Barbara Landis, artistic director of Chamber Opera Tours, found Jane Austen’s language so perfect that it begged to be adapted to theatrical lyrics. The adapted original musical drama of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, which first premiered at the Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago in 2011 and has been touring internationally since 2013. This summer, Chamber Opera Tours will arrive in Victoria, BC to perform a one-night-only performance at the McPherson Playhouse at 7:30 p.m. July 3 before heading on to two more performances at the Jane Austen Festival in Port Alberni, BC on July 5/6. The performances are sell-out’s year after year.
Chamber Opera Tours is a professional not-for-profit opera company devoted to making great opera and musicals affordable, presenting them in English in intimate settings. The Chamber Opera Tours Orchestra is distinguished by first-rate conductors and orchestral players and has been highly praised by both critics and audience members alike. With award-winning designers and acclaimed directors from around the world, audiences can expect high-quality, innovative productions that bring opera to life. Austen’s text is set to music culled from the period.
One of the most powerful love stories ever written, this authentic rendering of Jane Austen’s novel will transport you back in time.
Chamber Opera Tour’s adaptation of Persuasion has often been compared to an operetta in the style of Gilbert and Sullivan. Add to that over 30 singers and a 10-piece chamber orchestra, Regency costumes, beautiful projected scenery, and world champion Irish dancers and you have an evening of spectacular entertainment. Purchase your tickets in advance for Victoria here: www.rmts.bc.ca/events/jane-austen-persuasion-2018-mcpherson-playhouse or for the Port Alberni Jane Austen Festival: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3423662. For more information on Chamber Opera Tours, go to: www.chamberoperatours.org/
After a sold out performance two years earlier at the Mary Winspear Centre, The Rat Pack will once again be flying in direct from the Las Vegas strip to beautiful Sidney by the Sea, for one night only to bring you…. “Direct from Las Vegas, The Rat Pack!”. The show is an all new, original take on the three most famous members of the nostalgic Rat Pack. Frank, Sammy and Dean come to life in this fast paced, fun-filled, interactive and musical salute to the greatest songs of the 20th Century. Audiences from around the world have enjoyed this show, that tours non-stop in the United States, as well as abroad. Come take a walk down memory lane and enjoy the timeless songs and antics, laughs and banter as the trio brings to life the iconic performances that took place at the Sands Hotel throughout the early 60s.
Bop back in time with us to Rydell High, 1959. The Broadway hit Grease is coming to the Chemainus Theatre Festival stage from June 8 to Sept. 1.
Grease was first performed in 1971 in the original Kingston Mines nightclub in Chicago. American playwrights Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey created that original production as a raunchy, raw, aggressive, and vulgar show, intended to shake things up with its shock value.
The Broadway version was much less aggressive, becoming the musical we now know and love; an homage to the idealism of the fifties and a satire of the ages-old youthful urge to be rebellious and provocative.
Grease is set, of course, in an American high school in 1958/1959. This was the year Barbie dolls made their debut, panty hose were invented, and The Twilight Zone premiered on TV. Unemployment was at a record high for the times, the clean-cut values associated with white, middle-class America was becoming tarnished with increasing unrest, and the Civil Rights Commission came into being. Amidst this social conflict, teens began to emerge in popular culture with conflicting stereotypes of straight-laced and pure like this play’s Sandra Dee or the oppositional ‘greasers’ culture with their particularly poised disdain of all things conventional.
Bringing the rockin’ ‘50s to life for this production of Grease are Matt Alfano as Danny Zuko, Quinn Cartwright as Sandy Dumbrowski, Sarah Carlé as Frenchy/Miss Lynch, Eric Dahlinger as Eugene Florczyk, Daniel Doerksen as Vince Fontaine, Kaleigh Gorka as Betty Rizzo, Victor Hunter as Kenickie, Justin Lapeña as Sonny LaTierri, Kevin McLachlan as Roger/Teen Angel, Makayla Moore as Cha-Cha DiGregario, Nico Rhodes as Johnny Casino, Tessa Trach as Marty, Ali Watson as Patty Simcox, Steffanie Davis as Jan, Henry Beasley as Doody, and Nicholas Bradbury is in the ensemble. In the band: Daniel Deorksen on bass, Nico Rhodes on keys and saxaphone, and Brad Shipley on guitar.
The direction and choreography team from Chemainus Theatre Festival’s 2016 production of Footloose returns to lead the way for this new summer blockbuster. Director Barbara Tomasic and Choreographer Julie Tomaino are a dynamic duo whose professionalism, creativity, and passion for theatre set the bar high for both the cast and creative team.
Matinee and evening shows for all ages run June 8 to Sept. 1. Call the box office at 1-800-565-7738 or at chemainustheatre.ca.
The TD Victoria International JazzFest 2018 brings a plethora of workshops and shows to the Dave Dunnet Community Theatre at Oak Bay High next month.
Free Jim West workshop Saturday, June 23 at 4 p.m. West, founder and president of Justin Time Records, will share his wisdom of the music business and give advice for those interested in the industry.
An Evening With Ranee Lee is on stage that night at 8 p.m. in the Dave Dunnet theatre.
Lee has spent a half-century in Montreal, where she nurtured an impressive and multi-faceted career as one of this country’s most admired jazz singers. A member of the Order of Canada, Ranee is also an author and an award-winning actress who gave a memorable musical performance as Billie Holiday. She has recorded 13 CDs for the Justin Time label, and the sidemen on her remarkable set of recordings have included such notable jazz artists as Clark Terry, Red Mitchell, and Oliver Jones. She also won a JUNO for “Best Vocal Jazz Album” in 2010. Ranee’s latest touring show, Dark Divas, is a celebration of the most profound jazz and blues singers of the last century. Taurey Butler piano, Dave Watts bass, Richard Ring guitar, Ron DiLauro trumpet, Dave Laing drums.
Ghost-Note comes to Oak Bay’s theatre June 24 at 4 p.m. for a free clinic. World renowned for their artistic communication, this dynamic duo, featuring MonoNeon and Robert “Sput” Searight from Ghost-Note, expands their rhythmical voice through percussive melodies and innovative grooves.
Ghost-Note also performs in Centennial Square on Saturday, June 24 at 7:30 p.m.
Although best known as members of multiple Grammy-winning jazzfunk collective Snarky Puppy, percussionist Nate Werth and drummer Robert “Sput” Searight felt compelled to create their own percussion-centric jazz ensemble. Joined by the virtuosic talents of MonoNeon, the result is Ghost- Note, a musical game-changer that seamlessly blends live and electronic elements into a sonic laboratory. Their debut CD, Fortified, jumped to the top of the iTunes jazz chart, and their latest album, Swagism, will be released in April 2018. Their mesmerizing live shows – a trippy mix of the influences of James Brown and the Beastie Boys with the groovebased musical traditions of West Africa, Brazil and Cuba – get people raving. The band also features Xavier Taplin keyboards, Sylvester Onyejiaka saxophone and Michael Jelani Brooks saxophone.
