By Karyl Charna Lynn
Although the Festival d’Opéra de Québec is entering only its seventh season, it has already established itself as a first port of call for productions that go on to the Metropolitan Opera in New York. That’s because the theatre supremo Robert Lepage’s is a Quebecois, and his company Ex Machina is based in Quebec City. Lepage’s productions of Ades’s The Tempest and Saariaho’s L’amour de Loin both originated in Quebec before going on to The Met.
While Lepage’s presence has provided an impetus for the Festival, the event has evolved into much more than a showcase for his work. The Festival is actually the brainchild of the visionary general and artistic director of Opéra de Québec, Grégoire Legendre, to whom credit for its success belongs. ‘I conceived of the Festival as a pilot project of Opéra de Québec to boost its declining audience by exploring the operatic repertoire in depth, more so than was possible with Opéra de Québec’s twoopera, eight-performance winter season,’ says Legendre, ‘but it has given the company so much visibility that our winter season audience has increased while other Canadian companies are still struggling.’