Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg and Marshall Pynkoski, pictured in the Palace of Versailles, are the married co-founders and artistic directors of the Toronto opera/ballet company, Opera Atelier.Bruce Zinger/Supplied
Opera Atelier’s upcoming presentation of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s baroque masterpiece David and Jonathan at Toronto’s Koerner Hall is cause enough for celebration. But another production is worth noting as well: Jeannette and Marshall.
As in Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg and Marshall Pynkoski, the married co-founders and artistic directors of the Toronto opera/ballet company, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary. They married in 1985, the year of Opera Atelier’s debut production (Mozart’s Les Petits Riens and Handel’s The Choice of Hercules, at the Royal Ontario Museum).
“We’re so busy producing, travelling, fundraising and everything else, it doesn’t seem possible that this much time has passed,” says Pynkoski, who met his future wife at a ballet class in the early 1980s. “We never think of the years. We just count the calendar from production to production.”
Their production of David and Jonathan, a psychological drama from 17th-century French lyric theatre, premiered at France’s Palace of Versailles in 2022. It makes its Toronto debut on Wednesday. The couple spoke to The Globe and Mail about four decades of being together onstage and off.
Their favourite Opera Atelier production
Zingg: I would say Lully’s Armide, since I’m the choreographer. The dance is wonderfully integrated into the piece, as it is in all French baroque, including David and Jonathan.
Pynkoski: Charpentier’s Médée. It’s so incredibly moving that it can take mythological characters and – between Charpentier and his librettist – just fuse them with humanity.
The opera that most relates to their marriage and business partnership
Zingg: It would be Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Because Tamino and Pamina go through all sorts of trials together, but in the end they come out triumphant and stronger.
Pynkoski: And its music and the art itself that carries them through. So, I agree, it has to be The Magic Flute.
Favourite international venue
Zingg: That’s a bit of a no-brainer. The Royal Opera house in Versailles. However, the Salzburg State Theatre and La Scala in Milan run a close second.
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Pynkoski: I have to agree. Nothing for me will ever touch Versailles. Though it was thrilling to be in Salzburg, where we’ve been twice. I love the venue and I love the atmosphere of the town. And La Scala is everything you expect La Scala to be. It’s like being in a dream.
Most stressful production
Zingg: When we first produced The Magic Flute in 1991 at Elgin Theatre, we had an administrator who told us we were going to lose our shirts. We had very little support. There were forebodings and warnings. But after opening night and a sold-out run, we knew our risk was well blessed, if nothing else.
Pynkoski: It’s so ironic. The Magic Flute is so thrilling and so uplifting and life affirming, but the process was appalling.
Zingg: And we were flying back and forth from Ottawa at the same time, producing Acis and Galatea at the National Arts Centre. It was wonderful, but also we needed the money from that production to fund The Magic Flute. It was a busy and fraught time for sure.
Significant changes over their 40 years
Zingg: For Opera Atelier, because we have many, many discounted tickets for younger people, we have a younger, more diverse demographic than we’ve ever had. The other thing I’ve seen in opera and the arts in general, and I deplore this, is that it is way too political. It’s all about being politically correct, and no longer about art.
Pynkoski: The performing arts frequently grow out of a political situation or social upheaval. We don’t need to glom something on to it in order to make it appear – and this is a horrible word – relevant. Any more than we need to repaint masterpieces when we walk in the Louvre.
What we can learn from the baroque era
Pynkoski: When people think of the baroque era, usually they’re thinking of the 18th century. They see the wigs, the costumes, the corsets – all the exterior and detail. They think, this is life, this is superficial – it’s the rococo curlicue. People forget that all of that beauty and all of that obsession with detail was part of a breathtaking attempt to deal with the reality of being human, and how painful and dangerous being a human being is. Imagine the suffering back then.
Zingg: Also, art was more a part of everyday life in those days, not just for the aristocracy. Everybody danced. Most people were able to sing. A lot of this has been lost because of technology. People are so dependent on machines now.
Pynkoski: There are moments in David and Jonathan where I end up in tears in my eyes every time. I know it’s coming up. I know what the line is. Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, same thing. They knew things and they knew how to use those things to manipulate you. And that’s a good thing, because it meant you could go to the theatre and have a cathartic experience and leave the theatre feeling cleansed.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
Opera Atelier’s David and Jonathan runs April 9-13 at Toronto’s Koerner Hall. Tickets and information at rcmusiccom.
