Singer

It’s a kind of magic… Opera Kelowna teams up with the Gary Cable Project to rock out with Queen, the ultimate genre-bending band. This one-night-only event will feature One of Canada’s most exciting and innovative opera singers, Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野, taking on lead vocals made immortal by Freddie Mercury. Under the musical direction of Rosemary Thomson, the night will also feature six Bohemian Backup Singers sprinkling in a few opera gems, backed up by both The Gary Cable Project rockers and Their Majesty’s Strings.

With hits like Somebody to Love and Bohemian Rhapsody mixed in with a selection of tunes from deep within the Queen catalogue, this performance offers Okanagan audiences a unique experience. Our performers deliver the vocal dexterity, instrumental virtuosity, and dynamic energy that Queen’s music shares with the world of opera.

Queen: A Night with the Opera

Kelowna Community Theatre

Pagliacci (Clowns) offers a tale of art imitating life, and vice-versa, for a troupe of traveling players. Nedda, her husband Canio, and their fellow actors Beppe and Tonio, arrive at a new town, and they explain the show that they will be performing that night: “the troubles of Pagliacco.” The troupe then joins villagers for a drink before the performance, at which Canio reveals that while he plays the clown on stage, in real life he is quickly enraged about the attention his wife receives from other men. Nedda is frightened by Canio’s dark revelation, but later agrees tentatively to elope with Silvio, who is her secret lover. Canio learns of Nedda’s deception, and later that evening, while in character on stage, he acts out his shame, and rage, demanding to know the name of his wife’s love.  Their play ends in violence, both onstage and off, with Canio declaring “La commedia è finita!!” – “The comedy is finished!”

Gianni Schicchi is the scheming title character who plots to gain revenge, riches, and happiness through one extraordinary con. The story begins when the rich Donati family learns that their recently deceased patriarch, Buoso Donati, has left all his wealth to a monastery, much to their dismay. Rinuccio, his nephew, had hoped that his inheritance would enable him to marry his sweetheart, Lauretta, even though she and her father, Gianni Schicchi, are newcomers to Florence and not accepted by the elitist Donati family.

Although initially shunned by the snobby old family, Gianni Schicchi gives in to Rinuccio’s pleas to help the Donati family, and agrees to meddle with the will by impersonating Buoso.  And then the hijinks begin!

Pagliacci & Gianni Schicchi

Così fan tutte, roughly translated as “they are all like that,” tells the story of sisters Fiordiligi and Dorabella facing the conundrum of remaining faithful to their lovers Guglielmo and Ferrando. Our production updates the setting from the 1790s to a Rocky Mountain resort in the 1930s. The sisters arrive for their vacation. They cast eyes upon, and promptly fall for, two dashing young mounties. Exasperated and charmed by the couples mooning around the hotel, resort staffer Despina teams up with long-term resident Don Alfonso to play a double trick on them, testing both the depth of their affections and their assumptions about their own motivations. The story walks the tightrope between Opera Seria (serious plots) and Opera Buffa (comedic plots) and Mozart takes full advantage of these moods weaving his music between the two contrasts throughout.  Flighty and fickle? Faithful and true? One could argue that couples must discover their balance to know their future.  While a happy ending is never guaranteed, these lovers throw themselves into the discovery with flirtation and fun, while also questioning what motivates their true desires.

Mezzo-soprano

Stephanie Tritchew

Events

Past events

Mar 1, 2025

Queen: A Night with the Opera · Opera Kelowna

23 - 24 Aug, 2024

Pagliacci & Gianni Schicchi · Opera Kelowna

Future and recently performed repertoire

Singer in Così fan tutte by Mozart

Opera Kelowna

La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi by Puccini

Opera Kelowna

About

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