Not just another night at the opera
Dragonette to perform at annual fundraiser that blends pop and high culture
The last time Martina Sorbara sang opera was in “pretend Italian,” in front of a cathedral in Vienna, Austria, over 15 years ago while backpacking through Europe.
“People had their video cameras out filming me and they thought I was singing an actual song, but I was just totally winging it,” the Dragonette lead singer remembered with a laugh. Her impromptu performance raised enough money to buy a friend a train ticket from the Austrian capital to Prague.
“Then we tried it again, but I actually was drunk and people were paying me to shut up.”
Sorbara will return to the classical genre on May 19 for the Canadian Opera Company’s Operanation: Queen of the Night, an event to raise money for the COC’s training program for young opera singers. It has blended high and pop culture for almost 10 years.
Dragonette will perform the aria from Mozart’s Magic Flute with soprano Ambur Braid in “some kind of mash-up,” Sorbara said, “including opera in our songs and including our songs in opera songs.”
The band also hopes to treat the audience to sneak peaks of a few songs from their new album, which is supposed to come out this fall.
Sorbara said her first introduction to the opera world was when she picked up a CD from Italian mezzosoprano Cecilia Bartoli and discovered a love for a genre that some consider stuffy.
She hopes Operanation serves as a similar introduction for a new audience of future fans.
“The archetype of it is this frantic, very gymnastic busyness, but the thing is there’s so much opera and there’s something for everybody,” Sorbara added.
Although the Canadian electronic band may seem the polar opposite of baroque productions, Sorbara said she often draws inspiration from opera in Toronto, recently seeing the COC’s Siegfried and The Marriage of Figaro.
“I kind of pull something out of it into how I write and what kind of music I write and I think it’s always a really good place to start because you jump off from a different point,” she said.
COC general director Alexander Neef said the event gets a younger audience into the opera house.
“Once we introduce people successfully, there’s a pretty high success rate of retaining them as an audience,” he said.
Dragonette has “been on the wish list for a very long time,” he added, given Sorbara’s love of opera.
Braid, a graduate of the COC’s ensemble studio training program, has performed with bands such as Bro- ken Social Scene and the Arkells during past Operanations.
“There’s an adjustment period where you learn to speak in a different language in a way,” she said of the collaboration, adding the younger audience is often surprised “that they can be moved by something.”
“There is a lot of choice in the entertainment world and sometimes it’s easier to stay home and watch Netflix, but then other times it’s good to be out and to be pushed a bit.”