“They’re very, very accomplished. This is a wonderful learning experience, and I enjoyed it a lot. I think it’s extremely well done.”

“I think we’re never quite aware of how old the [Chinese] culture is—5,000 years. My business is opera. Opera is 400 years old. So it’s truly unbelievable. … I think tradition is a good thing, something to build on. I think that’s a very, very important takeaway.”

“We look at the Four Seasons for the Performing Arts as the foremost venue in Canada for the performing arts, all of the performing arts, and it’s wonderful to have Shen Yun in the building and really help us elevate the level of what has performed here. … I know that a lot of my colleagues in other places have Shen Yun in their buildings, too, so I would always recommend this relationship.”

“[On the sound and music of Shen Yun,] I believe this is one of the very, very best acoustical theatres in the world. It’s the reason why I came here to run the company [Canadian Opera Company] 10 years ago. I think sound is very important because it really reaches the audience and it creates a strong emotion that’s conveyed by the performance. The natural acoustics that we have here do that like almost no other opera house in the world.”

“I will bring [my daughter] the program, and we’ll go through the scenes, and I will tell her what happened. She’s very interested in the elaborate costumes, so she will enjoy hearing about that.”