Canadian mezzo-soprano Ellita Gagner 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 and sing Miss Jessel in The Turn of the Screw. 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 also 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.
Ellita Gagner stood out for her clarity of voice and theatrical instinct
- Adrian Rodriguez, La Scena Musical
The more impulsive Dorabella sang with style
-Opera Canada Magazine
As Lucette, mezzo-soprano Ellita Gagner showed off a gorgeous, warm tone and winning, gamine personality
-Gianmarco Segato, La Scena Musicale
Artistic Statement
I believe in the importance of bringing the sounds of classical voice to new audiences. As an artist from rural Ontario, it was by chance that I was exposed to and educated in classical music. It is fundamental to my art that every performance features an underlying authenticity that reflects the universal human experience. I'm driven to create approachable and accessible spaces in the operatic repertoire, bringing it back to its roots in community and collective experience. It is powerful to touch someone who knows and loves opera but to connect with someone like my Dad, who grew up on Johnny Cash and AC/DC, is an opportunity to open doors for another person to enjoy this rich and diverse art.
Photos
"The tender and touching duet of Lucette (Gagner) and Pandolfe (Wallace) in the third act was nuanced singing at its finest"
- Albert Wong, Ludwig Van Toronto
UPCOMING
Chorus Niagara: Bach B Minor Mass
Soprano II Soloist
May 3, 2025 @7:30pm
Celebrate Robert Cooper’s 35th anniversary, and farewell season of artistic leadership, with the grand emotional span of Bach’s magnum opus Mass in B Minor. Majestic in its complexity and sweep, Bach’s transcendent Mass in B Minor is undoubtedly his most spectacular choral work with its sizzling choruses, sublime solos and virtuoso orchestral ensembles rendering it one of the most joyous of musical experiences in the western choral canon.
Jenufa
Tetka
November, 22 and 27, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Sunday, November 30, 2025 at 2 PM
Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier
Renowned Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan takes the helm for this highly anticipated production of Janáček’s Jenůfa, while Montreal’s very own Nicole Paiement leads the Orchestre Métropolitain as conductor.
The Turn of the Screw
Miss Jessel
TBD
TBD
Based on the novella by Henry James that tells the story of a young, inexperienced governess sent to a country house to care for two children, whom she is gradually convinced have been corrupted by the ghosts haunting the house.
Carmen
Mercedes (Cover)
May 2, 5, 7, 2026 → 7:30 PM Sunday, May 10, 2026 → 2 PM
Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier
Carmen, enchantress of Seville, casts her spell over all who encounter her. Don José is no exception. A loyal soldier, he surrenders his post, morals, and soul as he is ravaged by the flames of obsession. When Carmen’s attention turns to the daring bullfighter Escamillo, José’s jealousy takes a dark and fatal turn. Free in love and in death, our legendary heroine meets her fate as only Carmen can — fearlessly.
Contact
The development of this website, including many photos were generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council