Lunchbox Opera with Benjamin Butterfield and Kinza Tyrrell Friday, July 24, 2020, starting at 1 pm PDT, and available on demand
Tenor Benjamin Butterfield and pianist Kinza Tyrrell present a short concert recorded in the Baumann Centre, featuring works by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Tosti, and Randy Newman.Host Giuseppe Pietraroia joins Ben and Kinza for a conversation that touches on what makes the city of Naples unique and takes a firm stance on Randy Newman’s status as the unsung hero of American Art Song. Make sure to watch for a delightful soft shoe interlude, for all the social distance dancer lovers out there!
Benjamin Butterfield is Head of Voice at the University of Victoria. He studied voice with Selena James at the Victoria Conservatory of Music and is a graduate of McGill University. In addition to an international performing career, he has performed multiple roles with Pacific Opera, most recently Mime in Das Rheingold. In 2018 Ben was named a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the country’s highest academic honour. Full bio
Victoria native Kinza Tyrrell was Music Director for the new youth opera The Flight of the Hummingbird and is Principal Répétiteur and Music Director of Vancouver Opera in Schools. One of Canada’s most sought after vocal coaches and répétiteurs, Kinza has also been on the music faculty with the Canadian Opera Company, the University of Victoria, Center for Opera Studies (COSI) in Sulmona Italy, among others. Full bio
Giuseppe (Joey) Pietraroia is Pacific Opera’s Chorus Master and is Associate Conductor for both Pacific Opera and the Victoria Symphony. He has conducted numerous productions for Pacific Opera, most recently La bohème in 2018. Other recent conducting engagements include Les Feluettes at Edmonton Opera (2017). Full bio
Episode #4
Lunchbox Opera with Charlotte Siegel Premiere program from For All to Hear
June 26, 2020. Available on demand
Soprano singer/songwriter Charlotte Siegel uses her voice and her compositions to offer a personal response to the pressing issues faced by diverse artists in opera. Following an interview with Rebecca Hass, Charlotte performs Samuel Barber’s The Crucifixion, Your Daddy’s Son from Stephen Flaherty’s Ragtime, the spiritual Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child by Harry T. Burleigh, and We Trust You As Our Leader from Joplin’s Treemonisha. Charlotte also premières her original composition Maybe One Day.
A Toronto born classical soprano, songwriter, and performer, Charlotte Siegel has just completed a Graduate Diploma in Opera and Voice at McGill University and was to have been a Resident Artist for Pacific Opera Victoria’s 40 Days of Opera in summer 2020 until the COVID-19 pandemic intervened. More about Charlotte Siegel
The past few weeks have been the heaviest I’ve ever felt. As a classical singer I am used to feeling the weight and responsibility of my blackness, but it feels different now. In the wake of the brutal murder of George Floyd people are finally awakening. It has taken long enough, and black people are tired! I feel angry, I feel numb, I feel everything. Between the social media posts, the news, and discussions, I kept searching for a way to lend my voice in a productive way. So I thank Rebecca Hass and Pacific Opera for giving me the space to respond to this moment in time in the best way I know how. I sincerely hope that we use this momentum to create a world where we don’t have to notice colour.
Charlotte Siegel
Episode #3
Lunchbox Opera with Rachel Fenlon, part 3
June 19, 2020. Available on demand
Soprano and pianist Rachel Fenlon presents the final part of a concert from her home in Berlin, featuring Von Ewige Liebe by Johannes Brahms, Come Lovely and Soothing Death by George Crumb, Die Zwei Blauen Augen by Gustav Mahler, and Ein Traum by Edvard Grieg. Download the English text.
Episode #2
Lunchbox Opera with Rachel Fenlon, part 2
June 5, 2020. Available on demand
Soprano and pianist Rachel Fenlon presents part two of a three-part concert from her home in Berlin. Part two features Ständchen by Richard Strauss, Silent Noon by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Passing and The Half Moon by Canadian composer Danika Lorèn, and The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs by John Cage. Download the English text.
Episode #1
Lunchbox Opera with Rachel Fenlon, part 1
May 29, 2020. Available on demand
Soprano and pianist Rachel Fenlon presents a three-part concert from her home in Berlin. Part one features Trois Mélodies by Oliver Messiaen, Only by Morton Feldman, Étude No. 2 for solo piano by Philip Glass, and L’Heure exquise by Reynaldo Hahn. Download the English translations.
Raised in Victoria and based in Berlin, Rachel Fenlon is dedicated to performing song recitals, chamber music, and opera, and creating and commissioning new music. This concert in three parts includes a mixed repertoire of her favourite songs and stories. Part one features music by Olivier Messiaen, Morton Feldman, Philip Glass, and Reynaldo Hahn. Future instalments will go live June 5 and June 19 and will include selections by Vaughan-Williams, Danika Loren, John Cage, Richard Strauss, Brahms, Mahler, Grieg, and George Crumb.Rachel Fenlon debuted with Pacific Opera Victoria in 2013 as Nannetta in Falstaff, and the following year returned as Queen Guenevere in Camelot in concert. She is a rising operatic soloist and chamber musician and is committed to performing, curating, and commissioning contemporary music. She is acclaimed for her one-woman Liederabend, with which she tours internationally, singing and accompanying herself on the piano.
