Canada Life Connects through
Education & Community Engagement Initiatives
As a leading insurance company, Canada Life knows that community involvement is essential to improving the lives of Canadians. In fact, their longstanding involvement with Manitoba Opera is a perfect example. Canada Life (formerly GreatWest Life) has been one of our supporters since our very first performance in 1972.
A longstanding champion of the arts, Canada Life is committed to initiatives that find innovative and exciting ways to introduce opera to new audiences. They also support arts and culture programs that promote diversity and inclusion. That is why they have generously supported Manitoba Opera’s Education and Community Engagement programs since 2020.
This season, Canada Life is helping Manitoba Opera provide a variety of both in-person and online education and community engagement programming that will reach people across Manitoba.
This February, singers began visiting classrooms in 15 Winnipeg schools for I Love to Read Month workshops—more than twice the number presented in past seasons. Each I Love to Read Month session includes a reading of an opera story, vocal exercises with the students, and a short performance.
Opera Storytime, a video series of opera stories read aloud by singers and other community members, has also expanded this year with opera-themed story books recorded for the first time in French and Tagalog.
Back by popular demand, Opera Class workshops will be visiting Winnipeg and Brandon-area schools this year. Each workshop is led by professionally trained opera singers and engages kids with hands-on activities that show the power of live operatic singing and demonstrate how music can be used to tell stories.
On March 12, with Canada Life’s support, there will be a free 24-hour, on-demand screening of Backstage at the Vienna State Opera, a 2019 documentary that provides a behind-the-scenes look into one of the world’s great opera houses. The film follows a production of Samson et Dalila from conception to glorious first night, while revealing all the hard labour, struggles, and intense emotion you would expect to find in an opera house that puts on more than 50 productions a year.
During spring break, Manitoba Opera will bring back the hilarious, family friendly production The Barber of Seville as Styled by Al Simmons for free on-demand viewing. This madcap performance is Rossini’s work like you’ve never seen it before, as the endlessly inventive entertainer and comedian plays 10 characters.
With programs like these, made possible by Canada Life’s longstanding support, Manitoba Opera will continue to find new ways to reach audiences and explore the power and possibilities of the art form.
