A few months after moving from Victoria to assume the directorship of the Opéra de Montréal (OdeM), Patrick Corrigan was interviewed by Natasha Gauthier for Opera Canada. He spoke of his plans for raising the profile of the company, creating more operas, finding new funding and new audiences. Ten new operas have premiered since he took the helm in 2016, including five Canadian works with occupancy rates ranging between 80.3% and 92.9%.
New ambitious plans were drafted for the company at the end of 2018 when Corrigan, along with Pierre Vachon, then Director of Marketing and Education, participated in a panel discussion about ‘civic practice’ at the invitation of Opera America. The use of the term ‘civic practice’ by the organizers suggested “a shift away from strategies that build audiences, address barriers to participation and secure philanthropy.” Were these strategies not needed anymore? One would argue they still are but Opera America was
