City Opera of Vancouver

City Opera logo

City Opera of Vancouver is a professional chamber opera company in Vancouver, Canada, founded in 2005. Its past productions include the world premiere of Pauline, a chamber opera with an original libretto by Margaret Atwood; the commission and workshop premiere of 'Fallujah', with music by Tobin Stokes and libretto by Heather Raffo, and supported by the Annenberg Foundation of Los Angeles; and, the British Columbia premiere of Viktor Ullmann's The Emperor of Atlantis.

Performance venues

City Opera of Vancouver led efforts to restore Vancouver's Pantages Theatre as a home for the company as well as the Vancouver Cantonese Opera and Vancouver Moving Theatre. Built by Alexander Pantages in 1907, the building was considered to be the oldest remaining vaudeville theatre in Western Canada and was listed as one of Vancouver's heritage buildings.[1][2] However after Vancouver City Council voted to refuse restoration in 2011, the structure was demolished, and the company now uses other proscenium houses in Metro Vancouver as its performing venues.

Board and advisors

City Opera is managed by an incorporated non-profit Board of Directors, headed by President Janet Lea, and in partnership with the Community Arts Council of Vancouver. Its artistic staff includes Conductor and Artistic Director Charles Barber. David Boothroyd serves as Staff Coach and accompanist. The company's musical advisors were the late Sir Charles Mackerras, and remain UBC Professor of Theatre Robert Eberle and Robert Baker of the Canadian Music Centre. City Opera's honorary patron is Evgeny Kissin.

Productions

Der Kaiser von Atlantis

On 1 February 2009, City Opera gave the British Columbia premiere of Viktor Ullmann's The Emperor of Atlantis (Der Kaiser von Atlantis). It was attended and addressed by the Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, the Honourable Steven Point. Subsequent remarks and analysis were provided by Dr Jaap Hamburger, a child of Auschwitz survivors. This chamber opera, professionally produced, was undertaken in partnership with the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. It was written at Theresienstadt in 1944, and has been recorded by Decca.[3]

Sumidagawa and Curlew River

Opening 26 May 2010, City Opera (together with co-producers UBC Drama and Film, and Blackbird Theatre) gave the Canadian premiere of Sumidagawa together with the opera it inspired, Benjamin Britten's Curlew River. The first, drawn from the 15th-century Japanese noh play, starred Butoh artist Denise Fujiwara as Madwoman in a choreography by Natsu Nakajima. The second starred tenor Isaiah Bell as Madwoman, together with John Minágro, Sam Marcacinni, Joel Klein, and members of the Vancouver Cantata Singers. It was directed by John Wright of Blackbird Theatre, with scenography by Robert Gardiner of UBC Theatre and Film.[4]

Fallujah

On 21 February 2011, it was announced that City Opera Vancouver had received the largest opera commission grant in Canadian history. The Annenberg Foundation of Los Angeles, in collaboration with its Explore.org affiliate, awarded City Opera $250,000 US to create a chamber opera based on an original story about the war in Iraq. That story was inspired by the life and work of USMC Sergeant Christian Ellis.[5] The new opera, using the working title Fallujah, was created over a period of two years, with its workshops held in Vancouver. The fourth and final workshop set was given before an invited audience at the Frederic Wood Theatre on 13 May 2012. It is scored for nine singers and eleven players. The librettist is Heather Raffo, of New York City, and the composer Tobin Stokes of Vancouver. On 2 July 2012, the work was officially launched via a long-form feature published by The Associated Press. At the same time, the Annenberg Foundation's explore.org affiliate began the online release of a series of filmed excerpts from the opera. On 9 July, it was announced that the foundation had granted City Opera Vancouver an additional $100,000 toward the making of these film materials.

Pauline

On 23 May 2014, the company presented the world premiere of Pauline, a chamber opera composed by Tobin Stokes to a libretto by Margaret Atwood. Starring dramatic mezzo-soprano Rose-Ellen Nichols, soprano Sarah Vardy, and tenor Adam Fisher, it sold out all five nights. Commissioned by City Opera of Vancouver, the opera is set in Vancouver in March 1913 during the final days in the life of the Canadian writer and performer Pauline Johnson.[6]

Canadian Classics

City Opera created the recording series, Canadian Classics, a survey of Canadian art music from c. 1800 to the present. It is designed in four genres: symphonic, chamber, instrumental, and vocal/choral/operatic repertoire. A national panel of a dozen advisors has recommended worthy Canadian repertoire. Naxos Records is the lead partner in the long-term endeavour. Violinist Mark Fewer, pianist Rena Sharon, the Vancouver International Song Institute, clarinetist François Houle, and other artists have agreed to join the Canadian Classicsroster. The series manager is Raymond Bisha. Canadian Classics was officially launched at the opening season gala concert of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at that city's Orpheum Theatre on 24 September 2011. The first CD released in the new series, Fugitive Colours, featured the music of Jeffrey Ryan, with the VSO led by conductor Bramwell Tovey. The series plans the release of 6 to 8 new CDs every year.

Other initiatives

City Opera has offered multiple lecture-demos, and recitals featuring City Opera artists at neighbourhood and service institutions. These events have been given every year since 2007 across Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, at the Carnegie Centre, at Roedde House in the west end, at Italian Day 2010 to 2014 on Commercial Drive, at the Italian Cultural Centre, at the Nikkei National Centre, in the Jewish Community Centre, on Granville Island on several occasions, at the Chinese Cultural Centre, in several years of the Heart of the City Festival in the DTES, at Dr Sun-Yat Sen Chinese Classical Gardens, the Chinatown Night Market, and in every year of the Fearless and the Homeground festivals. In November 2010 they began a new opera recital series at Minoru Chapel in Richmond, B.C. They have been broadcast widely across Vancouver Shaw Cable television systems. In October 2007 City Opera produced Canada's first Sing-Along Carmina Burana. Beginning in February 2009, the company has regularly participated in Vancouver's new HomeGround Festival at Oppenheimer Park, featuring artists from every discipline. In May 2009, City Opera produced the first in a series of New Canadian Chamber Opera workshops. This event, with twelve guest artists and recorded on DVD, workshopped the new chamber opera Sea Change, with music by Constantine Caravasillis of Toronto, and libretto by Nora Kelly.

References

  1. ↑ "Future of Vancouver's Pantages Theatre in doubt". CBC News. October 24, 2008. Retrieved 16 July 2009.
  2. ↑ Vancouver Heritage Register. Retrieved 16 July 2009.
  3. ↑ Hamburger, Jaap Nico (10 February 2009), "Composer's greatest work survived his death at Auschwitz". The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  4. ↑ Dykk, Lloyd (27 May 2010). "Sumidagawa and Curlew River tell the same story through different cultural lenses". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  5. ↑ Thomson, Stephen (9 July 2012). "City Opera Vancouver receives grant for film about Iraq War opera". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  6. ↑ CBC News (23 May 2014). "Margaret Atwood's opera debut Pauline opens in Vancouver". Retrieved 1 July 2014.

Further sources

External links