Share on Facebook
Share on X
Share by Email
Share on Google Classroom
Constance Fisher, stage director, soprano (born 3 October 1926 in Hamilton, ON; died 10 May 2023 in Kenora, ON).
Career Highlights
After studies with Alberto Guerrero (piano), and Weldon Kilburn and Irene Jessner (voice) at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto (now the Royal Conservatory of Music), and with Herman Geiger-Torel at the Royal Conservatory Opera School (now the University of Toronto Opera Division), Constance Fisher obtained Associate Diplomas (ARCT) for piano (1950) and voice (1951). She made her debut in 1957 with the Opera Festival of Toronto (later the Canadian Opera Company (COC)) as the Mother in Hansel and Gretel.
A member of the COC until 1966, she sang Musetta in La Bohème (1963) and, in touring productions, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte (1963) and Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus (1964, 1965), among other roles. She also sang Hebe in Orpheus in the Underworld at the 1959 Stratford Festival, and both Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in the New England Opera Theatre's Don Giovanni on its 1960 United States tour.
After making her professional debut as a stage director (1968) with a production of La Bohème for the COC, Fisher worked as a staff producer at Sadler's Wells (1968–70). She directed productions of Madama Butterfly, Così fan tutte, Orpheus in the Underworld and Hansel and Gretel at the Banff School of Fine Arts (now Banff Centre for the Arts) and, later, The Barber of Seville (1973), L'Heure espagnole (1974), Il Tabarro (1975) and Tosca (1976) for the COC.
In 1972 she became stage director and instructor and in 1978 divisional co-ordinator and resident stage director at the University of Toronto Opera Division, for which she has directed several productions, including the Canadian premieres of Robert Ward's The Crucible (1976), Janáček's Katya Kabanová (1977), Vaughan Williams' Sir John in Love (1984), and Tchaikovsky's Iolanta (1989). She also has directed for the Edmonton, Southern Alberta (Calgary Opera), and Manitoba Opera Associations, for the Cincinnati Summer Opera — Don Giovanni was her US debut in 1977 — and for the Tulsa Opera (Don Giovanni, 1979).
Personal Life
Constance Fisher was married to the Canadian conductor James Craig.
