Highlights from Handel’s opera Alcina, featuring l’Orchestre de l’Agora and three superb Canadian singers.

Orchestre de l’Agora
Sarah Dufresne soprano
Simone McIntosh mezzo-soprano
Ian Sabourin countertenor
Thomas LeDuc-Moreau conductor

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Concert: Desjardins – Caisse Lachine

Tessa Fackelmann

Tessa Fackelmann, mezzo-soprano, praised for the warmth of her timbre, her charming stage presence, and the emotional honesty of her performances. A former member of the Santa Fe Opera’s Young Artist Program, she made her debut there in 2023 as the Kitchen Girl in Rusalka, returning in 2024 to create the role of Ruth in the world premiere of The Righteous. She also covered Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni during her time with the company. Her recent accolades include being named a national semi-finalist in the 2024 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, receiving the Rumbold Vocal Prize from Edmonton Opera, winning the Grand Jury Prize at Opéra de Montréal, and being selected as an international finalist in the 2025 Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition. The 2025–2026 season brings an exciting run of company debuts, with appearances at Opéra de Montréal (Jenůfa), Dallas Opera (The Little Prince), and Edmonton Opera (Bravi! Opera’s Greatest Hits). In the following 2026–2027 season, she continues to build momentum with major role debuts as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Edmonton Opera, and as the Composer in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos with Sarasota Opera.

Thomas Le Duc-Moreau

With infectious enthusiasm, the young conductor Thomas Le Duc-Moreau conducts with great precision and artistic sensitivity, creating an effective and human connection that is appreciated by both musicians and audiences. His discipline and musical knowledge enable him to approach the repertoire with meticulous care and consistency, in a style characterised by ease, flexibility and elegance. From the 2025–2026 season onwards, he will be associate conductor of the St Andrew and St Paul’s Church Choir, as well as a visiting lecturer at Laval University.  

Upon graduating from the Conservatoire, Thomas held the posts of assistant conductor with the Québec Symphony Orchestra and the Montréal Symphony Orchestra. The early stages of his career were marked by notable collaborations. Initially working as assistant to music director Kent Nagano, he also collaborated with guest conductors Bernard Labadie, Hannu Lintu, Cristian Măcelaru, Susanna Mälkki, Rafael Payare and François-Xavier Roth. Since the start of his career, Thomas has conducted more than fifty concerts with the OSM. 

In the world of opera, he has already worked on numerous productions. In particular, he conducted two world premieres in 2022 and 2023: Christian Thomas’s *Messe solennelle pour une pleine lune d’été* (Solemn Mass for a Summer Full Moon), based on the play by the Quebec author Michel Tremblay, and *Yourcenar – Une île de passions* by the composer Éric Champagne, co-productions of the Quebec Opera Festival, the Opéra de Montréal and Les Violons du Roy. In the summer of 2024, he will conduct *La Vie parisienne* at the Quebec City Opera Festival. He has also served as assistant conductor on productions of Verdi’s *Il Trovatore* and Puccini’s *Madame Butterfly* at the Opéra de Montréal, Wagner’s *The Flying Dutchman* at the Quebec City Opera Festival, and Bizet’s *Carmen* at the Bonn Theater in Germany.  

In symphonic concerts, Thomas has conducted leading orchestras in Quebec and across Canada, including Les Violons du Roy and the Orchestre Métropolitain, as well as the symphony orchestras of L’Agora, Laval, Montreal, Newfoundland, Quebec City, Rimouski, Saguenay, Sherbrooke, Hamilton and Kitchener-Waterloo. He has also conducted the Prague National Theatre Orchestra in the Czech Republic. In popular concerts, he conducted Alexandra Stréliski’s very first symphonic concert with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra as part of the Montreal Jazz Festival, which was broadcast on Radio-Canada television.  

In the summer of 2025, he returned to the Orford Music Festival with Les Violons du Roy for a third consecutive year.  

Thomas graduated from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, having studied cello under Carole Sirois and orchestral conducting under Jacques Lacombe. In 2022, he was awarded the very first Joseph-Rouleau Prize by the Fondation du Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique du Québec in recognition of his promising early career.  

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