_Hercules_ opens on April 5th, at the Canadian Opera Company, and it features a spectacular cast: Eric Owens (Hercules), Alice Coote (Dejanira) and David Daniels (Lichas) headline this special production. Go and see it. For ticket information, click here.

This past weekend, the incomparable Peter Sellars gave a talk to a group of young opera fans as part of the Canadian Opera Company’s Youth Opera Lab. He walked into the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, and established no rules by avoiding his neatly placed chair and parking himself amongst his captive audience. (I had a pretty sweet shot lined up, I promise you all.) You could hear a pin drop as Sellars spoke about his production of Hercules, his understanding of Handel’s life, and about why the relevance of opera is so staggeringly obvious. Hercules is a story about a soldier who returns home after war, and Handel knew that story included the soldier’s family. Peter Sellars is truly a master of answering the crucial question: why do we have art? Why do we need it?

In what had to be the most difficult editing job yet, here are a few moments of clarity from Peter.