REBORN OPERA HOUSE WILL HIT A HIGH NOTE
By Susan Doolan

Barrie Examiner (Ontario, Canada)
November 11, 2006 Saturday

Opera has arrived in Barrie.

Opera Bel Canto of South Simcoe turns to Barrie next weekend to follow
its inaugural hit performance with another operatic showcase.

The opera company, based out of the Beeton area, has ambitious plans to
resurrect an 350-seat opera house down the road from that community,
but until it is complete has chosen Barrie as its home base to stage
all of its concerts.

The 35-member choir draws from all over the county, south to Toronto
and north to Muskoka. It is opera singer, conductor, and voice
teacher David Varjabed who has attracted these talented singers to
the professional level non-profit opera company.

"The reason we started this company is because there is a lot of
talent in the area and they’ve got no place to go, no prospects,
"Varjabed said, adding that Bel Canto is also a training ground for
singers he maintains are better than the Canadian Opera Company.

"This region should be proud of them," he said. "This opera company
will be the place for people starting their professional career and
to go much broader in the future."

He would know, as Varjabed has sung professionally all over the globe
for three decades.

Born in Armenia, he first appeared in La Traviata in 1971 while still
at school, studying for his masters in opera performance and voice
pedagogy at the Komitas National Conservatory in Yerevan, Armenia,
and came to Canada in 1974, at the age of 20. He was immediately
accepted in to the Canadian opera company with a five- year contract.

Once established here, he brought his wife and baby daughter over.

He started the opera company last year, encouraged by the community,
once members of local arts council and county council discovered
his presence in Cafe Maestro, a coffee shop belonging to his son,
located on the main street in Beeton. "Everybody was asking ‘who,
what and why are you not doing something (musical) for this area’,"
Varjabed said. "So they grabbed me."

Varjabed, a baritone, is trained in the bel canto technique, an Italian
voice-training style of breathing and projection that is unique to
Italy, and the reason so many of that country’s opera singers have
become so famous.

Translated bel canto means beautiful singing.

Operatic Showcase II features the company chorus, nine soloists, a
15-member orchestra and guest pianist Adolfo De Santis. Varjabed has
selected well-known excepts from popular operas such as La Boheme,
Don Carlo, Madama Butterfly, Carmen, Don Giovanni, and the Marriage
of Figaro, among other works, for the program.

The concert takes place Saturday, Nov. 18 at First Christian Reformed
Church, 33 Shirley Ave., Barrie, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Admission is
$30 for adults, $20 for seniors. For tickets, call 435- 3730.