The Year that was Missing
After four years’ work, in November we gave the world premiere of Missing – and then another eleven performances in Vancouver and Victoria.
With libretto by Marie Clements, music by Brian Current, Gitxsan materials by Vincent Gogag, this project may have been the most difficult, necessary, and wondrous work we have ever undertaken. It was offered in partnership with Pacific Opera Victoria, and Vancouver Moving Theatre / DTES Heart of the City Festival.
"Missing is an extraordinarily moving and thought-provoking work, and a milestone for the opera world. It has taken a painful and horrifying topic and rendered it into accessible art. Ultimately, its message is a universal one: open our eyes and hearts to each other's pain. By doing so, humanity has a chance for healing and redemption. Missing begins this healing journey in a magnificent mélange of singing, acting and music that, one hopes, will be seen by audiences across Canada and the world." The Whole Note, Toronto
"Gradually, by the opera's end, they reach reconciliation in a supremely poignant scene when the developed trust between them enables Ava to allow the Native Girl to hold her newborn child-a child the Native Girl will never have-while their voices bond in gentle, accepting harmony... The creators of Missing have forged a powerful story that tackles all the issues it should, head-on and unflinchingly. Missing [goes] one step further to the healing and reconciliation that can come after bereavement. It needs to be seen and heard." Opera Canada
We are now working on a tour intended for the Highway of Tears in late 2018. Please stay tuned. Now, here's the programme book, including our artists and sponsors.
More highlights from 2017
- we gave another concert at the DTES Homeground Festival in Oppenheimer Park
- four more concerts at Il Centro / the Italian Cultural Centre, and our first at the Eagle Harbour Yacht Club. No one fell in the water
- numerous public workshops for Missing in Victoria, and at the DTES Carnegie Centre and Native Education College in Vancouver
- initiated work on Chinatown, a new commission set in Vancouver in the 19th to 21st centuries
- continued work on Sea Change, a new commission and parable about climate change
- we gave a concert at Famee Furlane, two more at Minoru Chapel, another at Italian Day on The Drive (pictured), a sneak preview at our tenth AGM, and a fundraiser at Tap & Barrel
- and, participated in Vancouver Opera's first festival season at the QE Plaza
And coming in 2018
Our next mainstage production: Nigredo Hotel, a legendary and bizarre operatic thriller, unlike anything we have done before... and a Vancouver premiere. Late September 2018, at The Cultch
Plus more concerts and special events throughout 2018.
Can you help?
For all its affordable advantage, even chamber opera costs money. So do the concerts and special events we give across the year, and across the region. We would be deeply grateful for your assistance -- and happily issue tax receipts.
By cheque to “City Opera Vancouver”, PO Box 88393, Vancouver V6A 4A6
Online at Canada Helps (Canada Helps issues the tax receipts directly)
Thank you for joining us in 2017, and please accept our best wishes for Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year in 2018.
