If you are a music lover, and particularly of opera, you're really missing a treat if you haven't been taking in the Burnaby Lyric Opera productions at the Shadbolt. As well as presenting attractive productions with excellent voices, there are other advantages.
Let me list some: First, you don't have to drive through downtown Vancouver traffic and pay exorbitant parking rates. You can park right next to, or under, the Shadbolt Centre. Secondly, there's not a bad seat in the 250-seat theatre, and the visibility and acoustics are excellent. Thirdly, the surtitles above the stage are clear and easy to read. I could go on, but I will just add that there is also an excellent small coffee shop just as you enter, or leave the theatre.
The show currently playing there, Puccini's Madama Butterfly, is set in Japan, and set designer Richard Berg has cleverly used hanging shoji screens, to act as walls of a house, or windows, then backlit to show scenes in silhouette, as well as a turning dais to hide or reveal scene changes. The costumes by Rose-Ellen Nichols are authentic kimonos and uniforms, colourful to contrast with the more sober kimonos of the servants.
Musical director David Boothroyd's excellent piano accompaniment underlines the singing beautifully, and he not only plays with both hands, he seems to find another to direct the actors onstage, almost unobtrusively. The humming chorus in the third act was beautifully done by the chorus.
Gina McLellan Morel as the betrayed teen-ager Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly), gives a sensitive portrayal that highlights her powerful soprano. Nicolas Rhind as the American ship's cocky officer Pinkerton, who goes through a marriage ceremony with Cio-cio San, to enjoy her favours, has a strong tenor voice that blends well with the excellent baritone of the caring American consul, well sung and acted by Geoffrey Schellenberg.
The role of Madama Butterfly's servant and confidant is played by Francesca Corrado, who grew up in the Burnaby Heights area.
"It was my high school choir teacher at Notre Dame who encouraged me to go on to UBC and major in opera," she notes.
She's sung a variety of important roles at UBC, Bard on the Beach, Ontario's Western Arts Festival, and in the Czech Republic.
"Suzuki is on stage for almost all of the whole opera, looking after props and helping Madama Butterfly dress in her complicated wedding kimono," Corrado says.
Her rich mezzo voice suits the role of the caring, serious Suzuki, whose passionate outbursts at the treatment of her mistress were very well played. Corrado expects to continue her singing career and is looking forward to more appearances in the fall, to be announced.
Burnaby Lyric Opera's Madama Butterfly is on tonight (Thursday, Feb. 26) at 8 p.m., and winds up Saturday, Feb. 28 at 8 p.m.
Their next Opera Highlights on Sunday afternoon will be from La Spartana Generosa, and the their last concert of this season will be highlights from Mignon at the Shadbolt.
For info or tickets, see tickets.shadboltcentre.com or www.burnabylyricopera.org.
