Vancouver Opera Guild

The purposes of the Vancouver Opera Guild are to stimulate interest and participation in, and otherwise encourage and support the continuation and growth of opera in Vancouver, Canada, and to provide financial support, including scholarships, bursaries, and awards, to young people pursuing a career in opera.

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June 2024 Tour Report

MUNICH, STRASBOURG, PARIS, LONDON TOUR

It isn’t too often that the weather has impacted our tours but this year a wet spring and early summer in Europe as in Canada, certainly had an effect! We arrived in Munich to heavy rain which affected not only Bavaria but all of Central Europe – and heavy it was! Those of us who arrived a day ahead of the start of the tour spent the day on the “Hop On Hop Off “ bus tour around Munich but while we ”Hopped On” we did not “Hop Off”. We went on the two routes around the city so we did see most of it as best we could. However during our walking tour the following day and our visits to the opera it did not rain so we were spared that.

We stayed at the Hotel Plazl which is in the restored old city centre so we were able to walk everywhere. The hotel was across the street from the Hofbrauhaus and several other very good restaurants. It was a five minute walk to the Bayerische Staatsoper which performs at the National Theatre which is part of the Residenze, the former Royal Apartments in the city. We met the group and our tour manager, Bernhard, at the reception in the hotel bar on Saturday evening. We were a mixed group, with several couples and singles hailing from BC., Ontario, the US and the UK.

We saw two operas in Munich. The first opera was Norma staged as rather minimalistic, but effective generally. We heard three fine voices in Joseph Calleja as Pollione, Sonya Yoncheva as Norma and Tara Erraught as Adalgisa. The opera had an early start as it was Sunday so some of the group located the refreshment area where wine and sandwiches were sold. The following evening we saw a Tosca which demonstrated what happens when the director takes control! Tosca was a film star and Cavaradossi was a film director. The First Act had so much going on as it was a film set filled with nudes, a transvestite wedding and probably lots of other things as well. It was so confusing that Cavaradossi’s first act aria sort of went unnoticed. At the end of the First Act when the Te Deum is sung, a statue of the Virgin Mary was dragged into the scene amid boos from the audience. The following acts weren’t quite as confusing but, nonetheless, the music and singing took a back place to the direction. The director did give space to allow Scarpia (an autocrat) to deliver his blistering thoughts and Tosca sang her Visi Arte without distractions and it was very good! This did not happen for Cavaradossi, though, in either his First Act aria or Act Three aria. Scarpia was sung by Luca Salsi, Tosca by Eleanore Buratto and Cavaradossi by Charles Castronovo – all well- known singers but the direction and staging certainly detracted from the music and the singing. However, to be fair, it was a packed audience of much younger people than we are used to seeing at the opera and they applauded!

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