Opera Kelowna’s greatest hits performed in the great outdoors
What’s not to like about a free “greatest hits” presentation by Opera Kelowna?
“That’s exactly what it is, greatest hits,” said founding artistic director Alexandra Babbel with a laugh during the VIP reception which preceded Opera Under The Stars at UBC Okanagan on Wednesday night.
“Isn’t that a great idea? Especially if you have an unseasoned audience. Maybe some of them are discerning but two years ago, 40 per cent of our audience was under the age of 45. And three years ago, 50 per cent of our audience had never been to an opera before. So it’s very strategic to bring the hits, the familiar tunes, to the individual who may never have sat through opera before.”
The one-hour concert, presented through the UBCO faculty of creative and critical studies, was not a staged opera with set, costumes and orchestra. That will come Aug.1619 when Opera Kelowna presents Georges Bizet’s scintillating classic Carmen, 7:30 p.m. each night at Kelowna Community Theatre.
Even though the lead cast of Carmen just arrived in Kelowna, they sang a series of performance-ready arias accompanied by a grand piano to an enthusiastic response by 1,300 old and new fans.
Five years ago, by comparison, the first Opera Under The Stars attracted 300.
“Hopefully, I pray, and I know, and I trust, that will translate into tickets for the opera. Opera Kelowna has been very aggressive and assertive in its development vision for growth. We grew 33 per cent per season in ticket sales and audience for the first three seasons. In the fourth season, we grew by 100 per cent. And this year, we have projected another 100 per cent growth,” said Babbel.
“This is a very positive, I think Pollyannamaybe-even, vision of what could happen for Opera Kelowna but we have the faith. I think it is a sizzling moment. I think we are in the time and we’re at the place where this could happen. There’s no reason to be intimidated because we’re a small community. We can do the best of the arts here in this region as well as anywhere else.”
Babbel, who moved to Kelowna from Chicago after marrying a Canadian, wanted “to bring a little bit of what I used to do in Chicago here to Kelowna, this beautiful region.”
She wants to “infuse this art form with the best couture fashion esthetic sense that I can muster. And I have those people around me now — with a very strong board, very strategic planning — to make it possible.”
The evening included three arias from Carmen, of course, plus memorable numbers from Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Wagner’s Die Walkure, Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann and Zorozabal’s La Taberna del Puerto.
It must be challenge for those who aren’t multi-lingual in the common opera languages of Italian, French and German, but each of the vocalists provided a brief background on his or her aria to give it context.
(The stage performance of Carmen, by comparison, will have electronic subtitles similar to TV programming so the Kelowna Community Theatre audience can follow along, word for word.)
Wednesday’s high point and finale was the familiar Toreador song from Carmen, performed by Geoffrey Sirett accompanied by the Opera Kelowna Chorus. No doubt, Sirett was correct in predicting everyone was humming the distinctive melody on the way home.
“It was a tapas, a taste of what you are going to hear at the end of the month,” said Babbel. Co-event chair Theresa Arsenault, a partner in the Kelowna law firm/sponsor of Pushor Mitchell, added it was “the ideal combination of higher learning (UBCO), the arts and the community.”
Tickets for Carmen starting at $75 can be purchased from brownpapertickets.com/ event/3197046 or by calling 250-575-1434.
A pre-show talk with artistic director Alexandra Babbel and maestro Bernard McDonald commences at 6:50 p.m. and ends at 7:05 p.m. each evening, another opportunity for opera education and understanding.
Two additional Opera in the Park performances will take place on Aug. 8 at Waterfront Park and Aug. 12 at Heritage Park in Peachland.