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Gay Canadian composer Claude Vivier, murdered in 1983 at the age of 34 by a man he’d picked up, wrote only one opera, Kopernikus. But talk about a blend of glittering score and esoteric, mythic subject matter! A young woman named Agni is led from this world to the next by characters including Lewis Carroll, Mozart, Merlin and lovers Tristan and Isolde. It’s just the kind of mind-bending material that attracts cutting-edge Autumn Leaf Performance producer Thom Sokoloski, who organized a co-pro that’s been a hit in Europe and Montreal and ends its run with Kopernikus’s Toronto premiere. Directed by France’s Stanislas Nordey, the seven-singer, eight-musician chamber opera features cabaret chanteuse and coloratura soprano Patricia O’Callaghan as Agni and a team of international singers. See details, this page.
