Tuesday Trivia: Yankee Doodle Dandy

In anticipation of our cousin's down South and their birthday this Saturday, we offer you an "all American" quiz.

Match the places to the clues:


1. Leonard Bernstein was born here
2. Home of the Glimmerglass Opera
3. Setting of the final act of Manon Lescaut
4. John Adams was born here
5. One of two settings for Un Ballo in Maschera
6. Jessye Norman was born here
7. Leontyne Price was born here
8. Carlisle Floyd was born here
9. The War Memorial Opera House is in this city
10. Setting of La Fanciulla del West

a) New Orleans, Louisiana
b) Latta, South Carolina
c) Lawrence, Massachusetts
d) Worcester, Massachusetts
e) Sierra Madre Mountains, California
f) Augusta, Georgia
g) San Francisco, California
h) Laurel, Mississippi
i) Cooperstown, New York
j) Boston, Massachusetts

Post your answers as comments. First one with the most correct wins. This week's prize is two tickets to that all-American game - baseball! We've got two tickets to the Vancouver Canadians at beautiful Nat Bailey stadium for the first person to answer correctly.

Last week's winner is James Plett! (James, contact Ling @ lchan@vancouveropera.ca to get your prize).

Top Ten Fridays: Opera Survival Tips

It’s Hard out Here for an Opera Character. The life span of a lead character in an opera makes a mayfly look like an immortal. Perpetually Hobbesian in nature, opera characters lives are nasty, loud, and short. As a gesture of humanity the Vancouver Opera staff has developed a list of Survival Tips for our friends of the operatic nature in the hopes that they may one day loose the bonds of their librettist and make it to curtain call.






1. Shoot First (Lensky) 25%

2. Properly store cutlery in the kitchen. (Scarpia) 25%

3. Don’t date Americans (Cio Cio San) 25%

4. Go to bed earlier and cut down on the champagne (Violetta) 16%

5. Always check that the gun is really firing blanks before standing in front of it (Cavaradossi) 25%

6. Don’t leave home without sufficient snacks and Gatorade (Manon Lescaut) 25%

7. Confirm that there are enough life jackets and life boats before boarding (Peter Grimes) 16%

8. Join PETA. No hunting. (Siegfried) 16%

9. Check for a pulse (Romeo) 33%

10. No haggling over price (Lulu) 8%

Vote for your favorites on the sidebar poll and tune in next week for more Top Ten Fun! For last week's results on the Top Ten Haunted Opera Houses, check here for the suspiciously supernatural voting results.

PS: Feel free to add your own advice in the comments section!

Visiting our Southern Neighbours

I am recently back from five days in San Miguel de Allende, where I helped judge a vocal competition for young Mexican singers. The competition, Cantantes Camino al Estrella (Singers on the Road to Stardom), sponsored by Opera de San Miguel, is the brainchild of Joseph McClain. Joe was the stage director for our recent Salome production as well as earlier productions of Cavalleria rusticana/I Pagliaci and the Girl of the Golden West. He has lived full-time in San Miguel for six years.


Opera de San Miguel has a vision for operatic productions in the historic, monumental settings of the city itself, having already presented a semi-staged concert version of Carmen in the Plaza de Toros which was attended by 4500 “San Miguelenses.”



The competition was held in the charming, intimate Teatro Angela Peralta which seats about 450. Joe had earlier auditioned 130 singers in Mexico City, choosing 11 finalists for the competition: two tenors, two baritones, one bass, five sopranos and one mezzo. Our “star” judge was Gilda Cruz Romo, Mexico’s most important soprano of the last fifty years (I worked with her once, a couple of decades ago, in a production of Andrea Chenier). John Bills, a 25-year veteran of the Met chorus, and John Goodwin, music director of the New York Choral Society, and I rounded out the “jurado.”



We chose soprano Linda Gutierrez as the first place winner, followed by tenor José Chu and sopranos Alejandra Sandoval, and Alba Ramos. All of these young winners have great potential and I look forward top following their progress. And who knows – one of these days one of them may wind up on the QET stage!

I fell in love with San Miguel and plan to return – more than once, I hope. I will spare you my travelogue but be certain I could go on for hours about the beauty of the place and its special feeling and unique attractiveness, not to mention the food!

~ Jim Wright, General Director

Operamania 101: Your New Best Friend

I would imagine that most actors would like from their body of work to be known to movie-goers as one definitive character. A character they so embodied and was so convincing, we can't think of any other actor who would've done a better job portraying that character. Perhaps some actors would luck out and be known as 2 or more defining roles.

When I think of all American boy-next-door actor, Matt Damon, I think of Jason Bourne of Bourne Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum. But what also comes to mind is the smaller non-blockbuster movie that Damon was so convincing in: The Talented Mr Ripley. Matt Damon was Tom Ripley, just as Jude Law, in my eyes, will always be Dickie Greenleaf. This drama was a taut, on the edge of your seat thriller; so much so that I couldn't decide if I wanted Tom Ripley to get caught or to get away with his crime.

When Tom meets Dickie, the contrast between them couldn't be more different. Beside the fact that the two were from completely different social classes, Tom was a classical music and opera buff, while Dickie lived for jazz. And because of the privileges that Dickie has at his feet, Tom became obsessed with Dickie; first wanting to be his very best friend in the world, then wanting to literally be him. (hello, male version of Single White Female?)


Dickie and Tom. Friends til the end.

When Tom accidentally/on purpose kills Dickie, he then starts to assume Dickie's identity and lives Dickie's life of lavishness.

While in Rome, Tom watches an operatic performance of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin.


Watching the emotional duel scene of Eugene Onegin

When it came to the pistol duel between Onegin and his best friend Lenski, Tom started to weep because he drew parallels from the story unfolding right in front of him onstage, to him having just killed his best friend.



Click here for Lenski's aria from Act 2, Scene 2 that was portrayed in the movie:

Of course he was not sorry enough for what he did, nor did he want to give up his new lifestyle, as Tom continued desperately to play out the rest of the cat and mouse game in the movie.

The Talented Mr Ripley serves as a cautionary tale of "how well do you REALLY know your new best friend?" And also what can happen if you get stuck on a row boat, in the middle of the ocean and piss off said friend.

~ Ling Chan, Assistant to Managing Director

Tuesday Trivia: Never Bring A Knife To A Gunfight

So to follow up on our previous Tuesday Trivia: Deadpool, here's a quiz where you have to figure out if they were shot, stabbed, hung, chopped, shanked, poisoned or zapped at the end.

Go for it Quincy.....anybody remember Jack Klugman?


1. Siegfried (Fafner)
2. Eugene Onegin (Lensky)
3. Madama Butterfly (Madama Butterfly)
4. Dialogue of the Carmelites (Blanche)
5. Tosca (Mario)
6. Faust (Valentin)
7. Peter Grimes (Peter Grimes)
8. Gotterdammerung (Siegfried)
9. Lucia di Lammermoor (Edgardo)
10. Romeo et Juliette (Romeo)

a) Dagger
b) Firing squad
c) Sword
d) Dueling pistol
e) Poison
f) Guillotine
g) Dueling sword
h) Sinking ship
i) Spear
j) Ceremonial knife


Post your guesses as comments. First one in with the most right wins. This week's prize is two tix to Butterfly next spring.

Congrats to vcinbc for winning last week's quiz! Contact Ling and she'll set you up with a prize: Two Tix to Nixon in China.

BOV: Habanera Muppet Style

It's been a while since we've heard from the boys.

Hope this brings a smile to your face this morning...




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Ghost Story from St. Louis

Tom Wright had a chance to go see Opera Theatre of St. Louis' production of The Ghosts of Versailles in steamy Missouri to check out our co-producer's (with Wexford Festival Opera) production. Here's his report.

Standing ovation and enthusiastic applause from the opening night of Ghosts of Versailles. I must say it was a really entertaining evening.

Jim Robinson and his team really stripped down this piece from what the MET did. In fact on the tour of the set with Steven Ryan (OTSL TD) he told us that Jim and his team actually cut a lot of props and “stuff”.

It flowed very well. The projections were very good, subtle and only accentuated the action, never distracting. The separation of the “Ghosts” from the Beaumarchais characters is well done with costumes and make-up.

The simple set is changed by the dancers and chorus. Dancers play a larger role in the production than I had thought. The dancers last night did a wonderful job, really adding to the story telling. The Chorus is vocally not a large part of the show, although they are onstage a lot. The crew is going to be small for this show; there are only a few flying items.

Musically the score has two distinct sounds, going from the eerie ghost like strings/winds to the very lyrical full orchestra music that is heard during the Beaumarchais “Opera”. There is also some recit with harpsichord. Sean Panikkar (he was Almaviva) commented on the fact that our orchestra should do a great job with this piece.

Michael Christie, the young music director of the Phoenix Symphony, did a great job. He really knows the score. He is conducting it in Wexford.

David Agler was there with his board president (Wexford). Wexford and OTSL have entered into an agreement between the two companies to get both companies profiles raised in each others cities. There doing this because both theatres are similar. Also, OTSL is looking to raise its European profile and Wexford its North American profile.

What really impressed me was how easy the story is told and that the world of the “Ghosts” and that of the Beaumarchais opera that is being performed, transitions with ease. There is much humour and equally very touching moments. The “Marie Antoinette” aria in act one is beautiful. He has written it so the soprano needs to be strong from bottom to top. Maria Kanyova is a great actress and deserved the tumultuous applause she received both at the end of the aria and the bows. Canadian James Westman was Beaumarchais. He was fantastic. Solid actor and a beautiful voice.

Kevin Glavin, a great buffo bass, was Louis XV. This role requires a great actor more than a singer, in fact it is too bad there is not more for Kevin to sing because he has such a great voice.

The Figaro, Almaviva, Rosina, Cherubino and Susanna all did a fine job. We should be able to cast this using Canadians but I think we would be happy with any of the artists used in this production.

The tenor who sang Begearss was great, Matthew DiBattista. Again a wonderful actor with a piercing voice, and well-suited to the villain role he played.

All of the other smaller roles can certainly be done by young artists and from the chorus.

I’m excited about presenting this production to our audience. Terry Harper (Production Manager) and I enjoyed the production and feel it will work very well in our “proscenium” theatre. The video will be fantastic because we’ll have great separation (distance) between the two areas of projection. The music will also sound great because we’ll be able to get the entire orchestra in our large pit.

That’s all for now. A very exciting preview of things to come.

~ Tom Wright, Director of Artistic Planning

Top 10 Fridays: Haunted Opera Houses (North American edition)

With such a powerful array of emotions being played out on opera stages, it's not difficult to imagine how some hate to leave the excitement of opera houses, prefering to linger there as long as they could.

But to remain there for all eternity?

This week's Top 10 looks at (reported) Haunted Opera Houses with their ghostly performers continuing to tread the boards in the afterlife and audience apparitions with their phantom applause and laughter long after the lights have gone down and the building is empty.

Take our poll located on the right sidebar and let us know which Haunted Opera House you think is the creepiest.


1. Woodstock Opera House, Woodstock Illinois
There roams the spirit of a beautiful actress nicknamed “Elvira”. She reportedly committed suicide by jumping from the tower of theatre. She makes her presence known by props falling or disappearing off the stage. Or you can check out her favourite spring-loaded seat #113 slowly lowering by itself. 8% of vote


2. Central City Opera House, Colorado
A friendly ghost known as Mike Dougherty, who had drank himself to death. You'll know he's around by the strong waft of alcohol, nudges on the shoulder or hair being touseled from behind. Or catch him as flickering orbs of lights. 4% of vote


3. Orpheum Theatre, Memphis TN
The spirit of a little girl named Mary resides here. And just like a little girl, she giggles and plays pranks. Doors open and close by themselves and the pipe organ is played by unseen hands. Folks there hear small footsteps going up and down the aisles. Mary also has a favourite seat C-5. 6% of vote


4. Springer Opera House, Columbus GA
Edwin Booth, a Shakespearean actor when he was alive, appears suddenly on centre stage, moves stage props and taps people on the shoulder. The spirit, who's portrait still hangs at the opera house, also slams doors and locates missing wardrobe pieces. He was also the brother of John Wilkes Booth. (who you know as Abraham Lincoln's assassin) a supernatural 83% of vote


5. Grand Opera House, Dubuque Iowa
There are an unknown number of ghosts that refuse to leave here. Various encounters include singing from the empty stage, phantom footsteps and unexplained changes in temperature. On the technical front, there are reports of outages, spotlights falling or moving in all directions and lights turning on and off. 3% of vote


6. Canmore Opera House, Canmore AB
Yay, Canada! “Sam”, an older gentlemen ghost is seen wandering around or sitting in third seat of third row where he catches the performances. You may also find objects being misplaced. 3% of vote


7. Fulton Opera House, Lancaster Pennsylvia
The opera house was built partially over foundations of the old Lancaster jail where Conestoga Indians were kept for their own safety, before a mad mob rushed the jail to torture and kill them. Now, they make their presence known by ghostly lights and ghostly screams, phantom applause and the piano playing by itself. 3% of vote


8. Cabot Theatre, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The opera house is reputed to be haunted by the founder Clair Richardson, who makes himself known with flickering lights, moving props, falling exit signs, and most famously driving shows he doesn't like to a halt with technical problems. That might be because he swore the company would only continue, "over my dead body", so they placed his ashes under the stage! The dedicated spotlight on his urn below the stage is checked every night as part of the regular pre-show run down, because if the light goes out...old Clair acts up! 8% of vote


9. Orillia Opera House , Orillia ON
Another Canadian one! Here lives the spirit of actor Glenn Gould and he'll let you know he's around by unexplained piano playing, flushing toilets, cold spots and chilling screams. 3% of vote


10. Washington Opera House, Maysville, Kentucky
Dancer Loretta Stambo reported collapsed onstage from pneumonia and later died. Theatre folk have witnessed a coke bottle exploding all of a sudden in a dressing room. But that's nothing compared to how unnerved people feel looking at the painting of Loretta in the lobby. They swear that the eyes in the painting follow them around. 3% of vote

So next time you're at the opera and the hair on your neck stand up, it may NOT just be from the air con. Cuz everyone knows, once you get bit by the showbiz bug, it's very difficult to give it up.

Check back here next week for the hair-raising results. Spooky.

~ Ling Chan, Assistant to Managing Director

**Thanks for voting in last week's Top 10 poll for Top 10 Opera Fails! I'm sure this comes as no surprise, but the biggest fail is Talkers at the opera, followed closely by Stinkers. Tied at third place were the Ringers/Beepers and Latecomers.**

Salome on CBC June 20

Vancouver Opera's production of Salome, featuring Mlada Khuldoly, Greer Grimsley, John MacMaster, Judith Forst, and Sean Panikkar, will air on CBC’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera on Saturday June 20, 2009 at 1pm.

You can listen on the radio or tune in on the internet. Just go to http://www.cbc.ca/sato/ for more details.

Operamania 101: Only Stanley Kubrick

...could get away with this.

I think everyone has seen or attempted to have seen A Clockwork Orange growing up.

A rather disturbing and subversive little movie by director Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange follows a group of psychopathic delinquents' reign of terror in a small English town. The gang, calling themselves the Droogs, is fronted by Alex Delarge, played by the charismatic Malcolm McDowell. Alex, for all his leanings towards violence, surprisingly fancies classical music, particularly Beethoven.

The movie makes use of not one but 2 of Gioachino Rossini's operatic works.

One is the William Tell Overture used when Alex is having "relations" with 2 young devotchkas whom he picks up at a record store.

The other is the overture from La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie), which is played twice in the movie.



The first when the Droogs start a brawl with a rival gang.



And then when one Droog tries to challenge Alex for leadership of the gang and then gets shown the what's what.

Not for the faint of heart, although I did like the bowler hats, eyeliner, suspenders and cockney rhyming slang, A Clockwork Orange remains an iconic film by the bizarre genius that was Kubrick. It is definitely worth viewing, if only just to see how classical music and famous songs such as Singing in the Rain are used in ways one would've never imagined.



Which begs the question: what would Rossini, Beethoven and Gene Kelly have thought about all this?

~ Ling Chan, Assistant to Managing Director

Tuesday Trivia: Cars

When you type in "opera and cars" in a google image search, this is what pops up. Well, at least it's clean.



What do opera and cars have in common? "Car" appears as part of the answer to each of this week's questions.

1. Famous soprano aria in Rigoletto
2. Site of the Three Tenors concert July 7, 1990
3. Title role of femme fatale who works in a cigarette factory
4. Famous soprano aria in Gianni Schicchi
5. A 3 act opera by Paul Hindemith
6. German composer most famous for Carmina Burana
7. Name of the page in Un Ballo in Maschera
8. A 5 act opera by Giuseppe Verdi
9. The villain in Tosca
10. A 5 act opera by Hector Berlioz

Congrats to awc, last week's winner of the quiz. (AWC: get in touch with Ling at lchan@vancouveropera.ca and we'll get your prize to you)


Post you answers as comments. First one with the most right wins. This week's prize is.............hmmm, something car-related I think....

AWC is the winner of last week's "Top of the World, Ma!" Tuesday Trivia contest. Please email lchan@vancouveropera.ca for your prize!

BOV: Joan Sutherland at VO 1972

Here's a rarity...Joan Sutherland at Vancouver Opera in 1972's production of Lucrezia Borgia.

Chorus sounds awesome. (She's not bad either.)




What I want to know is who had a tape recorder handy in 1972?


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Top 10 Fridays: Opera Fails

To fully enjoy the visceral experience that is opera, there are certain things one must do: research the opera plot so you are familiar with what you're going to see, take the opportunity at the theatre to people watch and if you're in the mood, by all means, make a swanky date night out of it with dinner and cocktails.

Then there are certain things one musn't do.

Your weekly installment of Top 10 Fridays asks what you think is the biggest opera FAIL? Take our poll located on the right sidebar and let us know. And yes, you can choose more than one! (Poll is now closed, results are noted beside the descriptions of what % of people found that annoying)


Latecomers 32%


Rustling of candy wrappers 25%


Jangly Jewellery 10%


Talking during the performance 50%


Stinky smells: perfumes, colognes, cigarettes, body odour 35%


Not using the coat check 7%


Use of cell phones & electronic devices 32%


Mile high hair or non-removal of hats 10%


Coughs, sneezes and sniffles 28%


Leaving before or during curtain call 25%


Long lines for the bathrooms, bars or box office 28%


Falling asleep....and snoring 10%

Check back here next week for the biggest OPERA FAIL. Dunh, dunh, da!

~ Ling Chan, Assistant to Managing Director

**Thanks for voting in last week's Top 10 poll for Best Dressed Couple! Although everyone looked fantabulous and are winners all around, it came down neck and neck between Funky Elegance (61 votes) and Patterned Girls (62 votes). In the end, you definitely loved your couple with a bit of decoration! Congrats to all!**

The Magic Flute As You've Never Seen It Before

Although Kenneth Branagh's The Magic Flute was released overseas in 2007, it's just being released in Vancouver tomorrow. Branagh, director of Shakespeare's Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet and Love's Labour's Lost has re-worked Mozart's beloved fairy tale opera.

Opera fans should expect the movie to be different than how they'd normally watch Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. For starters, the movie is sung all in English (rather than in German) and is set against the backdrop of World War I. This fantasy/dramedy also utilizes computer graphics, coloured screens and CGI wizardry.



A fairy tale about a prince, his sidekick, a princess and the queen of the night, The Magic Flute is a story about following your heart and is chock full of love and hate, good and evil, knowledge and philosophy. Canadian tenor Joseph Kaiser plays lead character, Tamino.

Purists may be skeptical about the movie, but if you're a fan of Branagh's, it may be worth a look. A Magic Flute you've never seen before. Could be cinematic magic.

~ Ling Chan, Assistant to Managing Director

How Did We Do?

So what did you think of this most recent season? Let us know in the comments section. And to unfairly bias your responses, here's some video samples of audience reaction over the year:













Come join us on our YouTube Channel for more VO videos, video favorites, interviews and more!


{PS: there a prize to you if you can find someone who appears in more than one of these videos.}

How Would We Look As Anime?

If you happen to go to Anime Evolution 2009 this weekend, a 3 day festival celebrating all things anime, you'll find out about our latest surprise that we're launching this fall. (look inside your goody bag!)

Vancouver Opera is a proud sponsor of this year's Anime Evolution, alongside Nintendo, Sakura Media and The Connection Games.

Weekend activities will include panel discussions, workshops with voice actors, artists, animators and game developers, cosplay aka "costume roleplay" contests, 24-hour video rooms, a charity auction, games and much more.

So don on your Final Fantasy, Sailor Moon or Kill Bill's GoGo Yubari of The Crazy 88 Gang school girl outfits, this yearly festival will make you feel like you've walked into the pages of a manga or a video game.

For more info, check out Anime Evolution.

~ Ling Chan, Assistant to Managing Director

Operamania 101: Take Snacking to a Higher Level

I feel like a laugh today. It's mid-week. It's Operamania 101 Day.

I don't know what it is but people over at Doritos love them some opera!

The finalists in the past 3 years of Doritos' "Crash the Superbowl" campaign, a contest for fans to submit Doritos commercials in order to win $1M and have their ad televised during the big game, chose to set their commercials to famous operas.


Doritos - Crash the Super Bowl
2007 finalist "Live the Flavor" set to Libiamo Ne' Lieti Calici from Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata


2008 finalist "Mouse Trap" set to Habanera from Georges Bizet's Carmen


2009 finalist "Power of the Crunch" set again to Libiamo Ne' Lieti Calici from Verdi's La traviata

Not to be outdone, England came up with a similar contest called "Doritos UK Make Your Own Ad", where contestants could win £20K. And one finalist chose to use opera in a hilarious way:


"It Helps to Read the Brief" set to the tune of Nessun Dorma from Puccini's Turandot.

Puts one in a snacky mood, doesn't it? So while I go off in search of some cheesy goodness, below are Verdi and Puccini for your mid-week listening pleasure.





Enjoy.

~ Ling Chan, Assistant to Managing Director

Tuesday Trivia: Top Of the World, Ma!

Who doesn't love their mother? Cody Jarrett (Jimmy Cagney) did.

Match the mother to their child

1. Queen of the Night
2. CioCio San
3. La Marquise de Berkenfield
4. Herodias
5. Azucena
6. Lucia
7. Larina
8. Clytemnestra
9. Alice Ford
10. Countess di Coigny

a) Salome
b) Tatyana
c) Sorrow
d) Elektra
e) Marie
f) Maddalena
g) Nannetta
h) Pamina
i) Turiddu
j) Manrico


Post your answers as comments. First one with the most right answers wins. This week's prize is a Sex and the City DVD! Mom's like that kind of stuff, right?

Congrats to last week's winner Miss Mussell, who you can now follow from our sidebar of Opera links.

Hey, new rule. You can win once every 30 days, OK?

Opera Manga: The Complete Collection Vol. 1

Roy Husada's opera manga, will be available in a fabulous paperback compilation Fall of 2009 from Vancouver Opera for $20 CDN (+ shipping/handling).

Opera Manga: The Complete Collection Vol.1 will collect the work of by Roy Husada and Fiona Meng commissioned by Vancouver Opera, including the never-before-released manga for Norma, Nixon in China, Marriage of Figaro and an all new version of Madama Butterfly.

At 100+ pages this will be the largest collection of opera manga ever created. Originally published only as a serialized version in the Georgia Straight, these manga have never before been available to the collecting public.

Titles include:
* Barber of Seville
* The Threepenny Opera
* La Traviata
* The Masked Ball
* Madama Butterfly
* Cosi Fan Tutte
* Naomi's Road
* Der Rosenkavalier
* Dialogues of the Carmelites
* Faust
* Turandot
* Tosca
* La Boheme
* Cavalleria Rusticana
* I Pagliacci
* Fidelio
* The Italian Girl in Algiers
* Eugene Onegin
* Carmen
* Rigoletto
* Salome

The collection will be printed by a leading Canadian graphic arts publisher as a full-color, glossy, 6" x 10" high quality bound graphic arts manga publication.

Preorder now for $20 CDN (+s/h)to be the first to receive this ground-breaking manga collection as VO celebrates its Golden Anniversary!

Preorders and additional information on this 100+ page one-of-a-kind compilation available via email: lchan@vancouveropera.ca

To see samples of the work, please visit us at www.operalive.ca

Old School Classic Vinyl

VO recently received a bequest of a ton of old school vinyl opera records. You want some? We cherry-picked the ones we'd like to keep and still have scores of classic, high quality opera and feature albums.

Before we put them up on Craigs List or Ebay, come on down to the opera offices and pick up some for yourself. Free to a good home while supplies last.

Call Polly at the main number if you'd like to come shop: 604-682-2871.

BOV: Puppet Fledermaus

Viva La Voce is for real. Whatever works to bring opera to the people.




"With the band, I have to be able to go where the puppets want to go."

Well said, maestro.


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New Feature: Sunday Family Brunch

Next week we'll be starting a new feature called "Sunday Family Brunch". In it, we'll be doing on the blog just what people do in real life on Sunday afternoons. No, not watching sports and folding laundry. More like catching up with friends and family.

On the VO blog we'll be catching up with some of the artists you've seen on our stages in recent seasons, as well as checking in on some who will be joining us this year. We hope this will give you a chance to catch up with your favorite VO singers and learn a little more about those we look forward to adding to the VO "family" of singers.

Yannick-Muriel Noah was in Montreal last week for the Montreal Music Festival. While she was waiting to perform in the finals, Susan LePage from the VO Guild called her to tell her she had received Vancouver Opera Guild's Career Development Award. Minutes later she won second prize in Montreal. She had a good day, and has had a good spring, having just been named a winner of the George London Foundation Award not long ago.

Other winners of the George London Foundation Award this year include VO singers Sean Panikkar and Simone Osborne.

That's just a little taste of next week's start to the new feature. So next Sunday, after you've taken care of your family, come check in with ours.

Cheers.

Top 10 Fridays: Best Dressed Couples

One of the best things about coming to the opera (besides the wonderful and exciting productions on-stage) is to check out what the lovely folks of Vancouver are wearing to the opera.

While there is no official "dress code", it's always a delight when young couples go all out and dandy themselves up. Many treat going out to see an opera as a full-on date night: dressing up, cocktails & dinner followed by opera at the theatre.

And that is what we LOVE to see.

While there were oh-so-many to choose from this past season with our Carmen, Rigoletto and Salome productions, here are our picks for 10 Best Dressed Couples. We invite you to take our poll located on the right sidebar and tell us your pick for #1 Best Dressed Couple. Check back here next week for the results!


The Sophisticates


Tangerine & Lime


Pinstripes & Shine


Splash of Colour


Bejewelled Ladies


Girls with Curls


Funky Elegance


Elegant & Ruffled


Patterned Girls


Feathers & Shine

Catching one of our operas is your front row ticket to a fashion show! It's the ultimate in people-watching.

We can't wait to see what our PYTs come up with for next season!

Check out all our fashion photos on our Flickr stream today!

~ Ling Chan, Assistant to Managing Director

**Thanks for voting in last week's first Top 10 poll! Boy, was it ever so close! By a difference of one vote, your pick for #1 Modern Opera House was Queen Sofia Palace of the Arts in Valencia, Spain!**

Top Modern Opera House: Valencia

El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía aka Queen Sofia Palace of the Arts
Valencia, Spain

El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia of Valencia Spain edged out "The Egg" in Beijing as the VO fans "Top Modern Opera House" in last weeks poll. It was followed by Copenhagen Opera House, then Helsinki, Oslo and Toronto to round out the top six.

The Queen Sophia Palace of the Arts, opened on 8 October 2005, is a futuristic temple of music dedicated to Queen Sophia of Spain. It was designed by famed Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who was born near Valencia.

The project cost € 165 million to build, and is one of the world's biggest structures of its kind: it extends 40,000 m2 over 12 stories and hosts four performance spaces (opera house, symphonic concert hall, ballet house and theatre) with a total audience capacity of 4,000. It rises 75m high, extends 163m in length and is 87m wide. The top section is 237m long. The building is surrounded by 40,000m2 of gardens, 11,000m2 of pools and footpaths.

Scenic lifts and sweeping stairways along the steel cladding on each side of the building give access to the terraces located at varying levels, and to the gardens and footpaths. The main material used in the construction was white concrete which covers most of the structural supports. The mosaic chosen to cover the steel shells was also an unusual choice. "To tie the palace even more to the city of Valencia", explained Calatrava, "I opted for the traditional ceramic used over the centuries here, including the shard variety that we call trencadis".

The building is part of an impressive Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias de Valencia, which is home to L´Hemisfèric, the Prince Felipe Science Museum and L´Umbracle, and L'Oceanogràfic.

The programming the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía {PHOTOS} includes celebration of the Operalia Event, under the management of Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo. This is one of the most prestigious international competitions for opera singers starting out on their career. It produces a full season of opera under the baton of Music Director Lorin Maazel and under the direction of Intendent and Regia, Helga Schmidt.

The 'Bot Wants You!

Our Operabot contest got mentioned in this week's Georgia Straight.

To get in on the hot action, go to Vancouver Opera's YouTube Channel.

Drool-worthy prizes include:

Wacom Intuos4
Fuji FinePix S-5100 Camera
A games package: Dead Space, Fear 2, Call of Duty: World at War, Street Fighter 4 for PS3 or 360
PS3 with exclusive Kill Zone 2

So feel free to go all-out and come up with some mind-blowin', gangbusters shorts inspired by our operas next season!

We can't wait to see your creations!