Société lyrique d'Aubigny

Société lyrique d'Aubigny

Société lyrique d'Aubigny. Non-profit organization founded in Quebec City in 1968 to promote opera and to give young singers from Quebec the opportunity to perform on stage. Guy Bélanger was the founding musical and artistic director and continued in that position in 1991. Consisting principally of a choir, the society has given performances in Quebec City and in various regions of the province. Its repertoire includes opera and operetta as well as religious music such as Bruckner's Te Deum, Mozart's Coronation Mass and Requiem, Omer Létourneau'sMass in B Flat and Puccini's Messa di Gloria which it presented in its Canadian premiere in the late 1970s. It has presented staged productions of Gounod's Faust (1969, 1978), Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de perles (1970, 1974, 1984), Gounod's Mireille (1971), Delibes' Lakmé (1971, 1983), Léhar's The Land of Smiles (1979), Carmen (1979), The Barber of Seville (1980), Roméo and Juliette (1980), The Tales of Hoffmann (1981), Die Fledermaus (1982), La Traviata (1983), and Nabucco (1984). From 1978 to 1984 (except for 1982), the operas were co-produced with the Grand Théâtre de Québec. Among the soloists who have performed with the society have been Claude Corbeil, Louise Lebrun, Marie-Danielle Parent, Édith Tremblay, and Bernard Turgeon. Following the establishment of the Opéra de Québec in 1984, the Société lyrique d'Aubigny ceased to perform complete operas, but continued to promote opera through concerts in Quebec City and region.