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The 2024 Banff Summer Arts Festival has something to please every culture-vulture’s palate. With 65 shows and performances, including over 35 free events, the festival, which runs from June to September, includes an impressive lineup of opera offerings including free workshops, an intensive residency for artists, and a fun pub night where opera lovers of all stripes can enjoy music in a casual environment.
The Banff Centre’s summer opera offerings coalesce under the banner of Interplay, which fuses the art forms of opera and chamber music, and explores how they integrate, particularly within the realm of new presentations. Interplay is a platform for artists of all disciplines, including vocalists (early and established), instrumentalists, and assorted creatives, offering all groups various opportunities for collaboration and feedback.
Part of Interplay includes two intriguing opera workshops, both based on novels. The first, The Handmaid’s Tale, springs from the 1998 opera by Danish composer Poul Ruders, with libretto by Paul Bentley, itself based on the famous 1985 novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood. The work portrays a dystopian society in which fertile women (“handmaidens”) are bought and sold by childless couples for the purposes of conception. The opera premièred in Copenhagen in 2000 and was subsequently staged in London and Toronto. Brooklyn-based composer and pianist Dan Schlosberg has rearranged the opera, to be presented in a workshop at the Jenny Belzberg Theatre on June 15 at 7:30 p.m. Entry is free.
Another novel getting the opera treatment is Thomas King’s Indians on Vacation. The 2020 book details the experiences of a First Nations couple travelling through Europe. Longlisted for the 2020 Giller Prize, it won the 2021 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. Its operatic adaptation, by Canadian composer Ian Cusson and librettist Royce Vavrek, is a commission by Against The Grain Theatre Company and Edmonton Opera. Mezzo-soprano and Banff Centre faculty member Marion Newman sings the role of Mimi, the wife of the couple. The workshop for Indians on Vacation happens at the Jenny Belzberg Theatre on June 29 at 7:30 p.m. Entry is free.
Education is a core aspect of opera at the Banff Centre and relates directly to these workshops. Chamber Music and Opera: Interplay runs June 3-30, with participating singers performing in both operas, and working with participating répétiteurs in coachings; instrumentalists likewise will study chamber music and participate in a chamber ensemble for one of the two operas.
Opera Pub events at the 2024 Banff Summer Arts Festival allow both newcomers and old opera hands a fun night out, with popular arias and ensembles performed by participants and faculty. Opera Pub takes place on June 7 and June 28 at the Banff Legion.
Chamber Music and Opera: Interplay will be held in Banff from June 3-30.
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