VocalEye is thrilled to partner with Pacific Opera Victoria to provide the first live described opera production in BC at the Royal Theatre, Victoria.
A limited number of tickets are available, starting at $57 with a free companion rate for VocalEye users. Please call 250-385-0222 to purchase. To register for a ticket subsidy/rebate, please contact rick@vocaleye.ca
A pre-performance talk is offered one hour before curtain at 1:30 pm.
Described by Rick Waines
Music by Emmerich Kálmán
Libretto by Julius Brammer and Alfred Grünwald
Sung in English, with English surtitles
When the beguiling young Countess Maritza invents a fiancé in order to keep her hordes of admirers at bay, it’s inevitable that she will find true love by the end of the story.
With plenty of plot twists and fireworks, a happy ending, and scrumptious music from the heyday of Viennese operetta, this romantic comedy is sophisticated, nostalgic, and unabashedly entertaining – a joyous reminder that not all opera is “a song of love and death.”
Countess Maritza is a masterpiece of the Silver Age of Viennese operetta. A big perk of operetta is being able to incorporate theatre actors for a little scene-stealing spoken dialogue. Leading the thespian brigade is Canadian theatre icon Nicola Cavendish as the princess Bozena. A veteran of the Shaw Festival and beloved for hundreds of performances as Shirley Valentine, Nicola is no stranger to opera. She played Florence Foster Jenkins in Glorious (that counts as opera – sort of), and she was the Duchess of Krakenthorp in The Daughter of the Regiment for Vancouver Opera (before Ruth Bader Ginsburg made a splash in the role).
Belfry theatre-goers will also recognize the multi-talented Brian Linds, a well-known Victoria actor, playwright and sound designer, in the role of Penizek, the Shakespeare-quoting valet.
CAST
Countess Maritza: Leslie Ann Bradley
Count Tassilo: Adam Luther
Manja: Jennifer Taverner
Baron Zsupan: Michael Barrett
Prince Popolescu: Bruce Kelly
Lisa: Suzanne Rigden
Baron Karl Stephan Liebenberg: R.J. Peters
Princess Bozena: Nicola Cavendish
Penizek: Brian LInds
Tschekko: Jim Leard
Berko: Nolan Kehler
Gypsy violinist: Julian Vitek
WIth the Victoria Symphony, the Pacific Opera Chorus,
and members of the Victoria Children’s Choir
CREATIVE TEAM
Conductor: Timothy Vernon
Director: Linda Brovsky
Designer: Patrick Clark
Lighting Designer: Kimberly Purtell
Choreographer: Jacques Lemay
Répétiteur: Louise-Andrée Baril
Stage Manager: Kelly Luft
SUPPORT MATERIALS
CHEK-TV preview (video)
Countess Maritza-Synopsis (Word doc)
Maritza Newsletter from Pacific Opera (pdf)
Operetta’s Silver Age (Word doc)
REVIEWS
“Romantic comedy delights audience” –Times Colonist
