Class Time With Edel Rodriguez

Intrigued. Inspired. Impressed.

This was the collective feeling of the Emily Carr University of Art & Design students on Tuesday when Edel Rodriguez stopped by to give a presentation of his art work.

Associate professor Justin Novak welcomed Edel, VO's graphic designer Annie Mack and myself upon arrival and gave us a tour of the university grounds. We then met the class of 20 in one of the lecture rooms.



Edel had brought his macbook laptop with his portfolio in powerpoint. He began by giving a backgrounder of how he came to be an illustrator. He graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, worked as an Art Director for Time Magazine and illustrated for the likes of Newsweek, Communication Arts, Spotco and Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre.

It was after his work with the Toronto theatre, that VO had contacted him to to design this season's art work for Norma, Nixon in China, The Marriage of Figaro and Madama Butterfly.

Opening up with Madama Butterfly, Edel spoke about finding inspiration from pictures of Japanese geishas. He then went on to submit a dozen sketches to VO's Director of Marketing, Doug Tuck for feedback. The bleeding moon with Chou-Chou San's face was a hit.



For The Marriage of Figaro, Edel was surprised that the image of 2 men tucked into woman's bosom (and Edel's personal favourite), was also the preferred choice for VO. Edel had thought that we would pick choice #5 as choice #1 may have been too risque. He told the students that this just goes to prove that illustrators should never underestimate the client and should always go for it.



The concept for Nixon in China was a bit more challenging, as Edel had to find a way to blend Nixon and Mao's heads together. First came an ink drawing. The next step was rolling the red paint on, using his light table and then adding the whites.



Although all of the posters Edel designed shared bold colours and strong images, his favourite poster, hands down, is Norma. He worked with the concept of fire for the image and included pyres in his sketches. Doug loved the original burning face of Norma (top centre picture of sketches) but thought that the expression looked a little depressed, so it was tweaked a bit to what you see today.



Once the images were finalized, Annie Mack took them and reworked them to fit our VO snowboards. Edel went on to say that he was thrilled with the results. More than that, he loved the fact that the art was basically left alone; unlike other art directors who may chop up his images for their own needs.

Throughout the 2 1/2 hour session, Edel went on to share his other experiences in the industry, which included winning the bid to design the Illustration Conference poster in New York. He was also commissioned to design the logo of a flaming stratacaster for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concert and illustrating the Dream Girl campaign for German Playboy magazine.

Edel even wrote and illustrated a couple of children's books.

Wrapping up the class, Edel gave some words of wisdom to the fledging artists:

* Work in a lot of different parts of the business and spread work around (magazines, books, posters. illustration vs design)
* Switching materials will change the tone of the art work, like his Che Guevara on papyrus paper
* Combine painting and digital work for versatility
* Mix up your styles so that you remain interesting and not outdated
* Learn to work fast (most of Edel's work takes him 10-15 hours to complete)

But the most important is always continue working on your own projects because that can create work in other areas that you may not have been aware of.

I'm not even an Emily Carr student but I was blown away with Edel's presentation. To be taken along the process of conception to creation and experimentation to final approval of an artist's work was nothing short of incredible. It made me so much more appreciative of how our posters came to be. This season's posters, hung up by my desk, have taken on a whole new meaning.

For more pictures, go to our Flickr.

~ Ling Chan

A Word From Our Fearless Leader

A round of applause for the big boss, James Wright, for a fabulous interview in this season's Monte Cristo magazine.

In the interview, our fearless leader speaks about the importance of working only with the highest calibre people to put forth something good that the Vancouver opera community would be excited to support. He also emphasizes the need to balance out popular classic opera with a modern (meaning post WWII) work, thus keeping opera reinvigorated.

And always forward thinking, Jim also embraces social media tools in helping to introduce the younger demographic to the art form of opera.

What a boss, what a guy!

To read more of the interview, click below. Or you can purchase your very own copy of Monte Cristo magazine in any Chapters bookstore. Bring a copy of it with you to the theatre, and James Wright may even autograph it!







~ Ling Chan

We Got A Visitor!

Stay tuned next week when our special guest at the Vancouver Opera office will be none other than Edel Rodriguez!



Edel is the fabulous artist behind VO's 2009/2010 season's artwork for Norma, Nixon in China, The Marriage of Figaro and Madama Butterfly. If you haven't seen them yet, just you wait. They'll be cropping up on every street corner, in every cafe and bus shelters in no time!



We're thrilled to have such an internationally renowned artist in our midst. We have Edel for 3 days and boy, do we have surprises in store for him and for our VO fans!

Here's a quick bio on Edel:

Edel Rodriguez was born in Havana, Cuba in 1971. Nine years later, his family immigrated to Miami during the Mariel boatlift. He graduated from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in 1994 and began working regularly as an illustrator for The New Yorker, TIME magazine, and a variety of other clients. He was an art director at TIME magazine between 1994 and 2007 and is a graduate of Hunter College’s MFA painting program.

His work has been featured on the cover of the 2004 Communication Arts Illustration Annual. It has also been regularly selected to appear in the pages of American Illustration, Communication Arts, and The Society of Illustrator’s Annuals. Edel's artwork has appeared on Broadway show posters, U.S. postage stamps, product designs, ad campaigns, and most major American and international publications. He has illustrated six children’s books, two of which he has authored. His work is in the collections of a variety of institutions as well as in the private collections of writers, actors, businessmen, and political figures. He is the recipient of a Gold and a three Silver Medals from the Society of Illustrators, and a Bronze Cube from The Art Director’s Club for his theatre posters. He has regularly exhibited his work in gallery exhibitions in Spain, Los Angeles, Toronto, and New York.

Partial Client List: The New Yorker, Time Magazine, MTV, Pepsi Inc., U.S. Postal Service, Spot Design, Nike Inc., WBMG, Rolling Stone, Texas Monthly, Gentleman's Quarterly, Playboy, Reader's Digest, National Geographic Traveler, Little Brown and Co., The New York Times, Galison Books, University of Chicago Press, The New Republic, Hyperion Books, New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Henry Holt Books, Esquire magazine, Conde Naste Traveler, The Washington Post, David Morris Design, Fortune Magazine, Billboard Magazine, Golf Digest, The Progressive, Los Angeles Times, McGraw-Hill, The Nation, Vibe Magazine

Edel will be here bright eyed and bushy tailed on Monday morning. Stay tuned!

~ Ling Chan

A Very Special Birthday

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Ha-peeee birrrrth-day dear Ingrid! Happy birthday to you!

*cheers and fanfare*

Who is Ingrid you may be asking?

Well, the exceptional woman I'm speaking of is Ingrid Chiang and she's played bassoon in our orchestra for the past 10 years.

Ingrid, who turns 36 today, will be one of Vancouver Opera volunteers participating in the CIBC Run for the Cure run on Sunday, October 4.






Besides the fact that the Run for the Cure is a worthwhile cause to be involved in, the run strikes a very personal chord with Ingrid and with Vancouver Opera.

Ingrid was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. Her left breast had been exhibiting unusual symptons the past couple of years. At first her doctor advised her that he couldn't find anything wrong with her breast, but sadly, that turned out not to be the case.

When she came back from a tour to China with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Ingrid was advised that she had stage 3 breast cancer and that the cancer had spread into her lymph nodes. She had to have a mastectomy.

Ingrid just finished her chemotherapy last month and will be starting her radiation treatment this afternoon. That will be followed by one year of injections and 5 years of oral medications.

Like many women who have breast cancer, Ingrid has no family history of the disease.

This year's run will be Ingrid's first ever run. She will be accompanied by her husband Mike Neal and their 13 year old daughter Kyra Blair, as they take on the 5k circuit.


Company Manager Adrianne Wurz and Ingrid Chiang

We at Vancouver Opera will be supporting Ingrid and the tens of thousands of women afflicted by this horrible disease this Sunday.

If you would like to make a donation to Ingrid and CIBC Run for the Cure, click on Support a Participant and enter Ingrid Chiang. The run location is Vancouver.

If you would like to make a general donation to the Vancouver Opera team, you can also enter Vancouver Opera in the participant search.

Help create a future without breast cancer by making a donation today.

To find out more, please go to Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.

Opera Goes To VIFF

Vancouver International Film Festival is back!

The annual film fest, now in its 27th year, runs from October 1-16. The uber-popular film festival attracts thousands upon thousands of film enthusiasts who thirst for something different from the standard box office fare.

With a multitude of films available, what should I see? Well, being that I work in OPERA, you would suppose that my preferences would skew to all things operatic. (not that I'm all about work 24/7; I also have on my list of must-see a couple of wicked ninja movies and possibly throw in a little Heath Ledger and Willem DaFoe too)

Here is a list of "operatic" movies that are being shown at the festival; many of which are having its North American premiere.


Argippo Resurrected
In Czech with English subtitles
International Premiere

Directed By: Dan Krames
Antonio Vivaldi's lost opera Argippo was originally composed for a Prague debut in 1730. Lost for centuries, the opera's score was discovered by young Czech conductor Ondrej Macek. Almost as remarkable as the discovery of this lost masterpiece was the process of remounting the work. Dan Krames' film observes, gloriously, the gradual birth of the contemporary "world premiere" of Argippo and confirms the opera's status as the most significant piece of music "written for Prague" before Mozart's Don Giovanni.

Fri, Oct 9th 2:45pm Empire Granville 7 ($8.00)
Sun, Oct 11th 8:45pm Empire Granville 7 ($11.00)



Face
In French, Taiwanese with English subtitles
Cast: Lee Kang-sheng, Laetitia Casta, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Fanny Ardant, Lu Yi-ching

Taiwanese master Tsai Ming-liang’s dazzling new film is a masterpiece. And an awful lot of fun. Take one French supermodel (Laetitia Casta), three French divas (Fanny Ardant, Jeanne Moreau and Nathalie Baye), New Wave icon Jean-Pierre Léaud, and combine them with Tsai’s entire repertoire company, lead by the irreplacable Lee Kang-shang, and you’ve already got quite a picture. Throw in three musical numbers, Salome’s veil dance, naked wood nymphs, a giant stag, the Louvre, a ghost and a giant fish, and the result just might be the most gorgeously playful narrative art film around.

A Taiwanese film crew, led by director Kang, is in Paris to film, in and around the Louvre, what looks to be a musical version of the Salome story. Kang has troubles, though. His Herod, Léaud, just might be losing his mind, and prefers to chatter with forest birds. Léaud may also be dangerously attached to harried producer Ardant, who frets on the phone tracking down a lost stag and disappearing cast members. When Kang’s mother dies in Taipei, the production halts while Kang mourns and sleeps, accompanied by his mother’s rather hungry ghost. Model Casta, meanwhile, when not struggling with Christian Lacroix’s outrageous costumes, is falling in love with her very own John the Baptist... Tsai draws together elements from all his previous films in this flamboyant and touching tribute to closeups, to Truffaut and to the power of images to arouse desire.

Fri, Oct 2nd 3:00pm Empire Granville 7 ($8.00)
Sun, Oct 4th 9:15pm Empire Granville ($11.00)



In Search of Beethoven
(UK, 2009, 138 mins, DigiBeta)
North American Premiere
Directed By: Phil Grabsky

Like his earlier In Search of Mozart, Phil Grabsky's In Search of Beethoven is an unusually intelligent and thorough introduction to a great composer. A movie might seem like insufficient space for more than a superficial take on such a momentous life and career, but at the conclusion of this film's brisk but never hectic 140 minutes one feels as close as one is likely to get to understanding the enigmatic, exasperating Beethoven, a man for whom beauty and misery were never far apart. Much of this is down to Grabsky's insightful understanding of documentary form: the mix of narration, performance, interview and illustration is seamless; often several performances of the same work are juxtaposed with interviews (with such attractive and articulate luminaries as Ronald Brautingam, Emanuel Ax, Roger Norrington and Helene Grimaud) in a counterpoint that honours the composer's complexity while remaining a model of exposition. Instead of awkward recreations we are given footage of the historical locations today, and though heard mostly in fragments, the film keeps bringing us back to the music with new ears. It is inevitably a more sombre film than its predecessor, more the record of constant struggle--whatever Mozart's troubles he possessed an almost complacent inner serenity, reflected in music that scales heights of genius but never really rocks the boat. As one speaker here says, "Mozart wrote for Saturday night... Beethoven wrote for eternity..."

Mon, Oct 5th 6:15pm Empire Granville 7 ($11.00)
Tue, Oct 6th 3:00pm Empire Granville 7 ($8.00)
Wed, Oct 14th 11:00am Empire Granville 7 ($8.00)



Pelléas and Mélisande: The Song of the Blind
(France, 2008, 110 mins, 35mm)
North American Premiere

Since 1902, Claude Debussy's setting of Maurice Maeterlinck's symbolist drama Pelléas and Mélisande has divided critics and audiences, but if its enigmatic drama and the hypnotic sound of its world have never really entered the mainstream, its influence on later music has been incalculable and its fans quasi-religious in their devotion. More than simply record (however beautifully) the first Russian production of this notoriously demanding opera, Philippe Béziat's remarkable film really tries to come to terms with a work in which "ordinary life fades--and you plunge into a dream."

Interviews are blended with rehearsal footage in unexpected ways; Maeterlinck's words graphically punctuate the action. People from all aspects of the production testify to the work's strange, occult power; "we're in a dark universe--where nothing is going right" one speaker says. Part of the appeal of this engaging film is watching the Russian singers and musicians trying to come to terms with a work so intrinsically French. Whether new to Pelleas or a seasoned traveller in its scented realms, this film is essential viewing.

Mon, Oct 5th 1:00pm Empire Granville 7 ($8.00)
Fri, Oct 9th 6:20pm Empire Granville 7 ($11.00)



Porgy and Me: In the World of Porgy and Bess
(Germany, 2009, 86 mins, HDCAM)
North American Premiere

In the (white) world of opera, Gershwin's alternately celebrated and controversial opera Porgy and Bess is one of the very few works that takes people of colour as its subject. Susanna Boehm's stirring documentary follows the cast of the New York Harlem Theatre Company on their European tour of Gershwin's work. As the troupe travels from city to city, attracting stares from startled Austrians, the parallels between the opera and the real life experiences of individual singers are revealed in a series of deeply personal conversations. Growing up poor, with drugs and violence a common experience, the ambition to become an opera singer seemed an impossible dream for many cast members. A sentiment voiced by many is that black singers have to be twice as good as white singers. Terry Lee Cook who plays Porgy, has aspirations towards the great Wagnerian roles, but has been performing Porgy for ten years. Alteouise Devaughn, who was once touted as the next great mezzo-soprano, credits Porgy with giving her the passion and the opportunity to perform again after losing her voice. But in the black community, the common perception is that Porgy and Bess is a graveyard for singers of colour.

Sun, Oct 4th 11:00am Vancity Theatre ($9.00)
Sun, Oct 11th 7:00pm Vancity Theatre ($11.00)
Mon, Oct 12th 2:50pm Empire Granville 7 ($8.00)



Puccini and the Girl
(Italy, 2008, 84 mins, 35mm)
In Italian with English subtitles
North American Premiere
Cast: Tania Squillario, Ricardo J. Moretti, Giovanna Daddi, Debora Mattielo, Federica Chezzi

The composer Giacomo Puccini's operas are some of the most famous and oft-performed works in the entire operatic canon. Much less known is his piano and chamber music, the former of which is featured here. Like his characters, the composer's privileged life could get quite complicated! Paolo Benvenuti's tableaux-like drama belies the palpable tranquility of its bucolic Tuscan setting. When a young woman named Doria Manfredi, who worked for the composer and was widely considered to be his lover, drowned herself in a lake, an autopsy revealed that she had died a virgin. Puccini's long-term mistress was arrested and charged with inciting a suicide. But Minnie, the heroine of Puccini's wild west opera, La fanciulla del West, bore an uncanny resemblance to another woman, Giulia Manfredi.

"Puccini and the Girl is a dashing if delicately stylised piece of Belle Epoque beauty with a gloriously self-conscious pictorial grandeur that is almost unthinkable in contemporary cinema. To further accentuate the work's artificiality, Benvenuti did away with dialogue. All we hear are voices reading letters that certain parties involved in the drama wrote each other, with any remaining speech existing somewhere between ambient sound and 'musique concrète'. With that, Benvenuti leaves the last traces of common contemporary notions of realism behind, pushing his praxis-aesthetic of adapting historical documents another step further--toward a cinema of sensual didactics and dialectic enchantment."--Olaf Möller, filmkrant

Fri, Oct 9th 10:45am Pacific Cinémathèque ($8.00)
Wed, Oct 14th 8:45pm Vancity Theatre ($11.00)

Please note all information was pulled from the VIFF website. Check the website for any changes or availability of tickets.

See you at the cinema! You'll find me sitting in the middle row with my bucket of popcorn.

~ Ling Chan

Operamania 101: Battle of the Drama Queens

In 1975, Queen released what was probably the most seminal record of their career, A Night At The Opera. When Bohemian Rhapsody was released, it was considered to be a surprise hit due to the fact that the song's structure was so disjointed.

The magnum opus can be broken out into 6 distinct styles:
Introduction (0:00-0:48)
Ballad (0:48-2:36)
Guitar solo (2:36-3:03)
Opera (3:03-4:07)
Hard rock (4:07-4:55)
Outro (4:55-5:55)

Now hearing the song as a whole, one might try to pish posh that there's any (psuedo) opera in Bohemian Rhapsody. But au contraire, there is a certain operatic logic given the multi-tracked voices, full choral treatment and aria-like solos in the midsection of the song.

Besides the glam rock, hard rock, prog rock influences and the fact that Freddy Mercury often sang all the way up into the upper reaches of the musical scale with his tenor voice, one could even argue that Queen's music with its epic sound definitely has operatic overtones to it. Hello, Show Must Go On and We Are The Champions?



Even their 1986 ballad, Who Wants To Live Forever, is wrought with emotions that can be found in any tragic opera. So much so that soprano Sarah Brightman decided to cover the song in 1997.

With 26 million albums sold, Sarah Brightman who possesses a 3 octave range, is the world's biggest selling soprano of all time.

She is credited for paving the way for other operatic crossover artists such as Il Divo, Josh Groban, Charlotte Church, Russell Watson and Andrea Bocelli, with whom she sang a duet with for Time to Say Goodbye (con te partiro). That song went on to sell over 5 million copies worldwide. Brightman also put forth an album of operatic arias, called Classics that included a solo version of Time to Say Goodbye.

But like Freddy Mercury, Sarah Brightman also succeeded in dabbling in different genres of music. She mixed her classical vocal stylings with electronic dance music, middle eastern music and gothic music.

Besides performing with all the usual suspects of classical tenors and countertenors, Brightman had duets with Kiss' Paul Stanley and Anne Murray, of all random people. Oh, and she not only sings in English but also in Spanish, French, Latin, German, Italian, Russian, Hindi and Mandarin, as the world witnessed in the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

As a fan of both Mercury and Brightman, I can't decide which one is the bigger diva. Both artists are revered for their vocal prowess, on stage glamour and theatrical showmanship. Both artists learned how to maximize the use of many different forms of music to reach a broad audience and endeared themselves to their millions of fans.

Mercury once said the reason why their concert was so large scale was that "We're the Cecil b. Demille of rock and roll, always wanting to do things bigger and better."

Just swap out rock and roll for classical/opera in Brightman's case and I think it's fair to say that that sentiment would apply to both superstar's stratospheric career.



~ Ling Chan

Operamania 101: To Desire Greatness

Art and opera go together like chocolate and peanut butter. Or haven't you seen the 1998 movie, Great Expectations?

Based on Charles Dickens' story and starring Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow, the movie tells of artist Finnegan Bell and his rise in the art world through a mysterious benefactor. On his journey to New York, the art capital of the world, Finn tries desperately to further himself up along the social ladder in the vain hopes to finally capture the girl of his dreams; the girl who was always beyond his reach.

At an event celebrating what is to be his first gallery showing, Finn arrives at the soiree where a female opera singer is singing the crowd an aria. The song is I Saw No Shadow of Another Parting (which also happens to be the closing lines of Dickens' book)



Although performed in the movie by another singer, on the Great Expectations soundtrack, soprano Dame Kiri te Kanawa does the honours of singing the aria.

Dame Kiri te Kanawa was considered one of the world's best sopranos during the 70s-80s. In 1981, 600 million people around the world heard her sing Handel's Let the Bright Seraphim at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. The following year, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Royalty's love for the grand dame did not end there. In 1986, te Kanawa sang Happy Birthday and God Save the Queen in recognition of Queen Elizabeth II's upcoming birthday.

Dame Kiri te Kanawa's sung version of I Saw No Shadow of Another Parting was the perfect complement to go along with the stunningly beautiful instrumental version by Patrick Doyle.

Great Expectations was a sumptuous movie to look at, from the lush greenery of Miss Dinsmore's Paradiso Perduto in Florida to the dazzling backdrop of Estella's New York City. But throughout it all, it was the music that moved the viewer. And at the prelude to one of the most pivotal and romantic scenes ever in a movie, it was the use of opera that captured the moment best.

~ Ling Chan