The Lost Operas of Mozart / 2016

Rose-Ellen Nichols, Bramwell Tovey and Elaina Moreau in The Lost Operas of Mozart. Photo: Emily Cooper.

Elaina Moreau, Bramwell Tovey, and Rose-Ellen Nichols in The Lost Operas of Mozart. Photo: Emily Cooper.

 

The Lost Operas of Mozart was presented on
27, 28 and 29 October 2016 at Christ Church Cathedral.
Click here to download the program.

In his early twenties, Mozart started three operas he never completed. Two are Italian comedies, and the third is a German Romance. Each was a tantalizing hint of what might have been. Each was the voice of Mozart himself.

In October 2016, City Opera Vancouver offered a Canadian event premiere: three forgotten operas in one evening of wonderful theatre, delightful music, and original exploration.

This re-construction was a Canadian first. In two acts and three hours, The Lost Operas of Mozart delighted, informed and enchanted. Stage direction and production concept was by Alan Corbishley, original script by Maria Reva, and the work set in our own time at the Gates of Limbo.

All of this was based on the original scholarship of Raphaël De Vos, John Drummond, Jane Oakshott, and Richard Rastall. We thank them all for permission kindly granted to use and adapt these materials.

We introduced Bramwell Tovey as The Impresario, joined by singers Robyn Driedger-Klassen, Elaina Moreau, Rose-Ellen Nichols, Frédérik Robert, Samuel Chan, Alan MacDonald, and Michael MacKinnon. Ines Ortner, costume and set design. John Webber, lighting design. Charles Barber, conductor.

Thanks to the Edwina and Paul Heller Memorial Fund, we met their $25,000 challenge and had that sum doubled. Our thanks to all who made it possible.

Enjoy this 7-minute musical video outlining our project, The Lost Operas of Mozart. Edited by Adam Abrams; engineered and produced by Jaap Hamburger, Orange Music Inc. Excerpts courtesy of Universal Music Canada and Classic Produktion Osnabrück.

This is precisely the kind of inspirational thinking that is establishing City Opera as such an essential thread in Vancouver’s (and Canada’s) cultural fabric. Three “lost˝ bites of Mozart, rethought for modern audiences and packaged into a single evening – it promises to be a revelation and an inspiration filled with unexpected delights. Bravo to City Opera: an irresistible force of vitality and enlightenment.
— Max Wyman