Canadian Opera Company launching new Rufus Wainwright production 'Hadrian'

TORONTO - The world premiere of a new production by Rufus Wainwright and Daniel MacIvor headlines the Canadian Opera Company's upcoming season.

"Hadrian," Wainwright's second opera, is described as "a poetic meditation on the ways that love overturns worlds both political and personal."

Wainwright says the opera was inspired by his reading of the novel "Memoirs of Hadrian" by Marguerite Yourcenar about the life of the Roman emperor.

The opera company says Canadian tenor Ben Heppner will be coming out of retirement to make a cameo in the production.

Seven performances of "Hadrian" will be staged at Toronto's Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts in October.

Other shows in the Canadian Opera Company's 2018/19 season include Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin," Richard Strauss's "Elektra," Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte," Puccini's "La Boheme" and Verdi's "Otello."