Under the banner of the Russian White Nights, the second annual Vancouver Opera Festival celebrates Russia’s luminous midsummer “white nights” with Eugene Onegin - a beloved Russian lyric opera, and the much-anticipated premiere of The Overcoat – a musical tailoring - an opera inspired by a contemporary theatre masterpiece. The Festival will also include Requiem for a Lost Girl - an original chamber musical collaboration that explores themes around homelessness.
Eugene Onegin, By Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Queen Elizabeth Theatre
Sunday, April 29, 2:00pm
Thursday, May 3, 7:30pm
Saturday, May 5, 7:30pm
VO’s Music Director Jonathan Darlington conducts the Vancouver Opera Orchestra and Vancouver Opera Chorus in a powerful new production of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, with Libretto by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and KS Shilovsky after Pushkin. A co-production with Calgary Opera, this timeless and emotional story of ill-fated love is based upon the plot of Alexander Pushkin’s classic verse novel and features breathtaking music, choreography, lavish orchestrations, and compelling arias. Celebrated Canadian director Tom Diamond, a veteran of Pacific Opera Victoria, Canadian Opera Company, Tapestry Opera, and Broadway (Squonk, 1999), directs. Calgary-based Scott Reid has designed this new production which premiered in Calgary on February 3, 2018.
Eugene Onegin features a Russian cast of stars led by Russian baritone Konstantin Shushakov, who makes his Vancouver Opera debut in the title role of Eugene Onegin. A soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre (Cosi fan tutte, 2017, Le nozze di Figaro, 2017, La bohème, 2016), he previously played the role at Theatro Municipal de São Paulo (2015) and Maribor Slovene National Theatre (2013). He is joined by internationally acclaimed soprano Svetlana Aksenova (The Queen of Spades, 2016, Rusalka, 2015) in the role of Tatiana, which she previously performed with Shushakov in Brazil in 2015, and at Dallas Opera in 2016. Tenor Alexey Dolgov makes his VO debut in the role of Lensky, which he has previously sung at the Bolshoi (2010), The Metropolitan Opera (2017), and Münchner Opernfestspiele (2015). Mezzo-soprano Carolyn Sproule – who will be familiar to VO audiences as Maddalena in Rigoletto (2015) – sings the role of Olga while bass Goderdzi Janelidze also of the Bolshoi (Rigoletto, 2018, Don Carlo, 2017, La Traviata, 2017) rounds out the cast as Prince Gremin.
The Overcoat – a musical tailoring, By James Rolfe
Vancouver Playhouse
Saturday, April 28, 7:30pm
Sunday, April 29, 7:30pm
Wednesday, May 2, 2:00pm
Friday, May 4, 7:30pm
Saturday, May 5, 2:00pm
Sunday, May 6, 2:00pm
Plus 4 post-Festival performances:
May 9, 10, 11, 12 at 7:30pm
A groundbreaking new co-production with Toronto’s Canadian Stage Company and Tapestry Opera. Canadian composer James Rolfe’s The Overcoat - a musical tailoring runs throughout the Festival, with post-Festival performances. Initially based on an 1842 short story by Russian author Nikolai Gogol in which an office worker has his life turned upside down when he’s robbed of his new overcoat, The Overcoat was transformed into a physical theatre production in 1998 by Morris Panych and Wendy Gorling. Morris Panych returns to craft this new opera as librettist and director at the Vancouver Playhouse where the original creation premiered 20 years ago.
Baritone Geoffrey Sirett sings the role of Akakiy, and Saskatchewan-born baritone Peter McGillivray is Petrovich. Yulanda M. Faris Young Artists Program Alumni Caitlin Wood and Aaron Durand join the all Canadian cast.
Requiem for a Lost Girl: A chamber musical about homelessness
Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre
SFU’s Goldcorp Centre for the Arts (149 W Hastings Street)
Friday, May 4 at 7:30pm
Sunday May 6, at 2:00pm
The Vancouver Opera Festival will also feature Requiem for a Lost Girl, a powerful chamber musical written and directed by Onalea Gilbertson. The work, composed by and conducted by Marcel Bergmann includes additional music by the Kettle Choir and the Kettle Writers Guild. The work will be performed by members of the Vancouver Opera Chorus and Orchestra and the Kettle Choir and Kettle Writers Guild. Exploring themes of homelessness, poverty, mental illness, addiction and the plight of missing and murdered women - this strikingly original chamber work unfolds as a memorial service for a young woman lost to the street.
Tickets and passes: VO Ticket Centre 604-683-0222 or online at vancouveropera.ca