With the coming of summer...
and the new COVID rules, we resume our PoPUpOpera mini-concerts.
We gave 19 last year, and are planning 35 this year – all free, and all outdoors. The first is at the gorgeous Sun-Yat Sen Classical Chinese Gardens. Another twelve will be held at underserved parks, pursuant to our new agreement with the Vancouver Park Board.
City Opera Online / free
1. THE HUMAN VOICE: LA VOIX HUMAINE (47:46)
starring tenor Isaiah Bell, with pianist Roger Parton. A very contemporary adaptation of Poulenc’s masterpiece. Click to view
2. PERRUQUERIES (23:24)
Do you have questions about wigs? Wonder who to ask? Join us for a comic cantata by Bill Richardson and Jocelyn Morlock – with soprano Robyn Driedger-Klassen, bass-baritone Peter Monaghan, and pianist Sophie Tang. Click to view
3. SONGS FOR BETTER DAYS (32:31)
Nine singers, nine cultures, nine songs of hope & recovery, memory & gratitude. Kat Norris / Watswema • Anastasia Pyshna • Turgut Akmete • Michelle Koebke • Sergio Augusto • Yuhui Wang • Bahareh Poureslami • Melody Courage • Chloé Hurst • Roger Parton, arranger & pianist. Click to view
Image: Diamond’s Edge Photography.
4. AT THE STATUE OF VENUS (26:00) Coming in July
A sweet, poignant romance, full of doubt and self-doubt. Starring Robyn Driedger-Klassen, with pianist Terence Dawson, libretto by Terrence McNally, and the special permission of composer Jake Heggie.
Congratulations to Marie Clements
Her libretto for MISSING has just been published in WHEN WORDS SING, an anthology of seven influential Canadian opera texts. More info.
Art Auction 2021
Our in-house curator of auctionable art from your storage locker, Bill Jeffries, has organized four online art auctions for City Opera. He has been organizing a fifth, in support of Chinatown. It is a rolling auction, with no deadlines (yet) and will continue across the year.
We are soliciting donations of worthy artwork. Can you help? Should you need to make space on a wall, or in a closet... Special thanks to all of our Round One donors to date, and as always our appreciation for our partners at Heffel Fine Art Auction House.
If you know anyone who would like to donate gently owned art, please contact Bill at bjeffries@PROTECTED. We provide thanks, and a charitable tax receipt at the same amount donors would receive if their art were donated to a museum.
Chinatown: piano-vocal workshops this fall
on November 27 and 28. Join us for the opera in piano-vocal form, and let us know what you think. Librettist Madeleine Thien and composer Alice Ping Yee Ho will attend. Free, of course, thanks to our extraordinary donors and patrons.
Madeleine Thien, Paul Yee, and Alice Ping Yee Ho
Chinatown runs 13 – 17 September 2022 at the 668-seat Vancouver Playhouse.
Finding Chinatown runs in July and August 2022 in Maple Ridge, Richmond, and Vancouver.
