featuring UBC OPERA ENSEMBLE& members of the VANCOUVER OPERA ORCHESTRA

Directed by Nancy HermistonConducted by Leslie DalaHosted by Christopher Gaze

Viva Verdi!

SPONSORED BY:

Opera & AriasAUGUST 26 & SEP TEM BER 2, 2013

Viva Verdi! AUGUST 26, 1 P.M. AUGUST 26, 7 P.M. SEPTEMBER 2, 7 P.M. SEPTEMBER 2, 1 P.M.

LA TRAVIATA

Libiamo (tutti)Violetta Nicole Brooks Natascia Dell’erba Flora Christina Kent Rachel StewartBaron Micah Schroeder Alireza Mojibian Alfredo Jonny Michel Tony Luca Caruso Gaston William Grossman Spencer BrittenDoctor Peer Monaghan Geoff SchellenbergMarquis Geoff Schellenberg Simon Lee

Valse-DuettoVioletta Eden Tremayne Natascia Dell’erba Alfredo Harout Markarian Tony Caruso

E strano – Sempre liberaVioletta Eden Tremayne Nicole Brooks

De miei bollenti spiritiAlfredo Harout Markarian Tony Luca Caruso

Di ProvenzaGiorgio Germont Cameron Killick Sheldon Baxter

Noi siamo zingarelle and Di Madride noi Siam matadors(Gypsy and Matador Choruses)

Programme and performers subject to change.

AUGUST 26, 1 P.M. AUGUST 26, 7 P.M. SEPTEMBER 2, 7 P.M. SEPTEMBER 2, 1 P.M.

IL TROVATORE

Tacea la notte placidaLeonora Rhoslyn Jones Rhoslyn JonesInez Christina Kent Christina Kent

Ah si, ben mioManrico Weilong Tao Weilong Tao

Di quella piraManrico Weilong Tao and chorus

Anvil Chorus

———————————Intermission———————————

NABUCCO

Va Pensiero Chorus

RIGOLETTO

Caro nomeGilda Bahareh Poureslami Taylor Pardell

La donna e mobile Duke Tony Caruso Tony Caruso

Rigoletto QuartetGilda Bahareh Poureslami Taylor Pardell Duke Tony Caruso Tony Caruso Maddalena Courtney Bridge Francesca CorradoRigoletto Peter Monaghan Jose Ramirez Solano

Programme and performers subject to change.

VANCOUVER OPERA ORCHESTRAMark Ferris, 1st violin, ConcertmasterDom Ivanovic, 2nd ViolinIsabelle Roland, ViolaSusan Round, CelloLes Kasprzak, BassBrenda Fedoruk, FluteDavid Owen, Oboe

Mary Backun, ClarinetIngrid Chiang, BassoonLaurel Spencer, HornTom Shorthouse, TrumpetKen Surges, TrombonePhilip Crewe, Timpani/PercussionDavid Boothroyd, Keyboard

Please turn off all cell phones and electronic devices.The use of cameras or recording devices in the theatre

during the performance is strictly prohibited.

AUGUST 26, 1 P.M. AUGUST 26, 7 P.M. SEPTEMBER 2, 7 P.M. SEPTEMBER 2, 1 P.M.

UN BALLO IN MASCHERA

Volta la terra Oscar Hillary Young Eva Tavares

Saper Voresti Oscar Eva Tavares Simone McIntosh

FALSTAFF

Final SceneAlice Eden Tremayne Chelsea RusMeg Page Rachel Stewart Christina KentQuickly Courtney Bridge Joseryl BeckleyNanetta Yichan Shu Katie McCulloughFord Micah Schroeder Sheldon BaxterFenton Jonny Michel Spencer BrittenPistol Peter Monaghan Duncan Watts-GrantBardolfo Eric Schwarzhoff Eric SchwarzhoffDr. Cajus William Grossman William GrossmanFalstaff Cameron Killick Jose RamirezFull chorus

Programme and performers subject to change.

NANCY HERMISTON, Director and SopranoCanadian-born lyric coloratura Nancy Hermiston has performed throughout Europe and North America. Parallel to her extensive singing career, Miss Hermiston worked as voice teacher, stage director, and Co-coordinator with the University of Toronto’s Opera and Performance Divisions. In 1995 she joined the University of British Columbia’s School of Music as the Head of the Voice and Opera Divisions, where she

established the UBC Opera Ensemble. In 2004 Professor Hermiston was named the UBC University Marshal. In 2008 UBC awarded her the Dorothy Somerset Award for Performance and Development in the Visual and Performing Arts. She was also honoured with a Killam Teaching prize in 2010. In 2011 she was awarded the prestigious Rubie Award by Opera Canada. Miss Hermiston is also a favourite guest for master classes throughout Canada, China and Germany. Her UBC Opera Ensemble tours regularly to the Czech Republic, Germany, Ontario and throughout British Columbia. The Opera Ensemble gave their first performances in Beijing and Chengdu in May of 2009, and returned to Shanghai in May 2010 for concerts at the Shanghai Conservatory and the Shanghai Normal University. In the summer of 2012 she joined the University of Toronto’s COSI program in Sulmona, Italy, where she worked with young singers from all regions of Canada. Her 2012–2013 Season began with the Vancouver Opera, where she directed the company’s opening production, Puccini’s La Bohème. This year the UBC Opera Ensemble will present Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann with guest conductor Leslie Dala, Nino Rota’s The Florentine Straw Hat with conductor David Agler, and Janaček’s The Cunning Little Vixen with conductor Norbert Baxa.

LESLIE DALA, ConductorLeslie Dala is the Music Director of the Vancouver Bach Choir, Associate Conductor and Chorus Director of Vancouver Opera and Music Director of the Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra. He has worked at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Canadian Opera Company, the Santa Fe Opera and l’Opera National du Rhin and is a frequent guest conductor with the UBC Opera Ensemble

and Soundstreams Canada. Recent conducting highlights include Haydn’s The Creation, the Canadian premiere of John Adams’ Oratorio El Niño and a Verdi & Wagner Gala with the Vancouver Bach Choir and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra; La Bohème, The Magic Flute and West Side Story with Vancouver Opera, Albert Herring with Pacific Opera Victoria, The Nutcracker with the Goh Ballet, Carmen with the UBC Opera in Vancouver, the Westben Festival and in Teplice, Czech Republic and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9 with the VAMSO. Leslie also recently conducted concerts in Beijing and Taipei as part of a tour of contemporary music presented by Soundstreams Canada. This season he will lead The Tales of Hoffmann with the UBC Opera Ensemble, Albert Herring with both Vancouver Opera and the University of Toronto Opera Program and Handel’s Messiah with the Vancouver Bach Choir.

CHRISTOPHER GAZE, HostBest known as Artistic Director of Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival, Christopher Gaze has performed in England, the USA and across Canada. Born in England, he trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School before coming to Canada in 1975 where he spent three seasons at the Shaw Festival. He moved to Vancouver in 1983 and in 1990 founded Bard on the Beach which

he has since nurtured to become one of the most successful not-for-profit arts organizations in North America, with average attendance exceeding 85,000. In addition to performing and directing for Bard, Christopher’s voice is heard regularly in cartoon series, commercials and on the radio. He also hosts Vancouver Symphony’s popular Tea & Trumpets series and their annual Christmas concerts. His many honours include induction into the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame, Canada’s Meritorious Service Medal (2004), Honorary Doctorates from UBC & SFU, the BC Community Achievement Award (2007), the Gold Medallion from the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America (2007), the Mayor’s Arts Award for Theatre (2011) and the Order of British Columbia (2012). In December 2012, Christopher starred in and directed Vancouver Opera’s The Pirates of Penzance.

BARD ON THE BEACH is one of Canada’s largest not-for profit, professional Shakespeare festivals. Presented in a magnificent setting on the waterfront in Vancouver’s Vanier Park, the Festival offers Shakespeare plays, related dramas, and several special events in two performance tents from June through September.

A custom-built Mainstage was erected in 2011, offering expanded seating (742 seats), a redesigned stage and more comfortable seating for patrons. The Mainstage tent is open-ended so that the actors perform against a spectacular backdrop of mountains, sea and sky - a highlight of the unique Bard experience. Two productions are performed in repertory in the tent from early June through mid-September.

The Douglas Campbell Studio Stage tent seats 240 and its two repertory productions run from the end of June through September. This intimate performance space features Shakespeare’s lesser-known plays or his great classics presented with less traditional staging.

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA OPERA ENSEMBLEwas founded by Canadian lyric Coloratura Nancy Hermiston in 1995. Beginning with a core of seven performers, Ms. Hermiston has built the program to a

70-member company, now performing three mainstage productions at UBC every season, six Opera Tea Concerts, and several engagements with local community partners. The Ensemble’s mission is to educate gifted opera singers, preparing them for international careers.

Past main-stage productions have included Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, Die Gärtnerin aus Liebe, Così fan tutte, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica, Cendrillon, Don Giovanni, La Bohème, Dido and Aeneas, The Merry Widow, The Bartered Bride, Manon, Eugene Onegin, Florence Lady with the Lamp, Dreamhealer, Falstaff, the Western Canadian Premiere of Harry Somers’ Louis Riel, Robert Ward’s opera The Crucible and Dvořák’s Rusalka, Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites and Bizet’s Carmen. The Ensemble tours regularly throughout Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany and China. In the 2013–2014 Season, the Ensemble presents Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, Nino Rota’s The Florentine Straw Hat and Janaček’s The Cunning Little Vixen. We hope you will join us for this exciting new season of opera.

PRODUCTION TEAMTechnician: Alia StephenSet Design: Pam JohnsonHair/Wigs: Elke EnglichtMake-up: Carmen GarciaCostumes: Francesca Corrado, Rachel Stewart

THE VANCOUVER OPERA ORCHESTRAis one of only two professional opera orchestras in Canada and has been recognized as a formidable musical force. Formed in 1977, the Orchestra’s first performance was

for the production of Massenet’s Le Roi de Lahore, starring Joan Sutherland and conducted by Richard Bonynge. Several players who were in the pit for Le Roi de Lahore are still members of the VO Orchestra today. Since it was formed, the VO Orchestra has played more than a hundred opera productions, numerous stage productions, and many concerts. This season, members of the orchestra will play for Goh Ballet’s The Nutcracker. The Orchestra has strong ties to the community: many of its players are professional educators and active freelance musicians in the Lower Mainland. Collectively, they make an important contribution to the cultural life of our city.

2013/2014 SEASON

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THE TALES OF HOFFMANN

(LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN)JACQUES OFFENBACH

THE CUNNINGLITTLE VIXEN

(PŘÍHODY LIŠKY BYSTROUŠKY)JANÁČEK

THE FLORENTINE STRAW HAT

(IL CAPPELLO DI PAGLIA DI FIRENZE)NINO OTA

UBCOPERA

SPECIAL THANKSThe David Spencer Endowment Encouragement Fund

Dr. Irving Guttman / Vancouver Opera

VO-13-14-Bard Arias ad.indd 1 13-07-31 1:40 PM