We are delighted to join with them in presenting this unique work. Two great traditions. One great story.

Our other partners include UBC Theatre and Film, and Blackbird Theatre, in co-production.

They also include endorsements from
~ National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre
~ Vancouver Japanese Language School and Hall
~ The Bulletin of the Greater Vancouver Japanese-Canadian Citizens Association
~ Powell Street Festival
~ UBC Asian Studies

and major sponsorship from

Accent Inns

Yoshi Karasawa

McLean Foundation

Michael O’Brian Foundation for the Arts

more to come!

SUMIDAGAWA & CURLEW RIVER

26, 27, 28 and 30 May.

Frederic Wood Theatre, UBC

Tickets now on sale at ticketstonight.ca

Russell Braun in recital. Half price for friends of City Opera.

Thanks to our friend Paul Gravett at the Kay Meek Centre, and your support of City Opera, you will be able to hear the extraordinary Canadian baritone Russell Braun when you purchase two tickets for the price of one.

HOW TO PURCHASE

~Phone 604.913.3634, the Kay Meek box office

~Identify yourself as a Friend of City Opera Vancouver

~Purchase two adult tickets (regular $80.00) for the price of one ($40.00)

~NB:  this offer is NOT available online

~Young adult (19-37) tickets available at $11.00 each

~Youth (12-18) tickets available at $5.00 each

WHEN

3pm SUNDAY, 7 MARCH 2010

KAY MEEK CENTRE, WEST VANCOUVER

Many of your friends from City Opera Vancouver will be in attendance.

HOW TO GET THERE

Just enter the following in your url bar. It’s easy.

www.kaymeekcentre.com/services/location_and_map

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City Opera is now on FaceBook.

Feel free to visit us at

www.facebook.com/pages/City-Opera-Vancouver/297764267658

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WHO HE IS

Russell Braun
Baritone

“The evening’s one consistently bright spot was the Figaro of Russell Braun, who entered as if shot from a cannon and remained a spry, winning presence throughout. Braun’s elegant, soft-grained timbre and meticulous handling of verbal and musical detail were a joy to hear.” (Opera News)

“Russell Braun’s eagerly awaited account is superb in every way, notable for its smooth legato, a consistent and ravishingly beautiful tone throughout the vocal range, clear enunciation and impeccable pitch.” (Opera Canada review of Winterreise recording)

“A glorious performance in terms of vocal beauty and expressive intensity.” (The Guardian)

Thrilling, manic, glorious, superbly sung and malevolently acted, rich, powerful, elegant, soft-grained, and spine-tingling are but a few of the epithets the media have used to describe Canadian opera sensation Russell Braun. In concert, opera and recital, the international stages of the world are his – whether it be the Metropolitan Opera in New York, l’Opéra de Paris, the State Opera in Vienna, the Lyric Opera in Chicago, the Los Angeles Opera, La Scala in Milan, the Salzburg or the Glyndebourne Festival.

His powerful voice and commanding presence have given vigour to such roles as Billy Budd, Prince Andrei, Figaro, Papageno, Count Almaviva, Don Giovanni, Pelléas, and Eugene Onegin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PS: Tickets for our next mainstage, Sumidagawa & Curlew River, are now on sale at www.ticketstonight.ca. More information on our website.

PPS: Our next DTES recital takes place tomorrow, 4:15 to 5:00pm, in the Homeground Festival at Oppenheimer Park. Caroline Jang, soprano. Michael Onwood, piano. Free. Wonderful. Our thanks to the Carnegie Centre.

www.cityoperavancouver.com

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All best wishes for 2010!

In order to create Sumidagawa & Curlew River in May 2010, we have made a co-production agreement with UBC Theatre and Film, and Blackbird Theatre.

We would like to tell you about Blackbird’s new production of the American classic, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee. It runs from 27 December to 16 January at The Cultch. It stars Gabrielle Rose and Kevin McNulty as Martha and George, and Craig Erickson and Meg Roe as Nick and Honey. Its director is John Wright, who is also directing Curlew River for us.

We are proud to tell you about this and, BTW, it is going to be a smash success.

“To spend an evening with George and Martha is to be on the battlefield of an alarmingly ferocious, caustically funny marital war.  It’s a fight to the death.  You don’t even think about doing this play unless you have a truly superb cast — and we have.” JOHN WRIGHT, DIRECTOR

ticketstonight.ca

604.251.1363

www.blackbirdtheatre.ca

SUMIDAGAWA & CURLEW RIVER

Two Great Traditions.  One Great Story.

May 26, 27, 28 at 7:30 – May 30 at 2:30

Frederic Wood Theatre at UBC – $40.00 general – $26.00 student

FLASH:  TICKETS NOW ON SALE AT

ticketstonight.ca

A unique double bill is being offered in May. It combines the immortal story Sumidagawa, from the 15th Century, with its 20th Century twin, Curlew River. This is a Canadian event premiere.

We are building great bridges, crossing five centuries and two cultures in one narrative. We tell the story of a woman driven mad by the loss of her child. It is agonizing, and beautiful. Japanese theatre. Western opera.

Motomasa’s Sumidagawa will be told by the legendary butoh artist Denise Fujiwara, coming from Toronto, in a choreography made for her by Natsu Nakajima.

After intermission, the same story will be told again. In this telling, Britten’s chamber opera Curlew River will be given. It offers the same plot and characters, and the same dramatic arc – but from a Western vantage.

Consider Rashomon. Just when we think we understand, we are called upon to think again.

Our production is endorsed by explorASIAN, the Japanese Language School and Hall, the National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre, the Powell Street Festival, Sikora’s Classical Records, The Bulletin of the Greater Vancouver Japanese Citizens’ Association, and the UBC Department of Asian Studies. It is supported by Accent Inns, Tom Lee Music, the Michael O’Brian Foundation for the Arts, Yoshiko Karasawa, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the McLean Foundation of Toronto.

Our principal partners are UBC Theatre and Film, and Blackbird Theatre. We have also partnered with Denise Fujiwara Dance Inventions, and the Vancouver Cantata Singers.

*******

Starring as Madwoman in Sumidagawa is the legendary Denise Fujiwara, joining us from Toronto. Her work, drawn from the original Noh play and now given as a one-woman performance, is mesmerizing.

Denise Fujiwara/Madwoman Isaiah Bell/Madwoman

Starring as Madwoman in Curlew River is the remarkable young Canadian tenor, Isaiah Bell. Twenty years from now, you will be able to say that you heard Isaiah in his first starring role. He is that good. [audio clip]

John Minagro [audio], who moved audiences as Death in Der Kaiser von Atlantis, will appear as the Abbot, and the splendid baritones Sam Marcaccini [audio] as the Ferryman and Joel Klein [audio] as the Traveller. The male chorus comes to us from the Vancouver Cantata Singers.

John Minagro/Abbot Sam Marcaccini/Ferryman Joel Klein/Traveller

Janet Lea and Nora Kelly are the producers. John Wright directs. Robert Gardiner is the scenographer, Marti Wright the costumier, Bob Eberle our production coordinator, and Charles Barber leads the music.

Free talks

To promote Sumidagawa & Curlew River we are giving free talks across Metro Vancouver. If you would like a presentation we have DVDs, CDs and print materials, and can offer from fifteen minutes to ninety. Interested? artisticdirector@cityoperavancouver.com

Production logo designed by JADE - www.twentyfourworks.com

Listen by clicking the arrow below, or download this podcast by right-clicking here.

City Opera will soon appear in the West End. Soprano Melanie Kreuger and pianist Greg Caisley will present a concert that could have been heard a century ago at Roedde House, a wonderfully restored Victorian mansion.

You’ll have a chance to sing along in Bless This House and The Holy City – and enjoy much more, including a song written by Pauline Johnson herself. It’s all a benefit for Roedde House and City Opera Vancouver.
1415 Barclay Street.    Tickets $25.00 at the door.  www.roeddehouse.org

Melanie Kreuger, soprano                                     Greg Caisley, pianist

NEXT MAINSTAGE PRODUCTION

Beginning on 26 May 2010, partnering with UBC’s Department of Theatre and Film and numerous groups in the Japanese and other communities, City Opera will present a Canadian event premiere.

Sumidagawa and Britten’s Curlew River, which tell an identical story from 16th and 20th century perspectives, will be given in tandem. These are deeply moving works of art, and not to be missed. The extraordinary Denise Fujiwara will give the Sumidagawa element. Her work is spellbinding.

Denise Fujiwara                                          photo courtesy Cylla von Tidemann

JUNE GOLDSMITH JOINS ARTISTIC COMMITTEE

We are proud to announce that June Goldsmith, C.M., O.B.C., founder of  Music in the Morning and first producer of Curlew River in Vancouver, back in 2000, has joined the Artistic Committee of City Opera Vancouver.

PAULINE DVD ONLINE

You can now see a preview from Margaret Atwood and Christos Hatzis’ new chamber opera, Pauline, at www.cityoperavancouver.com. Even the Globe & Mail has run a sneak peek.

Pauline is City Opera’s first commission, generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Tom Lee Music, Steinway & Sons, the late Prof Abraham Rogatnick – and you… via our Support page.

Our DVD features Judith Forst as Pauline Johnson, Sam Chung as the doctor, with David Boothroyd on the piano. It was produced by Douglas Berg and a brilliant team from Vancouver’s film and television industry.

A SPECIAL INVITATION…

City Opera board member Dr Jaap Hamburger trained as a composer and pianist at the Royal Amsterdam Conservatory. On 2 and 4 October, 8pm at Ryerson United Church, you will be able to hear his latest work, Remember to Forget, given in premiere by the Turning Point Ensemble.  www.turningpointensemble.ca

A SAD INVITATION…

Our friend and patron, Prof Abraham Rogatnick, passed away at age 85 on 28 August 2009. A memorial will be held in the Great Hall of the Law Courts buildings, 800 Smithe Street, Vancouver, at 2pm Sunday 25 October.

A SPECIAL CONGRATULATIONS…

You may know that the box office hit of the summer has been the remarkable sci-fi morality tale, District 9. You may not know that the film’s editor, Julian Clarke, is the son of City Opera’s president, Dr Nora Kelly.

WHO WAS CARLOS KLEIBER?

On 26 September, from 12:15 – 13:00 GMT, our Artistic Director appears in a Saturday Music Feature documentary on BBC Radio 3, Who Was Carlos Kleiber? This essay includes Placido Domingo, Christine Lemke-Matvey, and Sir Peter Jonas, and examines the art of legendary conductor Carlos Kleiber. It may be heard at www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/weekschedule/. It will be available by podcast for a week thereafter.

STANDING WITH OUR FRIENDS

As many friends of the arts are unhappily aware, there is currently a full-blown funding crisis in British Columbia, unleashed by the provincial government’s sudden withdrawal of gaming funds previously awarded to arts organizations. A few specific cuts have been reversed, but most arts groups must now plug a significant gap in their budgets. City Opera will be asking your support for our new productions. Your donations are now more important than ever. We thank you, more than ever.

www.cityoperavancouver.com

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