The Canadian Opera Company recently announced that it had commissioned a new opera, entitled Hadrian, from the singer-songwriter-turned-opera-composer Rufus Wainwright. Reactions in the Canadian new-music community have not been entirely positive, as Robert Everett-Green indicates in a Globe and Mail article. In the past fifty years, the COC has managed to mount only five Canadian works on its main stage — a record that outdoes the Met's in spottiness. Was Wainwright the most deserving candidate for such a rare commission? Everett-Green contemplates that question, and he also examines the very different case of Opera Philadelphia, which, under the direction of a Canadian impresario, David Devan, has thrown itself into contemporary opera — including Ana Sokolović's Svadba, first seen at Toronto's Queen of Puddings Music Theatre. “We decided that, if we want to remain viable, we need to move from being Turner Classic Movies to being HBO,” Devan told Everett-Green. A metaphor for others to ponder.
