Vancouver Opera Season and Era Ends on a High Note

Vancouver Opera has just finished a fantastic run of Evita to close its 56th season. With a cast led by Broadway and London West End stars Caroline Bowman, John Cudia, and Ramin Karimloo, this Evita received rave reviews and became the fastest selling and highest grossing production in VO's history. Great finale to not only the season, but also to the end of an era at Vancouver Opera as the company moves from a traditional opera season to a festival format for 2016-17.

Also important to VO's transition, in February, VO announced the selection of a new General Manager, Kim Gaynor, to start in July. Kim has a very successful history managing various performing arts organizations. Most important to the chosen direction for the company, Kim has a history managing successful arts festivals.

2016-17 will see VO mount a chamber version of Hansel and Gretel in the fall and the April 2017 festival will feature two full operas and another chamber opera.

Unfortunately, two of the festival productions have conflicting performance dates which means that the company artists (orchestra and chorus members - all on per-service contracts) will not be able to participate in all three of the productions. Because of the chamber works and conflicting performance dates, most of the tenured musicians and choristers will be offered work for only two productions over the entire year.

The real reasons for the change in the season format and the full impact the change will have on the company's artists will be the subject of a future post.