The making of

Frobisher

by Debra Hornsby

It is a hot August day in Banff. Outside, the mountains shimmer in the summer heat. Inside the Centre’s Margaret Greenham Theatre an arctic wind is blowing.

On the darkened stage, participants in the Centre’s Opera as Theatre program struggle across an imaginary northern landscape as they give the first staged workshop reading of Frobisher, the new opera co-commissioned and co-produced by The Banff Centre and Calgary Opera.

Librettist John Murrell and composer John Estacio scribble notes as the scene in the Greenham unfolds. Stage director Kelly Robinson choreographs the singers’ movements, while set and costume designer Sue LePage confers quietly with one of North America’s top video projection experts, Colleen Bonniol.

This is the tenth in a series of Frobisher workshops stretching back to January 2004 – an intense creative process unlike any other in Canadian theatre. “There are a couple of things that The Banff Centre makes possible that nowhere else in the world does,” says Murrell, the Centre’s executive artistic director of Performing Arts. “It supports the creation of new work of real size and scope — both in the ideas and in the presentation of those ideas. It allows a unique multidisciplinary melding of visual arts, performing arts, and music … and it is a place where a longer developmental period is supported for new works.”

For Estacio, the workshop process is key. “Developmental workshops allow singers to breathe life into a piece and therefore you can judge and critique and analyze. Without the workshop, it is just words on a page. To have the luxury to do this and to have a director and a designer there to provide input is pure gold.”

The second full-length original opera created by Estacio and Murrell, Frobisher tells a story of love, loss, and adventure in Canada’s north. The opera weaves back and forth in time, telling parallel stories of exploration and discovery, set 500 years apart. In the present day, Alberta filmmakers Michael and Anna struggle to film their version of the story of pirate and explorer Martin Frobisher, who made three voyages to the Arctic in the 1570s. Throughout, Martin Frobisher himself appears, telling his own story of larger-than-life ambition and his attempt to discover a tropical paradise which, in his time, was rumoured to exist “at the top of the world.”

Murrell and Estacio first worked together on Filumena, which like Frobisher was co-commissioned and co-produced by the Centre and Calgary Opera, and which debuted to popular and critical acclaim in 2003. “ Filumena was a high,” admits Estacio. “I was addicted to the experience.” Murrell is quick to agree . “Even before Filumena premiered, we were talking about a second work.”

Bob McPhee, general director and CEO of Calgary Opera, says the decision to commission a second opera with the Centre was a leap of faith. “New Canadian full-length operas are few and far between, because of the enormous costs and risks involved. But with those risks there is also enormous potential for success and the opportunity to tell stories that relate to our audiences. Unless organizations like the Centre and Calgary Opera embrace the joys and the risks of new opera creation, the Verdi or Puccini of our time will remain forever unheard.”

Before Frobisher’s words are set to paper the two Johns (as the Frobisher team call them) spent weeks fleshing out plot and character development. “The first step is the story,” explains Estacio. “The themes, emotions, and characters – what is it we want to say and why are we embarking on this voyage?”

“The words are written before the score,” Murrell adds. “John waits for something I have written to light a fire for him musically. In Filumena, it was the storm aria…and in this opera it was Frobisher’s aria at the point when his men are urging him to turn back: ‘I will plant my flag in that perfect land, where man shall restore his soul.’ That line connected with John and helped to inspire the musical world he has created for Frobisher.”

Adding a contemporary storyline was important. “I didn’t want to just tell a story about a noble experiment in the 16th century that failed… so we created a modern story about two filmmakers who have the odds against them, just as they were against Martin Frobisher.”

In addition to the birth of a new Canadian opera, there is also learning happening at this August workshop. For tenor Chris Mayell, a Master’s music student at the University of Western Ontario, the opportunity to portray the role of Michael during the Frobisher workshops strengthens his skills as a performer. He is one of dozens of young theatre professionals who have been part of the Frobisher development process.

“Having the composer and librettist present gives me a greater perspective on how opera may have been composed in the past,” Mayell says. “It also gives me insight into performance practice – things which are done in the workshop which don’t make it into the score, but which become part of the piece just the same.”

Although Mayell will not be part of this winter’s production in Calgary, he hopes to return to the Centre next summer when Frobisher will be remounted for the Banff Summer Arts Festival (August 8, 10, and 12, 2007). He is proud to be part of a new work. “I think everyone feels a sense of ownership and pride, because of the Canadian content and production.”

Mayell recalls the excitement of receiving music for a new Frobisher scene. “Allison Angelo, Andrea Grant, and I were running through it for the first time, in a practice room. It was so beautiful and moving. We finished it in silence, thinking to ourselves ‘wow’. We agreed that we were absolutely blessed to be able to perform such great stuff – music and text that so easily and so quickly get inside you.”

“The story and music of Frobisher are profound,” he adds. “I think it is very accessible art, which is enjoyable the first time you hear it.”

Murrell echoes Mayell’s words. “John Estacio and I believe opera should be a popular art form — not an academic or high art form — it should be accessible. We want Frobisher to be the sort of opera that you could say to a friend ‘Oh, you’re going to your first opera? Go see Frobisher’”.

Frobisher premieres January 27 at Calgary Opera.

The Banff Centre is grateful to the following donors for their generous support of the Centre’s Frobisher creation and production costs: Jackie Flanagan, John and Grace Ballem, Jim Dinning and Evelyn Main, Peter and Jeanne Lougheed, Esther Ondrack, Alice Schultz, C. A. Siebens, David and Carolyn Tavender, Priscilla Wilson, Shirley Wolfe, Stan and Lou Wong, and Jean-Marie Zeitouni.

(Photo, top left) Video production shoot of Frobisher character, featuring actor David McNally

Published: January 2007.