So there I was in February to hear the reigning American dramatic soprano, Christine Goerke, who chose Toronto to sing her first “Götterdämmerung.” And I returned last week to explore how the company was reviving Harry Somers’s “Louis Riel,” which some consider the great Canadian opera — and to see how they reimagined the 50-year-old work’s treatment of indigenous issues now that the nation is in the Truth and Reconciliation era.

But if Canadian opera is making a name beyond its borders, it may have some work to do within them. The revival of “Louis Riel,” an important work about Canadian history, was “not deemed funding-worthy” when it applied for several government grants set up to mark Canada’s 150th anniversary, Alexander Neef, the company’s general director, told me. But he said he hoped the reimagined opera — and his focus on other Canadian works, and fresh takes on the classics — would draw more Canadians to opera.

“To me it’s not a nostalgic thing of the past,” he said. “When we do it in North America, it’s not that we exhibit a museum piece about old Europe. It can’t be about that, especially with the demographic change happening. This is not a country anymore that’s dominated by European immigrants only. And I think when you run a performing arts company of any kind, really, you need to have an awareness of that.”

(“Louis Riel” is playing at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto until May 13. It will be performed at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on June 15 and June 17. And the Grand Théâtre in Quebec City will present it on July 30, Aug. 1 and Aug. 3)

Read: Canada Turns 150, but a Silent Chorus Isn’t Celebrating

Read: After a Soprano’s Crisis, a Brünnhilde Is Born

Offstage Among the characters in “Come From Away,” the Broadway musical about Newfoundlanders’ embrace of travelers stranded in Gander by the terror of Sept. 11, 2001, is a pioneering woman pilot. Michael Paulson brings the story of how the real-life pilot who provided the basis for that character and the actress who plays her have developed a close bond. The pilot, Beverley Bass, has even cut her hair to more closely resemble the actress, Jenn Colella, who portrays her on stage.