Originally Published: 2010-02-07

Maestro Paolo Olmi.

It was on account of Verdi that he came to Toronto initially. Then in 2007 he came as a fill-in for general director of the Canadian Opera Company (COC), Richard Bradshaw, who died suddenly while preparing a special edition of Don Carlos.
This time, Maestro Paolo Olmi, musical director of the Opera di Nancy, comes to the Four Seasons Centre of the Performing Arts to stage Othello. The production signifies a special growing bond between the conductor and the COC.
This time he’ll stay to the end of February, which will not be enough to accept all the invitations he has received. Olmi feels he has gained friends in Toronto, a city that may not have opera in its blood, but is still stopped in the streets by strangers.
“Just think that a few days ago, two young girls who study science at University of Toronto stopped me near my home to ask for tickets to a show,” he recalls. “They asked me many questions about Othello with a knowledge that stunned me. And this because they had participated at an event the Canadian Opera Company organizes for youth, and they fell in love with opera.”
As have many other Torontonians, seeing that “the audience of the Canadian Opera Company is exactly twice that of Rome,” he adds. It’s a fact that astonishes, and excites the Italian maestro, who traveled here soon after the death of Bradshaw – the person who inspired Torontonians to appreciate the art form.
“I came here the day after the theatre company employees had returned to work after the unexpected death of Bradshaw,” says Olmi. “He had already chosen the orchestra members one by one. It was a very delicate situation. Not only did Bradshaw manage to involve the city, but also to find financing. Only Wagner was as successful in finding the means to finance his programs. All of the organization of this theatre company, beginning with the construction of the building, is all credit to the energy of this man.”
If Bradshaw was responsible for making the COC the biggest theatre company in Canada, and one of the top in North America, Olmi likes to point out how the machine put in motion by the late director in the past 10 to 15 years is able to continue “extraordinarily” on its own:

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