re:Naissance

re:Naissance is a new Canadian theatre and music company that is re:defining what opera is. Our mission is to re:Imagine and re:Write opera for the 21st Century by commissioning, creating and presenting performances that bend genres and build bridges between the historic and the contemporary; the artist and the audience; the imaginary and the real. We value innovation, risk taking, flexibility, artistic intuition, interdisciplinary collaboration, experimentation and artistic excellence. 

In the 2015 - 2016 season, re:Naissance launched its first iteration of re:Write New Opera Workshop in collaboration with The BC Canadian Music Centre and the Vancouver Academy of Music. The intensive workshop brought together writers, composers and performers from the greater BC area to explore what opera can be in the 21st century and to create and present new operatic excerpts. Later in the same season, re:Naissance presented "Shakespeare re:Imagined" at the Liederwölfe Opera Peep Show which was hailed as "electric and poignant" (Schmopera). 

re:Naissance was born out of a project called Opera After Hours which was created by Canadian keyboardist, Christopher Bagan, and Canadian mezzo soprano, Debi Wong. Its inaugural production, #DidoAndAeneas (2014) explored cyberbullying and its detrimental effects through a re:telling of Henry Purcell's Dido And Aeneas. The production was one of the first to use social media and instant messaging to interact with the audience and to develop a virtual world outside of the performance.

re:Naissance is a Vancouver-based company committed to presenting world-class performances and fostering a collaborative art-making environment in Vancouver. We are proud to be a part of IndieOpera TO and committed to also presenting performances and collaborating with our partner companies in Toronto.