2015 UBC OPERA ENSEMBLE

CHOIR PRACTICESTEPHEN CHATMAN

(b. 1950) Sung in English

WORLD PREMIEREMAY 8, 9 // 7:30 PM

Old Auditorium

Jonathan Girard | Conductor Nancy Hermiston | Director

LA TRAVIATAGIUSEEPPE VERDI

(1813–1901) Sung in Italian

JUNE 20, 25, 26, 27* // 7:30 PM JUNE 21, 28* // 2:00 PM

Old Auditorium

David Agler | Conductor *Gordon Gerrard | Conductor Nancy Hermiston | Director

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THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO

(LE NOZZE DI FIGARO)Sung in Italian with English Surtitles

Comic Opera in Four ActsBy WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791)

Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte

FEBRUARY 5, 6, 7 AT 7:30PM | FEBRUARY 8 AT 2:00PM

Conductor – Neil VaronDirector – Nancy Hermiston

Lighting Design – Jeremy BaxterSet Design – Alessia Carpoca

UBC Opera Ensemble with the UBC Symphony Orchestra

There will be a 20-minute intermission after Act 2

This production is made possible by the Chan Endowment Fund and the David Spencer Endowment Encouragement Fund.

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A MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR Nancy Hermiston, O.C.

With tonight’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro, we want to celebrate the life of a great Canadian and an icon of the operatic world, Irving Guttman, the Father of Opera in Western Canada. He devoted his life to his beloved art form, opera, and to those who made the magic of opera happen. He took his commitments seriously and when he said he would do something, like bring opera to Western Canada, he did not stop until he fulfilled that commitment.

However, his influence has not just been felt in Western Canada, but throughout the nation and the world. The person who first awakened Irving’s passion for opera was the famous film star Jeanette MacDonald. Even though she was not known for her operatic career, Irving saw her sing the role of Juliet in Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet in 1943 when he was 14 years old and was captivated by it. From that moment on he had found his life’s passion, opera. I don’t think she was ever aware that she was the one responsible for inspiring one of the most influential figures in Canadian operatic history.

Irving worked with all of the great singers and conductors of his time – ‘HIS TIME’ was a career that would span over 55 years. He had a special gift for recognizing great voices and for putting great artists together in truly grand operatic productions. He approached opera with great respect. He was not a director that put his ego first but rather always put the opera first. Singers, conductors, and audiences appreciated his integrity towards the art form. They felt safe with him and knew that he always had the operas and their best interests at heart.

The list of Canadian and international artists, singers, directors, and conductors that Irving mentored and supported throughout their career reads like a “who’s who” list in opera with singers such as Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, Judith Forst, Louis Quilico, Jon Vickers, Placido Domingo, Montserrat Caballé, Jose Carreras, and Samuel Ramey. The list goes on and on, and frequently, his casts were the envy of many larger companies.

Irving saw his first live opera in 1942 and his last on Nov. 13, 2014, here at UBC. He began mentoring singers when he was 20 and continued until his death. He never lost his passion for opera, young artists, or opera in Canada.

Irving once stated: “Throughout my career, I have believed so deeply in opera and its great power, in the careers of the young singers I mentored over the years, and in that magic which occurs when the curtain goes up. I feel it is always worth the struggle and the work, and will always be worth it. This, more than anything else, gives me the strength to overcome any fears, weaknesses, or uncertainties I may have about my own part in the process.”

Unlike Jeanette MacDonald who inspired Irving’s passion for opera but never knew the result of that inspiration, Irving saw generations of singers, directors, conductors, and theatre professionals go on to great success because of his influence. Due to his perseverance, Canada will continue to be recognized as a place with a wealth of talent.

It is fitting that tonight we also celebrate the signing of a new collaborative agreement with Irving’s first company, the Vancouver Opera. This agreement solidifies a long-standing collaboration between the UBC Opera Ensemble and Vancouver Opera. It institutes an alliance that Irving firmly believed in and supported, an alliance between academia and the professional world. As well, we are delighted to announce the winners of the 2013–14 and 2014–15 Guttman-Dales scholarship, Laura Widget and Tamar Simon (performing the roles of the Countess and Susanna). This is a scholarship given to UBC Opera as a tribute to Irving and his partner Robert Dales by the Western Opera companies and the friends and fans of these two incredible gentlemen.

Irving Guttman has given us a huge legacy and a huge responsibility to protect, preserve, and develop opera in Canada. We must see that it is indeed always magic when that curtain goes up. Tonight, we will endeavour to make that operatic magic happen and in so doing, we keep his memory and his legacy alive.

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Irving with Soprano Montserrat Caballé

Irving receiving the Order of Canada from Governor General Jeanne Sauvé, 1988

Irving with Soprano Renata Tebaldi

Irving with Soprano Joan Sutherland

Irving with Mezzo-soprano Judith Forst

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THE CAST* FEBRUARY 5 & 7 FEBRUARY 6 & 8

Figaro Peter Monaghan Scott BrooksSusanna Tamar Simon Stephanie NakagawaCount Almaviva Geoffrey Schellenberg Micah SchroederCountess Rosina Almaviva Laura Widgett Natascia dell’ErbaCherubino Katie Miller Courtney BridgeMarcellina Rachel Stewart Suzette Janse van RensburgBartolo Jason Klippenstein Duncan Watts-GrantBasilio Spencer Britten Cliff WongDon Curzio Alireza Mojibian Jeremiah CaragBarbarina Chelsi Walsh Keira ChapmanAntonio Elliot Harder Matthew McLellanVillage Girls Keira Chapman Sawyer Craig Charlotte Beglinger Leanne Kaufman

UBC OPERA ENSEMBLE CHORUS**

Soprano: Shante van Horlick, Keira Chapman, Camille Holland, Sawyer Craig, Chelsi Walsh, Jessica Taylor, Michelle Kim, Zoë Mix, Caitlin Hill, Roan Shankaru, Colleen Donnelly, Melodie Corbett, Mariah Muehler, Sierra Campbell, Laura Miller, Elizabeth Harris.

Mezzo-soprano: Charlotte Beglinger, Rachel Stewart, Suzette Janse van Rensburg, Elena Razlog, Rory Shade, Leanne Kaufman, Chandra Curry, Yeeun Lee, Isabella Halladay, Gwendolyn Yearwood.

Tenor: Brent MacKenzie, Ian McCloy, Cliff Wong, Jeremiah Carag, Alireza Mojibian, Tony Bittar-Sayegh, William Grossman, Ian Bannerman.

Bass: Duncan Watts-Grant, Elliot Harder, Kyle Lehmann, Jack Foster, Jason Klippenstein, Justin Chen, Matthew McLellan, Brendan Thrasher, Adam Da Ros.*All cast and chorus are subject to change. **Appearing courtesy of Actors Equity

SYNOPSISACT IA country estate outside Seville, late-eighteenth century. While preparing for their wedding, the valet Figaro learns from the maid Susanna that their philandering employer, Count Almaviva, has designs on her. At this, the servant vows to outwit his master. Before long the scheming Bartolo enters the servants’ quarters with his housekeeper, Marcellina, who wants Figaro to marry her to cancel a debt he cannot pay. After Marcellina and Susanna trade insults, the amorous page Cherubino arrives, revelling in his infatuation with all women. He hides when the Count shows up, furious after having caught Cherubino flirting with Barbarina, the gardener’s daughter. The Count pursues Susanna but conceals himself when the gossiping music master, Don Basilio approaches. When Basilio suggests that Cherubino has a crush on the Countess, the Count reveals himself. He is then further enraged to discover Cherubino in the room. Figaro returns with fellow servants who praise the Count’s progressive reform in abolishing the “droit du seigneur” — the right of a noble to take a manservant’s place on his wedding night. The Count assigns Cherubino to his regiment in Seville and leaves Figaro to cheer up the unhappy adolescent.

ACT IIIn her boudoir, the Countess laments her husband’s waning love but plots to chasten him, encouraged by Figaro and Susanna. They will send Cherubino, disguised as Susanna, to a romantic assignation with the Count. Cherubino, smitten with the Countess, appears, and the two women begin to dress the page for his farcical rendezvous. While Susanna goes out to find a ribbon, the Count knocks at the door and is furious to find it locked. Cherubino quickly hides in a closet and the Countess admits her husband, who, when he hears a noise, becomes skeptical of her story that Susanna is inside the wardrobe. He takes his wife to fetch some tools with which to force open the closet door. Meanwhile, Susanna, having observed everything from behind a screen, helps Cherubino out a window and then takes his place in the closet. Both Count and Countess are amazed to find her there. All seems well until the gardener, Antonio, storms in with crushed geraniums from a flowerbed below the window. Figaro, who has run in to announce that the wedding is ready, pretends it was he who jumped from the window, faking a sprained ankle. Marcellina, Bartolo, and Basilio burst into the room waving a court summons for Figaro. This delights the Count as it gives him an excuse to delay the wedding.

— Intermission —

ACT IIIIn an audience room where the wedding is to take place, Susanna leads the Count on with promises of a rendezvous in the garden. The nobleman, however, grows doubtful when he spies her conspiring with Figaro and vows revenge. Marcellina is astonished but thrilled to discover that Figaro is in fact her long-lost natural son by Bartolo. Mother and son embrace, provoking Susanna’s anger until she too learns the truth. Finding a quiet moment, the Countess recalls her past happiness then joins Susanna in composing a letter that invites the Count to the garden that night. Later, during Figaro and Susanna’s marriage ceremony, the bride manages to slip the hatpin-sealed note to the Count. The Count pricks his finger and drops the pin that Figaro then retrieves.

ACT IVIn the moonlit garden, Barbarina, after unsuccessfully trying to find the lost hatpin, tells Figaro and Marcellina about the coming assignation between the Count and Susanna. Figaro rants about women and leaves, missing Susanna and the Countess, ready for their masquerade. Alone, Susanna rhapsodizes on her love for Figaro, but he, overhearing, thinks she means the Count. Susanna hides in time to see Cherubino woo the Countess — now disguised in Susanna’s dress. The Count chases him away and sends his wife, who he thinks is Susanna, to an arbour, to which he follows. By now Figaro understands the joke and, joining the fun, makes exaggerated love to Susanna in her Countess disguise. The Count returns, seeing, or so he thinks, Figaro with his wife. Outraged, he calls everyone to witness his judgment, but now the real Countess appears and reveals the ruse. Grasping the truth at last, the Count begs her pardon. All are reunited, and so ends this “mad day” at the court of the Almavivas.

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NANCY HERMISTON, O.C. — Director & SopranoCanadian-born lyric coloratura soprano 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, Miss Hermiston was named the UBC University Marshal, and 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 October 2011, she

received an Opera Canada Rubie Award for her contributions to opera in Canada. Miss Hermiston is also a favourite guest for master classes throughout Canada, the United

States, 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 2010 for concerts at the Shanghai Conservatory and the Shanghai Normal University. In May 2011, the Ensemble returned to the Shanghai Conservatory for a production of Giulio Cesare. Most recently, Miss Hermiston appeared with the VOA as Stage Director for their 2012/13 Season’s Opening production of La Bohème. She will return to the Vancouver Opera in 2015 to direct their production of Die Fledermaus. On December 30, 2013, Miss Hermiston was honoured with the Order of Canada.

NEIL VARON — ConductorNeil Varon’s conducting career spans 40 years and several continents. Varon studied piano, composition, and conducting at the Juilliard School. After early stations in Istanbul, Vienna and Nuernberg, he was named first Kapellmeister of the Deutsche Opera am Rhein in Düsseldorf, and in 1987 he became music director of the Südwestfälische Philharmonic. In 1991, he was appointed general music director of the City of Gelsenkirchen, Germany.

In 1996, he performed in Japan and Korea with the Chamber Orchestra of Kanazawa, the orchestra of the Toho Gakuen Academy (Toyama), and the Suwon Philharmonic, Korea. His 1998 performance of Die Fledermaus at Hamilton’s “Opera Ontario” was broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Company. In 2000, he returned to the Staatsorchester Frankfurt-Oder, and to Sweden for the revival of Turandot and performances of La Fille du Régiment and Die Fledermaus. In 2001, he made his debut at the Vancouver Opera with Fledermaus. In 2002, he conducted a new production of Gounod’s Faust at the Staatstheater in Saarbrücken, and new productions of Dido and Aeneas and Gianni Schicchi at UBC in Vancouver. Varon has conducted at the Hamburg State Opera, Nürnberg Opera, Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Stuttgart Opera, Berlin Staatsoper, and New York City Opera, as well as the Haydn Orchester in Bolzano, Italy, the Conservatory Orchestra at the Toho Gakuen Conservatory in Tokyo, and the Philharmonia Hungarica.

Neil Varon was named Professor of Conducting and Music Director of the Eastman Philharmonia, Eastman School Symphony, and Chamber Orchestras in 2002 where he currently continues to teach.

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UBC OPERA ENSEMBLEThe University of British Columbia Opera Ensemble was founded by Canadian lyric coloratura, Nancy Hermiston, in 1995. Beginning with a core of seven performers, Ms. Hermiston has built the program to a 90-member company, performing three main productions at UBC every season, seven Opera Tea Concerts, and several engagements with local community partners. The Ensemble’s mission is to educate young, gifted opera singers, preparing them for international careers. The UBC Opera Program was also recognized with the 2011–2012 Alfred Scow Award. This annual award is given to an undergraduate program or department that has had a significant positive impact on student life and student development at UBC. Past main-stage productions have included Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, Die Gärtnerin aus Liebe, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Suor Angelica, La Bohème, Dido and Aeneas, The Merry Widow, The Bartered Bride, Manon, Eugene Onegin, Florence Lady with the Lamp, Dreamhealer, Falstaff, Don Giovanni, Cendrillon, Albert Herring, and the Western Canadian Premiere of Harry Somer’s Louis Riel, The Crucible, Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow), Rusalka, Così fan tutte, Dialogues des Carmélites, Carmen, The Tales of Hoffmann, The Florentine Straw Hat. The 2014/2015 Season includes The Bartered Bride, Le Nozze di Figaro and La Traviata. This upcoming summer they will be travelling to the Westben Festival to perform La Traviata and also to the Czech Republic performing productions of both La Traviata and Le Nozze di Figaro.

Photo: Tim Matheson

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THE UBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAThe 100-member orchestra performs symphonic works from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, giving several concerts during the year, both on and of campus, and often featuring soloists. The Orchestra also performs with the University Singers and UBC Choral Union under the direction of Dr. Jonathan Girard, Director of Orchestras and Assistant Professor of Conducting and Ensembles. A wide variety of music is offered including the standard orchestral repertoire, new music and lesser-known works, providing the players with in-depth experience in orchestral performance. The Orchestra was featured in the Inaugural concerts of the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.

Violin ILidia Lee*Mark FerrisGalen SchramJohn-Paul RadeletBillie SmithMelody ChenSamantha KungLina HanMonica ChenMicki-Lee Smith

Violin IIEmily Young*Elana CooperOlga GaleanoMaria DemcakYeji AhnChironjeev KanjilalJulianna BousoCarl Fung

ViolaEnoch Ng*Angela ChenWennie WeiAmanda PangNicole AuYeungRachel Loo

VioloncelloJudy Lou*Charles CayerKyran AssingCaroline Chu

BassYefeng Yin*Jacques ForestAngus Lam

Flute/PiccoloRyan Esau*Kaylie Hanna

Oboes Kristen Cooke*Charlotte Tai

ClarinetsSydney Tetarenko*Krishan Power

BassoonDebra Loh*Sarah Ellis Horns Theresa Lei*Pauline Lo

Trumpet Sharon Li*Candice Newberry

Timpani Aaron Graham

Orchestra ManagerBen Thauland

Orchestra LibrariansKaylie HannaCaleb Robinson* denotes principal

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SPECIAL THANKS TO:The Chan Endowment & The Chan FamilyDavid Spencer Endowment Fund Vancouver Opera Guild Dr. Irving Guttman and Robert Dales Martha Lou Henley Charitable Foundation Judith and Graham Forst Milena JandaDean of Arts, Gage AverillSOM Diretor, Richard KurthDirector of UBC Theatre, Robert GardinerAssistant Dean, Gerald Vanderwoude

SOM, Administrative Assistant, Isabel da Silva Stephen Quigley and Colborne Architects Vancouver OperaParvin Mirhady Catherine Alkenbrack and Suzanne PoohkayJay HendricksonBradley PowersLynn BurtonKeith Smith Bard on the Beach

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PRODUCTION TEAMDirectorNancy Hermiston

ConductorNeil Varon

Lighting Design Jeremy Baxter

Set Design Alessia Carpoca

Choreographer Sheldon Baxter

Opera CoachesDavid Boothroyd Richard EppMichael Onwood

Stage ManagerCollette Brown

Assistant Stage ManagerAdam Da Ros

Assistant DirectorAdam Da Ros

Hairdressing & WigsElke Englicht

Make-upCarmen Garcia

PropertiesLynn Burton

Wardrobe Work-studiesFrancesca CorradoRachel StewartIsabella HalladayCharlotte Beglinger

Wardrobe AssistantsCamille HollandSierra CampbellShante van HorlickMariah MuehlerElizabeth HarrisMatthew McLellan

ProgramSheldon Baxter

Program PrintingEast Van Graphics

Office AssistantSheldon Baxter

SurtitlesMilena Janda

Surtitles OperatorSheldon Baxter

Marketing Coordination & Graphic DesignMiles Linklater

Opera LibrarianKatie Miller

Manager, TechnicalTheatre ProductionJay Henrickson

Technical Director & Production Manager Keith Smith

Assistant Technical Director Jessica Warren

Scenic Painter Justus Hayes

Scenic Carpenters Keith SmithElliot HarderWilliam GrossmanGeoffrey SchellenbergDuncan Watts-GrantJason KlippensteinMatthew McLellan

Student Technical DirectorWilliam Grossman

Stage CrewElliot HarderDuncan Watts-GrantGeoffrey Schellenberg& Members of UBC Opera Ensemble

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February 18-20, 2015

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AN EPIC MASTERWORK OF FIERY MAGNITUDE & RADIANT SOUND

FELIX MENDELSSOHN’S

ANDREA CHÉNIERUMBERTO GIORDANO

MARCH 12, 6PM / MARCH 14, 10AM

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MARCH 26, 6PM / MARCH 28, 10AM

RISE AND FALL OF THE CITY OF MAHAGONNYKURT WEILL

MAY 14, 6PM / MAY 16, 10AM

All performances take place in the Old Auditorium on the UBC Campus

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