Canadian Opera Company

Mm-hmm

... uh, Strauss' Salome for the Canadian Opera Company.

And it took place in a psychiatric hospital, which was really interesting.

Mm-hmm.

So it kind of the path went off to... wig making, which I really liked and had seemed to have a knack for it.

And I worked in theater and at the Canadian Opera Company there for many, many years, actually.

And then my boss gave me some really good advice and said, while you're young and poor, go to hair school because you'll never once you get working, you'll never go back and do that.

So I did only because I wanted to learn how to style the wigs and things like that.

They performed at the, uh, Edinburgh Festival very recently.

B- but the reason they're getting all this attention right now is because they're appearing in the Canadian Opera Company's season opener of Verdi's La Traviata, performing to thousands in Toronto's beautiful Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, performing one of the most, you know, popular operas ever.

Most acclaimed operas ever.

And it's not bad for someone who, when they were a kid, they walked around singing to the trees in the forest to ward off bears.

[upbeat guitar music]

I'm Tom Power.

You're listening to Q. You're in the middle of my conversation with Emma Pennell, who's appearing in the Canadian Opera Company's production of Verdi's La Traviata.

We've been talking about their, I mean, they're so funny.

I mean, I understand the challenge of it and-- but also understand the need to change it.

When I was in Toronto, the Canadian Opera Company cut from seven shows down to six shows, and there was no big article in The Globe and Mail about how troubling this is.

Yes.

That was a massive thing.