''Louis Riel'' is a three-act

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

by composer

Harry Somers Harry Stewart Somers, CC (September 11, 1925 – March 9, 1999) was a contemporary Canadian composer. Possessing a charismatic attitude and rather dashing good looks, as well as a genuine talent for his art, Somers earned the unofficial title ...

to an English and French libretto by

Mavor Moore James Mavor Moore (March 8, 1919 – December 18, 2006) was a Canadian writer, producer, actor, public servant, critic, and educator. He notably appeared as Nero Wolfe in the CBC radio production in 1982. Life and work Moore was born in Tor ...

and Jacques Languirand. Written for the 1967

Canadian Centennial The Canadian Centennial was a yearlong celebration held in 1967 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation. Celebrations in Canada occurred throughout the year but culminated on Dominion Day, July 1, 1967. Commemorative coins ...

and arguably that country's most famous opera to date, it portrays the titular Métis leader executed in 1885.

Performance history

''Louis Riel'' had its first performances at the

O'Keefe Centre Meridian Hall is a major performing arts venue in Toronto, Ontario, and it is the country's largest soft-seat theatre. The facility was constructed for the City of Toronto municipal government and is currently managed by TO Live, an arms-le ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

23 and 28 September and 11 October 1967 and at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier,

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, in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

19 and 21 October 1967.

Victor Feldbrill Victor Feldbrill, (April 4, 1924 – June 17, 2020) was a Canadian conductor and violinist. Early life and education Feldbrill was born in Toronto,Leon Major directed, and Murray Laufer and Marie Day designed the sets and costumes. The original cast included Bernard Turgeon as Riel, Cornelis Opthof as

John A. Macdonald Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...

Joseph Rouleau Joseph A. Rouleau, (February 28, 1929 – July 12, 2019) was a French Canadian Bass (voice type), bass opera singer, particularly associated with the Italian and French repertoires. Life and career Born in Matane, Quebec, he studied privately w ...

as Monseigneur Taché, Patricia Rideout as Riel's mother, Mary Morrison as his sister

Sara Sara may refer to: Arts, media and entertainment Film and television * ''Sara'' (1992 film), 1992 Iranian film by Dariush Merhjui * ''Sara'' (1997 film), 1997 Polish film starring Bogusław Linda * ''Sara'' (2010 film), 2010 Sri Lankan Sinhal ...

, Roxolana Roslak as his wife,

Howell Glynne Howell Glynne (24 January 190624 November 1969Harold Rosenthal, ''Grove Music'') was an operatic bass. He was born in Britain but lived the latter years of his life in Canada, and taught singing at the University of Toronto. Biography He was born i ...

as William McDougall, and Remo Marinucci as Baptiste Lépine. The libretto depicts the post-

Confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

political events bounded by the Indian and Métis uprisings of 1869–70 (

Red River Rebellion The Red River Rebellion (french: Rébellion de la rivière Rouge), also known as the Red River Resistance, Red River uprising, or First Riel Rebellion, was the sequence of events that led up to the 1869 establishment of a provisional government by ...

) and 1884–5 ( North-West Rebellion) and the personal tragedy of the leader of the uprisings, the Manitoba schoolteacher and Métis hero Louis Riel. After the premiere, Kenneth Winters described the opera in the ''

Toronto Telegram ''The Toronto Evening Telegram'' was a conservative, broadsheet afternoon newspaper published in Toronto from 1876 to 1971. It had a reputation for supporting the Conservative Party at the federal and the provincial levels. The paper competed w ...

'' (25 September 1967) as a 'pastiche ... big, efficient, exciting, heterogeneous ... It had no ring of eternity but it was a vigorous harnessing of current and choice; a brash, smart, cool hand on the pulse of a number of fashions, social, dramatic and musical.' The production was repeated in 1968 in Toronto—six performances with the assistance of the Chalmers Foundation—and was adapted by Franz Kraemer in 1969 for CBC TV. In 1975 ''Louis Riel'' was revived by the

Canadian Opera Company The Canadian Opera Company (COC) is an opera company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest opera company in Canada and one of the largest producers of opera in North America. The COC performs in its own opera house, the Four Seasons Cent ...

for several performances, including one in Toronto, 27 September, honouring the

International Music Council The International Music Council (IMC) was created in 1949 as UNESCO's advisory body on matters of music. It is based at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, France, where it functions as an independent international non-governmental organization. Its p ...

's 16th General Assembly; three (14, 16, and 18 October) at the

National Arts Centre The National Arts Centre (NAC) (french: Centre national des Arts) is a performing arts organisation in Ottawa, Ontario, along the Rideau Canal. It is based in the eponymous National Arts Centre building. History The NAC was one of a number of ...

, Ottawa; and one (23 October, the U.S. premiere) at the

Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, as part of Canada's contribution to the United States' bicentennial celebrations. Wendell Margrave of the ''

Washington Star ''The Washington Star'', previously known as the ''Washington Star-News'' and the Washington ''Evening Star'', was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Washington, D.C., between 1852 and 1981. The Sunday edition was known as the ''Sunday Sta ...

'' described the opera as 'one of the most imaginative and powerful scores to have been written in this century.' Using a broadcast tape from the 1975 US performance, Centrediscs produced a three-record set of the complete opera (CMC-24/25/2685-3), which was launched in November 1985 at the 'Image of Riel in Canadian Culture' conference in

Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...

, Ontario. Feldbrill conducted the

National Arts Centre Orchestra The National Arts Centre Orchestra (NAC Orchestra) is a Canadian orchestra based in Ottawa, Ontario led by music director Alexander Shelley. The NAC Orchestra's primary concert venue is Southam Hall at the National Arts Centre. Since its incepti ...

, Turgeon and Roslak repeated their roles, and were joined by Donald Rutherford (John A. Macdonald), Jean-Pierre Hurteau (Bishop Taché), Diane Loeb (Riel's mother), Ann Cooper (his sister), Ronald Bermingham (McDougall), and Remo Marinucci (Lépine). 'Kuyas'—the lullaby sung in Act III by Riel's wife to their child—was used prior to the opera's premiere as the test piece for the Montreal International Competition in 1967. It was recorded in 1983 by Roslak on Centrediscs CMC-1183. ''Louis Riel'' was not presented again until Opera McGill gave the first full staging in 30 years, at

, 27–28 January 2005, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

's music program. Riel was played by Luc Lalonde, Macdonald by Michael Meraw, and Bishop Taché by John Taylor; François Racine was stage director and Alexis Hauser, music director. The revival won an Opus Award as event of the year. To coincide with the 150th anniversary of the confederation of Canada, the Canadian, a production of Louis Riel by the

and the

was performed from April 20 to May 13, 2017 at the Toronto

Four Seasons Centre The Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts is a 2,071-seat theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located at the southeast corner of University Avenue and Queen Street West, across from Osgoode Hall. The land on which it is located was a gift f ...

, and is scheduled for June 20 to June 27 at the Ottawa National Arts Centre. Directed by Peter Hinton, this revival is the first COC opera to cast indigenous artists for indigenous roles. The production features

Michif Michif (also Mitchif, Mechif, Michif-Cree, Métif, Métchif, French Cree) is one of the languages of the Métis people of Canada and the United States, who are the descendants of First Nations (mainly Cree, Nakota, and Ojibwe) and fur trade work ...

, the Métis language, not included in the original production, and is set to split the opera chorus in two- the Parliamentary chorus, representing western settlers, and the Land Assembly Chorus, representing indigenous people directly affected by the victories and losses of Riel. The 2017 cast includes Russell Braun as

Riel Riel may refer to: Places * Riel, Netherlands, a town in the Netherlands *Riel (electoral district), a provincial electoral district in Manitoba, Canada, named after Louis Riel * Riel, Winnipeg, a community committee comprising three city wards Pe ...

James Westman James Westman (born September 16, 1972) is a Canadian baritone known for his interpretation of the Verdi, Puccini and bel canto operatic repertoire, and particularly his signature role of Germont in '' La traviata'', which he has sung in over 1 ...

, Alain Coulombe as Monseigneur Taché, Allyson McHardy as Riel's mother, Joanna Burt as Sara Riel, Simone Osbourne as Riel's wife, Doug MacNaughton as William McDougall, and Taras Chmil as Baptiste Lépine.

Roles

Roles at the 1967 premiere were: {, class="wikitable" !Role , , Singer , - , William McDougall, , Howell Glynne , - , A Soldier, , George Reinke , - , Ambroise Lépine, , André Lortie , - , Thomas Scott, , Thomas Park , - , Joseph Delorme, , Jacques Lareau , - , Janvier Ritchot, , David Geary , - , Elzéar Goulet, , Lloyd Dean , - , André Nault, , Phil Stark , - , Baptiste Lépine, , Ermanno Mauro , - , Elzéar Lagimodière, , Donald Rutherford , - ,

Louis Riel Louis Riel (; ; 22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis people. He led two resistance movements against the Government of Canada and its first ...

, , Bernard Turgeon , - , Dr. Schultz, , Peter Milne , - , Charles Mair, , Donald Saunders , - , O’Donaghue, , John Arab , - , Bishop Taché, , Joseph Rouleau , - ,

, , Cornelis Opthof , - , George-Étienne Cartier, , Perry Price , - , Donald Smith, , Ernest Atkinson , - , Julie Riel, , Patricia Rideout , - , Sara Riel, , Mary Morrison , - , Colonel Garnet Wolseley, , Maurice Brown , - , Hudson’s Bay Scout, , Robert Jeffrey , - , Marguerite Riel, , Roxolana Roslak , - , Gabriel Dumont, ,

Garnet Brooks Garnet Brooks (September 4, 1936 – July 21, 2009) was a Canadians, Canadian tenor and Vocal pedagogy, vocal pedagogue who performed with opera companies and orchestras across North America and Europe. Birth Garnet Brooks was born on Septemb ...

, - , James Isbister, , Lloyd Dean , - , Poundmaker, , Oskar Raulfs , - , Gen. Frederick Middleton, , Ernest Atkinson , - , Father André, , André Lortie , - , Wandering Spirit, , Herman Rombouts , - , Clerk of the Court, , Donald Saunders , - , Judge, , Maurice Brown , - , F.X. Lemieux, , John Arab , - , B. B. Osier, , David Geary , - , Dr. François Roy, , Robert Jeffrey , - , Prison Guard, , George Reinke

References

External links

''Louis Riel'' at ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''
Music dramas Operas English-language operas Tragédies en musique 1967 operas French-language operas Operas by Harry Somers Operas set in Canada Operas set in the 19th century Cultural depictions of Louis Riel Canadian Centennial John A. Macdonald