In a bold move this summer, Toronto indie company Opera 5 launches the city’s first professional opera festival with a mix of world premieres and musical theatre works. The now-veteran, 13-year-old company will debut Come Closer by Canadian composer Ryan Trew, set to a text by Opera 5 General Director Rachel Krehm. Also on the program are Elegies: A Song Cycle by American musical theatre composer William Finn as well as a gala opening concert featuring the company’s 2025 Portfolio Artist Internship Program roster.
Rachel Krehm. Photo Sam Gaetz
Remarkably, up until now, a city of Toronto’s size and ambition has not been able to support a fully professional opera festival. “So we really wanted to create a platform that would be all-encompassing, and that could be inclusive,” says Krehm. Opera 5’s vision has always included the next generation of opera audiences, but they have now expanded that “to the next generation of artists … So I think we really want to be the connecting factor. And that’s where we are positioning ourselves now.”
Last year, the company inaugurated its Portfolio Artist Internship Program and immediately distinguished it from other summer vocal programs. In addition to the expected opportunities to perform (in 2024, interns took lead roles in a special performance of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw), the young artists also develop additional skills in stage production, budgeting, grant writing and social-media management.
The program is run in conjunction with Opera McGill, from whose ranks student performers audition for the coveted spots. Krehm cites conversations with Opera McGill Artistic Director Patrick Hansen “about the future of the industry for the next generation, and how the pipeline could look (for artists) staying in Canada (for whom there are) not very many opportunities.” Even taking into account young-artist programs run by Canada’s opera companies, the reality is that “there’s a huge sort of drop-off point where the very few chosen people are being helped along and everyone else doesn’t have the (same) institutional support. So as a smaller player, we wanted to be able to do what we could.”
Paige Robinson, Mala Weissberg, Kate Fogg & MacKenzie Sechi in Opera 5’s The Turn of the Screw. Photo: Emily Ding Photography
Another crucial difference from most summer programs, many of which are based on a “pay to sing” model, is that Opera 5 pays each artist the Equity minimum rate. Given that its artists work to develop such a wide variety of skills, the compensation is very important, says Krehm. “So it’s not just like being hired for a contract where you show up and your responsibility is (just) singing.” In the current climate, opera singers need secondary income streams to survive and “having more stability in terms of finances will help, because there is a scarcity mentality in the industry.”
Back to the festival, this summer’s main production, Come Closer, is very close to Krehm’s heart. Its text includes poems by her deceased sister Elizabeth, who she lost to addiction in 2012. “It’s a character-driven piece rather than a plot-driven piece. And it’s very much about the relationship.” The piece follows Big Sister (sung by Krehm) through a series of waking dreams sparked by the poetry of her late Little Sister (soprano Jacqueline Woodley). As Krehm mentions, the element of symbolism and surrealism in the piece prompted a variation from the usual order. “Often the lighting designer is brought in at the very end … but in (Come Closer) light and dark is a really important theme through the piece. So our light and design has been brought in at the beginning of the design process. The result is multipurpose set pieces of which one could ask ‘Is it set? Is it props? Is it lights?’ It’s all of them. We’re building some like light boxes that will do shadow puppetry … the lights will be an integral part of the storytelling,” says Krehm.
Opera 5’s The Barber of Seville. Photo: Emily Ding
The festival’s other main presentation, Finn’s Elegies, is linked to Come Closer via a shared theme of grief. The 2004 song cycle ruminates on the deaths of family and friends and was also a response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Opera 5’s Artistic Director Jessica Derventzis will stage the work and, as it happens, is also a licensed funeral director—a profession for which she trained during the pandemic. Her funeral-industry connections include the Dorothy Ley Hospice in Etobicoke whose staff will “give specific training to all of our cast for working with grief as a topic in the arts … so our cast and crew are taken care of in terms of some of the heavy subject matter of the pieces,” says Krehm.
Zooming out to take a wider look at the Canadian opera industry, it’s notable that among a relative throng of indie companies that thrived in Toronto 10 years ago, Opera 5 is one of the few left standing. Krehm observes that, currently, she is seeing the same kind of entrepreneurial spirit that was brewing back then—but now, more in the form of individual projects championed by the newest cohort of young artists. She cites tenor Kyle Briscoe, one of the company’s 2025 interns, who is working on their own piece dealing with family trauma. Krehm says it’s serendipitous that the creative team of Come Closer, which has gone on a similar journey, will be available to mentor Briscoe. “I think there’s an opportunity for helping projects (like these) as we go forward … it’s a way we can see the industry continue to grow and flourish.”
Opera 5’s Toronto Opera Festival runs June 12-21 at the Factory Theatre. www.opera5.ca
