What’s more fun than opera and a beer with friends?
About Opera Pub
AtG’s Opera Pubs are improvised, wild nights that offer up your favourite operatic arias and ensembles, performed by both established and emerging opera talent. Opera Pubs are the perfect introduction for newbies and a welcome break for opera vets who want to see something “a little different.” What’s more fun than opera and a beer with friends?
Opera Pub is headed back out west!
Opera Pub was born in Banff Legion bar in Alberta and then transported to Toronto, where it’s played Amsterdam Bicycle Club, Tranzac Club, and now The Drake Hotel.
But Opera Pub is too much party for just one city, so this season we’re hosting Opera Pubs in Vancouver (in collaboration with City Opera) and Edmonton (in collaboration with Edmonton Opera)!
Watch this video to learn a little more about Opera Pub!
Or read the Schmopera article (linked below) where AtG’s founding artistic director Joel Ivany and founding Music Director Topher Mokrzewski chat about the origins of Opera Pub.
Opera Makin' Headlines
These free, non-pretentious events are what Toronto’s opera scene so desperately needs and what will, hopefully, introduce more people to the opera.
— Toronto Star (2022) by Joshua Chong
“Opera Pub brings this most secret of pleasures to astonished newcomers.”
— The Globe and Mail
For media inquiries, click here.
Times, Dates, & Locations
Location:
The Drake Hotel Lounge
1150 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M6J 1J3
For more information on the venue, you can visit their website here.
Tickets
It’s free! No tickets are necessary, but reservations are recommended. (Reservations taken up to 30 days in advance).
If you want to support AtG so we can keep offering these rowdy evenings of fabulous music, you can donate by clicking the button below!
Dates & Times
All Toronto Opera Pubs happen on the first Monday of the month. They begin at 7:30 PM, but you can show up a little earlier if you wish!
See the full list of dates below!
2023/2024 season
October 2nd
November 6th
February 5th
March 4th
April 8th
May 6th
Location:
La Fabrique St.George Winery
7 E 7th Ave, Vancouver, BC V5T 1M4, Canada
For more information on the venue, you can visit their website here.
Tickets
It’s free! No tickets are required but reservations are recommended. Click here to make one!
But, if you want to support AtG so we can keep offering these rowdy evenings of fabulous music, you can donate by clicking the button below!
Dates & Times
All Vancouver Opera Pubs happen on the first Tuesday of the month. They begin at 7 PM, but you can show up a little earlier if you wish!
See the full list of dates below!
November 7th
December 5th
December 19th
February 6th
March 12th (date change)
April 2nd
May 7th
Location:
Blue Chair
9624 76 Ave NW, Edmonton, AB T6C 0K3
For more information on the venue, you can visit their website here.
Tickets
It’s free! No tickets are required, but reservations are recommended. To save a table, just give the Blue Chair Cafe team a call at 780-989-2861!
If you want to support AtG so we can keep offering these rowdy evenings of fabulous music, you can donate by clicking the button below!
Dates & Times
All Edmonton Opera Pubs happen on the fourth Wednesday of the month. They begin at 7 PM, but you can show up a little earlier if you wish!
See the full list of dates below!
January 24th
February 21st
March 27th
April 24th
May 22nd
Creative Team
Spencer believes strongly in equity, diversity, and inclusion in the rehearsal room and on stage. For Spencer, creating safe and brave spaces where everyone's voice and input is valued and where singers and musicians can explore the full range of their artistic practice is essential for all projects.
As a conductor and music director, Spencer has worked on numerous productions across Canada. Most recently, he music directed Hank & Gremlin with Good Mess Opera. This new adaptation of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel features an exciting and timely libretto by Sawyer Craig that will be made into a feature-length claymation movie.
Spencer made his conducting debut with University of Toronto Opera in January 2023, conducting Disobedience, a new opera written by UofT's Student Composer Collective. His other conducting and music directing credits include Puccini's Il tabarro with Pop Goes the Opera, Arthur Benjamin's A Tale of Two Cities with UofT Opera, Puccini’s La bohème with Mercury Opera, Puccini’s Suor Angelica with Pop Goes the Opera, and Rebecca and the Bad Wizard, a children's opera.
Spencer's recent répétiteur credits include Nino Rota's Il cappello di paglia di Firenze and a comedic triple-bill of Hindemith's Hin und zurück, Offenbach's Monsieur Choufleuri, and Douglas Moore's Gallantry. Other credits include Copland's The Tender Land; Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia; Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi; and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. Spencer had the pleasure of workshopping Melancholia, an opera based on the Lars von Trier film, by Mikael Karlsson and Royce Vavrek in 2023 for the Royal Swedish Opera.
Since her role as apprentice coach with the Vancouver Opera’s Yulanda M. Faris Young Artist Program (‘18-19), Perri has music directed productions with Indie Opera West companies such as ReNaissance Opera, of both traditional and contemporary repertoire. One of her most valuable experiences was touring across B.C. with Vancouver Opera and Pacific Opera Victoria’s co-production of Flight of the Hummingbird (2020), a new children’s opera about climate change.
When she is not performing with singers and instrumentalists, Perri serves as B.C.’s Provincial Coordinator for Opera InReach, an artists’ collective providing accessible, innovative, and diverse opera education and mentorship for youths across Canada.
She is grateful to be creating and working on the unceded and ancestral homelands of xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Wanna sing at Opera Pub?
The Opera Pub audience is the best audience to sing for! Good vibes only.