Michel Beaulac, Zhao-Ionescu Family – Artistic Director

Michel Beaulac was born in Montreal and started studying piano as a teenager. After graduating from Collège Mont-Saint-Louis with a focus in education, he spent a decade working as a teacher before attending UQÀM to study art and voice. A McAbbey Foundation grantee in sculpture, he exhibited his work on the Montreal university circuit, in Maisons de la culture, and at the Galerie du Petit Musée in Quebec City.

His passion for opera led him to host a radio show, where he was noticed by the Opéra de Montréal’s director at the time. Invited to join the company’s communications team in 1989, he went on to take up various other functions at the company: set and costume designer, assistant to the Artistic Director, Artistic Administrator from 1997 to 2007, and finally Artistic Director.

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, and Carmina burana (staged version), as well as productions for the Atelier lyrique’s Canadian tours, including L’Elisir d’amore et Il Barbiere di Siviglia. 

Opéra de Montréal is indebted to him for, among other things, the creation of the Talent Gala (1996-2014) and numerous prestigious collaborations, such as those with Quebec composers Julien Bilodeau, Éric Champagne, Laurence Jobidon, Ana Sokolovic, and Hubert Tanguay-Labrosse, as well as librettists Michel Marc Bouchard, Hélène Dorion, and Pascale St-Onge. His first decade as Artistic Director has brought us Quebec premieres of such classic works 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).

Under his leadership, collaborations with Canadian and French institutions gave 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.

Opéra de Montréal received an Opus Award for Pagliacci/Gianni Schicchi and Dead Man Walking. In 2024, La Reine-garçon was nominated for the International Opera Awards in Munich and received recognition in three categories.

In 2022, Michel Beaulac was inducted into the Order of Canada for his contribution to the development of opera in Montreal and across the country. In November 2024, he was awarded Opera Canada’s prestigious Ruby Award for his achievements in promoting and disseminating opera, across Canada and worldwide. In 2025, the Association des Anciens du collège Mont-Saint-Louis added him to the institution’s Panthéon. 

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