Says composer Jeffrey Ryan, “From the first moment I heard Jan Zwicky read from her work—richly layered poems that evoke nature, music, and profound distilled emotional moments—I hoped someday to have the chance to set her words to music.” Thanks to a commission from baritone/piano duo Tyler Duncan and Erika Switzer, the composer’s desire became […]
Premiered in 2017 at Toronto’s Luminato festival, Niall McNeil and Marcus Youssef‘s play King Arthur’s Night is now well-travelled, appearing to acclaim at festivals across the country. Centering Down Syndrome in its writing and casting, the play treats Arthurian legend with wonderful whimsy, affording its neurodiverse cast much opportunity for exuberant, hilarious improv – and […]
Starring soprano Robyn Dreidger-Klassen and pianist Terrence Dawson, City Opera Vancouver’s production of Jake Heggie’s At the Statue of Venus went online in July, drawing high praise from the composer himself: “Wow! What a fabulous performance! She is such a great actress – and he is such a fine pianist. Immensely gratifying to hear the […]
On stage at Ottawa music festival Megaphono in 2018, Indigenous artists Jeremy Dutcher and Melody McKiver took a rapt National Arts Centre audience into the magical world of this time-honored classic by Buffy Sainte-Marie. Listen. You’ll be transported, too.
Violinist, conductor, scholar, and educator Jeanne Lamon was a national and international treasure. Her passing in June of this year left an enormous void; over more than thirty-three years as director of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, it was Jeanne’s passionate musicality that shaped and expanded the ensemble, carrying it from strength to strength and establishing […]
Canadian-Indigenous opera Shanawdithit unfolds the story of a woman who was the last of the Beothuk – the indigenous peoples of the island now known as Newfoundland. Supported by a powerfully evocative libretto and score (by Yvette Nolan and Dean Burry, respectively), the extraordinary Marion Newman sang the title role in a performance the Globe […]
Against the Grain Theatre’s Messiah/Complex premiered online in December of 2021 to critical praise. Incorporating newly commissioned translations into Dene, Inuktitut, Southern Tutchone, Arabic and French, Handel’s perennial favorite – accompanied by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra – featured singers from every territory and province in Canada. Here, set against vibrant Vancouver locales, tenor Spencer Britten […]
Boldly reimagined and performed by librettist-tenor-translator Isaiah Bell, with Roger Parton at the piano, Poulenc’s classic La Voix Humaine takes on new relevance for our physically-distanced times in this City Opera production, filmed at The Cultch’s storied Historic Theatre.
Please join us in wishing national treasure Gurdeep Pandher the happiest of birthdays. Gurdeep continues to bring joy to us all, carrying Banghra into delightful fusion with many of the traditional dances found across Canada. Behind it all: a man of incredible hope and deep faith in the message he carries – acceptance and understanding […]
This program of songs by Métis composer Ian Cusson (who also curated it) and Diné composer Raven Chacon – sung by Métis mezzo-soprano Rebecca Cuddy – was presented in July as part of Soundstreams’s Encounters series, where the music of some of today’s most fascinating creators is performed and discussed virtually. The program is dedicated […]
Improvising remotely, members of Hard Rubber Orchestra recorded the various sections making up cellist/composer Peggy Lee’s Dissolver, with Melissa Hubert’s energetic animation illuminating the resulting track. “Each step of the process revealed qualities of the music that I hadn’t anticipated… Melissa’s beautiful video was the final revelation and I couldn’t be more happy with her […]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So9_pPS1rzo Identity, memory, and culture are centred in these three commissioned dance works, filmed earlier in the year as part of the National Ballet of Canada’s Spotlight Series. Set to a diverse spectrum of music – from Max Richter to Bach to David Bontemps – the pieces showcase the immense talents of their creators, and […]
City Opera Vancouver is grateful and honoured to work, create and perform on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Xwməθkwəyə̓ m (Musqueam), Sḵwxw̱ ú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl ̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
City Opera Vancouver
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Vancouver, BC, Canada
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