NATIONAL CAPITAL OPERA SOCIETY • SOCIÉTÉ D'OPÉRA DE LA CAPITALE NATIONALE Newsletter • Bulletin Fall 2003 Automne P.O. Box 8347, Main Terminal, Ottawa, Ontario K1G 3H8 • C.P. 8347, Succursale principale, Ottawa (Ontario) K1G 3H8 ALL WE NEED IS YOU!! by Murray Kitts November 14th is the day chosen to celebrate the Dave Stephens has agreed to be our Master of 20th anniversary of the founding of the National Ceremonies again. Capital Opera Society. Invitations have gone out to all former Board Since its founding the NAC has been tire- Members to attend on this special night and already less in the promotion of opera in this region, has quite a number have promised to be there. lobbied for the return of the marvellous opera sum- Of course we are sure as many as possible mer festival and has helped aspiring young singers of you, our regular members, will attend. Reserva- through grants to organizations like Opera Lyra and tions can be made at 729-9518 or 741-3290. with our own Brian Law Scholarship. But what we need right now are dona- President Bobbi Cain and her committee has tions for the silent auction. The price we already been hard at work arranging for a fine meal charge ($45 per person) for an event such as at St. Anthony’s Hall. Renate Chartrand has been this covers costs of food, rent, publicity, art- working on the publicity. Gerda Ruckerbauer is pre- ists, etc. The silent auction is the real fund- paring attractive centerpieces for the tables. raising part of the evening. Jean Saldanha and Dan Leeman are assist- So we really need your help. ing Bobbi, joined on Your donations do not this occasion by have to be connected to NoraBrian Patsouris. opera or music. We have LawMaria received in the past many Knapik, our won- choice items in the past derful guest singer, which had just been col- is preparing a spe- lecting dust somewhere. cial programme for Renate Chartrand at 741- us, including oper- 3290 and Jean Saldanha atic arias that won at 731-2734 would like her acclaim in New you to call them imme- York . See pages 4 & diately to discuss your 5 for a special ar- donations. They’ve ticle about her. set October 20th as Judith Ginsburg is all the deadline for do- set to be her accom- nations but there’s no panist for the pro- time like the present gram. to call them. Fall 2003 NEWSLETTER • BULLETIN Automne 2003 From the President Opera alla Pasta Isn’t it amazing how fast the summer went? I hope that you all had a pleasant and relaxing time. presents three And now the fall is quickly creeping upon us. With it comes a very special time – a time when we shall gather to- gether to celebrate our twentieth anniversary. Twenty years Great Operas since the National Arts Centre suspended the Summer Opera Festival, since our love and enjoyment of opera was dealt a Last season we were able to offer you opera severe blow as we faced a future with no summer opera fes- films and performances using DVD technology which tival, a situation that remains to this very day. enhanced the visual and sound reproduction. We will continue using DVDs this year. As you will find out in other parts of this Newsletter, the evening th of November 14th is D-Day, and we hope that you and your The first offering on October 19 is a per- friends and colleagues will join us in a joyful celebration of the formance of Bellini’s great opera Norma given in 1974 many positive things that have happened over that period of in the Ancient Roman Theatre in Orange, France. time. I hope that most of you were able to relish Opera Lyra This recording preserves the greatest performance in Ottawa’s sparkling presentation of Donizetti’s “Don Pasquale”. a visual medium of Montserrat Caballé, ably assisted It proved to be a very enjoyable evening with excellent sing- by Jon Vickers and Josephine Veasey . The Or- ing and staging - I and my opera companion, my 16 year-old chestra and chorus of the Teatro Regio of Turin are grandson, thought it was just great – a real achievement! This under the direction of Giuseppe Patanè. All critics company has made great progress since its early days of the appear to agree that this is the “performance of a lifetime” and should not be missed. mid-1980s. th With such happenings the future appears bright as we In the New Year on February 8 we will show Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades in a lavish pro- forge a path towards a quarter of a century. We have so much duction by the Kirov Opera and Orchestra under the to look forward to as we continue our support of young op- direction of the renowned conductor Valery Gergiev. era artists both in terms of our Brian Law Opera Scholarship The leads are all stars of the Kirov and include Maria and our fledgling support of other opera activities such as the Gulegina, Gegam Grigorian, Olga Borodina and Opera Lyra Young Artists Program. Sergei Leiferkus. To you all – have a pleasant autumn season and enjoy Our final offering will come on April 18th and nature’s vibrant display. See you in November!! will be Verdi’s ever popular La Traviata. The pro- duction is noteworthy for being the last major oper- atic work conducted by Sir Georg Solti before his death and for the outstanding portrayal of Violetta by Angela Gheorghiu. This Covent Garden production N.C.O.S. Board of Directors also stars Frank Lopardo and Leo Nucci. President Bobbi Cain As a meal follows each opera it is necessary Vice-President Murray Kitts to phone in advance for reservations. The number is Secretary Jean Saldana 225-0124. Treasurer Gordon Metcalfe Join us for audio visual and culinary treats at Events Peggy Pflug our Sunday afternoons at the opera. Membership Jean Saldanha Newsletter Murray Kitts Welcome New Members Publicity Renate Chartrand Jane Yaraskavitch Helga Taylor Members-at-Large Melissa Pilon Pat Adamo Ute Davis Dan Leeman 2 Fall 2003 NEWSLETTER • BULLETIN Automne 2003 Glimmerglass Gleanings, 2003 by Shelagh Williams to sex! Caroline Worra who, last year, played Amy in Little This year the offerings at Cooperstown, N.Y.’s Women and transferred with it to the N.Y.City Opera, re- Glimmerglass Opera were a mixed bag, rather like the turned for the two important roles of Mrs. Mueller (Schweik’s weather. Fortunately for us it only rained when we were landlady) and Lt. Lukash’s married girlfriend, to whose hus- inside, or had a brolly! band Schweik “mistakenly” delivered Lt. Lukash’s love let- We started on a high note with Good Soldier ter! It all came together marvellously, and fortunately, at the Schweik. Robert Kurka, an American composer of end, Schweik managed to wander off in the wrong direction, Czech ancestry, based his only opera on Jaroslav Hasek’s away from the battle front, providing a fitting commentary on comic antiwar Czech novel of the same name. Kurka died the stupidity of war! of leukaemia at 35 just before Schweik premiered at N.Y. Handel’s Orlando was first performed in London in City Opera in 1958, and the work has since been more 1733, one of 40 or so operas based on Arioso’s Orlando performed in Europe than in North America. However, Furioso, and Glimmerglass Opera gave the world premiere Glimmerglass Opera pulled out all the stops for this pro- of a new edition it had commissioned from Clifford Bartlett. duction. The backstage triumvirate were all top drawer: The set was basically a room, with walls and doorways, on a director Rhoda Levine first directed Schweik at Nether- side-raked stage covered with greenery and filled with vari- lands Opera in 1974 and didn’t miss a trick, while ous groups of trees to simulate a forest. The lovely set and Glimmerglass Music Director Stewart Robertson con- the contemporary (to Handel!) 18th century costumes were ducted, and Glimmerglass Associate Artistic Director John designed by David Zinn, and he approached Handel’s Or- Conklin designed and personally helped decorate the set lando in a more serious manner than last year’s campy ver- and costumes. Robert Wierzel designed the lighting. Al- sion of Haydn’s Orlando Paladino. To our delight, the pre- though Kurka was a violin player, the score’s orchestra- show chat was given by the conductor, Canadian Bernard tion includes only wind and percussion and was well and Labadie, founder of Les Violons du Roy, past music director enjoyable played, bringing out the music’s jazzy overtones, of Quebec Opera, and newly appointed director of Montreal but with slow marches for piquant moments and lots of Opera. He explained that in this opera Handel modified the minor chords. Kurka’s libretto, in English, idiomatic and baroque da capo arias to show Orlando’s madness and used clever, carried the action along wittily. The set and furni- unusual musical forces, with no brass or percussion or flute in ture were simple and easily demountable, with a casual the orchestra, and no tenor among the singers! The story air, like Schweik himself, while the costumes enhanced concerns the knight Orlando (countertenor Bejun Mehta) torn the satire of the words and music. For example, a bucket between love and military glory and the magician Zorastro with a plunger on top became a private’s spike-topped (bass David Pittsinger) who appears and disappears through helmet, while a colander or a bucket with a hand-trowel hidden doors to manipulate Orlando and the action.