WIIKWEMKOONG—Opera singer Everette Levi Morrison grew up in Moosonee, but now makes his home in Wiikwemkoong. Recently, Mr. Morrison scored his first paid gig with a professional opera company, with a role as Wandering Spirit in a nine and a half week run of the Canadian Opera Company production of Louis Riel.
“It has been a pretty amazing experience,” admitted Mr. Morrison, who finished the latest run on May 13 and is looking forward to returning to the stage for the Ottawa performances June 15 to 17.
Mr. Morrison’s journey to the national company stage started out with just a little bit of serendipity. “Debajehmujig (Storytellers) had something to do with it,” he said. “They were having a workshop thing with indigenous artists from across the country. This guy heard me sing and called me up to see if I wanted to audition.”
Mr. Morrison went to the auditions last May, where he was asked to prepare five pieces to perform. “They asked me to sing two, then a third,” he recalled. Alexander Neef, general director of the Canadian Opera Company, then asked him how far he lived from Toronto. “I told him about six hours,” he said.
Time passed and no call came, so as the fall drifted in he had pretty much given up hope. “I didn’t think I had got the job,” he said. Then the phone rang and things started to become electric in his world.
He wound up in the role of Wandering Spirit, war chief of the Crees, as well as onstage performances in the silent chorus and the land assembly. “You basically do actions on the stage,” he explained.
The rarified atmosphere of the backstage of a professional opera company was, and is, a surreal experience for a still young man from the North. “I have a quick change where I have five minutes to get out of the costume and into the next,” he said. “Three ladies are waiting at the dressing room to help me in and out of the costumes.”
Mr. Morrison put in his dues getting to the stage. Although this is his professional company debut, he is a classically trained singer, having studied music at Laurentian University and voice at Cambrian College. He started down the road to classical singing in high school, however, when a teacher took note of his talent. “I never thought my voice would be operatic,” he laughed. “But then my voice dropped.” He didn’t look back and began learning and studying opera and the arias that define the form.
With his gig in the Canadian Opera Company Mr. Morrison is looking forward to the future. He is now an Equity player, which gives him strong credentials in the industry, and he is seeking an agent to move his career to the next level.
When next you see Mr. Morrison, you might want to offer some support, but to those on the stage “good luck” might be a curse. Even “break a leg” is considered a no-no, but there is an operatic version that works just fine. “They say toi, toi, toi,” explained Mr. Morrison.
