Cowtown Opera is taking the art form to the masses
Opera has long suffered from the stereotype of being entertainment suitable only for the white-haired sophisticate. And that’s something Cowtown Opera founder and artistic director Michelle Minke wants to change.
“We’re hoping to make opera accessible for every Calgarian. We’re really trying to get a new generation of opera appreciation” she says.
Minke founded Cowtown Opera two and a half years ago. In addition to staging operas in English Cowtown localizes operas for Calgary audiences and aims to surprise people with “random acts of culture.” To this end Cowtown Opera is offering up its talent to entertain lunchtime crowds downtown throughout the summer with its Opera on the Mall initiative.
“We wanted to find something to do outdoors where we could hit a big group of people. Stephen Avenue Mall is our target market. We want to get young professionals interested in opera” says Minke.
A couple of singers from Cowtown’s roster will serenade Calgarians every Wednesday at noon with operatic tunes from the likes of Carmen and The Magic Flute as well as from classic Broadway shows such as South Pacific. And listeners might even catch Cowtown’s signature song set to the tune of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! — instead of lyrical references to June bugs and barley however there’ll be mention of the Calgary Tower and “nice cold beer.”
Cowtown’s current artist roster lists some 25 singers who Minke describes as “the most talented local people we have” adding that many of them have university-level education in music. Minke herself was awarded the Enbridge Emerging Artist Award earlier this year which is an honour reserved for up-and-coming Calgary-based artists. Currently as a headliner at this year’s Calgary Stampede Grandstand Show Minke sings a famous aria from Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi while flying above the stage.
Minke says the summer program will allow opera to be prevalent in the community year-round instead of being relegated to the regular season. At the end of August Cowtown also holds a summer academy where young singers from across the country receive a week of performance training.
When the summer activites have wrapped up the company’s mandate to make opera accessible will continue with preparations for the opening show of its 2013-14 season Puccini’s La Bohème . Instead of setting the story of starving artists in 1830s Paris Calgary’s present-day Ship & Anchor will be the backdrop for Mimi and Rodolfo and Musetta and Marcello.
“We want to show people that opera can be applicable to every day” Minke explains adding that La Bohème touches on timeless themes like poverty the struggle for survival friendship and of course epic love.
Minke perhaps anticipates criticism of this approach and is quick to argue that this re-interpreting of the classics using local settings and modern references does not denigrate the art form. “The quality of singers and the production value is so high that it still stays true to the operatic art form…. We never devalue it or mock it or make it cheesy so it misrepresents the high opera form” she adds.
The next show in the season scheduled for March 2014 will see a singalong Sound of Music . “Our singalong Phantom of the Opera was such a hit this year that we want to get some more families out and get another generation of opera lovers” Minke explains.
The season will close with Barber of Cowtown an adaptation of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville set during Calgary’s frontier days.
So far Minke feels Cowtown Opera is achieving what it set out to do as audience numbers are growing and most attendees are between the ages of 20 and 60.
“We’re just hoping to shake things up” she says. “We always want to be outside the box.”
