Anniversary ambitions; Quebec City's 400th birthday bash is a perfect opportunity for I'Opera de Quebec.

Gregoire Legendre, the dynamic General and Artistic Director of I'Opera de Quebec (OdeQ), doesn't do things by half. Named Administrative Director in 1994, he became General Director two years later, and then was the natural choice to succeed Bernard Labadie when he left the company in 2003 after almost a decade as Artistic Director. Born in Quebec City and trained there as a baritone at the Conservatory of Music and Laval University, Legendre knows the opera world inside out, as a singer whose 20-year career spans both sides of the Atlantic, as an administrator and as the manager of more than 40 OdeQ productions.

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Like many other opera companies, OdeQ had accumulated a significant deficit that, by 2005. amounted to $400,000, Or a quarter of the annual budget. As production expenses had increased considerably over revenues in 2003/04, one of Legendre's first jobs as head of the company was to implement a rigorous, multi-year recovery plan. It included cancellation of OdeQ's schools program that included the"Dessine-moi un opera" competition, an original initiative in which elementary-school students from the surrounding area were invited to design costumes and scenery for specific productions (such as The Magic Flute and Hansel and Gretel). Determined not to cut any corners in the quality of the company's annual productions, Legendre pinned the success of his 2005/06 season on the surefire bankability of Madama Butterfly, Carmen and La boheme, as well as on the company's annual December fund-raising gala, which, since 2003. has featured about 15 singers on stage, a mix of Canadian veterans, promising newcomers and guest artists from abroad. As a result of these measures, the deficit was almost wiped out in just three years. OdeQ could now breathe again and continue to grow--albeit keeping a wary eye out to keep its finances resolutely in check.

In an effort to give OdeQ wider appeal and win some international exposure, Legendre has devised some ambitious projects to coincide with Quebec City's 400th anniversary celebrations this year. He had no qualms about scheduling the popular rock opera, Slarmania, in a brand-newproduction (a co-production with ('Opera de Montreal) featuring opera singers such as tenor Marc Hervieux, sopranos Lyne Fortin and Marie-Josee Lord and baritone Etienne Dupuis, a project on which he has worked with librettist Luc Plamondon for the past three years. "I wanted the public to see what could be done with opera, while at the same time showcasing the talent of our own singers," he says. The gamble paid off, with sold-out performances in May and additional performances scheduled for July.

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Following two and a half years of negotiations, Legendre has also attracted the 2008 edition of Placido Domingo's prestigious Operalia singing competition for Quebec City, Staged in a different city every year--recent locations included Tokyo, Los Angeles, NMadrid and Paris--Operalia will be presented September 14-18 at the Palais Montealm and the Grand Theatre de Quebec, where audiences will have an opportunity to hear 40 contestants from around the world. The finals will be held Sept. 24, with l'Orchestre symphonique de Quebec conducted by Domingo in what will surely be one of the stellar events of the fall season.

Finally, in October, comes OdeQ's initial collaboration with Robert Lepage and his multidisciplinary creative company, Ex Machina. The program features Bartok's one-act Bluebeard's Castle (featuring mezzo Andrea Melath and bass Mikhail Svetlov) and Schoenberg's one-act Envartung (with soprano Lyne Fortin), the double bill Lep age created for the Canadian Opera Company in 1993 and that has subsequently been seen on a number of international stages. This new partnership represents quite a departure for OdeQ, a relatively conservative enterprise that has been reluctant to deviate in the past from teh tried and true. "All opera companies are now in the same boat," says Legendre, who hopes the double bill will appeal to Quebec City's opera buffs and theatre-goers alike. "If you don't move toward greater creativity, the future is a dead end."

Teaming up with Lepage was a logical step for OdeQ. For one thing, Ex Machina is headquartered close by in the heart of the city's Old Port, and opera is becoming an increasingly prominent part of Lepage's work. Recent and planned productions include Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress in Brussels and London, a revival of Lorin Maazel's 1984 at Milan's La Scala (May 2008), Berlioz's La damnation de Faust for New York's Metropolitan Opera (Nov./Dec. 2008) and the Met's much-anticipated new staging of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (starting in the 2010/11 season).

Legendre is well aware of reservations part of his audience has about contemporary operas and updated stagings. "Of course, our patrons are attracted to what they know, but it is up to us to broaden their horizons if we want them to accept the new," he says. "We need to help them develop a taste for change" while keeping a balance between innovation and tradition. Which said, Legendre agrees that not all operas lend themselves to drastic modernization. "You can't sing La boheme from a motorcycle," he laughs. Besides the Lepage double bill, OdeQ's 2008/09 season also features new produtions of two familiar perismo works, Cavalleria rusticana and I pagliacci.

As Vice Chair of Opera. ca, the opera industry's professional association in Canada, Legendrew maintains contact with companies across the country. Within Quebec, he has a forged an active relationship with l'Opera de Montreal, which has announced it will co-produce Starmania in Montreal next March and whose Atelier lyrique training program he regards as a rich breeding ground for new singing talent. OdeQ has also helped Jenuesses musicales du Canada with its touring program in Eastern Canada over the past two years.

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An important aspect of Legendre's modus operandi is his ability to attract major partners to his company's projects and foster their enthusiasm. Operalia is a good example, for which he has put together a consortium including the Orchestre symphonique de Quebec, Grand Theatre de Quebec, Societe du Palais Montcalm, Club musical de Quebec and Societe due 400e anniversairy de Quebec. "Opera de Quebec could not have done it on its own," he acknowledges. As for Lepage's collaboration with the company, Legendre hopes that it will be "just the beginning" and that it might lead, around 2010, to the creation of a Festival lyrique international de Quebec that would be the first of its kind in Canada. "Over the past 30 years, there has really been no new international cultural attraction to help promote tourism to Quebec City," he says. "I envision a festival that the world takes note of, one that could boost our local economy and become a cultural pillar by making Quebec City a major player on the international scene. There must be life after the 400th anniversary, and this year's celebrations must be used as a springboard for the future."

When auditioning singers, Legendre always "visualizes" them in specific roles. He pays a great deal of attention to whether they can make the characters they play credible, not only vocally but also in personality and physical terms. He is especially proud of his past casting record with young Quebec and Canadian performers, such as Marie-Josee Lord, who proved a moving Liu in the 2003 production of Turandot, and Charlotte Corwin, equally effective as Juliette in Gounod's Romeo et Juliette last season. He's also proud of having given artists opportunities to take on new roles, such as John Mac Master, who sang his first Calaf and Otello at OdeQ. In 2004. Legendre managed to stage Massenet's Manon with an all-Francophone cast and, for the most part, the company's casts are always made up of Canadian performers. The company's chorus relies heavily on Quebec City's Conservatoire and Laval's Faculty of Music, giving the students valuable performing opportunities while they study to take on solo roles.

Legendre relishes a challenge. Even in the face of OdeQ's recent financial hardships, he managed to produce major operas on relatively modest means and without depriving his audience of the magic of the operatic experience. His 2003 presentation of turandot with reduced scenery and a 40-member choir was a spectacular achievement that left no audience member indifferent.

His greatest wish is that OdeQ might grow further. "There is a movement afoot in Canada among companies to innovate, to commission works from our composers and stage Canadian-made operas," he says. A longer-term collaboration with Lepage could give OdeQ an opportunity to play a role in this. Legendre's more immediate concern, however, is to continue to develop his current audience, and to develop tomorrow's audience by opening dress rehearsals to local students, a practice introduced in 1999.

If you ask Legendre what's driven him since taking over the company, the answer is like an operatic mission statement: "Moving forward at all times, building well-integrated teams for each production and respecting the integrity of the works being programmed." With his sixth season as General and Artistic Director coming up and with that deficit almost eliminated, he can plot the company's future with great expectations. The fact that subscriptions are on the rise and OdeQ has played in the 1,800-seat Louis Frechette theatre to 97% capacity and more since 2004 are perhaps the greatest causes for optimism. Legendre's achievements with the company have not gone unnoticed. Last November, as part of the Prix d'excellence des arts et de la culture de la Ville de Quebec, he was presented with the Prix de la Fondation de I'Orchestre svmphonique de Quebec to recognize his remarkable impact on the city's musical life.

(Translated by Raynald Desmeules)