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September 5, 2025 – OTTAWA (Canada) – Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra (NACO) will open its 2025–2026 season dramatically with a semi-staged presentation of Tosca, Giacomo Puccini’s beloved opera, in Southam Hall.
Proudly produced with Edmonton Opera’s Emerging Artist Program, the opera in concert features an all-star cast of soloists, including soprano Ailyn Pérez in the title role, tenor Matthew Cairns as Mario Cavaradossi, and bass-baritone Nathan Berg as Baron Scarpia. They will be joined by the Ewashko Singers, an Ottawa-based chamber choir, led by Chorus Master Laurence Ewashko.
Helming Tosca is acclaimed opera director Joel Ivany, who returns to Southam Hall following his highly successful collaboration with NAC Orchestra Director Alexander Shelley on Mozart’s Don Giovanni in 2023. The creative team also includes Stage Designer Michael Gianfrancesco and Lighting Designer Kimberly Purtell, both of whom also worked on that production.
Tosca marks the opening of Shelley’s final season as NAC Orchestra Music Director, a role he has held since 2015.
“It is an honour to be once again part of bringing opera to Ottawa and the National Capital Region,” says Alexander Shelley. “My first collaboration with the NAC Orchestra on an opera—an art form that is so close to my heart—was Puccini’s La Bohème in 2012. To open my final season as NACO’s Music Director with another of Puccini’s masterpieces is an absolute joy. I’m looking forward to working alongside the talented young artists from Edmonton Opera’s Emerging Artist Program as we bring this iconic work to life on stage.”
A cornerstone of Shelley’s tenure as Music Director has been his commitment to mentoring the next generation of artists. As part of its partnership with Edmonton Opera’s Emerging Artist Program, the NAC Orchestra will host a cover cast of young singers who will study under the guidance of the principal cast, conductor, and director. The NAC Orchestra’s Resident Conductor, Henry Kennedy, will serve as the production’s Assistant Conductor, leading workshops and rehearsals with both the primary and cover casts.
The program also includes participants who will work behind the scenes to gain practical experience in key areas of opera production, including direction, design, and stage management.
This latest collaboration builds on the NAC’s successful partnership with the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity’s Opera in the 21st Century program, which brought Don Giovanni to sold- out audiences in 2023 and helped set a new standard for future initiatives supporting the professional growth of emerging opera performers and production artists.
“I’m thrilled to be joining forces once again with the National Arts Centre, an organization that remains invested in nurturing the next generation of performing artists in this country,” says Joel Ivany. “I can’t wait to begin working with our superb all-Canadian cast and crew as we bring Puccini’s Tosca to the National Capital Region.”
Tosca opens on September 10 at 8 p.m. in Southam Hall and runs until September 12. Tickets for Tosca and the entire 2025–2026 NAC Orchestra season are available by phone, online, or in person at the NAC Box Office.
ABOUT CANADA’S NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE ORCHESTRA
Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra is praised for the passion and clarity of its performances, its visionary learning and engagement programs, and its unwavering support of Canadian creativity. The NAC Orchestra is based in Ottawa, Canada’s national capital, and has grown into one of the country’s most acclaimed and dynamic ensembles since its founding in 1969. Under the leadership of Music Director Alexander Shelley, the NAC Orchestra reflects the fabric and values of Canada, engaging communities from coast to coast to coast through inclusive programming, compelling storytelling, and innovative partnerships.
ABOUT ALEXANDER SHELLEY
Alexander Shelley succeeded Pinchas Zukerman as Music Director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra in September 2015. The ensemble has since been praised as “transformed, hungry, bold, and unleashed” (Ottawa Citizen) and Shelley’s programming is credited for turning the Orchestra into “one of the more audacious in North America” (Maclean’s).
Shelley is a champion of Canadian creation. Recent hallmarks include multimedia
projects UAQUE, Life Reflected, and UNDISRUPTED, as well as three major new ballets in partnership with NAC Dance for ENCOUNTERS. He is passionate about arts education and nurturing the next generation of musicians. He is an Ambassador for Ottawa’s OrKidstra, a charitable social development program that teaches children life skills through music making.
In the spring of 2025, Shelley led the ensemble for its first performances in Japan in 40 years and its debut in the Republic of Korea. In April 2022, Shelley debuted at Carnegie Hall with the NAC Orchestra in its long-awaited return. In the spring of 2019, he led the Orchestra on its critically acclaimed 50th-anniversary European tour, with stops in London, Paris, Copenhagen, and Stockholm. Shelley is also the Principal Associate Conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Music and Artistic Director of Artis—Naples and the Naples Philharmonic in Florida. Shelley has also been named the next Artistic and Music Director of the Pacific Symphony in California’s Orange County. The initial five-year term begins in the 2026–2027 season, with
Shelley serving as Music Director-Designate from September 2025. From 2009 to 2017, Shelley was Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra in Germany.
ABOUT JOEL IVANY
Joel Ivany is the Artistic Director at Edmonton Opera. His directing credits include productions of Verdi’s Macbeth (Minnesota Opera), Carmen (Vancouver Opera), Les contes d’Hoffmann (Edmonton Opera), Gavin Bryars’s Marilyn Forever (Adelaide Festival), and Le nozze di Figaro (revival at Norwegian National Opera).
Joel founded Against the Grain Theatre (AtG) and recently completed his tenure of 12 seasons as Artistic Director of Opera at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. He is the author of seven (and counting) original librettos for companies such as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Canadian Opera Company. He is a multiple Dora Mavor Moore Award nominee for Outstanding Direction as well as for Outstanding New Opera/Musical, winning one for Figaro’s Wedding.
Recent mainstage directing credits include Wagner’s Die Walküre and Die Fledermaus (Edmonton
Opera) as well as Dead Man Walking with Minnesota Opera and the multiple award-winning
production of Gluck’s Orphée+. He has directed productions for the Canadian Opera Company
(Hänsel und Gretel, Carmen), the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (Mozart’s Requiem, Kurt
Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins), the Canadian Children’s Opera Company (Brundibár), Vancouver Opera (Carmen, Dead Man Walking), and Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus for AtG and the Banff Centre. Recent highlights include Messiah/Complex (AtG), which earned him a Globe and Mail Arts Hero recognition, and directing the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards.
He is a proud graduate of the Opera School at the University of Toronto and is a member of the Alumni Wall of Fame at his alma mater, Western University.
ABOUT EDMONTON OPERA’S EMERGING ARTIST PROGRAM
The Edmonton Opera’s Emerging Artist Program is an initiative designed to bridge the gap between academic training and a professional operatic career. Focused on nurturing early-career singers, the program offers invaluable opportunities to young professionals to gain real-world experience through participation in mainstage productions. By working alongside seasoned artists, directors, and conductors, participants are given the chance to perform roles in fully & semi-staged operas—adding meaningful credits to their resumes while refining their craft in a professional setting.
This hands-on approach is at the heart of the program’s philosophy. While formal education lays the groundwork, there is no substitute for learning by doing. The stage offers lessons in stamina, timing, presence, and adaptability—skills that can only be truly honed through performance. Whether covering a lead role or performing in the ensemble, emerging artists gain the kind of experiential knowledge that simply cannot be replicated in the studio.
The program not only cultivates individual talent but also strengthens the operatic ecosystem by ensuring the next generation of performers is well-equipped, confident, and stage-ready. In short, the Edmonton Opera’s Emerging Artist Program is both a launchpad and a proving ground for Canada’s future opera stars.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL ARTS CENTRE
The National Arts Centre is Canada’s bilingual, multi-disciplinary home for the performing arts. The NAC presents, creates, produces, and co-produces performing arts programming in various streams — the NAC Orchestra, Dance, English Theatre, French Theatre, Indigenous Theatre, and Popular Music and Variety — and nurtures the next generation of audiences and artists from across Canada. The NAC is located in the National Capital Region on the unceded territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation.
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