Early Music Vancouver launches 2026 fest with bold Monteverdi opera
Orfeo, featuring conductor Alexander Weimann and director Guillaume Bernardi, plays the Chan Centre July 31 and August 2, with 17th-century instruments and a dozen singers onstage.
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Early Music Vancouver opens its 2026 Summer Festival with an ambitious fully staged production of Claudio Monteverdi's Orfeo—one of opera's most powerful works—at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.
Performances are set for Friday, July 31 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, August 2 at 2:30 p.m. The opera tells the story of Orfeo, whose beloved wife Euridice dies on their wedding night, prompting him to journey into the underworld armed only with the power of his music.
With its 1607 premiere, Monteverdi revealed opera's true dramatic potential. The work remains central to the art form's canon. This production is directed by baroque performance expert Guillaume Bernardi and conducted by Pacific Baroque Orchestra director Alexander Weimann. It features a dozen singers, an orchestra of rarely heard 17th-century instruments, and titular star Marc Mauillon's "incredible singing," according to Early Music Vancouver.
Tickets are available through Early Music Vancouver.