Around Town: A captivating soprano,
Soprano Corinne Winters stole the show with her captivating performance in Verdi’s La Traviata but it was her gown that took the spotlight at Thursday’s opening night party.
Winters had on the same sparkling bronze gown she was wearing in the final act of the opera in concert, presented by Opera Lyra at the National Arts Centre. The dress had been given to the young American sensation by her voice teacher and mentor, opera great Diana Soviero.
“Your performance was, let me tell you, over the moon,” opera patron Sarah Jennings was overheard telling the artist.
Winters stayed late to socialize with guests. Around Town asked about the small tattoo on her shoulder blade, glimpsed during her performance on stage. It’s of a Chinese good luck symbol. Normally, it’s hidden by Winters’ costumes but such concealment wasn’t necessary for her concert role as Violetta, the ailing Parisian courtesan. “Violetta could have a tattoo, why not?” Winters opined.
Attendees included Supreme Court Chief Justice
Beverley McLachlin, who thought the concert was “fabulous.” Her colleague, Justice Rosalie Abella, who donned a fun piano-themed necktie, called the show “a fantastic performance. I loved it.”
On hand were Opera Lyra’s general director, “Jeep” Jeffries, artistic director and maestro Tyrone Paterson, chorus master Laurence
Ewashko and new board
chair Victor Rabinovitch.
Among the Canadian talent was Ottawa baritone
Jonathan Estabrooks, seen at the party with his mom,
Sharyl. She was still feeling the goosebumps caused by the powerful combo of opera singers on stage with the NAC Orchestra.
SWEET EVENT FAVOURS OTTAWA HOSPITAL
With last week’s blast of snow, bathing suit season seems further off than ever.
“So, please enjoy,” Tim
Kluke, president of The Ottawa Hospital Foundation, told some 200 sweet-toothed attendees of the fifth annual Grand Desserts Affair held Friday at Ashbury College.
The foundation partnered with the Canadian Cancer Society for the fundraiser, which featured live gourmet dessert stations, table after table of baked goods and an
auction led by lawyer Lawrence Greenspon.
The cancer society was a generous donor to the hospital’s campaign to build the new cancer centre and has invested $6.7 million in cancer research at The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute over the last five years.
Former CBC Radio morning show host Katheen
Petty, currently filling in on Ontario Today, shared her breast cancer story. Her diagnosis in 2011 was followed by five months of chemo, a double mastectomy and 25 rounds of radiation.
“The end of treatment didn’t feel like a victory so much as a relief,” said Petty. “I think it’s because even if the cancer is gone the threat it poses is never gone. I compare it to having a stalker. It’s always there. Lurking.”
Present were the cancer society’s fundraising co-ordinator, Ashley Richer, and such hospital foundation board members as chair
Greg Kane, Whitney Fox and RBC’s Jeff Boyd.
There was at least one doctor in the house, Dr. Wylam Faught, medical head of the hospital’s cancer program, but he wasn’t needed to treat anyone for sugar-induced shock.
FINE DINING IN SUPPORT OF NEW CULINARY BURSARY
Around Town peeked inside the kitchen Thursday to glimpse Algonquin College students meticulously preparing a four-course dinner to be served to a crowd of gourmands. It was all in support of a new culinary bursary named after Ron Eade, the Citizen’s former Food editor.
“It’s extra pressure on us, but it excites us at the same time because it pushes us to show our skills,” student
Trish Grey said of the elite crowd they were cooking for.
The dinner for 100-plus was organized by Algonquin College chefs and instructors
Scott Warrick and Mario Ramsay and held at the School of Hospitality’s Restaurant International. The men credit Eade with helping to put Ottawa’s culinary scene on the map. “Before Ron came along, the Food section was about how much does broccoli cost,” Warrick remarked.
Seen arriving were Newport’s Moe Atallah and his wife, Donna, who hosted fellow restaurateurs Stephen Beckta and George Monsour and former newspaper exec-turned PMO speech writer Scott Anderson. TV producer Chris Knight was out supporting the cause, as was Ottawa’s party hostess with the mostess Margaret Dickenson, heard raving about the hors d’oeuvres.
Close to $20,000 was raised from the event, which auctioned off dining experiences to be cooked by some of the city’s top chefs.
CANCER FOUNDATION NAMES MCGARRY FAMILY ATRIUM
An intimate crowd gathered Thursday for a dedication ceremony that saw the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation officially name its atrium at the Maplesoft Centre after Brian McGarry, his wife, Joan Sun
McGarry, and their daughter, Sheetza, 13.
The naming of the McGarry Family Atrium recognizes the family’s $100,000 donation to the foundation. McGarry has also been donating proceeds from his memoir, From Paupers to Prime Ministers, to the Queensway Carleton Hospital Foundation.
“The McGarrys have been touched by cancer like you wouldn’t believe,” McGarry, co-owner of McGarry Family Chapels, told Around Town.
In the mix were foundation president Linda Eagen, Rabbi Reuven Bulka, cancer researcher Dr. John Bell and Dr. Michael Fung Kee
Fung, head of surgical oncology at The Ottawa Hospital.
SEDER SHINES LIGHT ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
It was mostly curiosity that brought Julie Jacobson out to her first Ottawa Women’s Seder a few years ago when she was still new to Ottawa as wife of U.S. Ambassador David Jacobson.
“I had grown up attending seders my whole life but had never been to an all-women one,” Jacobson told Around Town. “I did enjoy it a lot.”
Jacobson was back this year as one of the 180 attendees of last Sunday’s feminist seder aimed at raising awareness around domestic violence against women. This time, the ambassador’s wife was no stranger but among friends and familiar faces at the Agudath Israel synagogue. “It was really nice,” Jacobson said afterward.
The ceremonial dinner service, normally held at the beginning of Passover, was catered by Creative Kosher’s
David Smith and featured a haggadah (the text that guides the symbolic meal) adapted to reflect the themes of women and domestic violence. On hand was Yaffa Greenbaum as chair and founder of the annual seder with founding committee members Lynne Oreck-Wener and Paula Agulnik.