The Toronto Star, Ontario
December 5, 2009 Saturday
Back to where it all began
VANCOUVER
Before Oct. 17, 1963, the Vancouver Opera was a three-year-old company
of regional consequence with an eight-production history. And then the
Queen Elizabeth Theatre curtain rose on a production of Bellini’s
Norma that became the stuff of legend.
Scooping the entire operatic profession, Irving Guttman, the company’s
young Montreal-born director, engaged the celebrated Australian
soprano Joan Sutherland to sing the notoriously challenging title role
for the first time anywhere, surrounded by a cast so impressive that
Decca/London Records subsequently flew all four principals and the
conductor, Sutherland’s husband Richard Bonynge, to London to record
the complete opera.
In one grand gesture, a small West Coast theatrical enterprise became
the first Canadian opera company to make the world stand up and take
notice.
I was there that night, fresh out of graduate school, writing one of
my first opera reviews for The Vancouver Sun, when Marilyn Horne,
arguably the greatest mezzo-soprano of her generation, joined
Sutherland as her fellow Druid priestess, Adalgisa, in the duet "Mira,
o Norma." Never had I heard two female voices blend together so
beautifully. It was a moment of revelation not to be forgotten.
Indeed, I recalled it recently on a panel at the Vancouver Public
Library, when Irving Guttman and Richard Bonynge joined me in looking
back on that historic occasion.
The panel, which also included Rosemary Cunningham, author of a
valuable new book titled Bravo!: the history of opera in British
Columbia (Harbour Publishing), was organized to mark the 50th
anniversary of the Vancouver Opera, and maestro Bonynge attended
because he happened to be in town to conduct the opening production of
the 50th-anniversary season – you guessed it, a revival of Norma.
Sutherland herself is retired now, and so is Horne. The current
production, which closes tonight, stars one of the leading Normas of
today, the Armenian soprano Hasmik Papian, opposite the Adalgisa of
the American mezzo-soprano Kate Aldrich and the Pollione of Toronto
tenor Richard Margison.
The Vancouver Opera has had its ups and downs during the intervening
years, including the controversial period when Richard Bonynge headed
the company, showcasing his superstar wife in a production of
Massenet’s virtually forgotten Le Roi de Lahore.
Today’s company doesn’t exhume the operatic dead. On the contrary,
under its current director, James Wright, it treats opera as a living
art form. Four years ago, it toured a specially commissioned
children’s opera, Ramona Luengen’s’s Naomi’s Road, through B.C. and
beyond. Two years later, it employed aboriginal artists to produce a
visually stunning West Coast vision of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and
in March will mount one of the most talked about American operas of
the past quarter century, John Adams’ Nixon in China. On a $9.5
million budget, Vancouver Opera mounts only four mainstage productions
each season, and yet, its director hopes to make one of them an opera
from the post-World War II period, something no other mainstream
Canadian opera company has ventured to do.
Risky? With nine surpluses in the past 10 years, his company appears
to understand how to balance its books even when venturing into
unfamiliar territory. It also knows how to connect with its community.
As James Wright observes, "I don’t know if there is another opera
company that talks to its community about their relationship to this
art form as we do."
That conversation includes bringing 30,000-plus schoolchildren every
year to the opera and mounting community forums on a social issues
raised by the opera stories.
With a $50 million renovation of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre complete,
the Vancouver Opera faces the future with ambitions to expand its
season, broaden its repertoire and continue its policy of developing
Canadian vocal talent.
Will it ever experience another night like Oct. 17, 1963? As someone
who counts that evening among his most cherished musical memories, I
couldn’t offer a happier 50th anniversary wish to the company that
gave me my operatic education.