Administrative staff

Michel Beaulac, Artistic Director and Administrator

Michel Beaulac was born in Montreal, and started studying piano as a teenager. After studies in education and some ten years as a teacher, he furthered his studies at the UQAM, in art and voice. Nominated by the McAbbey Foundation (sculpture), he exhibited his work on the Montreal university circuit, in the Maisons de la culture network, and at the Galerie du Petit Musée in Quebec City. His passion for opera led to hosting duties for a radio show on which the Opéra de Montréal’s director at the time took notice of him and invited him to join the company’s communications team in 1989. He then went on to take up various other functions at the company, including work as a set and costume designer, as assistant to the Artistic Director, and, more recently, as Artistic Administrator, a position he filled for close to ten years.

As a set designer, co-set designer, and costume designer, he worked on over seven productions and co-productions for the Opéra de Montréal, including Andrea Chénier, Carmen, Fedora, Manon, Manon Lescaut, Don Carlo, Carmina burana (staged version), as well as productions for the Atelier lyrique’s Canadian tours, including The Elixir of Love and The Barber of Seville.

He has created namely the Gala (1996-2014) and some prestigious collaborations (Spanish sculptor Victor Ochoa and renowned Quebec librettist Michel Marc Bouchard).

His first decade as artistic director has brought us Quebec premieres of such works from the repertoire as La Fanciulla del West (2007), Roberto Devereux (2010), Rusalka (2011), Porgy & Bess (2013), and Elektra (2016).

He has also taken a more contemporary approach at the company by presenting Dead Man Walking (2012), Silent Night (2015), JFK (2018), Svadba (2018), Champion (2019),Twenty-seven (2019 ), Ainadamar (2023) and five world premieres: Les Feluettes (2016), Another Brick In The Wall - L'opéra (2017), L'hiver attend beaucoup de moi (2020), La Beauté du monde (2023) and La Reine-garçon (2024).

Collaborations with Canadian and French institutions will give rise to three new works: Le Flambeau de la nuit (2021) with BOP, Yourcenar (2022) with the Opéra de Québec and Les Violons du Roy, and Enigma (2022) with the Opéra de Metz Métropole.

The productions of Pagliacci/Gianni Schicchi and Dead Man Walking each earned the institution an Opus Prize.

In 2022, he was inducted into the Order of Canada for his contribution to the development of opera in Montreal and across the country.

Michel Beaulac is the Opéra de Montréal's fourth Artistic Director.