Patrick Hansen

Patrick Hansen is the Artistic Director of Opera McGill, an associate professor of music at the Schulich School of Music, has been on the board of directors for The Association for Opera in Canada for the past eight years, is currently serving on the membership council for Opera America, and is a member of the National Opera Association.

Considered a leading progressive figure in opera, he is an opera producer equally established as a stage director, conductor, vocal coach, collaborative pianist, and artistic administrator having spent the last forty years on the creative and producing teams for over 300 operas.

His productions have been seen all over North America and in Europe. Recently he directed and choreographed the Bulgarian premiere of Weill’s Street Scene. He has directed at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Pittsburgh Opera, Eugene Opera, Charlottesville Opera, Fargo Opera, Opera5, Opera Memphis, Arizona State University, Janiec Opera Company, Opéra de Montreal’s Atelier Lyrique, Opera on the James, Ithaca College, and over 100 operas at Opera McGill. As the former Music Director for the Opera Festival of New Jersey, he conducted Die Zauberflöte, Il prigioniero, Bluebeard’s Castle, and the world premiere of the revised version of Burning Bright. Other conducting credits include La Traviata, Carmen, Cenerentola, Il barbiere di Siviglia, The Tender Land, The Turn of the Screw, Albert Herring, Cosi fan tutte, L’elisir d’amore, Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Fledermaus, Hänsel und Gretel, and Alcina.

For his conducting of Bartok’s operatic masterpiece Bluebeard’s Castle, New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini praised his “lithe pacing and vivid colors” while Pulitzer prize-winning Financial Times critic Martin Bernheimer wrote “Hansen respected the delicate balance between passion and introspection. He made much of Bartok’s epic essay in psycho-sexual angst.” David Patrick Stearns in the Philadelphia Inquirer noted “Hansen revealed another side of the score: stroke after stroke of musical characterization that’s often obscured by dazzling orchestral color, skillfully drawing the ear into the two characters’ hearts of darkness.” His stagings have garnered praise in both Canada and the United States. Wayne Gooding in Opera Canada: “Director Patrick Hansen...nonetheless captured the opera’s bohemian vitality and evoked – which, unfortunately, many productions fail to do – the city of Paris itself as the characterful backdrop to the action. When he ran out of space for the crowd in Act II, the crowd simply spilled down into the auditorium... the comic business was well handled... The acting, indeed, was a strong point throughout.” and Arthur Kaptainis in The Gazette: “After the Opera McGill performance on Friday I wanted to see it again...The eight singers were nicely cast...Director Patrick Hansen made a fair case for the drama. The violation [of Lucretia] involved some Etrusco-Roman wrestling and an almost literally blinding coup de theater: Lights flare and Tarquinius suddenly drops his robe, and becomes pure animal. It was a good invention.”

Mr. Hansen has been on the musical staffs of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Pittsburgh Opera, Tulsa Opera, Opera Memphis, Des Moines Metro Opera, Ash Lawn Opera, The Juilliard Opera Center, and Glimmerglass Opera (as director for their Young Artist Program) as well as being the Director of Artistic Administration for Florida Grand Opera during the opening of the 500 million dollar downtown Miami arts centre.

This season he will direct The Barber of Seville for Tri-Cities Opera, Hansel and Gretel for Eugene Opera, return for a third summer as vocal coach for the Bel Canto in Tuscany summer program, and in 2025 will be the musical supervisor for The Light in the Piazza and direct Platée in Montreal. An avid blogger, his website “patricksoperablog” has received over 308,000 views. His new blog "CoachCraft" can be found on the ghost platform. He lives and gardens with his family and pets in eastern Ontario while practicing his hobbies of cooking a variety of cuisines.