Toronto kicked off its 2024/2025 season with a stellar month of opera performance this October.

Beginning with Verdi’s lush and complex Nabucco and topped with a bold new production of Charles Gounod’s Faust, the Canadian Opera Company is currently having their best rep season in years. Led by a sublime Mary Elizabeth Williams who brings sensitivity and brilliant dynamics to the complicated role of Abigaille, Nabucco enjoys a somewhat staid but beautiful production that showcases Verdi’s soaring melodies and Temistocle Solera’s sophisticated libretto (based on the ballet Nabucodonosor by Antonio Cortese and the play Nabuchodonosor by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois and Francis Cornu). A fraught political moment to debut the 1842 opera heretofore never performed by the COC, the programming reveals a brave willingness to embrace difficult topics and complex human stories.

In a very different way, director Amy Lane’s new production of Faust is just as if not more indicative of forward artistic momentum for the company. Assertive and inventive, Lane’s production casts aside all traditional notions of stand and sing opera performance, preferring bright physicality, joyful anachronism, and a stirring glamour-horror aesthetic. A fabulous cast headlined by Long Long (Faust), Guanqun Yu (Marguerite), and a deliciously fun Kyle Ketelsen (Méphistophélès) bring winking humour and genuine pathos to the familiar tale, though the star is certainly Emma Ryott’s thrillingly gruesome anatomical set and Charlie Morgan Jones’ dramatic lighting. A refreshing jolt of energy to balance the COC’s more standard fare, the mischievous Faust pairs perfectly with the grand Nabucco.

Opera Atelier joins the stacked opera lineup this weekend with their Acis and Galatea, taking up residence in the gorgeous Elgin Theatre for a short four-day run. A much smaller company with a clear period mandate, Atelier’s greatest strength is in their collaborative approach to filling out the size of their ambitious production. A small-ish opera with only four principal cast members, Handel’s pastoral romance is broadened with the help of the brilliant Nathaniel Dett Chorale singing from the theatre’s box seats and the expert Tafelmusik ensemble who specialize in period instruments and performance style. Combining forces with these excellent outside organizations allows Atelier to achieve remarkable scope with their production despite limited resources compared to the COC. The company’s signature ballet corps adds liveliness to the proceedings in a nod to original staging practices that have long since been left behind by most opera companies. Though the principal voices in this production are not as uniformly strong as expected, tenor Antonin Rondepierre’s tender romanticism and bass-baritone Douglas Williams’ self-effacing humour add interest and dimension to the somewhat lackluster story. Stage director Marshall Pynkoski’s direction takes a silly turn in early act two that makes for some great fun but seems slightly out of touch with the rest of the production. Though much is made in program notes about the story’s sensuality, the intimacy and intensity of feeling doesn’t quite translate to the stage, leaving the goofy midsection as the production’s most memorable tone. A lovely addition to an already strong month of opera, this imperfect but charming Atelier production adds a useful contrasting point of view on the art form and is a key reminder that there’s an operatic world beyond the Four Seasons Centre.