POV Chorus
The Pacific Opera Victoria Chorus has an important impact on the high quality of Pacific Opera Victoria's productions and our choice of repertoire. The chorus is made up of talented local singers with a variety of training backgrounds and experience. Adults of all ages, the choristers include community singers, aspiring professionals, and vocal students at the Victoria Conservatory of Music and the University of Victoria.
Thanks to a generous anonymous grant, POV is providing enhanced training and opportunities to develop the enormous potential of the POV chorus through
- Increased preparation time and coaching
- Language and music preparation prior to and throughout staging rehearsals
- An increased investment in costumes for the chorus
- Specialized training in movement and dance as required by the repertoire being produced.
- Increased honoraria for chorus members
During the 2007-2008 season POV launched a new Mentoring Artist Program specifically to offer training, encouragement, and public performance opportunities to selected choristers. The choristers benefit from guidance, comprising private work sessions, a forum on career development, and a public master class with a principal artist associated with each mainstage production. The Mentoring Artist Program provides important support for the development of our chorus/comprimario singers and vocal students at the Victoria Conservatory and University of Victoria; the public master class component allows members of the community to expand their knowledge of vocal arts.
With enhanced training and support for our choristers, along with additional opportunities on the horizon as plans for a fourth production come to fruition, POV is making great strides toward attracting this community's most promising and dedicated singers, nurturing their development, and presenting a solid, impeccably trained, highly motivated chorus for each production.
Reviews of some recent productions highlighted the professionalism and musicianship of the POV Chorus.
Of the Canadian premiere of Daphne in 2007, Review Vancouver said: This was, first of all, a production without even one weak link: from the minor roles to the major ones to the well-rehearsed and deftly used chorus the singing was uniformly excellent, the performers acting their hearts out in a production in which every detail was carefully thought out and aimed at overall effect . . . The all-male chorus . . . sang mightily, pouring out onto the stage and in the Dionysius festival scene making an indelible impact, as did the dancers who incarnated lustful rams ready to mate.
Idomeneo, presented in October 2007, is an opera that demands an effective chorus for much of its impact. The singing, choreography, and acting must all be of high caliber. The POV chorus came through beautifully in this production:
The Victoria Symphony shone brilliantly, with Mario Bernardi eliciting a luminous performance, detailed but not academic, and richly emotional when called for. Equally fine support was offered by the chorus, which has a particularly large role and made much of the thrilling storm and monster scenes. (Review Vancouver)
The well-trained and shining chorus of 31, magnificent orchestra of 39 -- in all there are 82 performers -- unite in the second and third acts to deliver a deeply moving and suspenseful piece . . . The three-hour performance contains some stellar choral singing, especially at the end of Act II, in Corriamo, fuggiamo when Neptune sends a monster to ravage the island. It's a spine-tingling scene as the tempest rages and islanders flee in terror, in a dreamlike slow-motion dance. (Times Colonist)
Auditions and Postings
Artist Training Programs
Auditions for the POV Chorus are held once a year, usually in the spring. Chorus members are paid an honorarium for each production.
Watch for Audition Postings or submit your Headshot, CV and Bio to Jackie Adamthwaite, Artist Liaison and Resident Stage Manager at
.