Looking Toward The Future

Welcome to Vancouver Opera’s 49th season. Our new production of Eugene Onegin makes its appearance during a period of unprecedented creative activity. Recently, we held the first music workshop for our full-length commissioned opera Lillian Alling, by John Estacio and John Murrell. It was exciting to sit in the rehearsal hall and hear the first thirty minutes of music come to life through the vocal instruments of a group of talented Vancouver singers. With John Estacio’s score and John Murrell’s libretto combining to work their magic, we saw “Lillian” standing before us,in a farmer’s field in North Dakota, singing of the breadth and beauty of the land she was crossing on the trek that would take her from New York to northern B.C., and into legend.

Also this fall, another of VO’s commissioned works is nearing completion: Jack Pine, an environmentally themed opera for young audiences and their families by Vancouver composer and performer Veda Hille, based on a story poem by Canadian author Christopher Patton. Jack Pine will begin its tour of B.C. schools and community venues in February. By the end of 2009 it will have been seen and heard by about 50,000 people. That’s as many audience members as attend mainstage performances each season. This week, the finishing touches are being applied by Veda, director Amiel Gladstone, and the young singers who will take the production on the road.

Next year during our 50th Anniversary 2009 - 2010 season, the eyes of the world will be on us when we present the Canadian première of John Adams’ brilliant Nixon in China in an exciting new production that will be part of the Cultural Olympiad. The following fall, in October 2010, as the culmination of our anniversary celebrations we will present the world première of Lillian Alling. And in 2011-2012 we will produce the Canadian première of John Corigliano’s marvelous Ghosts of Versailles.

This level of creative activity is especially bracing right now, coming as it does at a time when economic forces are causing many of us to feel at least a little insecure. But artistic creation is by nature optimistic: it affirms a belief in the future of humankind. It is also by nature confident in its own value to that future. In times of social challenge or economic unease, or worse, that optimism and self-confidence are, we believe, just what we need.

The board and the artistic and administrative leadership of Vancouver Opera operate from the conviction – borne of many decades, collectively, of experience in the arts and in business – that the impulse to create and the desire to be part of the creative experience are in our collective and individual souls. The arts are thus essential nutrients for life. Vancouver Opera plays an important part in enriching the lives of families and individuals throughout the province and in engaging our community in thinking about our lives. So, with optimism and confidence, Vancouver Opera continues to create and looks forward to a busy and exhilarating future.

We will be taking careful, responsible steps on our journey: with eight operating surpluses in the past nine seasons, VO has proven itself to be a responsible steward of the generous support it receives from the community and from all levels of government. As we implement our exciting plans for our anniversary season and the seasons that follow, we will continue to apply our successful formula of fiscal prudence and calculated artistic risk. We look forward to sharing our creative future with you.

~ Alex R. Besharat, Chair, Board of Directors
~ James W. Wright, General Director