Étienne Dupuis is creating the role of Count Karl Gustav, the male lead role in the world premiere of La Reine-garçon, an opera by Julien Bilodeau with a libretto by Michel Marc Bouchard, at the Opéra de Montréal on February 6, 2023. The opera will be staged by Angela Konrad and conducted by Jean-Marie Zeitouni. The all-Canadian cast also includes Joyce El-Khoury as Christine, Queen of Sweden, Pascale Spinney as Countess Ebba Sparre, Daniel Okulitch as Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, Isaiah Bell as Count Johan Oxestierna, Eric Laporte as René Descartes, Aline Kutan as Marie-Eléonore de Brandebourg and Alain Coulombe as the Assistant of Descartes. There will be additional performances on February 6, 8 and 11, 2024.

A former member of the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal (2005), the Quebecois baritone has performed a number of roles for the opera company of his native town, including Joe in Dead Man Walking, Simon Doucet in the world premiere of Les Feluettes and Pink in the world premiere of Another Brick in the Wall, not to mention his very first Conte di Luna in Il trovatore last season.

This season Ètienne Dupuis has devoted himself mostly to Verdi, with highly acclaimed debuts as Don Carlo di Vargas in La forza del destino at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, as Rigoletto at the Teatro Real Madrid, as well as reprising one of his signature roles, Germont in La traviata, in a high profile semi-staged performance of the Verdi evergreen at the Wiener Konzerthaus opposite Anna Netrebko. Later this season he makes his debuts as Paolo Albiani in Simon Boccanegra and as Sancho Pança in a new production of Massenet’s Don Quichotte, both at the Opéra de Paris.

[Photo: Emilie Brouchon]