Frühere Produktionsrezensionen
4Vancouver Opera closed the season with HMS Pinafore, or the Lass that Loved a Sailor. One of Gilbert and Sullivan’s most popular operas, Pinafore mocks Victorian memes - forbidden love and secret pining, class distinction and proper behaviour – and piles on Gilbertian ridicule of political incompetence and Sullivan’s musical parodies.
A feel-good operetta has fun while trying to show the world has changed since women wore pinafores
On Site Opera assembled a terrific cast for the proceedings. Ashley Kerr starred as Violet, growing more and more comfortable vocally as the night proceeded. She was particularly wonderful during the close of the opera during her clinching love scene with Belfiore. Standing only a few feet away from where I was seated, she sang of her growing feelings with a gloriously polished legato and vibrato, her voice floating rather easily throughout the space, wiping out any distractions around. Her characterization of the heroine, while playful also played up her elegance. Even though she was a gardener, her gait suggested her class, particularly when compared to the body language of other characters.
The wildly creative stage director Eric Einhorn has so many tricks up his sleeve that we never know what he will come up with next. Except we do know and we will tell you a bit at the end of this review. The entire premise of On Site Opera is to match the production to an appropriate setting. Regular readers will know exactly what we refer to but others can enter "On Site Opera" into the search bar to fill in their knowledge, lest we repeat ourselves.
