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By Ben Mattison
26 Apr 2006
The Canadian Opera Company's new Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts will include a Luminaries Gallery honoring "individuals who have made an invaluable contribution to opera in Canada," the Toronto-based company announced.
The inaugural inductees will be Lotfi Mansouri, the former general director of COC (and San Francisco Opera); contralto Maureen Forrester, a native of Montreal; tenor Jon Vickers, who was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan; COC founder Nicholas GoldSchmidt; and Hermann Geiger-Torel, the company's first general director.
Photographic portraits of the inductees will be hung in the new gallery. They will be unveiled at an event in October.
General director Richard Bradshaw said, "As we prepare to move into our new home, I am moved to reflect on the Canadian Opera Company’s vibrant history. This is the time to honor those whose past contributions have been instrumental in realizing our dream."
Mansouri, who recently returned to Toronto to direct Berg's Wozzeck, said "The time I spent as general director of the COC was the highlight of my career, and an important and happy period in my life. I am truly honoured to be recognized in this way and in such distinguished company."
The Four Seasons Centre opens officially in June with a series of ceremonies and concerts. The COC moves in this fall.
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