A star on the rise in the world of opera, bass Duncan Stenhouse is driven by an abiding love for music and an international upbringing that blends roots in the UK and Canada. Raised in Calgary by a Scottish father and a Newfoundlander mother (who was also his first music teacher), Stenhouse took the path less trodden in his career. “Honestly, opera wasn’t really a part of my life until University,” he shares candidly. He grew up singing in choirs which spanned genres from classical to jazz, and initially pursued choral conducting at Memorial University in Newfoundland.
It was a pivotal first-year experience, performing a scene as Figaro in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, that uncovered his passion for operatic performance and “kickstarted” what has become a full-fledged commitment to the art. “I then took a summer course at Memorial’s Harlow campus in England, where I really fell in love with it all after seeing Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love at the Royal Opera House, Schnyder’s Charlie Parker’s Yardbird at English National Opera with Lawrence Brownlee, and a masterclass given by British bass Brindley Sherratt at the Royal Academy of Music, where I eventually ended up studying for four years.”
His recent move to Toronto to join the Canadian Opera Company (COC) marks a new chapter in Stenhouse’s journey. “I’ve spent my life between Canada and the UK but am excited to now be living in Toronto as a part of the Ensemble Studio program at the Canadian Opera Company,” he says. And he has his sights set on building an impactful career.
This season, COC audiences will see Stenhouse on the main stage in a variety of roles, – including as the strikingly costumed High Priest of Baal in the magnificent COC production of Verdi’s Nabucco, the First Apprentice in Berg’s Wozzeck, and Zaretsky in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. He is also covering roles in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Bilodeau/Bouchard’s La Reine-garçon, and Eugene Onegin. Reflecting on the experience, Stenhouse notes, “with such a jam-packed first year, there have already been so many valuable tools and lessons that I’ve gained… and I’ve only just begun!” His enthusiasm is palpable, and it’s clear that he is seizing all opportunities this prestigious program offers, confident that they “will bring with them an endless supply of learning, growth, and connections that will stay with me throughout my career”.
But while the roles and professional growth accrue, the music itself remains the heart of Stenhouse’s journey. “I truly think that opera is one of the most challenging art forms to create effectively,” he shares. For Stenhouse, opera is not just about individual performance but about contributing to an intricate team performance: “Getting to be a part of the puzzle of this wonderful industry is such an incredible feeling, and being able to share what I love with the world is almost indescribable at times.”
Of course, the journey is not without its challenges. Stenhouse is forthright about the pressures of being a professional singer, especially in an art form that demands such precision. “Everyone is held to an incredibly high standard, and in an art form this complex, there’s not a lot of room for error,” he nods. Pacing himself and ensuring that he is fully prepared for every role are essential. “It can be easy to say ‘yes’ to too much because we love what we do –particularly as a young performer,” he notes, highlighting the balancing act required to sustain a career in this demanding industry.
In addition to his impressive singing career, Stenhouse is also a composer, and the two disciplines deeply inform one another. “Knowledge that I’ve gained from composition can often help me in the practice room, particularly with difficult passages of music that don’t necessarily feel intuitive to learn,” he explains. His compositional training, particularly in challenging works by composers like Benjamin Britten (“which can be notoriously complex”), provides him with an invaluable perspective on the structure and nuances of the music he performs: “I’m sure these skills will also come in handy for Alban Berg’s Wozzeck this year with COC, which is an incredibly difficult piece of music.” Though he has had little time for composing recently, Stenhouse also hints that he has created tantalizingly “unfinished scraps from a large variety of works – string quartets, solo piano works, song cycles, and many operas”. “I love writing music for specific performers and collaborating with them,” he adds, “to create something that I not only want to write, but that they want to perform, and that they enjoy.”
His Master’s composition project Songs of the Great White North is a collection of classical arrangements of Canadian folk songs. The project was born out of homesickness while studying in the UK during the pandemic. In it, he wanted to “share parts of me that I didn’t have access to, due to travel being impossible at the time”. And this passion project has already gained traction, with Stenhouse lecturing on the subject and continuing to explore its potential in Canada, with the COC “making helpful introductions”. “You should expect to see more about this soon, and I’m very excited about the direction it’s headed”, he hints, adding “I would love to be a champion of Canadian song and opera, and follow in the footsteps of great Canadian singers such as Maureen Forrester, Jon Vickers, and Joseph Rouleau, who did the same.”
And Stenhouse draws inspiration not only from classical and folk music. Jazz is also a genre that he grew up with — thanks to his mother, a trained classical and jazz double bassist. So many of his heroes growing up were voices piped regularly through the household speakers: the calming tones of Bing Crosby; the effortless charisma of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.; the loving playfulness of Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Louis Prima, and Keely Smith; the raw power of Nina Simone; the gut-wrenching heartbreak of Chet Baker; and the rich warmth of Nat King Cole. “I have loved these singers and their music for my whole life”, he stresses . “All of them are incredibly practised and natural performers, with an ease and presence on stage that hold a crowd like no other”.
Stenhouse appreciates and salutes each of their singular virtues: “All of them are virtuosic interpreters of music and poetry :none of them sing a single piece in the same way as another, and each performer makes every song their own. All of them are also incredible storytellers, whether on recording, on stage, or on screen.” And they provide one more secret kind of inspiration to him: “While some opera patrons may think me foolish for saying so, all of them were incredibly classy, presenting themselves immaculately. Every time I’m getting dressed in my tux… it’s never famous opera singers going through my head as I fix my tie in the mirror. It’s Bing, Frank, and Deano, singing ‘Style’ in Robin and the Seven Hoods.”
You can see Stenhouse perform in the COC’s production of Verdi’s Nabucco, which is directed by Katherine M. Carter and conducted by Paolo Carignani, and is on stage at the Four Seasons Centre for the Arts until October 25, 2024; and in Gunod’s Faust, which is directed by Amy Lane and conducted by Johannes Debus, and is on stage at the Four Seasons Centre for the Arts until November 2, 2024. Reserve tickets on coc.ca.
© Arpita Ghosal, Sesaya Arts Magazine, 2024
