Pauline: Workshop No. 1

  PAULINE:  Workshop No. 1 Friday, Saturday, 21 and 22 September 2013 10am to 6pm / free Tom Lee Music Hall 929 Granville Street …………………………….   KAY  MEEK  OPERA  SERIES:  Concert No. 1 Sunday,  6 October 2013 4pm – 6pm / tickets at various prices Kay Meek Theatre, 1700 Mathers x 15th, West Vancouver …………………………… […]

City Opera News / March 15, 2013

Norman Armour The extraordinary Norman Armour will direct our next new opera, PAULINE, by Margaret Atwood and Tobin Stokes. We announced Norman’s appointment in late February, and the news was picked up by over 600 blogs and websites, featured in the Globe and Mail, Georgia Straight, and generously promoted by the Arts Alliance. Read more […]

Norman Armour to direct Pauline

PuSh Festival co-founder Norman Armour has been tapped to direct Pauline, the first opera to feature a libretto by Canadian literary star Margaret Atwood, City Opera Vancouver president Nora Kelly announced today.

City Opera News / December 15, 2012

Best of the coming season – and year – to all our friends! The year just passed has been exceptional. We gave concerts and recitals, made a film, and concluded the two-year creation of Fallujah. Now, we build to an exciting new project… PAULINE: a chamber opera It is a deeply moving story, set at […]

“Fallujah” E-Letter – Special Edition

City Opera Vancouver Awarded $100,000 The Annenberg Foundation of Los Angeles has given City Opera $100,000 to make a film documentary about our new chamber opera, FALLUJAH. This gift is in addition to the $250,000 creation grant from the Foundation that we announced in February of 2011. It remains the largest opera commissioning grant in […]

Fallujah receives major media attention with AP story and video

Fallujah describes two lives – one American, one Iraqi – that intersect with dread consequence at the Battle of Fallujah in 2004. It examines the agonies of guilt and conscience and pride when a warrior returns home. On 2 July 2012, the Associated Press published worldwide a major feature story on the making and meaning of Fallujah. On the same day, they released an original AP film to their 600 television outlets worldwide.

City Opera News / June 21, 2012

Fallujah We have successfully concluded this two-year project. It began with a $250,000 commission from the Annenberg Foundation of Los Angeles, and its Explore.org affiliate. Inspired by the life and work of Christian Ellis, the music for this new chamber opera is by Canadian Tobin Stokes, and its libretto by American Heather Raffo. We have […]

City Opera News December 15, 2011

A Great Year For City Opera Thanks to you, your support, and your belief in chamber opera, this has been a great year for our company. In calendar 2011, we: Received $250,000 USD from the Annenberg Foundation / Explore of Los Angeles. This supports the creation of a remarkable new opera set at Fallujah and […]

The Miracle of Heifetz

Listen to Heifetz for yourself, and see if you don’t agree with Howard Taubman, long­time music critic at the New York Times, who once offered a retort to the charge that Heifetz was “a splendid, heart­less violin playing machine” by saying that “anyone with ears to hear knows this charge is rubbish.” “For me and many others,” Taubman wrote, “he was a non­pareil of violinists. He had everything—technique in super­abundance, purity of tone, taste, loftiness of feeling.”

City Opera News / September 28, 2011

Canadian Classics: New Recording Series Launched In Vancouver Back on 15 April 2007, City Opera proposed the creation of a new recording series, Canadian Classics. Klaus Heymann (the owner of Naxos, the world’s largest classical recording company) said “yes”. Work began. On 24 September, we launched Canadian Classics right here in Vancouver. This is a […]

City Opera News / June 17, 2011

Annenberg / Explore Chamber Opera This project, City Opera’s second commission, is rolling ahead. Based on the real-life experiences of Christian Ellis (USMC, ret’d), who fought at the Battle of Fallujah in 2004, this is one of our most unusual and powerful creations. It is funded by a landmark $250,000 grant from the Los Angeles-based […]

Shirley Verrett At Carnegie Hall / 1965

Much about the career of Shirley Verrett (1931-2010) went in unusual directions. She began her career as a mezzo, and ended as a soprano. She was a black woman who demanded attention and respect from a white-dominated world in opera. Born into a strict Seventh Day Adventist family, little about her early ambition was supported […]