Review: (Toronto / Opera) #UncleJohn

(photo by Darryl Block)

Mozart a Little, Mozart a Lot
by Beat Rice, Editor

#UncleJohn is the title character of Against The Grain Theatre’s modern  translation/adaptation of Mozart’s Don Juan. The well-known story of the womanizer who causes trouble and eventually pays for it in the end, has had its libretto re-written in English by Joel Ivany. Ivany, who is also the stage director, has envisioned the opera to take place in the here and now-literally, in the Black Box theatre, on Queen West in Toronto, the day before a winter wedding. Mozart’s complex score, with new musical arrangement by Stephen Hargreaves, generally remains the same, with a few hilarious pop culture interludes in the second act. The characters and the story also do not veer far from the original, sharing the same Italian names and relationships. Uncle John (Cameron McPhail) arrives to crash the wedding of young couple Zerlina (Sharleen Joynt) and Masetto (Aaron Durand) with his wingman Leporello (Neil Craighead), and runs into two ex-lovers, Elvira (Miriam Khalil)  and Anna (Betty Waynnne Allison). Sexual tension, miscommunication, and chaos ensue. 

First-Person: Soprano/Director Robin Eder-Warren on Hansel and Gretel, Opera Mariposa

(photo by Kathryn Nickford)

Entering the enchanted forest
making opera magic with Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel

by Robin Eder-Warren

Robin Eder-Warren is an award-winning soprano and critically acclaimed stage director, as well as the managing director of Opera Mariposa, a Vancouver-based company for emerging artists. She made her operatic direction debut in 2013 with Pergolesi's La serva padrona, which was hailed as “a masterpiece of controlled mayhem” (Review Vancouver). She went on to direct Donizetti's Don Pasquale, which was praised as “well-honed,” “delightful,” and “an excellent harbinger of more well-cast and well-directed operas to come” (Opera Canada magazine). As an award-winning soprano, Robin has sung on stages around the world, from Germany to New York to Disneyworld, and has been described as “a talent beyond words” (Life in the ‘burbs). Select role highlights include Musetta (La bohème), Despina (Così fan tutte), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Gretel (Hansel and Gretel), Laurey (Oklahoma!) and Cunegonde (Candide) among many others. As well as directing Hansel and Gretel for Opera Mariposa, she is currently performing as Meg in the Broadway musical Little Women with Fighting Chance Productions.

I have a confession to make: directing a fairy tale is not as simple as it seems.

Joel Ivany, Artistic Director of Against The Grain Theatre, on #UncleJohn

Uncle John is on his way to TO. 
by Joel Ivany, Artistic Director, Against the Grain Theatre

He wreaked utter havoc in the picturesque landscape of the Rocky Mountains, and now he's taking his game to the big city.  

It's been quite an experience taking this libretto, arrangement and production of #UncleJohn from a workshop setting at The Banff Centre to AtG's home setting for its première in Toronto. In Banff, we were able to play, practice and hone our technique with some of North America's best voice, acting and music instructors. Exploration and dramaturgy made our unique product even better, and being supported by The Banff Centre and the Canadian Opera Company ensured a high quality production. I believe wholeheartedly that had we not been able to workshop this piece in Banff, we wouldn't be able to achieve what we will do in Toronto.

First-Person: Michael Hidetoshi Mori, Artistic Director of Tapestry Opera

Shout Out In Joy and Frustration!

by Michael Hidetoshi Mori

Michael Hidetoshi Mori of Tapestry Opera is both Canada’s youngest professional operatic Artistic Director and the only Asian-Canadian to ever hold such a role. Now in its 35th year, Tapestry produces contemporary and Canadian opera, filling a crucial and innovative niche in the country’s cultural landscape. With a history boasting over 15 major world premieres and 175 opera shorts premieres, the company regularly engages the nation’s best composers, writers and singers, including Judith Forst, Sally Dibblee, Krisztina Szabo and Ted Berg. It has also collaborated with esteemed ensembles and companies such as The Gryphon Trio, Edmonton Opera and Scottish Opera. 

These days it seems taboo to love publicly and be passionate about things of substance, unless that energy is expressed via social media for trending bursts of time. I want to change that. Shout out in joy or frustration; break something against a brick wall; sing and dance on impulse regardless of where you are…love or hate things with greater passion and less pragmatism!

Captured, November 9, 2014

The opera Silent Night - which will be playing a little everywhere this season but is starting out at Calgary Opera, tells the story of a wondrous and blessed time in the history of WWI when enemies came together. The magnificent photographer, Trudie Lee, has captured a moment in the opera which could just as well be the actual moment in history. The colour looks applied, the balance of light and dark perfect, the groupings of standing and sitting characters captured lovingly. It is dececptive too: posed as if for a camera from the first decades of the last century, but also strangely natural. The opera - and the photo - are a brilliant tribute on this, the hundredth anniversary of the war that was meant to end all wars.

The Abominable Showman; Baritone Étienne Dupuis

The triumphant homecoming of Etienne Dupuis

After receiving accolades across Europe, Montreal baritone Etienne Dupuis returns home to star in The Barber of Seville at L’Opéra de Montréal 

by Richard Burnett 

@bugsburnett

(Rehearsal photos by Yves Renaud)

Montrealers remember seeing rising baritone Etienne Dupuis when he was part of a flash mob of opera singers staged in the busy Marché Jean Talon market in his hometown of Montreal, to promote L’Opéra de Montréal in 2010. “I love people’s faces when I start singing opera in an up-close space,” Dupuis told the Vancouver Straight alt-weekly. “We were standing right in front of them and they just became statues. People don’t realize the nature of that sound and what it does to you. It can make you vibrate.”

Watch the clip here.

Letter From New York: The Death of Klinghoffer

Alan Opie (Leon Klinghoffer) and Jesse Kovarsky (Omar) in The Death of Klinghoffer. Photo credit: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

Mixed Emotions.
There's a lot of post-9/11 baggage on this cruise. 
by Lisa McKeown, Senior Contributor

[PUBLISHER'S NOTE: In the past we have asked our contributors to send in reviews of productions in cities they were visiting: art as seen by Canadians abroad. In this case we asked Lisa McKeown, one of our most politically astute contributors, to review a highly controversial piece playing at the Metropolitan Opera both because it has become an international story, but also because it is a work which may, in some incarnation, make its way to Canada. I am very proud to be presenting this piece; Ms McKeown cuts through the noise. GLC]

The very controversial opera, John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer, is currently playing at the Metropolitan Opera (Met) in NYC. The opera is based on the 1985 hijacking of a cruise ship by Palestinian terrorists. In the course of events, they shoot Klinghoffer, a disabled Jewish man who was celebrating his wedding anniversary, throwing his body and his wheelchair overboard.

Review: (Vancouver / Opera) Stickboy

(photo: Tim Matheson)

Almost
by Jay Catterson, Editor, Dance

Stickboy, the new work being presented by Vancouver Opera is based on spoken word artist Shane Koyczan's novel about a boy who gets bullied by his peers, and the effects of bullying on himself and those around him. Koyczan returns to provide the libretto, with music by Neil Weisensel. 

Now is it really an opera, and were they successful in bringing this story to the stage? This show is more multi-media performance art in the style of opera rather than a true opera, and at times the show brilliantly works, but most of the time it did not. The music by Neil Weisensel was evocatively lush, and his score is performed by a brilliant cast. However, the major problems lie with Koyczan's libretto. The audience is immediately thrust into a scene where Boy (brilliantly performed by tenor Sunny Shams) is being bullied by a bunch of schoolkids in a snowy playground, and similar bullying scenes occur so frequently throughout the first and second acts that we don't really have a chance to empathize with Boy's character. If they excised a few of these scenes to give the story (and the audience) a chance to breathe, perhaps spacing out Boy's journey with a few more moments of joy, we would really feel the impact of those horrific bullying scenes more.

Review: (Victoria / Opera) Das Rheingold

                                    (photo by David Cooper)
Girl Meets Wagner          
My Return to the Opera Oeuvre
by Morgan McPherson, Senior Contributor

I have an interesting relationship with opera. It used to be this strange, mystifying form of Art with a capital "a" to me. Serious stuff, foreign languages, fat ladies singing in horned helmets. I'm still a little intimidated when it comes time to go to an opera. I never feel well-enough dressed, am worried that the other patrons won't be friendly, or that I'll be out of place. Every time I go, however, I'm always reminded of what a gorgeous art form opera truly is. I've always been enchanted by the way it can feel classic and old, but also pleasantly young and fresh. I didn't know what to expect last night, but I was blown away.

Review: (Toronto / Opera) Madama Butterfly

l-r Patricia Racette, Ella Larivière, Elizabeth DeShong  (photo by Michael Cooper)

Straight to Hell
by Shannon Christy, Senior Contributor

Have you ever been used?  Perhaps you are a trusting person who took someone at their word and paid the price.  Maybe at this very moment you are alone in your apartment taking care of some plants you don’t even like for fear that they may die while their chief caregiver and your wife/husband/partner is away. Then maybe they don’t return. Well if you have been in that position Madama Butterfly is for you.  If you have not been in that position then Madama Butterfly serves as an excellent reason why you never want to be.

Review: (Toronto / Opera) Falstaff

l-r  Russell Braun, Gerald Finley (photo by Michael Cooper)

You Ain’t Nothing But A Hound Dog
by Shannon Christy, Senior Contributor

According to Webster’s Dictionary an “appetizer is a small dish of food meant to stimulate your appetite”. If Falstaff is the appetizer then Toronto is in for a spectacular season at the Canadian Opera Company. Falstaff, Verdi’s last masterpiece, is a light show done with ribald humour, superb performances and amazing sets.

First-Person: Sergio Augusto Flores on Opera Mariposa's Suor Angelica

(photo by Michelle Doherty)

Re-imagining a masterpiece
directing Puccini's Suor Angelica for the audiences of today

by Sergio Augusto Flores

Mexican-born actor, singer and director Sergio Augusto Flores trained at Methodica Acting Studio in acting and direction and graduated from Capilano University for music. As an acclaimed operatic tenor, he is a protégé of internationally renowned soprano Heidi Klassen and has performed to great critical acclaim throughout his home province of British Columbia and across Italy, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. His recent appearances include a highly successful self-produced concert with the Bowen Island Classical Concert Series; an English Arias concert with Opera Mariposa, where he was "a clear highlight of the evening" (The Vancouver Project); and Mozart’s Requiem with Capilano University, where he was "full of vigor, charisma, and infectious enthusiasm" (The Vancouver Observer). He is delighted to make his operatic direction debut this October with Suor Angelica, and he is also hard at work crafting a concert of Latin music for tenor, baritone, guitar and percussion. He is set to tour the Lower Mainland this December singing the role of The Gingerbread Witch in Opera Mariposa’s winter opera Hansel and Gretel.

This October, I will have the pleasure of directing Puccini's Suor Angelica with Opera Mariposa, a Vancouver company of emerging artists. I will also have the wonderful privilege of re-imagining the opera, creating a new vision and interpretation of what Puccini considered his finest score. 

The broad strokes of the most important changes were clear to me as I saw and heard the opera for the first time. I was entranced by Puccini's music every step of the way. Throughout the opera, I felt like the music was leading me towards what would happen next. Often I found myself holding my breath, hoping that the next lines would not disturb the scenes that fell into place so neatly in my mind. They never did, and it was a strangely satisfying feeling. There were silences where I needed them to be, and Puccini's sensitive changes led me to what I feel are the themes of the opera: the themes of love, forgiveness, and victory over death.

Review: (Vancouver) Carmen (Opera)

(photo by Tim Matheson)

Inspired (and Flawed)
by Jay Catterson

After a long and languid summer break, the 2014-2015 Vancouver Opera season opened on Saturday night with the sure-fire opera hit, Georges Bizet's Carmen. This was a great move on the part of Vancouver Opera to reinvigorate interest in the company, and the music is recognizable enough for many opera newcomers to feel a sense of comfort. In fact, it seems like the company has reinvigorated their brand, with a freshly minted logo and show artwork that reflects a fresh, contemporary opera company that is both relevant and relatable.

Review: (Montreal) Nabucco (Opera)

The opera within an opera at the opera house
by Aleksandra Koplik

Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco, is about a Babylonian King seeking revenge on the Jews for stealing his daughter, a vicious love triangle driven by power and the Hebrew people seeking freedom from the Assyrians. As the curtains open - on this collaboration between the Washington National Opera, Opera Philadelphia and Minnesota Opera - we are also submerged in 1842 La Scala, when Italy was under Austrian rule. We see three theatre balconies on stage and a group of upper-class Austrians taking their seats. An opera within an opera is taking place.

First Person: Librettist Sharon Singer on Isis and Osiris (Opera)

How an ancient Egyptian myth is being reincarnated into a new Canadian opera
Isis and Osiris by Sharon Singer and Peter-Anthony Togni is in development 
by Sharon Singer (Librettist)

Toronto-born Sharon Singer is a published poet, librettist, journalist, and spoken word performer, known for her dramatic monologues. In addition to four published books, Ms Singer's work has been included in poetry journals and anthologies. More than 15 years ago, Sharon Singer began collaborating with musicians who wrote soundscapes to accompany her spoken word performances. This resulted in her work being set to classical and jazz music for the CDs Hail, Canadian Art Song and Global Warming, a collaboration with renowned New York jazz saxophone player Bob Mover. In 2008 Philip McConnell composed music for Sharon Singer's short story The Museum and  her documentary poem, The Burning Book both of which she  performed with the Toronto Sinfonietta Orchestra at the Royal Ontario Museum. Isis and Osiris is her first opera libretto. The opera’s initial public performance took place at the Art Gallery of Ontario. www.sharonsinger.com www.ariaworks.ca

Anyone who has ever been to my home sees evidence of my love for ancient Egypt.  There is the six foot tall poster of Ramses the Great, purchased at a Ramses le Grand exhibit of monumental sculpture in Paris in 1976.  My kitchen towels are Egyptian themed and in the living room is the Egyptomania poster from the 1979 exhibit at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. I have been enchanted by ancient Egypt since high school trips from Oakwood Collegiate Institute took me to the Royal Ontario Museum where I first saw mummies, scarabs, shwabti, and mysterious hieroglyphic symbols. From there I amassed a comprehensive collection of books about Egypt, and even sculpture reproductions. For many years I attended the all-day Symposium put on by the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities. 

The Abominable Showman, September 12, 2014

Marie-Nicole Lemieux (photo by Denis Rouvre)

Opera Nation

Canadian opera companies stick to crowd-pleasing Italian masterpieces to anchor their 2014- 2015 seasons

by Richard Burnett 

@bugsburnett

The upcoming 2014-2015 opera season across Canada continues to rely on old Italian classics by such tried-and-true composers as Gaetano Donizetti and Giacomo Puccini. And the biggest buzz this season is the return of the Canadian Opera Company’s internationally-hailed double-bill of Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle and Arnold Schoenberg’s Erwartung, directed by Robert Lepage.

Vancouver Opera’s upcoming 55th season features four productions: Georges Bizet’s Carmen, in French with English translations projected above the stage (Sept 27 – Oct 5); Stickboy, a moving new opera by world-renowned spoken-word artist Shane Koyczan and composer Neil Weisensel about the inner life of a young boy (Oct 23 – Nov 7, at the Vancouver Playhouse); Johann Strauss, Jr.’s melody-filled epic Die Fledemaus (Feb 28 – March 8, 2015); and to close the season with a bang, Stephen Sondheim’s darkly comical Sweeney Todd, starring real-life husband and wife Greer Grimsley, one of the great bass-baritones of his generation, as Sweeney Todd, and acclaimed mezzo-soprano Luretta Bybee as Mrs. Lovett (Apr 25 – May 3, 2015). All performances (except Stickboy) are at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Review: (Ottawa) Tosca (Opera)

Michele Capalbo (photo by Andrew Alexander)

Tosca : Love and Jealousy

by Jim Murchison

Due to an unpredictable circumstance I ended up seeing the second night of Tosca rather than opening night. As it turned out, that allowed me to see the original cast as it was intended to be performed. A medical emergency in the Opera Lyra company had required a radical improvisation on Saturday's opening night in the grand tradition of the show must go on. 

Review: (Toronto) Pelléas et Mélisande

(photo by Darryl Block)

Debussy’s Singing Painting
by Ramya Jegatheesan
@ramyajimages

Pelléas et Mélisande is the story of two brothers who love a mysterious woman found in the forest. It is a love triangle, a tragedy, and Debussy’s only completed opera.

For this production, Against the Grain takes us outside into the lovely garden enclave of the Canadian Opera Company’s Front Street East office and rehearsal space. This beautiful courtyard with its iron gates secrets the audience and cast away from the noise and bustle of the city though occasionally we can still hear the whirring of a helicopter overhead.

There is something magical, unusual, and perfect about watching this opera outside where you can hear birdsong, where nightfall embraces both the stage and audience, and there is no need to simulate the sun, trees, or wind. I cannot imagine seeing it indoors now, or even with an orchestra.

First-Person: Director Joel Ivany takes us inside Against The Grain's Pélleas et Mélisande

The Human Machine of Inside/Outside Opera
by Joel Ivany
@joelivany

To do this piece the way we are doing it, well… it couldn’t be done with just any cast.
We are fortunate to have an incredibly strong cast, comprising some of Canada’s leading singers.
Our cast members have worked with The Canadian Opera Company, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne Opera Festival, De Nederlandse Opera and the Opéra National du Rhin, Strasbourg (among others).

Why are they working with our little group? What’s the catch?

I’ve wanted to work with Étienne Dupuis ever since I heard about him. He was singing with Miriam Khalil in La Bohème at Edmonton Opera. I then had the chance to see him on stage and hear him when he sang Escamillo at Pacific Opera Victoria. He’s an incredibly generous, fun and kind person. He also has a high baritone voice, which is required for the role of Pelléas. We asked Étienne if he was interested in the role, and he replied honestly that he didn’t know the role, but was looking for the opportunity to learn it. We are so fortunate that he said yes. Rehearsals have shown that he’s fluid and has a booming sound to match with the most stunning high notes. The role of Pelléas is written in the treble clef (a clef traditionally attributed to tenors, not baritones and basses, who sing in the bass clef).

First-Person: Soprano Miriam Khalil inside Against the Grain's Pélleas et Mélisande

The New Role, The New Score, And all of it Outside
by Miriam Khalil
@SongbirdKhalil

I’m excited to be making my role debut of Mélisande in Debussy’s incredible opera Pelléas et Mélisande. Learning Mélisande was like navigating through a complicated maze. The deeper into the maze, the more mesmerized and dizzy I became. At first I thought that it was the music causing this entwining but eventually I realized that not only is the music as elusive as water, but so is her character. She is pure and ever changing, innocent but also very complicated. She knows things that she shouldn’t. She has lived both one life and also one hundred lives. She makes decisions that she knows will lead to her undoing and can’t stop herself from making them because ultimately those same decisions are what will bring her closer to Pelléas. 

Playing Mélisande is difficult in a sense because it has to come from a most honest and transparent place. It is the only way that it will feel right and as a result, I’m finding that it will never feel safe or easy. In certain scenes Mélisande seems to not even be in the same conversation as the people she is speaking with. She answers questions that have not been asked and changes the subject when the questions are too intimate or revealing. She never answers who she is or where she came from. We only know how she truly feels when she finally professes her love to Pelléas at the end.  It’s a turn away from her constant silence and sadness, which follows her throughout the opera.  She finally finds joy in Pelléas , someone who is nothing like her but in actuality, he is the mirror to her soul.  Without knowing it, his words and melodies spill out all that she is feeling. He speaks words and emotion which mirror what she feels in her darkest places which she has kept secret through her silence.