Hunka to Sing at New Opera House

By Olena Wawryshyn

TORONTO­–Bass-baritone Pavlo Hunka has appeared in several Canadian Opera Company productions to critical acclaim, but his upcoming appearance in The Ring of the Nibelung, promises to be his greatest tour de force.

The son of a Ukrainian father and an English mother, the English-born, internationally renowned opera singer performs the role of  Wotan/The Wanderer in Richard Wagner’s monumental work.

“It’s an enormous task,” says Pavlo, who sings in three of the four operas in the Ring Cycle–Das Rheingold, Die Walkre and Siegfried.

The production will be the largest ever staged by the COC.

The epic work has a cult-like following: opera lovers and critics from around the world are travelling to Toronto for the production.  A month before its start, more than 90 per cent of the tickets had been sold. 

Though the Ring Cycle was composed in the mid-1800s, Pavlo says the subjects it explores are relevant today.  “It could be set in downtown Toronto quite easily. It’s about ambitions and money how they have affects on people, how people’s ambitions for money cloud their vision.”

All four cycles will be conducted by the COC’s General Director Richard Bradshaw but each will be interpreted by a different director (including Canadian filmmakers Atom Egoyan and Francois Girard and Michael Levine). Levine is designing the sets of all four and thereby providing a unifying sense of continuity.

When the Ring Cycle opens on September 12, it will be the first opera performance in Toronto’s newly built 2,000-seat opera house, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts. Singing there “is a lot better than the Hummingbird,” the COC’s previous performance venue, says Pavlo, who has sung in many of the world’s leading opera houses, including Paris, Vienna, Munich, Florence and London. “You don’t have to throw your voice,” he adds.

To say that September will be a busy month for Pavlo is an understatement. He will be making nine stage appearances as part of the Ring Cycle. Also, in the production's first week Pavlo will launch his new recording of Kyrylo Stetsenko-The Art Songs, the first in a series featuring Ukrainian art song composers, at a reception on September 14.

The 42-track double CD, produced by Toronto’s Roman Hurko with the support of the Canadian Ukrainian Opera Association, also boasts performances by Canadian tenor Benjamin Butterfield, baritone Russell Braun, cellist Roman Borys and pianist Albert Krywolt. 

The COCs Richard Bradshaw has said the new CD is “one of the most significant recordings in recent times.”

To these accomplishments, Pavlo will add yet another. He will be singing the role of Don Alfonso in the COC’s production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, running from October 17 to November 5, as part of the company’s 2006/2007 season in the new opera house.

“The new opera house really is superb, a great asset to the whole country,” says Pavlo.  His praise for the COC’s new home could just as well be applied to Pavlo Hunka.