Canadian Opera Company Launches New Online Venture: COC Radio

Toronto – The Canadian Opera Company’s award-winning website has taken its first steps to becoming an online resource for opera in Canada by launching COC Radio. Through this exciting new venture, visitors to coc.ca will now be able to find, in one place, a variety of audio and digital features available for downloading and live streaming, all aimed at exploring an opera and its background as well as the artists appearing with the COC.

Among the features accessible through COC Radio, visitors can listen to recordings of productions by the COC’s broadcast partner CBC Radio 2; enjoy interviews with singers and members of a production’s creative team; listen to podcasts of COC-hosted talks, from pre-performance opera chats to Opera 101; and go through listening guides on an opera and watch specially-created production videos. COC Radio will be updated with new interviews, recordings and videos on an ongoing basis. Currently available for viewing are all interviews, recordings and videos from the COC’s 2010/2011 season as well as those podcasts and video interviews that have been created for Iphigenia in Tauris and Rigoletto as part of the 2011/2012 season.

“COC Radio is a resource for people to discover and explore their love of opera,” says COC General Director Alexander Neef. “The materials there offer fascinating insight into the operatic art form and the artists who work with the COC. As we grow and develop as a company, COC Radio will develop too. Our aim is to have it go beyond relating exclusively to the COC, so that COC Radio may join other online sources nurturing and cultivating knowledge of opera in Canada.”

Users of COC Radio have the option to select from COC-curated content as well as customize their listening and viewing experience. The immediate future plans for COC Radio include music playlist recommendations from visiting artists as well as staff members of the opera company.

Based in Toronto, the Canadian Opera Company is the largest producer of opera in Canada and one of the five largest in North America. The COC enjoys a loyal audience support-base and one of the highest attendance and subscription rates in North America. The COC celebrates its 62nd anniversary during the 11/12 season. Under its leadership team of General Director Alexander Neef and Music Director Johannes Debus, the COC is increasingly capturing the opera world’s attention. The COC maintains its international reputation for artistic excellence and creative innovation by creating new productions within its diverse repertoire, collaborating with leading opera companies and festivals, and attracting the world’s foremost Canadian and international artists. The COC performs in its own opera house, the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, hailed internationally as one of the finest in the world. Designed by Diamond and Schmitt Architects, the Four Seasons Centre opened in 2006, and is also the performance venue for The National Ballet of Canada. For more information on the COC, visit its award-winning website, coc.ca.