 MEDIA RELEASE |
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MEDIA RELEASE |
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Claude Vivier’s landmark opera Kopernikus to play the Banff Arts Festival
BANFF - Kopernikus, the only opera written by Claude Vivier (1948-1983), one of Canada’s most original and controversial composers, will receive a major new production at the Banff Arts Festival August 16, 18, and 19, 2000.
Kopernikus is a saga of one woman’s soul as it travels from this world to the next.
‘Agni’, the central character of Kopernikus, conjures the inhabitants of her dreams: Merlin, Mozart, The Queen of Night, Copernicus, Lewis Carroll and Tristan and Isolde. They appear, charged with Vivier’s dazzling vocal and orchestral language, to assist Agni in her journey toward ultimate enlightenment. Vivier himself pursued this universal quest, until his tragic murder in Paris at the age of thirty-four. Described by its composer/librettist as "a mystical fairy tale," Kopernikus is a compelling and compassionate musical portrait of death and transfiguration.
Kopernikus is a co-production with Toronto’s Autumn Leaf Performance and will premiere in Banff before travelling to France’s prestigious MUSICA Festival in Strasbourg, England’s Huddersfeild Festival, Toronto’s Winter Garden Theatre and L’Opéra de Montréal. Thom Sokoloski, the production’s Canadian artistic producer, has assembled an acclaimed international creative team to bring Vivier’s work to life: music director Pascal Rophé, stage director Stanislas Nordey, set designer Emmanuel Clolus, costume designer Raoul Fernandez, and lighting designer Axel Morgenthaler [bios. available on request]. Sokoloski explains, "My goal was to gather a team of music and theatre artists from Canada, France and England to create a fresh and evocative expression of artistic collaboration around Claude Vivier’s operatic vision."
The cast, chosen from an international audition tour features Shaunaid Amette (alto, UK); Simon Fournier (baritone, Quebec); Ian Funk (baritone, BC); Patricia Green (mezzo-soprano, Saskatchewan); Patricia O’Callaghan (soprano, Ontario); Michiel Schrey (tenor, Quebec); and Isabel Soccoja (coloratura mezzo, France). [bios. available on request]
The work of Claude Vivier is widely performed and lauded in Canada and internationally. He studied composition with Gilles Tremblay and Karlheinz Stockhausen and was named "Composer of the Year" by the Canadian Music Council in 1981.
Kopernikus will be presented at the Eric Harvie Theatre August 16, 18, and 19 at 8 pm. You are invited to attend a free pre-show chat at 7:10 p.m. in the West Lobby of the Theatre, each night of the performance. It is one of three major productions being undertaken by The Banff Centre for the Arts’ Theatre Arts Department for this year’s Festival.
Diversity of programming and a commitment to important new work are reflected in this year’s offerings which also include:
The Hobbit - a play based on the book by J.R.R. Tolkien. July 20-30. A co-production with Shakespeare in the Park, Calgary (The Conservatory, Mount Royal College)
Festival Dance - A Celebration of The Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award, August 2, 3, 4, 5. This years program features a Snow, a world premiere by Wen Wei Wang, the 2000 Clifford E. Lee Choreography Award recipient, plus revivals of the works of three past recipients.
Backgrounder:
Kopernikus, a co-production between The Banff Centre for the Arts and Autumn Leaf
Performance
Tour Information:
The Banff Arts Festival, Banff, Alberta
August 16, 18 & 19 (Production Premiere)
Tickets call (800) 413-8368
Musica Festival, Strasbourg, France
September 29 & 30
Théâtre National de Strasbourg, Salle Bernard-Marie Koltès
Tickets call (33) 3-88-23-47-23
The Winter Garden Theatre (Autumn Leaf),
Toronto, ON
Dates TBA
Ticket information call (416) 363-1677
Huddersfield Festival, Huddersfield, England
November 18 & 19
Ticket informaiton call (44) 4-84-43-05-28
L’Opéra de Montréal, Montreal, Quebec
April 26 & 28 (2001)
Place des Arts
Ticket informaiton call (514) 985-2258
Autumn Leaf Performance
The goal of ALP’s artistic mission is
to firmly establish a modern opera company that reflects a forward-thinking spirit of
opera culture, responds to the needs of contemporary opera artists and new opera creation,
embraces and acknowledges diverse artistic cultures and technologies as integral to
operatic innovation, and develops a progressive managerial structure that communicates
this spirit to its public and artistic community.
www.autumnleaf.com
Theatre Arts at The Banff Centre for the Arts, under the artistic direction of John Murrell, is dedicated to the creation, interpretation, and performance of contemporary repertoire in dance, drama, opera, music theatre and song.
Theatre Arts presentations at the 2000 Banff
Arts Festival
For tickets call: (403) 762-6482 (local); 1-800-413-8368; or any Ticketmaster.
Bones Aboriginal Dance Opera - July 7 & 8 (in association with The Aboriginal Arts Program)
The Hobbit - July 20 to 30
Dance Training Presentation - July 27, 28 & 29
Festival Dance - August 2 to 5
Kopernikus - August 16, 18 & 19
www.banffcentre.ab.ca/theatre