ICFF Opera Night · A Night in Three Acts

Bel Canto to Billboard. From the Opera to the Dance Floor.

Nobody drew a border between Rossini and Eros Ramazzotti. We did. Tonight, we take it down. A live performance tracing Italian music from its operatic foundations through the cantautori — all the way to a dance floor that still has bel canto in its bloodstream.

DateThu, July 16

Doors6:30 PM · Three Acts

VenueDistillery District, Toronto

Buy Your Tickets → View the Programme

[ The Manifesto ]

Nobody drew a border between Rossini and Eros Ramazzotti. We did. And tonight, we take it down. — A Night in Three Acts

[ The Programme ]

Bel Canto to Billboard is a live performance that traces Italian music from its operatic foundations through the cantautori all the way to a dance floor that still has bel canto in its bloodstream III Acts.

The performance moves in three waves, each one earned by what came before. It opens where Italian music was born — Rossini's "Largo al factotum," Mozart's "Soave sia il vento," Musetta's Waltz from La Bohème, the Barcarolle from The Tales of Hoffmann. A cinematic montage frames the opera houses where this tradition was forged, and you understand, viscerally, what these three voices are carrying.

Then Cinema Paradiso bridges you forward. The room shifts into the cantautori — the Italian singer-songwriters who took that same emotional directness and aimed it at the world without apology. Dalla's "Caruso." Ramazzotti's "Se bastasse una canzone." Elodie's "Andromeda." The vocal standard does not drop. The context expands.

The finale is not a coda — it is a destination. "Con te partirò" brings the trio together one last time, and then the DJ takes the room. Volare gets its remix. La Dolce Vita rolls. The dance floor opens, and classical training and club energy share the same space, neither apologizing to the other. This is what Italian music has always known how to do: move you, whatever that costs.

Benvenuti.

— A Night in Three Acts

The Programme.

6:30 PM

A beloved Italian ritual

Gli Aperitivi.

Before the first note, join a beloved Italian ritual. Aperitivo culture exists for precisely this reason — to teach you how to arrive, how to be present before the evening asks something of you.

9:15 PM

Three voices · Three waves · One night

Bel Canto to Billboard.

A live performance traversing Italian music. Opera opens the room — Rossini, Mozart, La Bohème, the Barcarolle. Cinema Paradiso bridges into the cantautori. The finale becomes a destination. Come ready to experience something you cannot unhear.

III

10:30 PM

The room opens · The DJ takes over

VIP Backstage Bash.

The music lands, and then the room opens. Backstage at Spirit House the artists, the business community, and the people who showed up curious all end up in the same room — present, together, not performing their industry. Come in with a glass. Leave with something you didn't expect.

— The Artists

Three voices, one piano.

Soprano, mezzo, baritone, and the pianist who holds it together — the four people delivering Bel Canto to Billboard live.

Soprano

Lucia Cesaroni.

Italian-Canadian Soprano

Commands the stage as some of opera's most coveted heroines. Met Opera roster debut in 2023, with Verdi's La Traviata, Puccini's La bohème, and Mozart's leading ladies across Europe and North America. Recent concerts with L'Orchestra Nazionale della RAI in Torino and Andrea Bocelli in New York.

Mezzo-Soprano

Julie Nesrallah.

CBC Music · Carmen on Tap

The dazzling mezzo performs for leading opera companies, symphonies and chamber music ensembles around the world. National host of Tempo on CBC Music and executive producer and star of Carmen on Tap, which performs Bizet's Carmen as dinner theatre.

Baritone

Christopher Dunham.

L'Atelier Lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal

A "vocally powerful and dramatic baritone voice" (Opera Canada) across North America and Europe. Three-time Desmarais Development Prize winner, recently triumphant with Opera Atelier in Charpentier's David et Jonathas and with Cirque du Soleil in Spain in FESTA.

Pianist

Trevor Chartrand.

University of Toronto · RCM

A collaborative pianist working with students at the University of Toronto and the Royal Conservatory of Music. Has been head coach and répétiteur at opera companies across Canada including the Canadian Opera Company. Doctorate in Collaborative Piano from the University of Michigan.

One Night Only · Doors at 6:30 PM

— Take your seat

The curtain
rises.

Thursday, July 16 · Distillery District. Three acts, three voices, one piano, and a dance floor that still has bel canto in its bloodstream. Benvenuti.