SUMIDAGAWA & CURLEW RIVER
Two Great Traditions. One Great Story.
May 26 – May 30, 2010
Frederic Wood Theatre, UBC – All seats $40.00 – ticketstonight.ca
In May 2010 we present the 15th-century Japanese masterwork Sumidagawa and the 20th-century opera it inspired, Britten’s immortal Curlew River, in co-production with UBC Theatre and Film, and Blackbird Theatre.
It is the heartbreakingly beautiful story of a mother and the loss of her child. Sumidagawa will be told in a stunning butoh dance version of the Noh play on which Britten based his opera. This telling of one story from two cultural perspectives will provide an amazing night of theatre – and a Canadian first.
The production is endorsed by explorASIAN, the Japanese Language School and Hall, the National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre, the Powell Street Festival, Sikora’s Classical Records, and the UBC Department of Asian Studies, and is supported by Accent Inns and Tom Lee Music.
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Starring as Madwoman in Sumidagawa is the legendary Denise Fujiwara, joining us from Toronto. Her work, drawn from the original Noh play and now given as a one-woman performance, is simply mesmerizing.
Denise Fujiwara/Madwoman, Isaiah Bell/Madwoman
Starring as Madwoman in Curlew River is the remarkable young Canadian tenor, Isaiah Bell. Twenty years from now, you will be able to say that you heard Isaiah in his first starring role. He is that good. [Listen to an audio sample]
He will be joined by John Minagro [Audio clip], who moved audiences as Death in Der Kaiser von Atlantis and will appear as the Abbot, and the splendid baritones Sam Marcacinni [Audio clip] as The Ferryman and Joel Klein [Audio clip] as The Traveller. The male chorus comes to us from the Vancouver Cantata Singers.
John Minagro/Abbot, Sam Marcacinni/Ferryman, Joel Klein/Traveller
Janet Lea and Nora Kelly are the producers. John Wright directs. Robert Gardiner is the designer, Marti Wright the costumier, Bob Eberle our production coordinator, and Charles Barber leads the music.
These will be amazing events. Please join us.
Free talks start in January
In order to promote Sumidagawa & Curlew River, we will be giving free talks across Metro Vancouver. These will start after 1 January 2010.
If you would like us to make a presentation we have DVDs, CDs and print materials, and can offer from fifteen minutes to ninety. Your wishes? artisticdirector@PROTECTED
Can you help with AIR MILES?
City Opera needs to fly from Toronto and back our Sumidagawa artist Denise Fujiwara, and her technical director Ron Snippe, both in late May 2010. Our friends at Accent Inns are providing accommodation, and special rates for our out-of-town audiences.
Do you know anyone able to donate air-mile points, or a share of same? We’d be grateful to hear from you: artisticdirector@PROTECTED. Thanks!!!
Standing up for the arts
If you have not yet done so, please write your MLA, and the Premier, about the devastating cuts in provincial arts finding. How? Please visit our friends at
www.artsadvocacybc.ca and www.allianceforarts.com
Virginia Woolf
We are partnering with Blackbird Theatre, and UBC Theatre and Film, to bring you Sumidagawa and Curlew River.
In a few days we’ll be sending you a personal invitation to Blackbird’s next production, the Edward Albee classic Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It stars Gabrielle Rose, Kevin McNulty, Meg Roe and Craig Erickson, all directed by their Artistic Director John Wright – who also directs our own Curlew River. Opens 27 December at The Cultch.www.blackbirdtheatre.ca
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