Irving (Allen) Guttman. Opera director, b Chatham, Ont, 27 Oct 1928. After studies 1941-6 at Strathcona Academy in Montreal he attended the RCMT 1947-52, where among his teachers were Oskar Morawetz, John Weinzweig and Eileen Weldon Parsons (drama). He was an assistant to Herman Geiger-Torel 1949-54 at the Opera Festival (COC), with an interim period as assistant stage director (1951-2) to Walter Herbert at the New Orleans Opera. He made his directing debut in May of 1953 in Cornwall, Ont, with Menotti's The Consul, for which his cast included the young Maureen Forrester. That same year he directed a complete Faust, the first of some 65 operatic programs for CBC TV over the next six years, including many complete operas for 'L'Heure du concert'. In 1956 he directed The Marriage of Figaro at the Montreal Festivals and in 1958 he made his US debut directing the Santa Fe Opera's world premiere of Carlisle Floyd's Wuthering Heights. After working as a guest director with the New Orleans, Baltimore Civic, Fort Worth, and Houston Grand operas in 1959 and 1960, Guttman became founding artistic director (1960-74) of the Vancouver Opera. For the Opera Guild of Montreal at Her Majesty's Theatre and at PDA he produced seven productions of six operas between 1963 and 1969. His COC debut, La Traviata in 1964, led to seven productions of five operas for that company by 1975. In 1965 Guttman became artistic director of the Edmonton Opera, a position he retained in 1991, when the Irving Guttman Young Artist Fund was established. That company's 1983 production of Lohengrin marked the first time a western Canadian company had presented a major Wagnerian work with surtitles (the English translation of the dialogue and lyrics projected on an overhead screen). He produced Faust for Expo 67 and has been a guest director with the San Francisco Spring and Philadelphia Lyric operas; in Barcelona, Spain (1969, 1971, 1973); and at the Montreal Festivals (La Serva Padrona and L'Heure espagnol, 1961). In 1974 he was appointed head of the opera school at the Courtenay Youth Music Centre. He became artistic director of the Manitoba Opera Association in 1977, although his association with the company dates from its first production in 1973. In 1988 with Bernard Uzan and Guy Bélanger Guttman helped train young singers from the Atelier lyrique de l'Opéra de Montréal. He was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 1988.

'Pauline Donalda: a memorial tribute,' OpCan, vol 11, Dec 1970

Watmough, David. 'An interview with Irving Guttman,' OpCan, vol 9, Feb 1968

Littler, William. 'The young man who went west and made his name in opera,' Toronto Star, 11 Nov 1972

Wyman, Max. 'Irving Guttman: a Canadian success story,' OpCan, vol 17, May 1976

Aberbach, Alan D. 'Backstage magic: the unique talent of Canadian stage director Irving Guttman,' OpCan, Summer 1980

Watmough, David. The Unlikely Pioneer: Building Opera from the Pacific Through the Prairies (Oakville, Ont 1985)

Roberts, Joy. 'How Opera's Irving Guttman won the west,' PfAC, vol 22, Summer 1985

Irving Guttman: Une vie consacrée à l'opéra, Aria, vol 12 Winter 1989

Wyman Max. 'Founding father,'. OpCan, vol 32, Spring 1991

Innes, Jacqueline. '25 years with Irving Guttman,' Edmonton Bullet. 8 May. 1991