What Is Opera?

We’ve been asking the same question. What is opera? Or more importantly, what is opera, today? When we talk about opera today, are we still talking about that lady in a horned-helmet, shattering glass at the back of a concert hall, with the sheer power of her voice?

We don’t think so.

At re:Naissance, when we talk about opera, we are talking about an intimate and visceral form of storytelling: one that combines movement and gesture with music, text and singing to transport audiences to new worlds; we are talking about stories that step out of your imagination and come to life in front of you; we are talking about singing you can feel in your bones.

What is re:Naissance?

re:Naissance is a new Canadian theatre and music company that is re:defining what opera is. Our mission is to re:Imagine and re:Write opera for the 21st Century by commissioning, creating and presenting performances that bend genres and build bridges between the historic and the contemporary; the artist and the audience; the imaginary and the real. We value innovation, risk taking, flexibility, artistic intuition, interdisciplinary collaboration, experimentation and artistic excellence.

We are a Vancouver-based company committed to presenting world-class performances and fostering a collaborative art-making environment in Vancouver. We guarantee that at least 50% of the performers and collaborators appearing on our series will have strong connections to the Vancouver / British Columbia region.

We are also a part of IndieOpera TO and committed to presenting performances and collaborating with our partners in Toronto.

re:Naissance was born out of a project called Opera After Hours which was created by Canadian keyboardist, Christopher Bagan, and Canadian mezzo soprano, Debi Wong. Our inaugural production, #DidoAndAeneas, was presented from June 5 - 7, 2014, at Café Deux Soleils, in Vancouver, BC.