The official piano of
City Opera Vancouver
...and the Illahie Fund
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| Isaiah Bell performer, co-creator |
Sean Guist director, co-creator |
| hi-res photo - performer, co-creator | hi-res photo - director, co-creator |
Click for high-res
Photo credit: Dahlia Katz
Photo credit: Dahlia Katz
City Opera Vancouver gratefully and humbly acknowledges that we work on the
traditional, ancestral and stolen territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and sə̓lílwətaʔɬ.
Isaiah Bell
Canadian tenor Isaiah Bell began his professional career as tenor in City Opera’s production of Britten’s Curlew River (2010), in the role of Madwoman, which led to a national career including lead roles with the Canadian Opera Company. More recently, Isaiah led COV’s new English adaptation of The Human Voice (2021).
Isaiah Bell performs across North America as a Classical tenor. Some recent opera appearances include Rufus Wainwright and Daniel MacIvor’s Hadrian at the Canadian Opera Company, The Barber of Seville for Vancouver Opera, Mark Morris’s production of Curlew River at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the world premiere of La beauté du monde at Opéra de Montréal, and Lysander in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Des Moines Metro Opera. Concert engagements include regular appearances with the Toronto Symphony, San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the Oratorio Society of New York. He also curates solo recitals that integrate traditional repertoire with spoken poetry and original compositions.
Isaiah complements his performance practice with composing and writing for the theatre. Currently he combines all these disciplines in his chamber-opera/cabaret-theatre solo show The Book of My Shames, a co-creation with director Sean Guist around Isaiah’s own words and music. The piece, currently touring in a version for chamber orchestra, has been described as “impossibly beautiful”, a “fascinating creation,” and a “comic, wrenchingly personal tour-de-force.”
More about Isaiah here.
Sean Guist is artistic director at Intrepid Theatre in Victoria, BC/Lekwungen Territory, and has worked with the company in various roles since 2013. Administrator by day and queer artist, producer and director by night, Sean is the founding Curator of Intrepid Theatre’s OUTstages queer theatre festival, and has created new residency programs for local artists, and fostered new work through cabarets, emerging artist programs, and mentorship opportunities.
Guist is the co-creator and director of The Book of My Shames, a new queer opera composed and performed by Isaiah Bell, that has played at Tapestry Opera, Opera Kelowna and UNO Fest, and has upcoming engagements in 2023. Recent directing credits include readings of Sunday in Sodom (Belfry Theatre SPARK Festival), The Empress (Theatre Outre/Lethbridge Pride), Tom at the Farm (Puente Theatre) and productions of Side by Side Sondheim and Down Dangerous Passes Road (independent).
He is currently collaborating with award-winning author and performer Ivan Coyote on a new solo show, premiering in 2024. Sean can be seen on drag stages as the bearded queen, Woofie, and has created queer events in non-traditional queer spaces like the sold-out drag show hit, Drag, Queers & Beers at Phillips Beer.
More about Sean here.