Pacific Opera Victoria: News

Pacific Opera Victoria presents the Canadian stage premiere of Capricco, Richard Strauss' final operatic masterpiece. The production opens February 25 and runs February 27 (matinée), March 2, 4 and 6, 2010 at the Royal Theatre, 805 Broughton Street in Victoria. Presented in one act, the opera's length is similar to that of a movie and runs 2 hours and 15 minutes with no intermission. Evening performances begin at 8pm with pre-performance lectures at 6:45pm. The matinée performance on February 27 begins at 3pm, with pre-performance lecture at 2pm. CBC Radio will record Capriccio for later broadcast on Saturday Afternoon at the Opera.

With gorgeous orchestration and elegant ambiance, Capriccio probes the nature of love and the meaning of art. The Countess Madeleine and her brother host a group of artists for an afternoon during which they rehearse the entertainment for the Countess' birthday, while eating, drinking, flirting, and arguing passionately about opera. The poet Olivier and the composer Flamand are rivals for Madeleine's love. Finally, she tells them to collaborate on an opera – and she will decide the ending. Sophisticated and witty, Capriccio is both an entertaining love triangle and a delicious satire on the arts.

Pacific Opera Victoria has developed a reputation for innovative repertoire that attracts internationally acclaimed directors and designers and major artists for role debuts.

Director Robert McQueen and Designer Christina Poddubiuk make their POV debuts with this production. Mr. McQueen recently directed Vancouver Opera's acclaimed First Nations' influenced production of The Magic Flute. He was Associate Director for the Broadway, U.S. National, Toronto,and Las Vegas companies of Mamma Mia! and Director for the Spanish language production in Mexico City. Ms. Poddubiuk is a 25 year veteran of set and costume design for such companies as Canada's Shaw and Stratford Festivals and for the Chicago and Oregon Shakespeare Festivals.

With one of opera's most glorious soprano roles, and some of Strauss' most radiant music, Capriccio serves up delicious opportunities for tour de force performances. Erin Wall, making her POV and role debuts as the Countess, is fast establishing herself as one of today's most sought after Mozart and Strauss sopranos. Ms. Wall recently debuted at The Met, La Scala and Vienna State Opera and triumphed in the title role of Daphne at Santa Fe Opera. Also new to POV, Brian Bannatyne-Scott performs the role of the theatre director, La Roche. A native of Edinburgh, Mr. Bannatyne-Scott has performed the role with Scottish Opera and Theatre Bielefeld. Other company debuts include Norine Burgess as the actress Clairon, Joshua Hopkins as the poet Olivier, and Virginia Hatfield and Michael Colvin as the Italian Singers. James Westman (POV's The Cunning Little Vixen) returns to POV in the role of the Count, J. Patrick Raftery (POV's Regina) sings the role of Monsieur Taupe, and Kurt Lehmann (POV's Madama Butterfly) is the composer, Flamand.

Pacific Opera Victoria's third foray into Strauss (following productions of Ariadne auf Naxos and Daphne) is a particular joy for POV's Artistic Director, Timothy Vernon, who studied in Vienna under Strauss' student, Hans Swarowsky. It was Swarowsky who translated into German the beautiful sonnet that forms the core of Capriccio's libretto.

Maestro Vernon first saw Capriccio while a student in Vienna. He describes it as an astonishing distillation of Strauss' genius. The music is unflagging in its inspiration: marvelously witty and wise and ripe.

Capriccio is conducted by Timothy Vernon, and features the Victoria Symphony. Lighting design is by Alan Brodie and choreography by Paul Destrooper. The opera is sung in German with English surtitles.

Priced between $25 and $115, tickets are available from the Royal and McPherson Box Office at 250-386-6121, or online at www.rmts.bc.ca. Student RUSH tickets for those presenting valid student identification are available at the door of the theatre, 45 minutes prior to each performance, subject to availability. RUSH tickets are $15, inclusive of all box office charges.

For more information, please contact Pacific Opera Victoria at 250-385-0222 or visit POV's pages on Capriccio.

November 3, 2009

The Rake's Progress

A Darkly Comic Twist on the Faust Legend
November 12, 17, 19 and 21, 2009, at 8 pm
Saturday, November 14 at 3 pm

Pacific Opera Victoria is thrilled to present the second opera in a landmark four-opera season that includes two company premieres. Exuberantly bizarre and heart-breakingly tender, Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress features a veteran cast of audience favourites. The Rake's Progress opens November 12 at The Royal Theatre, 805 Broughton Street in Victoria, and runs November 14 (matinée), 17, 19 and 21, 2009. Evening performances begin at 8pm with pre-performance lectures at 6:45pm. The matinée performance on November 14 begins at 3pm, with pre-performance lecture at 2pm.

The Rake's Progress is a zany adventure, a morality tale and a love story, with music that is quirky, seductive, sweet and lyrical. When Tom Rakewell, a simple country boy, makes a wish for money, a stranger named Nick Shadow suddenly appears with news that Tom has inherited a fortune. Tom leaves for London with Nick, promising his sweetheart, Anne Trulove, that he'll send for her soon. His promise is broken as, led on by the diabolic Shadow, he succumbs to the many temptations of the big city. Eventually Tom ends up bankrupt and forced to gamble with Shadow for possession of his own soul.

The Rake's Progress was created by two towering figures of the 20th century, composer Igor Stravinsky and poet W. H. Auden. Auden, with co-librettist Chester Kallman, grafted the legend of Faust onto a story inspired by 18th-century artist William Hogarth's series of paintings entitled A Rake's Progress.

The opera represents the culmination of Stravinsky's neo-classical period and is a throwback to Mozartean structure with formally constructed arias, recitatives and choruses. But the music retains its 20th century twist; it's pure Stravinsky, full of his idiosyncratic spiky rhythms and unexpected lyricism. Musicologist Gunther Schuller described Stravinsky's score as an extraordinary love affair with harmony . . . ravishingly beautiful sounds, filtered and savored by one of the greatest musical ears of all time.

Rake is full of unforgettable characters, including the hapless Tom, the sinister Nick Shadow, and the brave and compassionate Anne Trulove – as well as Mother Goose, a brothel madam who snaps Tom up for herself, Sellem, the auctioneer who presides over opera's wackiest auction, and the fabulous bearded lady, Baba the Turk.

Veteran artists making their role debuts include Colin Ainsworth (POV's The Magic Flute) as Tom, Greg Dahl (POV's Don Giovanni and Regina) as Nick Shadow, Lucia Cesaroni (The Magic Flute) as Anne Trulove, Rebecca Hass (POV's Thaïs) as Mother Goose, Blaine Hendsbee (Idomeneo) as Sellem, Mia Lennox-Williams (Idomeneo) as Baba the Turk, and Chad Louwerse (Thaïs) as Trulove.

Director Glynis Leyshon and designers Allan Stichbury (set) and Nancy Bryant (costumes) have chosen the very early 19th century for the setting of this original production.

The Rake's Progress is conducted by Timothy Vernon and features the Victoria Symphony and the Pacific Opera Victoria Chorus. Lighting design is by Gerald King. The opera is sung in English with English surtitles. Running time is approximately two hours and forty minutes with one intermission.

Priced between $25 and $115, tickets are available from the Royal and McPherson Box Office at 250-386-6121, or on-line at www.rmts.bc.ca. Student RUSH tickets for those presenting valid student identification are available at the door of the theatre, 45 minutes prior to each performance, subject to availability. RUSH tickets are $15, inclusive of all box office charges.

For more information, please contact Pacific Opera Victoria at 250-385-0222 or visit or visit POV's pages on The Rake's Progress.

October 27, 2009

New Book about Opera in BC

Bravo! The History of Opera in British Columbia is the first in-depth history of more than a century of opera in BC. Brimming with photos of POV and Vancouver Opera productions, this book is a labour of love by author Rosemary Cunningham. Bravo! includes accounts of productions, repertoire listings, and information about BC opera singers, composers and opera training programs.

As POV celebrates its 30th anniversary season and Vancouver Opera its 50th, Bravo! comes at a perfect time to showcase two extraordinary opera companies which now have the strongest audience support in all of Canada – POV is the fastest growing opera company in Canada, with more than twice the per capita audience of any other Canadian opera company, and Vancouver Opera has the second highest per-capita audience in the country.

This book is a must-read for everyone who knows POV or loves opera!

Available at bookstores, including Bolen Books or from the publisher Harbour Publishing

September 15, 2009

La traviata: The Fallen Woman

Pacific Opera Victoria is thrilled to present a landmark season that has expanded to include four operas and matinée performances. The season opens with one of the most popular operas in the world, Verdi's La traviata, October 1, 3 (matinée), 6, 8 and 10, 2009 at the Royal Theatre, 805 Broughton Street in Victoria.

Evening performances begin at 8pm with pre-performance lectures at 6:45pm. The matinée performance on October 3 begins at 3pm, with pre-performance lecture at 2pm.

La traviata ("the fallen woman") is the story of a courtesan who finds true love, generously renounces it, then regains it, only to die far too young. The only one of his operas set in his own time, La traviata is Verdi's most personal opera, the one into which he poured all his compassion and tenderness; in fact his original title for the work was Amore e Morte – Love and Death.

Of the music, much of it familiar, all of it glorious, Conductor Timothy Vernon says, "This astonishing score . . . is one long stream of amazing lyrical inspiration ‐ the work of a great genius writing at the height of his power."

La traviata was inspired by the play La Dame aux camélias, adapted by Alexandre Dumas the Younger from his novel of the same name – a shocking, semi-autobiographical best seller about Dumas' affair with a notorious Paris courtesan who died of consumption at the age of 20. The story is also well known through the 1936 movie Camille, which featured Greta Garbo in her finest screen performance.

With his compassionate portrayal of a contemporary prostitute, Verdi ran afoul of the censors, who insisted he move the opera 150 years into the past. Verdi was further dismayed by what he saw as the fiasco of the opera's 1853 premiere – caused in part by a soprano who was too plump to be wasting away from consumption. However La traviata has now soared to the top of the repertoire; Opera America lists it as the third most frequently performed opera in North America.

The beautiful, notoriously challenging role of Violetta is the most coveted – and feared – of soprano roles, and an important debut for any singer. For POV's three previous productions of the opera, Artistic Director Timothy Vernon has offered this role debut to Sally Wolf, Liping Zhang and Sally Dibblee – each to critical acclaim. This production presents Sookhyung Park in her debut as Violetta. Ms. Park's breathtaking portrayal of the title character in POV's Daphne (2007) was hailed as a heartfelt, psychologically concentrated Daphne, riding the swirling euphoric orchestra lines with never a crease in the pearly sheen of her lovely sound.

Timothy Vernon's inspired casting includes Vale Rideout who makes his company and role debut as Alfredo Germont, along with returning artists Bruce Kelly (Madama Butterfly and The Magic Flute) as Giorgio Germont and Andrew Greenwood (Idomeneo) as Douphol. Participants in the POV Resident Artist Program make their POV mainstage debuts: Giles Tomkins as Dr. Grenvil, Cory Knight as Gaston, Heather Jewson as Flora, Betty Waynne Allison as Annina and Pierre-Étienne Bergeron as Marchese d'Obigny.

Pacific Opera Victoria has chosen to honour Verdi's desire to keep La traviata contemporary by setting it in 1949 Paris – an era that retains the glamour of Violetta's world, but is close enough to the present to convey the immediacy of the composer's vision. POV's wholly original production is directed by Dennis Garnhum, a UVic theatre grad and currently Artistic Director of Theatre Calgary. Twenty years ago Garnhum interned with the late Colin Graham, one of the world's most noted opera directors. With this production Dennis makes his POV – and professional opera – directing debut. Garnhum is joined by designer David Boechler, who has worked with the Shaw and Stratford Festivals.

La traviata is conducted by Timothy Vernon, and features the Victoria Symphony. Lighting design is by Kevin Lamotte and choreography by Jacques Lemay. The opera is sung in Italian with English surtitles. Running time is approximately two hours and thirty minutes with one intermission.

Pacific Opera Victoria presents only five performances of La traviata, and anticipates a sold-out run. Priced between $25 and $115, tickets are available from the Royal and McPherson Box Office at 250-386-6121, or on-line. Student RUSH tickets for those presenting valid student identification are available at the door of the theatre, 45 minutes prior to each performance, subject to availability. RUSH tickets are $15, inclusive of all box office charges.

For more information, please contact Pacific Opera Victoria at (250) 385-0222 or visit POV's La traviata pages.

August 26, 2009

POV Adds Matinées and a Fourth Opera

"Victoria loves opera", says Maestro Timothy Vernon, Artistic Director of Pacific Opera Victoria, and the statistics back him up. POV is the fastest growing opera company in the country and, on a per capita basis, POV's audience is Canada's strongest opera audience by a factor of two.

The company's national reputation attracts opera-goers from across Canada and from the US, but the commitment to diverse repertoire and original productions created in POV's own production facility also attracts the cream of the crop when it comes to top Canadian directors and designers.

This season, marking its 30th anniversary, POV is expanding to four productions, and introducing 3 pm Saturday Matinée performances for every production. Directors and designers from the Stratford and Shaw Festivals will collaborate with singers who've debuted at The Met and at prominent European opera houses to create absolutely unique and original productions at the Royal Theatre.

The season kicks off October 1 with La traviata by Verdi, featuring Sookhyung Park as Violetta. Ms. Park was last seen in the title role of Strauss' Daphne in 2007 – a celebrated Canadian premiere production.

Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, directed by Glynis Leyshon, is presented in November, followed in February by Richard Strauss' Capriccio featuring rising superstar soprano Erin Wall. The season concludes with Mozart's Così fan tutte in April, showcasing a youthful cast of Canada's finest and most exciting singers.

Season tickets for Pacific Opera Victoria are available now by calling 250-385-0222 or by ordering online. For more information about POV's upcoming productions, visit the 2009-10 Season page.

August 26, 2009

New Pacific Opera Community Series

INSIDE OPERA with Robert Holliston

Enjoy an in-depth presentation and discussion of each upcoming POV production led by Principal Coach Robert Holliston and featuring invited guests including directors, designers and cast members. This event replaces the very popular "Taste of Opera', is free of charge and open to the general public.

INSIDE OPERA is free of charge. However, space is limited, and reservations are required. Reserve your seat by phoning 250-385-0222 or emailing .

INSIDE OPERA takes place at the Phillip T. Young Recital Hall, MacLaurin Building, School of Music, at the University of Victoria. Parking is free on Sundays. For directions and parking information, see the UVic Campus Map

INSIDE La traviata
Sunday, September 20, 2009, Noon to 1:20 pm
INSIDE The Rake's Progress
Sunday, November 1, 2009, Noon to 1:20 pm
INSIDE Capriccio
Sunday February 14, 2010, Noon to 1:20 pm
INSIDE Così fan tutte
Sunday March 28, 2010, Noon to 1:20 pm

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Media Contact

For photos, additional information, and to arrange interviews, please contact Heather Jeliazkov at 250.888.3938 or

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