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Newsletter • BulletinWinte r 2011 Hiver

NATIONAL CAPITAL OPERA SOCIETY • SOCIÉTÉ D'OPÉRA DE LA CAPITALE NATIONALE

P.O. Box 8347, Main Terminal, Ottawa, Ontario K1G 3H8 • C.P. 8347, Succursale principale, Ottawa (Ontario) K1G 3H8

A Tribute To Bobbi Cain by Murray Kitts

cessful of these was Fête Opera in1985 with outstanding singers and achorus and orchestra drawn fromNAC productions under the directionof Brian Law. Any time there was anopera production staged at the NACBobbi arranged a reception for theprincipals and conductor, partly as afund-raiser for the society and partlyto celebrate this great art. Every yearbrought new attempts to keep thecause of opera in the minds ofOttawans. Every year there was a new“gala” like the one which paid tributeto great opera composers. This gaveBobbi an opportunity to introducesome young singers to the public,“showcase them” as it is termed. Fromthere it was a logical step towards try-ing to help the newcomers directly intheir quest for a career in opera. Thenthere were the regular excursions tothe Montreal Opera, and sometimesto Toronto and New York. And therewere the opera films, videos andDVD’s (as technology improved) atthe Bytown Theatre, at the Ottawa

Public Library, at Bobbi’s condo building, and continu-ing even now at St. Anthony’s Soccer Club which, witha meal, has become “Opera alla pasta”.

One of Bobbi’s proudest moments (which I wit-nessed) was when Nicholas Goldschmidt reviving theSummer Festival at the NAC in 1997 told her: “We owethis revival to you.” Alas the festival was not to last verylong, but these words meant a great deal to Bobbi for allher hard work. In the meantime Opera Lyra Ottawa wasdeveloping and performing at several venues until it could

I n 1983 after thirteen years of mag-nificent summer opera and concertsFestival Ottawa was cancelled be-cause of major cuts to the budget ofthe National Arts Centre. MarioBernardi conducted over thirty op-eras in those years including an out-standing Queen of Spades with JonVickers and Maureen Forrester anda splendid production of Handel’sRinaldo which was given to the Met-ropolitan Opera for its very first pre-sentation of that opera in New York.Opera lovers came regularly from asfar away as Montreal to enjoy theseperformances at the NAC.

Bobbi Cain, whose connec-tion with choral singing and music ingeneral is well documented in a trib-ute on the Choirs Ontario website,was one of Ottawa’s citizens whowas outraged by the cancellation. Shehelped to form the National CapitalOpera Society and became its presi-dent in 1984 in order to find a wayto return these magnificent summeropera experiences to the NationalArts Centre. Thus began almost twenty-five years ofBobbi’s constant dedication towards the restoration ofopera in Ottawa. The files of the NCOS are filled withreferences to petitions (one with over 1,000 signatures);letters to the editor; meetings with officials who might haveinfluence; even appearances at political meetings to chal-lenge the views of politicians - these are only a few ofthe activities where Bobbi was in the forefront. Parallelto these activities was a constant attempt to remindOttawans of what they were missing. The most suc-

Bobbi Cain 1936-2010

(continued on page2)

Winter 2011 NEWSLETTER • BULLETIN Hiver 2011

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A Tribute To Bobbi Cain (continued from page 1)

return opera to the NAC Southam Hall. Under Bobbi’sleadership grants were given to Opera Lyra for per-formers such as Mark Dubois, who sang the role ofTamino in a production of The Magic Flute with BrianLaw conducting. This relationship has continued and theNCOS has been contributing to OLO’s young artists’programs since grants were first organized by Bobbi.

The departure of Brian Law for New Zealandprovided Bobbi with a new challenge and opportunityto use her remarkable organizing powers. To recognizethe contributions Brian Law had made to music in Ot-tawa the Brian Law Opera Scholarship was establishedin 1991 and first awarded in 1993. What an enormoustask it was to establish all the rules and regulations sur-rounding the competition: eligibility of contestants,method of selecting finalists, and procedures on the ac-tual occasion of the competition. Bobbi tackled all theseproblems and more so well that the procedures she in-stituted are still being followed virtually intact after ninecompetitions spanning sixteen years. Bobbi’s promi-nence in the musical community in Ontario enabled herto enlist the voluntary services of outstanding jurors suchas Stuart Hamilton, Diane Loeb and NicholasGoldschmidt to name only a few. Fund-raising for thescholarship which started out as a modest $1,000 prizenow became an important feature of NCOS activitiesunder Bobbi’s leadership. The galas and showcases con-tinued with the occasional recital such as the one ar-ranged by Bobbi with Gerald Finley, a former Brian Lawchorister, giving a magnificent performance. For the2009 competition 1st prize was $5,000 with secondand third prizes at $3,000 and $1,000. The increase inprize money was greatly due to the success of the win-ners and competitors.

There were many difficulties along the way inestablishing and fostering the competition. But the great-est challenges for Bobbi lay ahead. Used to seeing herat her office in the Economic Council of Canada, or inher home on Chesterfield Drive, now those in the NCOSwho worked with Bobbi would have to contact her invarious hospitals. First there was the fall which requireda hip replacement operation. Then colon cancer wasdiscovered and an operation had to follow. Subse-quently another colon cancer operation was necessary.

And, cruellest of all, one of these had to be followedby a second operation to correct an error in the ini-tial one. Bobbi’s devotion to her causes was shownwhen, against medical advice, she proceeded tostruggle through the 2001 Competition and completeher task, hiding her distress. The emergency opera-tion followed. From hospital bed and from conva-lescent hospital bed Bobbi carried on directing theaffairs of the NCOS and planning the next competi-tion. The Board met in a room in the ElizabethBruyere Centre so that Bobbi could preside. In 2003Bobbi was able to persuade her old friend, HamiltonSoutham, to be honorary patron for that year’s com-petition. By 2005, in spite of one of the stays in hos-pital detailed above, Bobbi was back to preside overthe competition. Sadly it was to be her last. The can-cer operations didn’t stop her, the diabetes didn’tstop her, it was one of the cruellest diseases,dementia, which robbed her of her ability to con-tinue to dedicate herself to the cause of opera and ofhelping young singers. And what great young sing-ers! To mention only a few, Shannon Mercer andJoshua Hopkins have well-established singing ca-reers. Yannick-Muriel Noah is emerging as a majoropera singer. See their websites to get a completepicture of their careers. Almost every weekday wecan listen to Julie Nesrallah introduce classical musicon CBC Radio 2.

All these singers have shown their apprecia-tion to Bobbi and the NCOS by coming to give out-standing mini-recitals at competitions subsequent totheir own. From now on when Brian Law Competi-tion contestants are singing in recital halls or on thegreat opera stages of the world their achievementsshould proclaim that they have been helped in part,at the very least, by Bobbi’s working to her last ounceof strength on their behalf. People who worked withBobbi knew that however demanding she could beof them she was willing to work ten times harderthan anyone else. One day the Ottawa SummerOpera Festival will take place again. In the mean-time knowledge of Bobbi’s championship of the BrianLaw Competition provides a fitting memorial to thisremarkable person.


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Bobbi was at the centre of most NCOS activities: fund-

raising events, receptions, dinners, recitals, concerts

and, of course, the Brian Law Competition. These pho-

tos illustrate some of these activities and some of her

earlier musical endeavours. Clockwise from top right:

Gerald Finley, Bobbi’s grandson Wesley and Maria

Knapik, Ben Heppner, Bobbi as Peep-bo in Mikado ,

Rob Clipperton, Joyce El-Khoury, young Bobbi.

1st Prize


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Thank youThank you to all those who have contributedto the newsletter during the past year. Yourgrateful editors:David Williams & Tom McCool

Board of Directors 2010-2011President Murray KittsPast President Bobbi CainVice President Ute DavisSecretary Jean SaldanhaMembership Vera-Lee NelsonTreasurer Gordon MetcalfePublicity Renate Chartrand

Ute DavisEvents Peggy Pflug

Pat AdamoElizabeth Meller

Webmaster Jim Burgess

Website: www.ncos.ca

Events you Could Enjoyby David Williams

Opera Lyra Guild

The Joy of Opera Luncheon and Concert will beheld February 13, 2011, at the Sala San MarcoBanquet Hall.www.operalyra.ca or 613-233-9200 x221

University of Ottawa

The U of O Opera Company will presentMozart’s The Magic Flute on January 28-30 & Feb.4-6, 2011, at 2pm or 7 pm in the Alumni Auditorium.Students frequently present recitals during theAcademic year. www.music.uottawa.ca for information.

Yoriko Tanno

Yoriko’s Operatic Showcase will present"The Lady of the Night" a new opera by JoseHernandez on March 25, 26, 27, 2011.www.ykstudio.com

Pellegrini Opera

Bizet’s Carmen will be performed in April,2011. www.pellegriniopera.com for details.

Opera Lyra:

Opera Lyra will be a new beneficiary ofproceeds from the 2011 Viennese Opera Ball to beheld February 5th at the National Gallery. This willsupport their Opera Studio Programs.www.vienneseoperaballottawa.comwww

New MembersStewart Grenzowski

Suzanne & Keith McCullyMayse Robillard

Leslie & Mark Robinson

All Opera Lovers

It is time to RENEW your

membership or join NCOS for 2011!

The membership year runs from Janu-ary to December. Please fill in the en-closed form and join us for anotheryear of musical activities!

You can help us save money (and also helpsave our forests) by opting to receive yourcopy of the newsletter electronically. If youare willing to do this send an e-mail toNCOS@ NCOS.ca and say that you wishto receive the newsletter electronically.Please write newsletter in the subject line.Or, you can indicate that you wish to re-ceive the newsletter "by e-mail" when youfill in the 2011 membership application formenclosed with this newsletter.

Save the trees


5

SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT THE OPERA

The Place: St. Anthony's Soccer ClubThe Time: 2:00 p.m. The Cost: $20

DVD Presentations of outstandingoperas from the great opera houses of the

world followed by a delicious meal.

March 6,2011

The Bartered Bride

by Bedrich Smetana

Der Freischütz

by Carl Mariavon Weber

May 15,2011

Opera alla Pasta

Call 613-721-7121 at least 3 days before the date of the

video presentation in order to reserve a place.


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The Fall season of the Canadian Opera Company(COC) consisted of Verdi’s Aida and Britten’s Death

in Venice.

I very much worry that the new German lead-ership of the COC is going to bring us German-styledirector-driven “Regie theatre” opera. What GeneralDirector Alexander Neef and stage director Tim Alberydelivered was a moderately interesting and quite un-necessarily violent and ugly opera, but definitely notAida as we know it, nor one which would attract newaudience members. The pre-show chat indicated thatAlbery’s concept was that the opera depicted Aida’snightmare of a life, and, if so, he was successful! - un-

fortunately, it wasalso a nightmarefor the audience,many of whomleft at the inter-

val! In fact, Albery was booed opening night! The op-era opened in a modern-day dictatorship with Aida, inugly short blue dress, crummy shoesand ill-fitting white jacket, mopping thefloor! - the lowest, if most attractive,of the slave menials - and went rap-idly downhill from there! In fairness, itmust be said that the interactions be-tween the characters worked fairlywell. However, no Egyptian motifs, butinstead modern dress, no TriumphalMarch, plus much gratuitous brutality,were a real turn off. I’m sure no otheropera companies will want to rent thisproduction, but then in Germany, withstate subsidies, there is probably not the same concernfor fiscal awareness as here. Set designer HildegardBechtler, who had debuted with Albery on the marvel-lous 2008 War and Peace and did the excellent worldpremiere of The Letter in Santa Fe, provided a veryefficient set in keeping with Albery’s concept. She hadwitty touches such as Princess Amneris’s pullout bou-doir with a closet containing enough handbags and shoesto keep Emelda Marcos happy, and a cunning move-able upper level which was very effective in the finalAct for hiding Radames’ interrogation while Amneris

listened and reacted, and then for showing the finalunderground tomb for Radames and Aida, withAmneris still above, grieving. Debuting British cos-tume designer Jon Morell also worked well withinthe constraints of the concept, but was only imagi-native in the Egyptian ladies’ dressy little outfitssince the men were either in suits or military uni-forms, and Amneris’s size made her hard to makeattractively regal, although he could have tried! Di-rector Albery had the necessary superfluity of chairsto reinforce his modernity, plus all sorts of weirdand downright unpleasant touches, such as whenAida was roughed up, and the mass shootings duringthe Triumphal March, and finally putting Aida andRadames at opposite sides of the stage for theirfinal duet! Albery seems obsessed with offices andbusiness suits to denote power, as in his COCGotterdammerung, but why did the male chorusremove their suit jackets and put on black glovesbefore exiting to try Radames? The one savinggrace was the musical performance itself and thequality of the performers, under the capable lead-ership of the COC’s new Music Director JohannesDebus, in his first Aida. The excellent COC Or-chestra was even supplied with 6 special newEgyptian trumpets for the offstage banda to ensurethe right brilliant sound! The Chorus was in finevoice for the huge choruses and the principals hadbeen chosen with care. Two Canadian basses un-derpinned the cast, with Alain Coulombe a regaldictator, the King of Egypt, and Philip Ens a deli-

Death in Toronto by Shelagh Williams

definitely not Aida aswe know it

Aida sketchby Morrell

Amneris and Her Egyptian Ladies

photo by Michael Cooper


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ciously malevolent High Priest Ramfis. Americanbaritone Scott Hendricks was an extremely youngand virile Amonasro to be Aida’s father. DebutingAmerican mezzo-soprano Jill Grove sang up a stormas the Egyptian Princess Amneris, while fellowdebutant Australian tenor Rosario La Spina had thevocal wherewithal, if not the stage presence, goodlooks, or slim physique, for the romantic lead asRadames. The production was staged for the COCand role debut of Sondra Radvanovsky, an Ameri-can-born, Toronto-based Verdi soprano. However,we were there in the last half of the run and heardthe debut of Canadian soprano Michele Capalbo,who had sung the role of Aida all over, and so pro-vided an excellent performance, both looking andsounding a fitting object of adoration, in spite of herugly costume and the staging to which she was sub-jected. It is ashame that afternot staging Aidafor 25 years, theCOC had tocome up with aproduction that itscomposer Verdicertainly would nothave recognized!

Having murdered the opera Aida, it wasfortunate that the COC, after not staging Death in

Venice for 26 years, imported a great productionof Britten’s final opera. It was a co-production ofthe U.K. Aldeburgh Festival, the Bregenz Festival,State Opera Prague, and Opera National de Lyon,at all of which it received rave reviews. Japaneseactor, director and writer Yoshi Oida, here with hisw h o l eteam mak-ing COCd e b u t s ,lovinglys h a p e dand staged the production so that all the aspects ofthe opera came together beautifully. Since we wereoff to Venice in a few days, we especially enjoyed

Death in Toronto (continued)

Aschenbach and Polish family

COC photo

Dutch set designer Tom Schenk’s simple setting ofboardwalks, and planks over the water, and projectedimages, that evoked Venice, all sympathetically lit byEnglish lighting designer Jane Dutton. Edward Hudson’sEdwardian costumes, mostly in white, were delightful,with the added clever innovation of a clothes rack ei-ther side of the stage to enable the two leads, the nov-elist Aschenbach and the Traveller, to change smoothlyand easily from scene to scene for the former, and role

to role for thelatter. We hadseen a defini-tive produc-

tion of Death in Venice at the English National Operain June 2007, starring British tenor Ian Bostridge asAschenbach, and this production was up to that stan-dard. Although this production seemed to last longerthan the ENO version, yet there was less movementabout the stage of the many visitors in Venice, so thatthe identity of each of the characters was not alwaysclear. However all of the requirements for the largeresources demanded were met, including the huge sing-ing cast, the large percussion section, and the well-choreographed dancers portraying the young Polishboy Tadzio and his friends. Another large part of thisproduction’s success was due to the presence of Brit-ish conductor Steuart Bedford, chosen by Britten forthe opera’s premiere in 1972, and the definitive inter-preter of Britten’s works. He certainly got the best outof his excellent orchestra and cast. British baritone PeterSavidge also specializes in Britten’s works, and his in-terpretation of the Traveller and the other six baritoneroles was strong and varied, at times humorous, thenconspiratorial, then evasive, then sinister, but alwaysentertaining. But stealing the show as he made his COCdebut as the novelist Aschenbach, was Scottish tenorAlan Oke, who has starred in this production, honinghis skills, throughout its European tour, since 2007.He was on stage throughout the opera, an excellentactor and consummate singer, with clear diction delin-eating every emotion. This was a marvellous produc-tion, with both musical and directorial visions meshingto reinforce each other and transfix the beholder -would that all productions were so!

stealing the show wasScottish tenor Alan Oke

Hudson’s Edwardian

costumes were delightful


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Italy’s Holy Grail of Opera by Shelagh Williams

The moment I saw the title of Congress Travel’s Octo-ber trip, “Cruise Tour to the Birthplace of Opera”, in-cluding La Scala in Milan and La Fenice in Venice, Ijumped at the chance! How often do you get the op-portunity to visit these famous opera houses?!

Our first opera was an interesting productionof Puccini’s Tosca in Rome. It was preceded by awalking tour from Castel Sant’Angelo, along Via Giuliato the Farnese Palace and Square, and intoSant’Andrea delle Valle church - the three places thatinspired Puccini in Tosca - and then to the 150 seatTeatro Flaiano. Here the Piccolo Lirica company pre-sents 75 min. versions of operas, with all the importantmusic and arias intact. The Liric Synth Orchestra pro-vides live music using four synthesizers, under the di-rection of a conductor, on our evening Elisabetta delBuono. Their fascinating innovation is the use of virtualsets by Gianna Volpi - videos of the actual sites as scen-ery for the opera - so that we saw the action as if un-folding in the places we had just visited! Sumptuouscostumes by Carla Fonzi Cruciani and good directionby Rossana Siclari ensured success with the cast, whichwas young, but excellent. Gwendolyn Alu was a lovelyTosca, Paulo Drigo a deliciously despicable Scarpia,and Fabio Zagarella a romantic Cavaradossi, withMimmo Venturaniand Lorenzo MerteManicucci roundingout the cast asSpoletta and Sac-ristan respectively.This blending ofnew technology forscenery with a solidmusical production(though the “or-chestra” was a bitthin!) of all the bestbits of Tosca en-sured an entertain-ing evening.

Our sec-ond opera was atthe highly es-teemed and very

expensive La Scala in Milan, where we eagerly awaitedour first experience in this opera holy of holies. Thetheatre itself is quite lovely, but the horseshoe shapemeant sight lines in the side boxes were often poor!Unfortunately, it was not an Italian opera, but it wasthe new production of Carmen which had inaugu-rated their 2009/10 season on December 7th, St.Ambrose’s Day, the patron saint of Milan. It was pre-sented with French spoken dialogue and La Scalaprovided a choice of English, French and Italian sub-titles. Before the performance started there was amoment of silence for Shirley Verrett, who had justpassed away. The director and costume designer, theSicilian Emma Dante, was making her operatic debut,and it showed. She seemed determined to distract usfrom the beautiful music, which is unfortunately be-coming the European director-driven “Regie theatre”style! She had a feminist slant to proceedings, withmuch heavy Roman Catholic symbolism, and somereally weird, inexplicable sequences. It all started outin an unpleasant manner with a heavily pregnant womanalmost giving birth in the town square while the omni-present crowd stood and stared - fortunately herwomen friends dragged her off stage in time! We werethen presented with a Micaela dressed in a large

The Torreador's MarchPhoto by Marco Brescia


9

black cape which suddenly flipped into a full white wed-ding dress and veil, and who was followed everywhereby a priest in a ridiculously large black hat and twoaltar boys carrying a large cross. Later, a huge mar-riage bed inexplicably surrounded her in the mountains- all clearly making fun of her and her traditional pur-suits. The dancing by the hordes of extras at LillasPastia’s tavern was some of the ugliest I have everseen, while Lillas Pastia was a loose limbed caricature.The toreador Escamillo was strangely accompaniedby 5 white whirling dervishes, and black-veiled womenseemed to turn up at the drop of a hat! The magnifi-cent toreadors’ parade was a travesty: no Escamilloand shirtless toreadors mysteriously winding and un-winding red streamers around their bodies! To com-plete the theme of violence against women Don Joseraped Carmen on-stage before killing her! As I said, itwas often quite unnecessarily and gratuitously offen-sive. In fairness, it must be mentioned that there were afew humorous touches, such as three chaps sitting fan-ning themselves languidly in the frantic opening scenein the square, and later having an elevator to enter LillasPastia’s tavern! At least the veteran Richard Peduzziprovided colourful, clever and attractive sets whichmoved apart, and up and down to facilitate the action,and which were well lit by Dominique Bruguiere. For-tunately, the musical side of the production lived up toexpectations, with maestro Gustavo Dudamel lashingthe splendid Scala orchestra into a frenzy, and keepinghis singers and chorus well in order. Our Escamillowas Hungarian bass Gabor Bretz, who had been sing-ing Zuniga since the premier, but who was singingEscamillo for this and the next performance. We hadfelt that American tenor Andrew Richards as Don Josetook a while to warm up, but then was fine. Accordingto his blog, he was called Wednesday evening to makehis La Scala debut on Saturday, our performance! Heflew to Italy, saw a performance on Thursday, had amusical rehearsal with the conductor Friday, then anafternoon of “Regie production” rehearsal, all the whilerefreshing French dialogue he hadn’t done for over ayear! Saturday before the curtain he still had a fightrehearsal, plus a review of some tricky stage business!Fortunately he had sung a couple of performances ofCarmen with Anita Rachvelishvili at Verona in the

Italy’s Holy Grail of Opera (continued)

summer, and so they had a rapport and worked well to-gether! Not surprisingly, in their production debuts, thetwo male leads were good but not overly strong, althoughthis was perhaps just what this director intended! It wasdifficult to empathize with Alexia Voulgaridou’s Michaela,given the staging she had to contend with. Our Carmenwas 26-year old Georgian mezzo Anita Rachvelishvili, whodebuted in the 2009 opening night, and is just a year out ofLa Scala’s Accademia. She was chosen for the role bythe original conductor Daniel Barenboim, after auditioningfor a lesser role, and is growing into the part, having alsosung Carmen in Toronto in February and in Verona in thesummer, all with different casts and directors! She has astrong voice, but is rather plump, and not sexy enough fora memorable Carmen. Nevertheless, in this production,when she tossed her head of long curls, soldiers faintedright and left! It was interesting to contrast this productionwith the superb New Year’s Eve premiere of Carmen

which we saw last winter at the Met, with CanadianYannick Nezet-Seguin making his conducting debut there.Both conductors gave us wonderful music, but Nezet-Seguin had the advantage of a good director, excellentsinger-actors, and an exciting production. Directors liketo make their mark, but the La Scala production was no-

Carmen

Photo by Marco Brescia


10

table for the wrong reasons! It is not surprising that the2009 opening night La Scala audience cheered the singersand booed the director!

If La Scala was somewhatof a disappointment, LaFenice in Venice was an ab-solute delight. Well named(La Fenice means the Phoe-nix), the theatre opened in1774 and the present housewas rebuilt after the 1996fire, with opera productionsin this little gem restarting in2004. We were treated to alovely production ofDonizetti’s L’Elisir

d’Amore, which ran for 11 consecutive, almost daily,performances, with three casts, of which we luckily gotthe A list! The director Bepi Morassi, a native Venetian,knew how to handle his excellent players to bring out allthe humour of the situations, and added such imagina-tive touches as an army which looked and marched like

toy soldiers, and the plainGianetta made even plainerin spectacles! Morassi useda simple setting, with plainside panels and suitablebackdrops, and woodenchairs, benches and plat-forms nimbly moved aboutby the chorus, to frame hischarming production. Thissetting and the colourful cos-tumes were by GianmaurizioFercioni, a

Milanese who graduated from theAccademia di Brera, whose art gallerysome of us had visited just the day beforein Milan! The musical forces were undera hot shot young conductor, MatteoBeltrami, a graduate of the conservato-ries of Genoa and Milan, who drew mar-vellous performances from his excellentorchestra and cast. The aforementioned

Gianetta was sung prettily by the Albanian sopranoOriana Kurteshi. Suitably pompous and overweightas Sergeant Belcore was Italian baritone RobertoDe Candia, a Rossini specialist. Baritone Bruno deSimone from Naples brought down the house withhis final entrance down the central aisle as DoctorDulcamara dispensing goodies among the audience!He specialises in opera buffa, especially Donizettiand Rossini! However, the two cast members pro-viding the main love interest were something else!Spanish tenor Celso Albelo brought out all the funand sadness of the peasant Nemorino, all the whilebathing us in the sound of his beautiful voice. Ithought I recognized the brilliant soprano DesireeRancatore from Palermo, who was an animated andmellifluous Adina, and, sure enough, she was ourGilda in the excellent Rigoletto at the Vienna StateOpera four years ago - “a sweetheart of a performerwho was easy on both the eyes and the ears”, toquote myself! But what made this so very specialwas not one, but two, encores! First Celso Albeloencored his lovely Una furtiva lagrima, and thenDesiree Rancatore encored her sparkling Prendi,

per me sei libero, and they ended up rolling hap-pily on the floor together! For those who enjoyed it- and those who want to - one can find You Tubevideos by “sarguar” of the two encores from open-ing night, October 29, 2010! (Also a video of theprincipals in a different 2009 Cagliari production)There was about this production the lovely cosy feel-ing of a beloved local opera company truly appre-ciated by its audience. This was a better overall pro-duction than we had at La Scala, here using mostlylocal Italian talent - truly the highlight of the trip!

Italy’s Holy Grail of Opera (continued)

La Fenice

The Wedding Scene

Carmen

Photo Agency

Photo Michele Crosea


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National Gallery: Recent Print Acquisitions: Fora glimpse into Baroque opera, Matthaus Kusel’s engrav-ing of one stage set from Pietro Antonio Cesti’s Il pomo

d’oro, produced in Vienna in 1668, was an eye opener! Ifyou think Wagner’s operas are long, this extravaganzatook two days to perform, its 467 scenes taking 10 hours,even receiving a new opera house for the performances!Also in this Exhibition, on at the National Gallery untilJanuary 2nd, 2011, was a lovely print of the Trevi Foun-tain, by Piranesi! S.W.

Opera Lyra Ottawa (OLO) Opera Studio: As part ofCulture Days on September 25th, the OLO Opera Stu-dio presented a workshop for opera singers called Act-

ing in Opera. OLO acting coach Alix Sideris led so-prano Marie-Claire Fafard-Blais, mezzo Sarah ChristineSteinert and baritone Mark Gough in a warm up, andwork on gesture and getting into character, and then Stu-dio Manager Judith Ginsburg accompanied them as theyapplied these techniques while singing excerpts from theirproduction of Hansel and Gretel for which they werepreparing. We were able to enjoy the fruits of this work-shop almost immediately, as on September 30th, in theNAC 4th Stage, the Opera Studio presented a first rateproduction of Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutti. The Opera Stu-dio - the above-mentioned three plus soprano BethanyHorst - were joined by former Studio member, tenor Gra-ham Thomson, our third prize BLO Competition winner,whose voice incidentally is coming along very nicely, toround out the young members of the cast - two soldiers,two sisters, and their maid. This incarnation of the OLOOpera Studio is especially talented, which bodes well fortheir future. The old philosopher Antonio was deftly andwittily played by Francois Racine, a colleague of famousCanadian director Robert Lepage, and he both directedand narrated the cleverly adapted story. Studio ManagerJudith Ginsburg provided her usual sprightly and support-ive piano accompaniment. All of the humour of the piece,acted with sparkle, plus all of the best musical “bits” of theopera, and also a few details often missed, were beauti-fully presented, leaving the audience with a 55-minuteabsolute treat! The audience was much smaller than thisproduction deserved, perhaps because the NACunhelpfully programmed a Debut Concert with a baritoneat the same time, splitting the potential audience! S.W.

St. John Passion: Voice lovers had a field day whenChamberfest brought us Les Voix Baroques and ArionBaroque Orchestra for a blockbuster performance ofBach’s St. John Passion, the end of November. Ad-vertised as “played on period instruments and sung,according to the composer’s original intent, by a smallensemble”, the latter group of 12 was led by acclaimedOttawa countertenor Matthew White and containedtwo equally renowned BLOS winners, Shannon Mer-cer and Joshua Hopkins, both of whom had solos andwere in fine voice! Tenor Jan Kobow was the excellentEvangelist, the orchestra and chorus, led from the or-gan by Alexander Weimann, was amazing, and thewhole was both reverent and quite fantastic - an abso-lute delight! S.W.

Opéra de Montréal's Roberto Devereux:

Roberto Devereux is one of the operas in Donizetti’sTudor trilogy based on three famous queens in En-glish history: Anne Boleyn, Mary Stuart and Eliza-beth Tudor. As in Donizetti's other biographical op-eras he never allowed the historical facts to interferewith a good story. The end result is that Roberto

Devereux is an intriguing historical melodrama. ManyDonizetti aficionados claim it is the best of the tril-ogy. Without doubt, it as a classic of the Bel Cantostyle of which Donizetti was a master. In Roberto

Devereux, as in all Donizetti's operas, regardless ofthe treachery and mayhem that is being depicted onthe stage, the music is melodious and tuneful frombeginning to end. More important in any Bel Cantoopera is the singing; excellent singing voices in thelead roles, especially the women's roles, are requi-sites. In this Montreal production soprano DimitraTheodossiou, as Elizabeth, and mezzo-sopranoElizabeth Batton were more than equal to the task.Both ladies were outstanding. There were no glar-ing weaknesses in Roberto Devereux – the music,singing, acting, costumes and sets were all fine – butthe most memorable element in this production was theinnovative staging which enhanced the flow of the ac-tion and the theatricality of the opera. This was the pre-dominant reason for a satisfying performance that madethe trip to Montreal a worthwhile journey. T.M.

Events you Could Have Enjoyed by Shelagh Williams and Tom McCool


12

Opera Within ReachTorontoOttawa

Canadian Opera

Company

Opera Lyra Ottawa

Montréal

Syracuse

Information: www.operademontreal.com

The Magic Flute by Mozart Jan. 29, Feb. 1, 3, 6,8, 10, 12, 16, 18, 20, 23, 25, 2011

Nixon in China by Adams Feb. 5, 9, 11, 13, 19,22, 24, 26, 2011

The Nightingale and Other Short Fables byStravinsky May 1 to 6 at the BrooklynAcademy of Music Opera Festival

La Cenerentola by Rossini April 23 & 28, May 1,7, 10, 13, 19 22 & 25

Ariadne auf Naxos by Strauss April 30, May 3, 12,15, 18, 21, 27 & 29

Orfeo ed Euridice by Gluck May 8, 11. 14, 17, 20,24, 26 & 28

Information: www.coc.ca

Information: 613-233-9200 x221 . www.operalyra.ca

Orpheus Society

Into the Woods by Sondheim March 4-13, 2011

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels by Yazbek June 3-12, 2011

at Centrepointe Theatre

Information: www. orpheus-theatre.ca

Lucia di Lammermoor by DonizettiMarch 26, 28 & 30 & April 2, 2011

All performances begin at 8 pm in Southam Hall at theNational Arts Centre

Don Giovanni by Mozart February 11&13, 2011

The Pearl Fishers by Bizet April 8 &10, 2011

Information: syracuseopera.com

La Clemenza di Tito by Mozart April 22, 23, 26,27, 30,May 1, 2011

Information: www.operaatelier.com

Opera Atelier

Werther by Massenet Jan. 22, 26, 29, 31 & Feb 3, 2011

The Consul by Menotti March 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 2011

Salome by Strauss March 19, 23, 26, 28, 31, 2011

La Bohème by Puccini May 21, 25, 28 & 30 June 2 & 4


13

The Metropolitan Opera

Live in HD - 2011

Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West

January 8 at 1:00 pm;Encore February 19 at 1.00 pm

Adams’s Nixon in China

New Production

February 12 at 1:00 pm;

Encore March 12 at 1.00 pm

Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride

February 26 at 1:00 pm;Encore March 26 at 1.00 pm

Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor

March 19 at 1:00 pm;

Encore April 2 at 1.00 pm

Rossini’s Le Comte Ory

New Production

April 9 at 1:00 pm;Encore May 7 at 1.00 pm and

June 13 at 6.30 pm

Strauss’s Capriccio

April 23 at 1:00 pm;

Encore May 21 at 1.00 pm andJune 27 at 6.30 pm

Verdi’s Il Trovatore

April 30 at 1:00 pm;

Encore June 4 at 1.00 pm and

July 18 at 6.30 pm

Wagner’s Die Walküre

New ProductionMay 14 at 12:00 pm;

Encore June 18 at 12.00 pm and

July 11 at 6.00 pm

Met Radio Broadcasts 2011

January 1 Pelléas et Melisande - Debussy

January 8 La Fanciulla del West - Puccini

January 15 La Traviata - Verdi

January 22 Rigoletto - Verdi

January 29 Tosca - Puccini

February 5 Simon Boccanegra - Verdi

February 12 Nixon in China - Adams

February 19 Don Pasquale - Donizetti

February 26 Iphigénie en Tauride - Gluck

March 5 Armida - Rossini

March 12 - 12:00 Boris Godunov - Mussorgsky

March 19 Lucia di Lammermoor - Donizetti

March 26 The Queen of Spades - Tchaikovsky

April 2 Das Rheingold - Wagner

April 9 Le Comte Ory - Rossini

April 16 Wozzek - Berg

April 23 Capriccio - Richard Strauss

April 30 Il Trovatore - Verdi

Additional details for Live HD Transmissions and

Saturday Afternoon Broadcasts:

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/broad-

cast/on_air.aspx

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