From January 30–February 2, UBC Opera put on their version of Street Scene at the Chan Centre and unfortunately, it was a slightly underwhelming affair — save for select standout performances.
This past weekend, UBC Opera performed a run of Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1878 comedy H.M.S Pinafore, directed by UBC Opera Ensemble founder Nancy Hermiston and conducted by Leslie Dala.
In the early 1900s, a clockmaker’s wife plans to meet up with her lovers while her husband is out of the house. Hijinks ensue and both lovers end up stuck inside clocks, forced to somehow make their escape without the clockmaker catching on to his wife’s agenda.
When explorer and author Isabelle Eberhardt was old enough to roam Geneva’s streets, her father let her wander alone under one condition: that she wear trousers.
“All art is expression in some way,” said Emerson Landwehr, a musician and student at UBC. “If you have multiple mediums of art, I think it’s easy to, once you get very invested in one of them ... also have that creatively influence other things, and it can create a sort of feedback loop.”
A dazzling and ranged chorus, characters with pomp and vibrant textiles and scenery are just some of the ways UBC Opera is bringing Jules Massenet’s 1895 romantic opera Cendrillon — sung entirely in French — to life.
In the ambient cocktail lighting of the Fox Cabaret, we were contemplating the features of a good show over palomas on a Tuesday evening.
The threat of power can often spark either a fight or flight response. In The Cunning Little Vixen, our protagonist chooses the former, finding herself liberated and returning to the forest that is a home to creatures not too different from you and I.
Recovering from your Halloweekend hangover? Us too.
Throughout August, the Vancouver City Opera’s Summer Serenades series has been offering free outdoor matineé performances on Fridays and weekends at the Sun Yat-Sen Courtyard in Chinatown, Milton Wong Plaza in the Olympic Village and Roundhouse Turntable Plaza in Yaletown.
Before doing both his bachelor’s and master’s in opera performance at UBC, Luka Kawabata studied engineering at Queen’s University.
Through physiological and psychological evaluations, researchers hope to demonstrate the effects of opera training on memory and executive function.
