan Les Paladins (Théâtre du Châtelet), Huascar Les Indes Galantes (Zurich Opera), Don Afonso Cosi fan tutte and Seneca L’incoronazione di Poppea (Lyon Opera), Corésus and Le Ministre de Pan Callirhoé by Destouches and King Arthur (Montpellier Opera.
He recently sang Seneca L’incoronazione di Poppea for Opera Atelier, Toronto, Don Pietro Lo frate 'nnamorato (Pergolesi) and Togno La Spinalba - at the Cultural Centre of Belem in Lisbon, Don Lazaro La Clementina (Boccherini) in Madrid and Bilbao, and Nerbulone Eliogabalo (Cavalli) at Grange Park Opera (UK),
In 2010 João Fernandes returns to Opera Atelier to sing Polyphemus Acis and Galatea, Other opera plans the Montpellier production of King Arthur with Le Concert Spirituel and Hervé Niquet on tour in Japan, and the roles of Hérault - Bass Choryphée - Apollon in Christof Loy’s forthcoming new production of Hippolyte et Aricie at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.
Thomas Macleay recently appeared as Pylade in Opera Atelier's Iphigénie en Tauride. Thomas studied music and drama at the University of Alberta, McGill University, the CNIPAL in Marseille, the Banff Centre for the Arts and l’Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal.
Thomas recently made his Canadian television debut as Gennaro in Bravo Canada’s Death at the Opera. His recent performances include Messiah with Ashiq Azis and the Classical Music Consort of Toronto and the Evangelist and tenor soloist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Bishops University in Lenoxville and Sherbrooke. As a prizewinning laureate of Jeunes Ambassadeurs Lyrique Thomas performed excerpts from Faust, La Traviata and La Bohème with acclaimed pianist Louise André Baril. Thomas began this season as Harry in Fanciulla del West with Opéra de Montréal under Maestro Keri-Lynn Wilson and director Thaddeus Strassberger.
Last season Thomas performed Acis in Acis and Galatea in Toronto, Pelléas in Variations sur Pelléas with Oriol Thomas, Guy Flores in L’auberge du cheval blanc with Société d’Art Lyrique du Royaume. He also made his Edmonton Opera debut as Remendado in Carmen. He has appeared in many Opéra de Montréal productions including Norma, L’étoile, Il Tabarro, Lakmé,Il Mondo della Luna, L’heure espagnole and Turn of the Screw. Thomas also sang the Junger Seemann in Tristan und Isolde with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Conductors with whom he has collaborated include Jean-Marie Zeitouni, Bernard Labadie, Alain Trudel, Paul Nadler, Kent Nagano and Keri-Lynn Wilson. His concert repertoire includes Messiah, Elijah, Bach’s Weinachtsoratorium Haydn’s The Seasons and Mozart’s Requiem.
Upcoming performances include La Traviata and Otello with Edmonton Opera, Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with Alberta Ballet, as well as a workshop of John Estacio and John Murrell’s new opera Lillian Alling with Vancouver Opera.
Thomas is the recipient of generous scholarships and grants from Jeunesses Musicales, the Canadian Vocal Arts Institute (CVAI), The Banff Centre for the Arts, the Centre national d’insertion professionnelle d’artistes lyriques de Marseille (CNIPAL) and the Beryl Barnes Memorial Music Award. Thomas continues to study voice with Mignon Dunn in New York thanks to the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Department of Canadian Heritage (IPOLC).
Lawrence Wiliford
Described as having a “lovely sound,” a “lithe legato,” and “beautifully directional phrasing,” American-born tenor Lawrence Wiliford is quickly gaining international recognition on both the concert and operatic stage. Making his Canadian Opera Company leading role debut in Mozart’s Così fan tutte on five hours’ notice, he received critical acclaim as “a talented and lyric tenor,” “serving up an impressive Ferrando.” On the concert stage he has been noted as “animated, exciting, and yet at the same time technically unimpeachable.”
Prior to leaving for Aldeburgh (Quint in Turn of the Screw), he was the Evangelist in Matthaus Passion at the Berkshire Choral Festival and looks forward to a busy 2009-2010 including Messiah for Boston Baroque, Symphony Nova Scotia and the Calgary Philharmonic, Frederic in Pirates of Penzance for the Edmonton Opera, Missa Solemnis for the Winnipeg Symphony and Bach’s Mass in B minor with Rilling for the Toronto Symphony. He debuts for the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival as Evangelist in Johannes Passion and with Tafelmusik in Israel in Egypt.
Mr. Wiliford debuted with Opera Atelier in Monteverdi's The Return of Ulyssess and most recently performed in OA's production of Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio. Mr. Wiliford is also a recipient of grants for emerging artists and professional development from the Canada Council for the Arts and has studied at Tanglewood, the Internationale Bachakademie of Stuttgart, and the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival. He holds a Bachelor of Music in Church Music from St. Olaf College, a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Toronto and is an alumnus of the Canadian Opera Company’s prestigious Ensemble Studio.
David Fallis
Conductor
Conductor David Fallis is one of Canada's leading interpreters of operatic and choral/orchestral repertoire, especially that of the Baroque and Classical periods. As Music Director for Opera Atelier he has helped bring that company onto stages around the world, and for them Mr. Fallis has conducted Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Die Zauberflöte and Le Nozze di Figaro, Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and The Fairy Queen, Handel’s Acis and Galatea, La Resurrezione and Il Pastor Fido, Charpentier’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Actéon, Monteverdi'sOrfeo, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria and L’Incoronazione di Poppea, Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice and Rameau's Pygmalion. Twice, he has led the Opera Atelier forces on tour to Seoul, South Korea conducting the Korean Symphony Orchestra and Camerata Antiqua Seoul, and in Japan, conducting Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro.
He has led critically acclaimed productions for Houston Grand Opera (Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea and Orfeo), Cleveland Opera (Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Poppea), Wolftrap Theater (Poppea), and in the spring of 2004 he made his debut at Utah Opera in James Robinson’s new production of Handel's Giulio Cesare. He has led the Toronto Consort in opera-in-concert performances of Cavalli’s,La Calisto, Luigi Rossi's Orfeo and all three Monteverdi operas.
As Artistic Director of the Toronto Consort, a renowned chamber group specializing in the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Mr. Fallis has toured extensively in Europe and Canada and recorded for Marquis Classics, Dorian and SRI.
Gerard Gauci
Set & Costume Designer
Resident set designer Gerard Gauci is an associate of the Ontario College of Art and Design. His relationship with the company dates from its first fully staged production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1986. Since then he has designed many shows for Opera Atelier including Pygmalion, Persée, The Coronation of Poppea, The Magic Flute, Medée, Iphigénie en Tauride, Actéon, Dido and Aeneas, Armide, Orpheus and Eurydice, The Return of Ulysses, Idomeneo and The Abduction from the Seraglio.
When not designing for Opera Atelier he pursues a career as a painter, exhibiting regularly in Toronto at the Leo Kamen Gallery and in Montréal at the Galerie de Bellefeuille.
Kevin Fraser
Lighting Designer
Kevin Fraser has designed lighting for more than 300 theatre and opera productions across Canada. He has been Opera Atelier’s lighting designer since 1988. Recent credits include South Pacific and The Glass Menagerie at the Stratford Festival and Orpheus Descending at the Royal Alexandra Theatre. Kevin has received five Dora Mavor Award nominations, including one for Opera Atelier’s production of Don Giovanni in 1996. Kevin is a graduate of Ryerson Theatre School, and is a member of Associated Designers of Canada.
