Opera Chic

Richard Bonynge in British Columbia! Get Your Bonynge on with the Vancouver Opera

 

Vancouver Opera will host Richard Bonynge! To conduct Norma! As part of its 2009/10 Golden Anniversary season, where the VO looks back on 50 years of performances, the Australian conductor saddles up the podium with a delicious, refreshing Bellini. Norma opens on Saturday, November 28, and breaks a 20-year stretch when it was last heard by the VO audiences. Bonynge conducted Norma for the VO 46 years ago in 1963, with Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne filling-out the cast (his first performance with the VO was Faust from earlier that same year) and led as the VO's Artistic Director during the 1970s.

This time, the Tazewell Thompson production boasts Armenian soprano Hasmik Papian as Norma, Canadian tenor Richard Margison as Pollione (hopefully recovered from his NYC cooties), and American mezzo-soprano Kate Aldrich as Adalgisa (who stunned the Italian audiences Teatro Comunale di Bologna, OC included, where she appeared alongside Daniela Dessì & Fabio Armiliato). The Golden Anniversary season also offers Nixon in China, The Marriage of Figaro, and Madama Butterfly.

If you can't wait for opening night, Bonynge will be reminiscing live at the Vancouver Public Library on Monday, November 9 in a free, public forum.

Liveblogging up in Your Operahouse: Vancouver Opera's New Foray

(Above: Rinat Shaham's gonna cut you! Carmen @ the Vancouver Opera never looked so good. Photo by Tim Matheson.)

Vancouver Opera has pretty much gotten it down by introducing smart initiatives that successfully culture-jam the operatic art form, and break it down for the masses. And O.C. is obviously all about applauding accessibility. We saw it with their manga, and now they've done it again.

Tonight, the Vancouver Opera will be hosting their very first "Blogger Night at The Opera". They've invited four local bloggers (and their laptops) to attend tonight's Carmen at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and simultaneous liveblog the experience. The majority of the bloggers (URLS found here) have never been to the opera before, and will share their newbie impressions during pre/post show & intermission.

The performance starts at 7:30 pm (Pacific Standard Time). This VO production of Bizet's classic opened on Saturday night and has been slaying the critics, featuring the bewbtastic Rinat Shaham with a kung-fu grip as our smoking temptress (we kinda wonder if this post was just a flimsy excuse to publish the picture of Shaham's magnifi-scent glory above), David Pomeroy as Don José, Mariateresa Magisano as Micaëla, and Daniel Okulitch as Escamillo.

Go get 'em, bloggers!

Opera Finds a New Muse: Anime Flows From Vancouver Opera's Mad Styles

(Above: Fidelio as immortalized in comics by Vancouver Opera's OperaLive!)

Opera sometimes needs a kick in the pants(role) every now and then to resuscitate the sluggish soup and get the blood flowing to all those necessary & lovely extremities. We want to tingle, we want to sweat...let's all agree that we like our opera rugged & raw.

We've found an unpredictable & successful mix between opera and pop culture via OperaLive!, the media-filled sister website of their more serious parent site, Vancouver Opera, who has already moved onto Plan B while everyone is cruising along with predictable Plan A.

Combining condensed versions of libretti with anime & manga, Vancouver Opera has created a slick promotional and education tool, the perfect elixir to sway the under 30-something prospective opera fans, and elucidate opera's timeless tales as a sweet chaser.

We hate to gush with lust for the VO, but this is one of the most innovative culture jams we've had for opera since the Opera Chic blog O_o We're just down on our knees thankful that they did just straight up manga. We don't want to see Fidelio in a little schoolgirl's outfit attempting physically impossible ~things~ with tentacles.

Via the always awesome Vancouver Opera blog, you can find anime/manga versions of productions past & present, and almost all are a collaboration between editor Roy Husada and Fiona Meng's artwork. 

Go visit for full comix of Eugene Onegin, La Boheme, Fidelio, Cavelleria Rusticana, L'italiana in Algeri, Pagliacci, and Tosca. [Click on "READ" from the main menu ---> Click on "MANGA" from secondary menu]

~*~(Above: La Boheme)

(Above: Eugene Onegin)