Vancouver Opera

We just turned the mic on and we're in it.

My guest today on Inside Vancouver Opera is Marian Newman, who is really a force of nature and I have admired for forever.

I'm so grateful that you are here with us today.

And I wanted to talk about a few things.

That's right.

After that, you became one of Canada's most distinctive mezzo-sopranos, singing Carmen Rosina, leading roles in new Canadian operas.

And many of you will know Marion as the voice of CBC's Saturday Afternoon at the Opera Festival.

And after more than 20 years in Toronto, Marion came back to Victoria, to the University of Victoria as assistant professor of voice.

My guest today is Winnipeg-based composer, conductor, pianist, and educator Neil Wiesenfeld.

Neil's work spans opera, orchestral and choral music, film and television, theater, and multimedia, with more than 200 performances of his operas across Canada and the United States.

His stage works include Stickboy, created with poet Shane Koyczan and premiered by Vancouver Opera, and Likä: Riel's Heart of the North, created with Métis poet and librettist Suzanne Steele and premiered in full production by Manitoba Opera in 2023.

Today, though, we're heading into the surprisingly operatic world of municipal street repair.

Neil joins me to talk about his new album, City Workers in Love, which will be released on September 15th on Redshift Records.

Very gregarious, and just, like, so talented.

And, you know, he went on to a amazing career as a director.

Directed for every opera company in Canada, and many, many in the US, and then ended his career as the artistic director of Swedish Royal Opera, which is one of the biggest and most prestigious opera houses in the world.

It certainly appears like that, which I think also plays into this sort of portrayal of love and attraction.

And then also to sort of touch on the whole, the right piece at the wrong time kind of thing, there's a quote from Susan McCleary in a piece written by also a friend of the podcast, Kevin O, about Così that he wrote for Vancouver Opera.

where she says that Cosi presents a version of the 18th century close to those of the Marquis de Sade or Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

It reveals the dark underbelly of the Enlightenment with music that purports to simulate pure order.

If you've ever seen dance in the city, you are standing on ground she helped to clear.

Beside her is Joshua Beamish, who started his own company at 17, has made work for the Royal Ballet and the National Ballet of Canada, who choreographed The Merry Widow for us here at Vancouver Opera.

He's just founded Ballet Vancouver, which opens its first season very shortly.

Two people, 40 years apart, who each looked at this city and decided, It needed more dance than it had.

We're Inside Vancouver Opera, and I'm Ashley Daniel Foote.

Jean, you were born in Edinburgh, and your first dancing wasn't ballet at all.

It was Highland on the prairies.

I kept my house.