Opera & Arias August 26 & Sep足tem足ber 2, 2013
Viva Verdi!
featuring UBC OPERA ENSEMBLE & members of the VANCOUVER OPERA ORCHESTRA Directed by Nancy Hermiston Conducted by Leslie Dala Hosted by Christopher Gaze
Sponsored by:
Viva Verdi!
August 26, 1 p.m. September 2, 7 p.m.
August 26, 7 p.m. September 2, 1 p.m.
La Traviata
Libiamo (tutti) Violetta Flora Baron Alfredo Gaston Doctor Marquis
Valse-Duetto Violetta Alfredo
Nicole Brooks Christina Kent Micah Schroeder Jonny Michel William Grossman Elliot Harder Geoff Schellenberg
Natascia Dell’erba Rachel Stewart Alireza Mojibian Tony Caruso Spencer Britten Geoff Schellenberg Simon Lee
Eden Tremayne Harout Markarian
Natascia Dell’erba Tony Caruso
E strano – Sempre libera Violetta
Eden Tremayne
De miei bollenti spiriti Alfredo
Nicole Brooks
Harout Markarian
Tony Luca Caruso
Sheldon Baxter
Sheldon Baxter
Di Provenza Giorgio Germont
Noi siamo zingarelle and Di Madride noi Siam matadors (Gypsy and Matador Choruses)
August 26, 1 p.m. September 2, 7 p.m.
August 26, 7 p.m. September 2, 1 p.m.
Il Trovatore
Tacea la notte placida Leonora
Ah si, ben mio Manrico
Di quella pira Manrico
Rhoslyn Jones
Rhoslyn Jones
Weilong Tao
Weilong Tao
Weilong Tao and chorus
Anvil Chorus ———————————Intermission———————————
Nabucco
Va Pensiero Chorus Rigoletto
Caro nome Gilda
Bahareh Poureslami
La donna e mobile Duke
Tony Caruso
Rigoletto Quartet Gilda Duke Magdalena Rigoletto
Bahareh Poureslami Tony Caruso Courtney Bridge Peter Monaghan
Taylor Pardell
Tony Caruso
Taylor Pardell Tony Caruso Francesca Corrado Jose Ramirez Solano
August 26, 1 p.m. September 2, 7 p.m.
August 26, 7 p.m. September 2, 1 p.m.
Un Ballo in Maschera
Volta la terra Oscar
Saper Voresti Oscar
Hillary Young
Eva Tavares
Eva Tavares
Simone McIntosh
Eden Tremayne Rachel Stewart Courtney Bridge Yichan Shu Micah Schroeder Jonny Michel Peter Monaghan Eric Schwarzhoff Cliff Wong Cameron Killick
Chelsea Rus Christina Kent Joseryl Beckley Katie McCullough Sheldon Baxter Spencer Britten Duncan Watts-Grant William Grossman Sung San Oh Jose Ramirez
Falstaff
Final Scene
Alice Meg Page Quickly Nanetta Ford Fenton Pistol Bardolfo Dr. Cajus Falstaff Full chorus
VANCOUVER OPERA ORCHESTRA Mark Ferris, 1st violin, Concertmaster Dom Ivanovic, 2nd Violin Isabelle Roland, Viola Susan Round, Cello Les Kasprzak, Bass Brenda Fedoruk, Flute David Owen, Oboe
Mary Backun, Clarinet Ingrid Chiang, Bassoon Laurel Spencer, Horn Tom Shorthouse, Trumpet Ken Surges, Trombone Philip Crewe, Timpani/Percussion David Boothroyd, Keyboard
Please turn off all cell phones and electronic devices. The use of cameras or recording devices in the theatre is strictly prohibited.
NANCY HERMISTON, Director and Soprano
Canadian-born lyric coloratura Nancy Hermiston has performed throughout Europe and North America. Parallel to her extensive singing career, Miss Hermiston worked as voice teacher, stage director, and Co-coordinator with the University of Toronto’s Opera and Performance Divisions. In 1995 she joined the University of British Columbia’s School of Music as the Head of the Voice and Opera Divisions, where she established the UBC Opera Ensemble. In 2004 Professor Hermiston was named the UBC University Marshal. In 2008 UBC awarded her the Dorothy Somerset Award for Performance and Development in the Visual and Performing Arts. She was also honoured with a Killam Teaching prize in 2010. In 2011 she was awarded the prestigious Rubie Award by Opera Canada. Miss Hermiston is also a favourite guest for master classes throughout Canada, China and Germany. Her UBC Opera Ensemble tours regularly to the Czech Republic, Germany, Ontario and throughout British Columbia. The Opera Ensemble gave their first performances in Beijing and Chengdu in May of 2009, and returned to Shanghai in May 2010 for concerts at the Shanghai Conservatory and the Shanghai Normal University. In the summer of 2012 she joined the University of Toronto’s COSI program in Sulmona, Italy, where she worked with young singers from all regions of Canada. Her 2012–2013 Season began with the Vancouver Opera, where she directed the company’s opening production, Puccini’s La Bohème. This year the UBC Opera Ensemble will present Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann with guest conductor Leslie Dala, Nino Rota’s The Florentine Straw Hat with conductor David Agler, and Janaček’s The Cunning Little Vixen with conductor Norbert Baxa.
LESLIE DALA, Conductor
Leslie Dala is the Music Director of the Vancouver Bach Choir, Associate Conductor and Chorus Director of Vancouver Opera and Music Director of the Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra. He has worked at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Canadian Opera Company, the Santa Fe Opera and l’Opera National du Rhin and is a frequent guest conductor with the UBC Opera Ensemble and Soundstreams Canada. Recent conducting highlights include Haydn’s The Creation, the Canadian premiere of John Adams’ Oratorio El Niño and a Verdi & Wagner Gala with the Vancouver Bach Choir and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra; La Bohème, The Magic Flute and West Side Story with Vancouver Opera, Albert Herring with Pacific Opera Victoria, The Nutcracker with the Goh Ballet, Carmen with the UBC Opera in Vancouver, the Westben Festival and in Teplice, Czech Republic and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 with the VAMSO. Leslie also recently conducted concerts in Beijing and Taipei as part of a tour of contemporary music presented by Soundstreams Canada. This season he will lead The Tales of Hoffmann with the UBC Opera Ensemble, Albert Herring with both Vancouver Opera and the University of Toronto Opera Program and Handel’s Messiah with the Vancouver Bach Choir.
CHRISTOPHER GAZE, Host
Best known as Artistic Director of Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, Christopher Gaze has performed in England, the USA and across Canada. Born in England, he trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School before coming to Canada in 1975 where he spent three seasons at the Shaw Festival. He moved to Vancouver in 1983 and in 1990 founded Bard on the Beach which he has since nurtured to become one of the most successful not-for-profit arts organizations in North America, with average attendance exceeding 85,000. In addition to performing and directing for Bard, Christopher’s voice is heard regularly in cartoon series, commercials and on the radio. He also hosts Vancouver Symphony’s popular Tea & Trumpets series and their annual Christmas concerts. His many honours include induction into the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame, Canada’s Meritorious Service Medal (2004), Honorary Doctorates from UBC & SFU, the BC Community Achievement Award (2007), the Gold Medallion from the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America (2007), the Mayor’s Arts Award for Theatre (2011) and the Order of British Columbia (2012). In December 2012, Christopher starred in and directed Vancouver Opera’s The Pirates of Penzance.
Bard on the Beach
is one of Canada’s largest not-for profit, professional Shakespeare festivals. Presented in a magnificent setting on the waterfront in Vancouver’s Vanier Park, the Festival offers Shakespeare plays, related dramas, and several special events in two performance tents from June through September.
A custom-built Mainstage was erected in 2011, offering expanded seating (742 seats), a redesigned stage and more comfortable seating for patrons. The Mainstage tent is open-ended so that the actors perform against a spectacular backdrop of mountains, sea and sky - a highlight of the unique Bard experience. Two productions are performed in repertory in the tent from early June through mid-September. The Douglas Campbell Studio Stage tent seats 240 and its two repertory productions run from the end of June through September. This intimate performance space features Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays or his great classics presented with less traditional staging.
The University of British Columbia Opera Ensemble
was founded by Canadian lyric Coloratura Nancy Hermiston in 1995. Beginning with a core of seven performers, Ms. Hermiston has built the program to a 70-member company, now performing three mainstage productions at UBC every season, six Opera Tea Concerts, and several engagements with local community partners. The Ensemble’s mission is to educate gifted opera singers, preparing them for international careers. Past main-stage productions have included Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, Die Gärtnerin aus Liebe, Così fan tutte, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica, Cendrillon, Don Giovanni, La Bohème, Dido and Aeneas, The Merry Widow, The Bartered Bride, Manon, Eugene Onegin, Florence Lady with the Lamp, Dreamhealer, Falstaff, the Western Canadian Premiere of Harry Somers’ Louis Riel, Robert Ward’s opera The Crucible and Dvořák’s Rusalka, Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites and Bizet’s Carmen. The Ensemble tours regularly throughout Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany and China. In the 2013–2014 Season, the Ensemble presents Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, Nino Rota’s The Florentine Straw Hat and Janaček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. We hope you will join us for this exciting new season of opera.
The VANCOUVER OPERA ORCHESTRA
is one of only two professional opera orchestras in Canada and has been recognized as a formidable musical force. Formed in 1977, the Orchestra’s first performance was for the production of Massenet’s Le Roi de Lahore, starring Joan Sutherland and conducted by Richard Bonynge. Several players who were in the pit for Le Roi de Lahore are still members of the VO Orchestra today. Since it was formed, the VO Orchestra has played more than a hundred opera productions, numerous stage productions, and many concerts. This season, members of the orchestra will play for Goh Ballet’s The Nutcracker. The Orchestra has strong ties to the community: many of its players are professional educators and active freelance musicians in the Lower Mainland. Collectively, they make an important contribution to the cultural life of our city.
PRODUCTION TEAM Technician: Set Design: Hair/Wigs: Make-up: Costumes:
Alia Stephen Pam Johnson Elke Englicht Carmen Garcia Francesca Corrado, Rachel Stewart
VO-13-14-Bard Arias ad.indd 1
UBCOPERA
13-07-31 1:40 PM
2013/2014 SEASON
THE TALES THE FLORENTINE OF HOFFMANN STRAW HAT (LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN)
(IL CAPPELLO DI PAGLIA DI FIRENZE)
JACQUES OFFENBACH
NINO OTA
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Special Thanks
THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN
(PŘÍHODY LIŠKY BYSTROUŠKY) JANÁČEK UBC School of Music 6361 Memorial Road Vancouver, BC www.music.ubc.ca
The David Spencer Endowment Encouragement Fund Dr. Irving Guttman / Vancouver Opera