ELLITA GAGNER
Lyric Mezzo Soprano
Based in Montreal QC Canada
Biography
Canadian mezzo-soprano Ellita Gagner, currently based in Montreal Quebec, has been praised for her “gorgeous, warm tone and winning gamine personality” (Gianmarco Segato, La Scena Musicale).
Ellita has performed leading and supporting roles across Canada, including Cendrillon (Cendrillon), L’Enfant (L’Enfant et les Sortilèges), Lysistrata (Lysistrata), Hansel (Hansel and Gretel), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Tisbe (La Cenerentola), and Iphigenia (Disobedience). She has appeared with Opera Nova Scotia, the Brott Festival, London Community Orchestra, Uxbridge Messiah Singers and Orchestra, Chorus Niagara, GoodMess Opera, and Can of Soup Collective.
A dedicated performer of contemporary music, Ellita has worked with leading and up and coming composers and librettists. She workshopped the role of Gabby for the Royal Swedish Opera’s Melancholia by Mikael Karlsson and Royce Vavrek, as well as Mimi in scenes from Indians on Vacation by Ian Cusson and Royce Vavrek.
Ellita has been fortunate to be a part of several young artist programs in Canada and the United States. She was a Rebanks Fellow at the Royal Conservatory, and an Equilibrium Young Artist with Barbara Hannigan. In the summer of 2024, Ellita attended the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance where she performed Ottorino Respighi’s Il Tramonto with a string quartet. Later in 2024, she participated as a finalist in the Opéra de Montréal National Auditions Gala. The 24-25 season also saw Ellita perform as the Soprano II solist in Bach's B minor mass with Chorus Niagara, perform various recitals with the Royal Conservatory and Alto Solo in the Messiah with the Uxbridge Messiah Singers.
In 2025, Ellita was a young artist with the Castleton Festival, where she had the opportunity to work with esteemed artists Paul Groves, Michelle DeYoung, Ben Malensek, and Robert Grayson. As part of the festival’s opera scenes program, she performed Octavian in the Presentation of the Rose from Der Rosenkavalier and Béatrice in the trio from Béatrice et Bénédict.
She joins the Atelier Lyrique at the Opéra de Montréal this season where she will perform Tetka in Jenufa, cover Mercedes in Carmen, sing Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw and workshop the role of Célénia in La Tragédie d'Atys by Johnathan Dawe. She will also appear in concert singing songs 2 and 4 of Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen as a prelude to the Orchestre Métropolitain's performance of Maher 3 and in scenes staged by Stephen Lawless.
She has been a young artist with Brott Opera and Manitoba Opera. She is a graduate of the Opera School at the University of Toronto and the University of Western. She's studied with Dr. Patricia Green, Dr. Lorna MacDonald and Adrianne Pieczonka and currently studies with Laura Brooks Rice and coaches with Martin Dubé and Richard Turp.
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Reviews
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Ombra mai fu - Xerxes - Handel
Bird Song - Cusson
Che Faro Senza Euridice - C. Gluck
Listen
Noble Seigneur - G. Meyerbeer
Wie du Warst - Der Rosenkavalier - Strauss
Die zwei blauen augen - Mahler
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Photos
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Opera Magnolia - Opera Creation Forum
Performer/Workshopper
May 19-31, 2026
The Forum provides four composers and four writers the opportunity to work with performers, directors, and opera creation mentors, focusing on the process and principles of collaboration, and working through exploratory assignments. Each creator will be partnered with each writer and performer in rotation, to create four new works for voice(s) and piano within the thirteen-day intensive. Immediate feedback will come through musical reading and discussion sessions between each creation period, and a semi-staged, informal showcase at the culmination of the Forum will give invited guests a chance to hear the outcome of participants' experience.
Materials & Craftsmanship
Dido and Aeneas - Maritime Concert Opera
Dido
June 16, 2026 Shelburne Nova Scotia
June 18, 2026 Lunenburg Nova Scotia
June 20, 2026 Halifax Nova Scotia
Composed by Henry Purcell around 1689, Dido and Aeneas tells the tragic love story of Dido, Queen of Carthage, and the Trojan hero Aeneas.
Dido falls in love with Aeneas, but a sorceress and her witches plot to destroy their happiness. Deceived into believing he must leave Carthage, Aeneas abandons Dido. Heartbroken, she sings the famous lament “When I am laid in earth” before dying. The work is admired for its emotional intensity, expressive music, and powerful portrayal of grief, despite its relatively short length.
Toronto Summer Music
Art of Song Fellow
July 11 1pm, 4pm, 7:30pm
July 14 12pmJuly 18 1pm, 4pm, 7:30pm
Walter Hall
ReGeneration concerts feature our TSM Academy Fellows — the rising stars of classical chamber music and Art Song - performing on stage with their Mentors, the top pedagogues and performers of today.
Thank you to the Opera de Montreal Career Development Grant Program for funding the travel portion of participation in TSM.Materials & Craftsmanship
Siyavash (workshop) - Homa Samiee
Workshopper
July 20-24
The Story of Siyavash is a deeply moving saga from the Shahnameh about a prince whose purity was tested by fire and whose tragic betrayal by two kings led to his martyrdom. Siyavash embodies the ultimate Persian ideals of innocence and integrity. His legacy endures in the red flowers of Iran, a lasting reminder that truth, though bloodied, is never forgotten.
Materials & Craftsmanship
La Tragedie d'Atys - Ballet Opera Pantomime x Opera de Montreal
Célénia
March 25, 26, 27 2027
Salle Ludger-Duvernay
Drawing on the resources of opera, contemporary theatre, and dance, American composer Jonathan Dawe and multidisciplinary artist Stéphanie Jasmin rewrite the musical tragedy Atys (1676) by Jean-Baptiste Lully and Philippe Quinault, overlaying the traces of the original work with the outlines of a new narrative and new music, like a palimpsest. Drawing on the Baroque fascination with trompe-l’œil and the world of dreams, the show will incorporate the sounds of ancient instruments to move the audience imperceptibly between epochs and offer glimpses of bygone worlds.
Mozart's Requiem - L'Orchestre de L'Agora
Alto Soloist
October 21 and 22 2026
Salon Richmond 1861
The Orchestre de l’Agora and the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal invite the public to enjoy a unique experience centered on Mozart’s Requiem, in the immersive atmosphere of the Salon Richmond 1861, a former church in Little Burgundy. Far from a traditional concert, this production transforms listening into a sensory journey. Staged by Thomas Lussier, the Requiem unfolds around and among the audience, carried by the voices of the St. Andrew and St. Paul Church Choir and soloists Grace Buddolski, Ellita Gagner, Jeremy Scinocca, and Colin Mackey. Under the direction of Nicolas Ellis, this production offers a striking encounter with a timeless work.
Chants perdus: Les Tresors caches de Schubert
Soloist
November 25, 2026
Salle Bourgie
Seven young artists from the Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal explore the world of Schubert through ensembles for solo voices and fragments of his Lieder, in reconstructions by musicologist Reinhard van Hoorickx, under the artistic direction of bass-baritone Christian Immler and pianist Francis Perron. A collaboration between the Atelier lyrique ODM and Salle Bourgie.Rigoletto
Countess Ceprano
May 1, 4, 6, 9, 2027
Salle Wilfred-Pelletier
Under the direction of François Racine, this staging revisits Victor Hugo’s Le Roi s’amuse with intensity, exposing a world where passion, authority, and moral corruption collide.
A bitter jester in the service of a predatory duke, Rigoletto believes he’s untouchable — until the cruelty he helps fuel comes crashing back onto his own life. His daughter Gilda, sheltered from the world, falls in love with the same duke without knowing who he really is. Manipulation, betrayal, vengeance: the tension tightens around father and daughter, propelling them toward a fate as devastating as it is inevitable. Even the purest love offers no protection here.