Open Air: Opera in the Summer gets underway with a Baumann Centre production staged by students in Pacific Opera’s youth summer performance program.
Where:Various venues, including the Baumann Centre and Butchart GardensWhen:July 18-27Tickets:pacificopera.ca
Pacific Opera Victoria will close out its 2024-25 season with Open Air: Opera in the Summer, a series of free and ticketed events that runs for seven days at various Greater Victoria venues.
There is a strong community undercurrent to the event, which sets it apart from like-minded festivals in the area. It exists on three levels — amateur, pre-professional, and professional — and features a range of programming focused on “the beauty of nature and the beauty of music,” according to artistic director Brenna Corner of Pacific Opera Victoria.
From afternoon, family-friendly performances at the Baumann Centre (July 18-20) and short pop-up performances in everyday spaces (July 22-27) to a performance with the Victoria Symphony under the stars at The Butchart Gardens (July 24), the company has all bases covered.
“It’s a chance to have a little music outside, without some of those rigid confinements that we often think about in opera,” Corner said. “This is more of a fun, relaxed experience.”
The series gets underway with a Baumann Centre production staged by students in Pacific Opera’s youth summer performance program. The popularity of composer Ben Moore and librettist Kelly Rourke’sOdyssey, a 50-minute production that pairs singers ages eight to 18 with opera professionals, is such that it necessitated a fourth performance, due to popular demand.
Corner sees this type of youth programming as an investment in the greater performing arts community, age notwithstanding. There are only two adults inOdyssey, with the major roles all played by children. “Twenty years from now, when they think back to when they were given the opportunity to experience opera, those kids will have an interest in what the artform is,” Corner said.
“They will have an understanding and appreciation for it — because they created one.”
Corner was a musical theatre devotee when she was younger, until a trip to Oxford, England, for an operatic summer intensive program set her off on her current path. She’s hoping that Pacific Opera’sOdysseycan do the same for some of the cast. “It gives more opportunity for kids to look at opera as part of their world and not something that is far away. This is a way to bring kids into the opera.”
Another component of the festival puts university graduates at the outset of their careers on stage in a variety of situations, from free eight-minute pop-up performances to free 15-minute mini concerts at six locations, including Government House, Beacon Hill Park, and lawns of the BC Legislature.
“These are local artists who make Victoria their home, which gives us an opportunity to support them in their development,” Corner said of the pop-up and mini concerts.
There’s a high level of difficulty to these outdoor performances, according to Corner — “You have nothing to bounce the sound off,” she said — though the task is made somewhat easier during the company’s 2024-25 season finale and last Open Air: Opera in the Summer component, a collaboration with the Victoria Symphony at Butchart Gardens.
The concert featuring Pacific Opera principal conductor Giuseppe Pietraroia, the Pacific Opera Chorus, soprano Lauren Margison, tenor Adam Luther, and pianist Patrick Cao is included free with paid Butchart Gardens admission. It will be well attended, to be sure — and a tough task for the singers, without a doubt.
“It can be really difficult,” Corner said. “At Butchart, there is a little bit of additional amplification, because it is so big and there are no walls. We need just a little bit of assistance from technology to make sure that it is an experience that everyone there can enjoy. It’s a whole different experience, but it’s also the coolest thing. There are so many people, and the experience of having the symphony behind you and being under the stars is an extraordinary sensation.”
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