2025 Winter Newsletter

 
 
 

Butterflies, Queens, & Queerness

Happy 2025!

Almost a month into the new calendar year, and I’m feeling like some new habits are starting to stick, and some old ones are getting better, too. I’m staying warm this winter by walking outside more (if you can believe it), singing Butterfly, preparing for the Western Canadian premiere of The Queen In Me, and curating and performing in two very queer shows:

Read below for more info.

Hope you all are staying warm and taking moments to enjoy the cold air, a slower pace, and many moments of percolating creativity.

— T.

Jan-Feb — Cio-Cio San (cover) in Madama Butterfly

CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY

It’s always an immense creative joy to return to a role that I’ve done before. But in this case, it feels very strange revisiting this music and body language, since my last time performing Butterfly was such a whirlwind. There’s always more to uncover and go deeper, especially in a role so detailed and nuanced as this one, and I’m enjoying very much working with my colleagues in preparing it.

About: A young Japanese woman faithfully awaits the return of her husband, an American naval officer. When he finally reappears years later, he brings with him the seeds of a heartbreaking tragedy. 

Jan 24 - Feb 16, 2025
Four Seasons Centre
Toronto

Jan 30 — 歌曲 Kakyoku: A Journey Through Japanese Song

FREE CONCERT SERIES
CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY

I’m delighted to be sharing the stage with soprano Chihiro Yasufuku (Hibiki Project) and pianist Simone Luti, who is also our assistant conductor for Madama Butterfly and assistant professor at the University of Western Ontario.

Chihiro and I wanted to share with audiences the rich and vast repertoire of music that grew out of the Meiji restoration in Japan, which is the same time period Butterfly was set in. Since the bunmei-kaika (modernization and Westernization in Japan) of the Meiji era, a new form of Japanese song emerged, highly influenced by Western classical music and the centuries long traditions of Japanese music. We have prepared an array of songs by these Japanese 20th century composers such as Kōsaku Yamada, Yoshinao Nakada, Sadao Bekku, and more. 

FREE EVENT

Jan 30, 2025 at 12 pm
Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre
Four Seasons Centre
Toronto

Feb 26 & 28 — The Queen In Me

OPERA KELOWNA

The Queen In Me heads west for its first stop in Kelowna, BC! I’m very excited to be presenting this show for the first time with string quartet and piano, led by artistic director and conductor Rosemary Thomson (also playing the piano) for the Western Canadian premiere.

As you know this show is dear to my heart, and every chance I get to perform it makes it that much more special to me.

Synopsis: Combining comedy, drama, and opera, The Queen In Me is a tour de force created and performed by Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野.  One of Canada’s most exciting and innovative sopranos, Kasahara (they/he) takes the stage as one of opera’s most famously complex characters, the Queen of the Night. But the character interrupts their normal performance of vengeance-via-vocal-pyrotechnics to look back at what Mozart has made of her in The Magic Flute. From there, the audience becomes part of the show as they meet characters from Puccini’s La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Turandot, and Manon Lescaut; Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor; Verdi’s Macbeth and Rigoletto; and R. Strauss’ Salome. Each character delves further into what opera has historically demanded of its women, both as characters and the artists who portray them.

February 26 & 28 at 7:30 pm
Rotary Centre for the Arts
Kelowna, BC

Mar 1 — Queen: A Night With the Opera

OPERA KELOWNA

It’s a kind of magic… Opera Kelowna teams up with the Gary Cable Project to rock out with Queen, the ultimate genre-bending band. This one-night-only event will feature One of Canada’s most exciting and innovative opera singers, Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野, taking on lead vocals made immortal by Freddie Mercury. Under the musical direction of Rosemary Thomson, the night will also feature six Bohemian Backup Singers sprinkling in a few opera gems, backed up by both The Gary Cable Project rockers and Their Majesty’s Strings.

With hits like Somebody to Love and Bohemian Rhapsody mixed in with a selection of tunes from deep within the Queen catalogue, this performance offers Okanagan audiences a unique experience. Our performers deliver the vocal dexterity, instrumental virtuosity, and dynamic energy that Queen’s music shares with the world of opera.

Mar 1 at 7:30 pm
Rotary Centre for the Arts
Kelowna, BC

Mar 14 — Project T

MOUNT ALLISON UNIVERSITY

Being able to share my journey of singing and transitioning is hugely close to my heart, and I’m thrilled to be able to perform this iterative show again, Project T, with Jennie Del Motte at the piano. It is coupled with working with the Mount A voice students in two public workshops on March 12 and 13, so if you’re in the area, do come check out this joy-centred music-making.

Get on the dedicated Project T mailing list HERE to know when the digital archive and live documentation launches.

Mar 14 at 7:30 pm
Brunton Auditorium
Mount Allison University
Sackville, NB

Photo Credits
1. Lake Ontario, by Teiya Kasahara.
2. Courtesy of the Canadian Opera Company.
3. Courtesy of Chihiro Yasufuku and Simone Luti. Teiya’s image by Gaetz Photography.
4. Courtesy of Opera Kelowna. Original photo by Dahlia Katz.
5. Courtesy of Opera Kelowna. Teiya’s image by Gaetz Photography.
6. Project T at ChamberQUEER (New York, June 2024) by Sean Solomon.

 
Teiya Kasahara 笠原 貞野・they/them