Decades ago, when the English goat maestro Sir Thomas Beecham was asked what he thought of women conductors, he recalled what the 18th century writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson had said about dogs walking on their hind legs.

The surprise, Beecham would have observed, is not that it is done well, but that it is done at all.

The remark does not amuse Keri-Lynn Wilson, who declares herself at the end of her patience in the face of questions about what it is like to be a woman in a field still dominated by men.

“I don’t know why people ask what it means to be a female conductor,” she said in a recent phone interview.

“I just do what I do.”

And hopefully, barring new government restrictions related to COVID-19, it will do so from February 4 in the pit of the Four Seasons Center, when the Canadian Opera Company opens its fall-winter season with a revival. of Brian Macdonald’s popular. production of “Madama Butterfly” by Puccini.

Maestra Wilson is no stranger to the pits, if you will excuse the expression, having conducted shows in opera houses across Europe, from the Norwegian Opera in Oslo to the Czech National Opera in Prague, the ‘Bavarian State Opera in Munich and the Rome Opera in Rome.

His career is not limited to the underground regions either. Above ground, she has also conducted ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Russia, the Orchester National d’Ile de France, and the Canadian Symphony Orchestras of Montreal and Toronto.

Yes, she happens to be Canadian, born south of the border but raised in Winnipeg where, as a flautist, she played in a youth orchestra conducted by her father.

It was as a flutist major that she entered the prestigious Juilliard School in New York, working with the famous Julius Baker, principal flute of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra until, as she says without ambages, “I’ve had enough of the flute”. So she decided to broaden her horizons, spending four more years at Lincoln Center to study conducting “and never play the flute again.”

“I hated opera as a kid and we weren’t exposed to it much at Juilliard. I was a symphonic snob, Bruckner and Mahler. Then I saw Wagner’s “Ring” at the Met.

“Every career is a bit of a mystery,” she observed. “An Italian impresario heard me when I was associate chef in Dallas (just out of Juilliard) and invited me to conduct ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ in Verona. I didn’t know anything about opera, but I quickly understood.

Indeed, she did. If his schedule is not without North American orchestral engagements, from the San Francisco symphonies to the Seattle symphonies, it is across the Atlantic that his career has flourished, particularly in the world of suicidal sopranos and murdered tenors.

It was in 2008 that Wilson received one of her treasured operatic invitations, to conduct at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, where she made such a good impression that she now regularly conducts two or three operas a season in the legendary house.

What’s so special about working at the Bolshoi? The answer comes quickly. “The orchestra, with this wonderful, warm and rich sound.”

But other great houses soon followed, from the Royal Opera in London, Covent Garden to the Paris Opera. Next season she will make her debut at the most important opera house in Latin America, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.

Future goals? “I still haven’t conducted at La Scala,” Wilson admitted, “and I haven’t conducted ‘The Ring’ yet.” She might have added to this list of omissions, despite her obvious references, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where the musical director is a fellow Canadian, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the general manager is Peter Gelb, her husband.

The explanation? Another short answer: “Nepotism! It remains to be seen how long this dreaded word will continue to color the consciousness of the Met.

Meanwhile, the little-known young Canadian who surprised the recording world many years ago by suddenly appearing at the head of the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Caracas, Venezuela, on a Dorian CD, has become the one of the successes of his profession. As Keri-Lynn Wilson so aptly observes, “careers are a bit of a mystery.”