Of Mice and Mozart

Opinion

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This article was published 03/04/2015 (3312 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Opera will pair the Mozart masterpiece The Marriage of Figaro next season with the local première of Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men, based on the novella and play by John Steinbach.

The 2015-16 lineup reflects the division within the MO audience: half wants to see big-name operas and half, made up of longtime subscribers, is anxious to see new material. Larry Desrochers, general manager and CEO, hopes each side will find something to look forward to in the company’s 43rd season.

“We want to create more balanced programming for the two audiences that we have,” says Desrochers. “We won’t necessarily always have a top-nine opera in the season but we will try to balance it with something new to the community.”

Figaro — which runs Nov. 21, 24 and 27 — is a comic tour-de-force of manners, love, danger and disguise last presented here in 2006, 1992 and 1982. A cornerstone of the standard operatic repertoire, the 1786 farce tells the story of Figaro, a barber and servant in the court of Count Almaviva, who is about to marry the lovely maid Susanna, whom her master also lusts after.

Baritone Gordon Bintner will make his Manitoba Opera debut in the title role, while Winnipeg sopranos Andriana Chuchman and Lara Ciekiewicz play Susanna and the Countess Rosina, respectively. Canadian bass Daniel Okulitch sings the role of the count.

“It’s a lot of fun, the upper class gets its comeuppance in it,” says Desrochers. “It’s an accessible opera for people coming for the first time. It’s not a big, heavy piece.”

Of Mice and Men is a tragic Depression-era tale about George and Lennie, two itinerant ranch workers in 1930s California dreaming of a better life. Winnipeg-born baritone Gregory Dahl will return home to play George, while Grammy Award-winning American tenor Anthony Dean Griffey is feeble-minded Lennie, a role he has performed to great acclaim all over the world.

Curley will be sung by American tenor Joel Sorenson. It runs April 23, 26 and 29, 2016, like Figaro, at the Centennial Concert Hall.

“It’s a great opera that translates well from the book,” Desrochers says.

Manitoba Opera is always on the lookout for operas that have themes with modern pertinence — something like last Novmeber’s Fidelio, which the organization tied to the opening of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and involved the city’s refugee community. It attracted 300 new season-ticket holders, bumping up the company’s subscriber total to 2,934 this season.

Desrochers also let out of the bag that Manitoba Opera plans to add a third show in 2016-17 called Stickboy, written by Canadian spoken-word artist Shane Koyczan, about being bullied in school. (Koyczan performs his slam poetry at the West End Cultural Centre on Sunday at 8 p.m.) It debuted at Vancouver Opera last year and the contentious issue attracted a new audience beyond the company’s conventional base.

“You can speak to these issues that are relevant to the community through opera, through the story set to music,” he says. “We shouldn’t just fall into the trap of thinking of opera as pretty music for a couple of hours. We can change the perception of what opera is about.”

The final production of Manitoba Opera’s 2014-15 season is Turandot, which opens April 18.

 

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A new poetry festival slated for this May hopes to dispel the notion that poetry sucks.

The inaugural Envoi Poetry Festival kicks off May 29 and will showcase the best in western Canadian poetry and spoken word with indigenous writers and performers taking centre stage.

“Manitoba poets do it all, whether its writing songs or postmodern language experiments,” says program director Victor Enns. “Indigenous poetry, writing and publishing is flourishing in Canada, and especially here in Western Canada and Envoi plans to showcase it for our local community and for our visitors from out of town. It’s time for us to notice.”

Thirty poets, including 2013 Governor General’s Award-winning Katherena Vermette, Ariel Gordon, Rosanna Deerchild, Iskwé and Meira Cook will perform at 15 events scheduled during the May 29-June 5 festival that is named after a Robert Kroetsch poem that captures the Envoi vision statement.

Enns recognizes that much of the world is poetry-phobic. To many, poetry is the boring and impenetrable classes on verse study in high school. He thought about dropping poetry out of the festival name but decided to reclaim the word for everyday use.

“The general public hears poetry every day; they just don’t recognize it,” says Enns, the author of several collections of poetry. “Jets chants and O Canada are poetry, and just about everybody’s introduction to poetry comes in the form of songs, which will be one of the presentation styles of the festival.”

Enns is spotlighting the work of aboriginal writers in the hopes of the mainstream noticing their achievements. Winnipeg poet Duncan Mercredi says he writes what he sees, which is not always pretty. He describes his community’s work as ripping the scab off what is festering in this city and country.

“It’s poetry that makes the general public uneasy, makes them squirm when it is read and performed by indigenous writers that have experienced that life and are willing to share it,” he says. “We are no longer willing to hide in the shadows but are stepping out and if it makes people uncomfortable, well, tough shit, man — walk for a while in my moccasins.”

Festival super-passes are on sale for $50; $10 and $15 single tickets become available starting May 1.

kevin.prokosh@freepress.mb.ca