The Happenstancers have announced “The Two Deaths of Ophelia” to take place on June 19, 2025.

“The Two Deaths of Ophelia” features music by Linda Catlin Smith, Ann Southam, Thomas Adès, and the world premiere of new music by Ryan Chase and Luis Ramirez.

The work reimagines the Shakespearian character while exploring the themes of love, desire, madness, and death. Vocal works include “Now Wonder Nyce” and “Straunge,” by Ryan Chase, to texts by Geoffrey Chaucer. Soprano Reilly Nelson performs. Soprano Danika Lorèn will also perform Claude Vivier’s “Bouchara.”

“The Two Deaths of Ophelia” is presented in a “quasi double-bill,” asking the audience to experience and examine Ophelia’s fate twice. In a press release conductor Simon Rivard said of the work, “String quartet, tragedy, song cycle, melodrama — both classical music and theatre employ standardized forms, using familiar archetypes to carry audiences to unfamiliar and unexpected places. Can the same story be told twice? Can it remain the same? What if the narrator is changed?”

Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media and Education in Toronto hosts “The Two Deaths of Ophelia.” The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.

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