Concert Season
Past Concerts
Concert Season
Love is in the Air
A Night of Opera February 29th - March 2nd
The great Luciano Pavarotti is no more, but the love he made audiences feel for the magnificent operatic works he brought to life on the stage lives on. Tenor Christopher MacRae and Lyric Soprano Catherine
Kingdon join the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra on stage in Penticton, Kelowna and Vernon to thrill audiences with the spectacular "Nessun Dorma" as part of a dramatic program themed around love, passion, tragedy, and longing.
The music theatre of the late 19th century had a store of stock plots and situations. Almost every one of these plots involved love in its many forms. There were rescue plots, there were Romeo-and-Juliet-style crossed-lover plots, there were class-conscious impossible love plots, there were even politics-and-love
plots. What stands out is the passion of the lovers. Those themes are front and center in this show programmed by Okanagan Symphony Music Director and Conductor Rosemary Thomson.
The concert opens with Rossini's much-loved Overture to the Barber of Seville. It is full of musical theatrics, and was reportedly written in two weeks by the very young composer whose hero was Mozart.
As one might guess about the writing of such a youngster, the opera is a send-up of operatic conventions.
Figaro, a humble barber, drives the action, rather than high-born royalty, a radical departure from the operatic style of the previous (18th) century.
Tenor solos, soprano solos and duets (all fully orchestrated) from La Bohème and Rigoletto carry the program through to the rapidly paced orchestral interlude 'Bootlegger's Tarantella' from the wildly popular Canadian composer John Estacio. All three evenings feature three Estacio works from his full-length operas. As well, arias from La Traviata, Turandot, Andrea Chenier and others take performers and audience through the heights of passion and into the depths of tragedy and lost (and found) love.
The Okanagan Symphony's performance of "Love is in the Air" opens in Penticton, Feb 29th at the Cleland Theatre at 7:30 pm, followed by Saturday, March 1st at 8:00 pm at the Kelowna Community Theatre. The closing concert is performed at the Vernon Performing Art Centre Sunday, March 2nd at 7:00 pm. Two extra full concert workshops for students in the Penticton, Oliver and Osoyoos school districts are being held on Friday afternoon, Feb 29th in the Cleland
Theatre in Penticton.
Ticket holders are invited to attend the free pre-concert talks with Music Director Rosemary Thomson, one hour before each performance, in each city, adding to audience appreciation of the show.
Following each evening performance, attendees are invited to join the two guest artists, selected members of the orchestra and Conductor Thomson for "Afterthoughts". Questions and answers are open to audiences, ranging from the unexpected to the entertaining, providing a spirited close to the evening.
Personal stories and insights enrich the concert-going experience as the performers wind down from the adrenaline of the evening, giving audience members an engaging opportunity of being part of a live musical
experience.
For tickets in Kelowna, call Ticketmaster at 250.860.1470. In Penticton call Ticketmaster at 250.770.1470, the Cleland box office at 250.490.2426, or visit the Grooveyard on Main Street, or the Cleland box office at the Recreation Desk in the Recreation Centre. In Vernon call Ticket Seller at 250.549.7469.
Leonard Camplin, Conductor Laureate
PO Box 20238, Kelowna, BC V1Y 9H2
Tel: 250.763.7544 Fax: 250.763.3553
