Rebecca Cuddy

Métis mezzo-soprano and multi-disciplinary artist Rebecca Cuddy has been acknowledged as ‘the next generation who is going to do incredible things’ (Newman, The Whole Note 2019). Rebecca is a two-time Dora Award nominated performer, named to CBC’s top classical 30 Under 30 List, who is quickly gaining recognition on both concert and operatic stages.

The 2023/2024 season saw Rebecca make her American performance debut with West Edge Opera for the world premiere of Stookey’s Bulrusher, and her company debut with Manitoba Opera in the world premiere of Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North in the leading role of Josette La Grande. No stranger to new works, she looks forward to creating the role of Agnes in Nuova Vocal Art’s world premiere of Uyeda’s Silence, workshopping Cells of Wind with FAWN, and covering in Ian Cusson’s Indians on Vacation with Edmonton Opera.

Previously, she has joined Pacific Opera Victoria for their production of Braunfels’ Die Vögel (2023), making her company debut for this Canadian premiere. Recent engagements included debuts with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphony New Brunswick, and the Calgary Philharmonic for the works of Mozart, Cusson, Rachmaninoff, and more.

In concert, Rebecca has made several appearances with Soundstreams, the New Orford String Quartet, the Toronto Consort, as well as a performance with members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Yo Yo Ma in support of Toronto’s CAMH Centre. In 2020/2021, she appeared in multiple digital releases, including her Canadian Opera Company debut in Voices of Mountains, singing the titular role in OperaQ’s Medusa’s Children, Soundstreams’ Garden of Vanished Pleasures, and Toronto Concert Orchestra’s Shatter. She also made her directorial debut with Musique 3 Femmes for the digital release of The Chair.

Rebecca has sung in the premieres of several new Indigenous opera works across Turtle Island, including Two Odysseys; Pimootewin and Gállábártnit (Dora Award; Outstanding Ensemble), Shanawdithit (Dora Award; Outstanding New Opera), and Flight of the Hummingbird. Other opera credits include both Mercedes and Carmen, Carmen; Dreitte Dame, Die Zauberflote; Elmire, Tartuffe; Dinah, Trouble in Tahiti; Madame Popova, The Bear; Giulio Cesare in Egitto; and Maman/La Chatte, L’enfant et les sortiledges.

Rebecca’s direction and theatre creation incorporates visual arts, languages and music to create interdisciplinary works. Rebecca was the inaugural artist and co-creator of the Canadian Opera Company’s Land Acknowledgement Commissioning Program and co-created where the water meets the land with Julie McIsaac. She created and premiered The Maydee Box at the Festival of Live Digital Art, 2022 and returns this work to FOLDA, 2024. She was a member of the Stratford Festival 2022 Langham Directors’ Workshop cohort during which she was Assistant Director under Alisa Palmer on Hamlet-911 by Ann-Marie MacDonald, and directed excerpts from The Flood by Leah Simone Bowen.

Rebecca is the 2022 graduate of the National Theatre of Canada Indigenous Artist Residency program. She has a Masters in Voice and Opera from The Royal Academy of Music, London U.K and a Bachelors in Music with Honours in Voice Performance from Western University.

May 2025

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“This range, when combined with a rare awareness and understanding of, and willingness to engage with essential production and technical aspects of opera-making, makes her a most valuable creative partner and someone with whom I would love to continue collaborating in many productions to come.””
— [Trouble in Tahiti, Bloomsbury Opera] Dr. Jorge Balça, Theatre and Opera Director