Carrot Muffins À La Juddzz...
These went perfectly with my coffee this morning. Try them!
There's no need to mope about the end of summer when opera season begins!
For immediate release,
October 29, 2011
Madama Butterfly on stage at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts.
York Region, On…Opera York in its 15th season proudly presents the production of Madama Butterfly, at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Arts. The opera opens on Thursday, November 3, 2011 at 8:00 pm and has a second performance on Saturday, November 5, 2011 at 8:00 pm. This year Opera York is offering student pricing at $25.00 a ticket.
Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini. In 1904, A U.S. Naval officer named Pinkerton casually marries a 15 year old Japanese girl nicknamed Butterfly who is totally entranced by him. After several weeks Pinkerton leaves with his ship intending to find his American wife when he gets home. Unknown to Pinkerton, Butterfly has his son and waits faithfully for Pinkerton to return. Finally, three years later Pinkerton does return but with his American wife. When Butterfly discovers this, she is devastated. She takes the sword her father used to commit suicide and after a tragic farewell to her son, takes her own life just as Pinkerton rushes into the room to save her.
Opera York’s artistic director for Madama Butterfly is Sabatino Vacca. Deirdre Fulton is playing Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly). Suzuki is played by Louisa Cowie, and B. F. Pinkerton is played by Romulo Delgado.
Deirdre Fulton, new to the Opera York team, has been praised in Opera Canada for her “outstanding voice” and “powerful presence”. Deirdre has been touring throughout China since 2009 with Opera Juenesse and performed in Graz and Wiez, Austria under conductor Edoardo Müller.
Romulo Delgado returns to the Opera York team after his European debut in Austria 2011 singing Don Jose in Bizet’s Carmen at the Opern Air Festpiele in Gars am Kamp. In 2010 he sang the role of the Duke of Mantua in Opera York’s production of Verdi’s Rigoletto and the review spoke of a striking lyric tenor sound that is “powerful and smooth with an ingratiating Italianate tone.” (Opera Canada)
Opera York received the RAVE award from the City of Vaughan 2010. This award was given to the company for its role in education and mentoring young artists.
To find out more about the production of Madama Butterfly or Opera York please visit their website at www.operayork.com.
Madama Butterfly
November 3, 2011, at 8:00 pm
November 5, 2011, at 8:00 pm
Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts (10268 Yonge Street)
Tickets $40 - $50, Students $25
Box Office: (905) 787-8811 or go to www.rhcentre.ca
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Media Contact:
Lola Davidson, Opera York
Cell: (647) 292 – 3995, lola@operayork.com
Recently, I reported back about a shopping trip to Georgetown's Wastewise Recycling Centre, commenting that the lighting in the book section was decidedly deficient. The shopping was so good though that I wasn't deterred. I made a return trip today, curious about the new book section lighting that operations manager, Debbie Smart, invited me to check out. What a big difference I found! The newly illuminated aisles are literally a night and day difference that makes of perusing the hundreds upon hundreds of compelling titles a pleasure of 'brilliant' proportions.
Halton's Wastewise is the brainchild of a band of local citizens who didn't want to be neighbours to the planned large-scale garbage sites that were ear-marked for their community. In its 10,000 square foot facility, almost every conceivable used and discarded household item is tagged, classified and re-sold or recycled to the benefit of all. The Wastewise community prides itself in staunchly supporting the four pillars of sustainability: the social and cultural nurturing of the community, protecting the environment, managing waste with a front-end approach and serving as an economic model for other operations.
Today, after picking up another small stack of books, I caught up with Debbie for the first time. She's off to Tofino, BC - for a well-earned vacation I'm sure! Debbie, you and your people at Wastewise are doing a wonderful job; keep it up (when you come back from BC that is!)
I walked deeper into the Black Forest of book shelves where the fiction titles were kept; instinct nudging me along. Then among the musty fungus on the battered metal shelves, I found a row of truffles - dictionaries and word books. Like the maid and the undertaker looking over Ebeneezer Scrooge's boudoir appointments, I instantly sized up the entire row and chose six books on words or writing. What incredible bargains; very good condition, both soft and hard covers; The Readers Digest Illustrated Reverse Dictionary, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, Shoot the Puppy, How to Build a Better Vocabulary, The First Five Pages, An Introduction to Fiction and my single fiction title, The Shipping News. What a fix! I picked a path back through the maze of miscellania and dropped my finds on the check-out table and here's the really unreal part; the entire bill was only $6.50!
This song came as a beautiful surprise for me when I opened my email this morning. I'd like to share it with everyone, especially the young cyber friend with whom I correspond from time to time. Tabitha is a young lady struggling bravely and increasingly optimistically with life's challenges. She came to my attention when I was browsing online diaries for research I was doing over a year ago. Tabitha's words jumped off the page at me; they were so full of raw emotions - anger, pain, fatigue. I felt for her because I, too, had limped along a similar dreary path.
“Director, Emilio Fina, accomplished an artistic and logistic coup in the Opera Kitchener production of the Barber of Seville at the River Run Centre in Guelph last night...”
When I go to the opera, I don’t go as a skeptic anymore; I’m converted - I’ve been, I saw and - yes, I was conquered. I now love opera. I chalked up my latest adventure with Opera Kitchener’s rollicking “Barber of Seville” at the River Run Centre in Guelph last night – yessss, the “Figaro” opera! It was really important for me that my date enjoyed the evening too. He’d never been to the opera in all of his considerable years and I dreaded the sarcastic “I told you so” sneer if he did not like it.
Gerry’s a ‘pub and tweed’ variety Englishman. He enjoys a good laugh, a good pastie and good ale with his mates – and not necessarily in that order. Habits, custom and creature comforts are hugely important to Gerry. He was anxious about the dress code beforehand but I assured him that it wasn’t formal – it was Guelph after all, not the Met for heaven’s sakes! He asked me what time we HAD to get there... I told him, and gave no indication that I could tell he would have happily begged off given the slightest opportunity. I must confess to using psychology on Gerry – I didn’t validate any of his subtly understated anxieties and so, overrode his unstated objection to the idea as a concept. I managed the not inconsiderable task of getting him there; with an open mind, but for his attitude conversion, I let the pros take over! What follows is an account of how Gerry’s operatic resistance met its Waterloo – in Guelph...
We met in the lobby. I drove from my house in Acton and Gerry walked from his in Guelph. “What a gorgeous day!” he said, agreeably enough as soon as he caught sight of me. I caught his hand and ushered him, with a smile and a nod, past the friendly volunteer greeter, a little lady named Vera, I think, and into the “pub.” Ok, it’s not an actual pub but a rye and ginger in hand and a little table with a view of the riverside park beside us produced a very comfortable vibe. We thus loitered, languidly looking at the incoming patrons file in then disperse towards their various theatre entrances until we’d “drunk our drinks” as the English say and went in to find our seats. Gerry looked not anxious!
Conductor, William Shookoff, was the first pro to go to work on Gerry; like a masseuse, he loosened him up and built his anticipation by leading the orchestra in the infectious, iconic opera overture that is comforting in its absolutely, universal familiarity. By the time the curtain went up, Gerry sat docile and bemused, the Berlin Wall of his opposition swaying in time with William’s baton.
What followed was the systematic construction of a brand new opera convert after each stage of which I shouted a climatic “yes, yes, yes!!”
We both loved the “Barber.” Gerry’s first time to the opera was my first time seeing this Rossini production. The thing that’s most surprising for first-timers, we found, was how timeless and appealing opera still is today. That’s because the characters are such simple archetypes: the young lover, the fair maiden, the scheming villain, the comically scornful commoner. The themes are perennial: love, sex, greed and revenge, ensuring, always, a little something for everyone and a culminating catharsis for all. In Fina’s production we were quite in awe of the acting which we thought would be secondary to the singing. Gerry told me he would have known what was going on, even without the English surtitles, merely by the expressivity of the voices and the facial expressions.
Particularly charming about the performances was the fact that the lovers, Count
Almaviva, played by Fina, himself and Rosina, played by Jennifer Elisabetta Fina
are, of course, real life husband and wife. Their beautiful arias were convincing and poignant. Not surprisingly though, for my affable Brit date, Gerry was completely won over by the comic portions of the opera. William Lewans as Doctor Bartolo was hysterical in his unkempt, eye-rolling, blustering and scheming and kept us laughing throughout as did the energetic and talented Andrew Tam as Fiorello while Karen Bojti, playing Berta, thrilled us both with her impressive voice and stage presence.
I am so happy and excited to discover this first class company in my own backyard! Next fall they will be performing Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” and yes, I will be back, with my pub and tweed and newly opera-philic date!
Mark this website so you won't miss Opera Kitchener’s next exciting production!
Like most of you, I have stashes of higher quality items that I reserve for special occasions – dishes, wines, lingerie! My Wedgewood china, for instance, shouts Christmas and celebration and the bounty of an inspired kitchen. I even have a special box of words that I will use only with the utmost discrimination lest overuse render them banal and diluted. Last night I saw the Mozart/Da Ponte opera, Cosi Fan Tutte. The Opera York production in the glittering Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts:
sent me on a frantic search for my dusty chest of special occasion words!
Opera York presents its spring production of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte set to grace the stage at the Richmond Hill Centre For the Performing Arts with 3 performances on Febrary 27, March 3 and March 5. In keeping with the season, Cosi Fan Tutte is a light and comic opera about the consequences of a cynical old man's wager with 2 young men about the fidelity of their fiancees. Hysteria, confusion, temptation and surrender follow the announcement by Don Alfonso (played by baritone, Dion Mazerolle) to Fiordiligi (played by soprano, Rachel Cleland-Ainsworth) and her sister, Dorabella (played by soprano, Marcelle Boisjoili) that their fiances have been called away to war. Aiding and abetting the deception is the clever streetwise maid to the two young women, Despina, (played by Anna Bateman). The fiances, Fernando (played by tenor, Ryan Harper) and Guglielmo (played by baritone, Anthony Cleverton) return in disguise to woo and put to the test, the fidelity of their own fiancees who turn rather quickly from grief to capitulation proving, as Don Alfonso contended, that "all women are like that" which is the rough translation of the opera's title. Opera York amassed an impressive array of talent - on stage, in the orchestra pit and behind the scenes to deliver this world-class production. A machine of well-tuned artistic and logistic ability, Opera York has established itself as a formidable presence in the Canadian arts scene with season after season of exceptional productions.
I was sooo excited and priviledged to attend their dress rehearsal last night at the centre. What I saw at that rehearsal was a focussed, energy-charged assemblage, already polished to a flawless sheen and ready to take Richmond Hill by storm!
For a preview of what is in store, see below, and for the complete photo stream, which isn't nearly as breathtaking as the images of Opera York's professional photographer, (the Canadian) Greg King, click HERE!
Hope to see you at the opera! Click HERE for tickets
