Parlando: The COC Blog

Your interaction with a given opera production need not begin when the curtain goes up and end when it goes down again. Thanks to the internet, it's possible to follow along with the process of bringing an opera to the stage, from the first rehearsal to the closing night party. 

This spring, the opportunities are particularly rich, with many members of the casts and creative teams of Cinderella, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Orfeo ed Euridice blogging and tweeting their way to opening night. Here's a roundup: 

Cinderella

• The conductor, Leonardo Vordoni, is on twitter (@leonardovordoni) and also maintains a blog that's chock full of behind-the-scenes photos. 
• The Prince, Lawrence Brownlee, has recently joined twitter as @Brownleetenor.
• Our Angelina, Elizabeth DeShong, is another tweeter/photo blogger. She tweets under @egdeshong and has a photo-a-day blog titled "A Singer's Suitcase."
• Kyle Ketelsen (singing Alidoro) tweets as @kyleket and has been posting some photos from rehearsals.

Ariadne auf Naxos

• Jane Archibald, the coloratura soprano singing Zerbinetta (you'll get the chance to meet her at Opera 101) is tweeting as @coloraturajane.
• Ensemble Studio soprano and Naiad @SimoneOsborne keeps a steady stream of rehearsal updates coming on twitter, and blogs on her website. 
• Playing Echo, another member of Ariadne's island entourage, is Ensemble Studio graduate @TeiyaKasahara.

Orfeo ed Euridice

• Ambur Braid, Ensemble Studio soprano who will appear in Orfeo ed Euridice as the god of love Amore, tweets regularly at @MsAmburBraid. And she is also blogging at her shiny new website!

Photo: David Daniels as Orfeo in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Orfeo ed Euridice.
Photo Credit: © 2006 Robert Kusel/Lyric Opera of Chicago

[This is a guest post by Gianna Wichelow, senior communications manager, creative]

There has been a stunning group of entries for our Cinderella Outfit Challenge, which is now in its final stages of judging. While we await the outcome, here’s the story behind the COC’s Cinderella doll!

When we were preparing the Canadian Opera Company’s 2010/2011 season brochure, we took as our theme the idea of “found objects.” Each opera was represented by something that you might find in an old box in your attic, or on a shelf, something with a personal touch that would resonate with a theme from the opera.

The creative team consisted of Mark Olson, photographer; Rita Poole, producer; Jeffrey Halcro, creative director at Endeavour Marketing (the COC’s agency of record); and Genevieve Wiseman, props stylist. The COC team consisted of Jeremy Elbourne, director of marketing, and me, senior communications manager, creative.

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As we saw in the previous blog post about the costumes in Ariadne auf Naxos, many of the characters are seen in two modes: "backstage," waiting to perform their roles, and "onstage," in the context of the play-within-a-play. The Prologue of the opera (which takes place backstage at a theatre) is set in the present day, while the opera proper is set in a theatrical dream world. In these photos we can see how that contrast plays out for the character of one of the opera's comic performers, Scaramuccio. Scaramuccio will be played by Ensemble Studio member Christopher Enns, who most recently performed the role of Tamino in our Ensemble Studio special performance of The Magic Flute. The sketch for one of Scaramuccio's costumes is at the top left. All designs here were created by Ariadne's set and costume designer, Dale Ferguson.

Director Neil Armfield imagined the troupe of comic performers as having met and gotten their start performing at University. Here's Scaramuccio's "backstage" outfit, which wouldn't be out of place for a University student.  

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