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Parables of public and private funding in tales from two cities Spring 2014 OperaCanadaVolume lV $5.95 GrOUP DYNamIcs An insider’s guide to the art of singing in the opera chorus Opera from Community On Stage Rayanne Dupuis the Truck Affairs Mark S. Doss How live Met Vancouver Opera Leslie Ann Bradley stagings get to sets strategy to build Robert Clark the silver screen a new audience Shirin Eskandani Contents opera Canada Spring 2014 20 group dynamiCS An insider’s guide to the colorful working world of the opera chorus. By Lydia perovic´ 26 opera from the truCk Film director Barbara Willis Sweete explains how she translates Metropolitan Opera productions from stage to silver screen. By Christopher Hoile 32 Community outreaCh Vancouver Opera sets strategy to build a new audience in a changing world. By rosemary Cunningham departments 4 Editor’s notebook 5 Opera in the news 8 Artists on Stage: rayanne Dupuis, Mark S. Doss Leslie Ann Bradley, robert Clark and Shirin Eskandani 14 new productions/new roles: How Winnipeg’s Michael Cavanagh found his voice as a stage director 16 Letters from Linz and Montreal: Two tales of public and privatge funding 34 Calendar: live performances and Saturday transmissions 36 Opera in review 56 Opera at Home: Jon Vickers and Louis Quilico live in Otello, Winterreise from gerald Finley, robert Carsen and Michael Levine stage Die Zauberflöte, Doug Macnaughton in recital …and more reVieWS 62 Final Take: music soprano Sondra radvanovsky madrid can’t live without Daniel Okulitch as Ennis del Mar in the Teatro Real pre- miere of Charles Wuorinen’s Brokeback Mountain See page 36 BoaRD OF DIRECTORS EDITOR ADVERTISING OperaCanada CHAIR: Stephen Clarke Wayne Gooding & MARKETING ENQUIRIES Lasana Barrow [email protected] 416-363-0396 Nadia Formigoni [email protected] FOUNDING EDITOR SENIOR CONSULTING EDITOR David Hamilton (ex officio) Ruby Mercer Neil Crory Damiano Pietropaolo Cover: Collage of production Volume LV Nabeela Ratansi ASSOCIATE EDITORS photos from Canadian Opera Number 1 Alia Rosenstock Paula Citron, Joseph So Company/Michael Cooper Edition 223 $5.95 Donald Rumball & Chris Hutcheson ART DIRECTION AND DESIGN Date of issue: Spring 2014 Richard Turp Fresh Art & Design Inc. PUBLISHER James Warrillow (ex officio) Opera Canada Publications Rev. Edward Jackman (Honorary) CIRCULATION operacanada.ca Wayne Gooding (ex officio) Abacus 1-800-222-5097 PHOTO: JAVIER DEL REAL PHOTO: JAVIER Spring 2014 3 Notebook BY WAYNE GOODING Spring 2014 ★ We had already gone At press time, the company to press with the last issue when was in fact looking again to see word came that our review of if there may be any way of con- OperaCanada Verdi’s last opera, Falstaff, would tinuing (it had already cut down also be our final review from the number of productions and Opera Hamilton. Follow- performances given annually). Publisher’s Circle (donations of $1,000 or more) BMO Financial Group, Jacqueline Desmarais, David ing a debilitating bankruptcy But even if this turns into a near- Giles and Carol Derk, Wayne Gooding, Father Edward and considerable downsizing death experience rather than the Jackman, The Jackman Foundation, John B. Lawson, Marjorie and Roy Linden, Stratton Trust, Janet Stubbs. just a few years ago, the company finally real thing, San Diego’s plight, like Opera Editor’s Circle (donations of $500 or more) faced financial realities and closed its doors Hamilton’s, is another dark reminder that the Yulanda Faris, David Hamilton, Linda and Michael after more than 30 years. It was, as General model for running an opera company needs Hutcheon, Stephen Ralls and Bruce Ubukata, Colleen Sexsmith, David E. Spiro, Arija and Clarence Stiver, Director David Speers wrote in a Jan. 11 a radical rethink. Christopher Koelsch, Presi- Opera Canada is published by Opera Canada Publications, letter announcing the news, “a truly tragic dent and CEO of Los Angeles Opera, put 366 Adelaide Street East, Suite 244, Toronto, Ontario and sad development.” Speers had actu- matters succinctly when he issued a public M5A 3X9. Phone (416) 363-0395. Fax (416) 363-0396. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect ally resigned last November 30, though no comment on events further down the coast the organization’s. announcement was made in hopes some in San Diego. “Even now, we fight the per- th PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40005380 11 -hour financial miracle might avoid ception that opera companies are for-profit RETURN UNDELIVERABLE CANADIAN ADDRESSES TO: total shutdown, but there was none. Indeed, industries, rather than the simple, stark truth OPERA CANADA SUBSCRIPTIONS DEPT., PO BOX 819, MARKHAM, ONTARIO, L3P 5A2 one of the reasons Speers gave for the final that we are entirely dependent on the good E-MAIL: [email protected] decision to cease operations was the failure will of the ticket buyer, and the generosity Opera Canada’s one-year subscription rates are $29.50 for to realize “one major contribution which of the philanthropist.” individuals, or $39.50 for institutions (GST included). Outside Canada: US$29.50 (individuals) or US$39.50 was committed to us over a year ago,” but Even the biggest companies are sounding (institutions). Opera Canada is available on newsstands which in the end “did not come through alarm bells. At San Francisco Opera’s annual across Canada. For subscription enquiries, please call our subscription department at 1-800-222-5097 (toll free). in time to help.” Even if it had, the funds general meeting in March, General Director Please let us know if you are moving. Send your new would only have seen OH through to the David Gockley talked about the “structural address with a mailing label showing your old address from end of the current season, and the outlook problems we face as a company and some a recent issue (if available) to: Opera Canada Subscriptions, PO Box 819, Markham, ON, L3P 8A2. remained bleak and daunting beyond that. of the systemic issues facing the industry as Copyright: © 2013 Opera Canada Publications. If you follow opera around North a whole…the slowly declining role of sub- All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be America, you’ll know that OH isn’t the scriptions, the difficulty of balancing budgets, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, only casualty of this 2013/14 season, which the lack of bankable stars, the marginaliza- electronic or mechanical (inc. photocopy) or in any other information storage and retrieval system, without got off to a terrible start with the failure tion of the classical arts in education and written permission from Opera Canada Publications. of New York City Opera last October. the mass media, the plethora of competing Opera Canada is published with the financial assistance of Indianapolis Opera has canned it’s fourth entertainment forms and opportunities… the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council. We also extend special thanks to private donors whose continuing and final production of the season, citing that compete for the time and attention of support is vital to making this publication possible. financial challenges, while its board works people who could be going to the opera.” FROM TIME TO TIME, OPERA CANADA OR OTHER to address “systemic and national trends Speers cited some of these same problems CAREFULLY SCREENED ORGANIZATIONS SEND MAIL TO SUBSCRIBERS, OffERING PRODUCTS OR in the opera business model.” That tradi- in his Jan. 11 letter (p. 6), and elsewhere in this SERVICES THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST. IF YOU tional model appears to have failed, too, at issue we learn something of how Vancouver DO NOT WISH TO RECEIVE SUCH CORRESPONDENCE, PLEASE CONTACT US AT: [email protected], the higher-profile San Diego Opera—it’s Opera is rethinking its business model to sur- BY FAX AT 905-946-0410, BY PHONE (TOLL FREE) among the biggest 10 companies in the vive and thrive in a changing world (p. 32). AT 1-800-222-5097 OR BY MAIL TO: OPERA CANADA SUBS. DEPT., PO BOX 819, MARKHAM, ON, L3P 8A2. U.S.—which stunned everyone in March It’s instructive in this context, too, to read our when it announced that it would close Letter from Linz (p. 16), which underlines We acknowledge the financial support of the Government down at the end of this season, right on again the radically different approach to arts of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund and the Department of Canadian Heritage. the eve of its 50th anniversary. “The option funding enjoyed by many European compa- was to borrow and limp a little longer and nies—though this is perhaps less about money hope something would change, or to ride than it is about the value society puts on the AM L it out until we hit the wall,” Faye Wilson, arts. It underwrites a model North Ameri- PRINTING: HARMONY PRINTING LTD, TORONTO, ONTARIO a lifetime member of the San Diego board, can companies can only dream about. PHOTO: PETER This document is printed said of the decision. —[email protected] on recycled paper and is recyclable. 4 opera Canada Opera in the News Tracking Canadians at home & abroad honors and awards opera.ca has announced that BC-based investor, actor, playwright and director Robert Lepage was businessman and philanthropist Michael O’Brian is the recip- awarded the 10th Glenn Gould Prize Mar. 31 at a gala cere- ient of the 2014 National Opera mony at Rideau Hall, hosted by the Glenn Gould Foundation Directors Recognition Award, spon- and their Excellencies the Right Honourable David Johnston, sored by BMO Financial Group. Governor General of Canada, and Mrs. Sharon Johnston. O’Brian was cited for his deep Lepage was recognized for his artistic excellence and lifetime ongoing commitment to support- devotion to the arts.