set the nights on fire

the wonder and amazement one feels when watching an opera is due to a few things: the artist's performance, the maestro and his orchestra and the set.

designing and constructing a brand new set is quite a feat. it all starts with scale drawings and scale models. budgets, including crew and materials, as well as time frames become huge factors in set design. it's not just what the set itself will look like but also important is the visualization of where the actors will stand and how they will move and interact with each other. and that's even before we get to the lighting design, sound design, projection design, props making, costume design and so much more.

from designers to electricians to carpenters and everyone in between, the technical team involved in this highly creative discipline have all contributed to that "wow" factor you feel when sitting in the opera house.

although vancouver opera's sets have mostly been rented from other opera companies, we have commissioned or co-commissioned a few sets of our very own. eugene onegin and nixon in china have already delighted our vancouver audience. who could forget the ravishing ballroom scene with all the polonaise dancing in eugene onegin or the landing of nixon's spirit of '76 jumbo jet in nixon in china?


photo credit: tim matheson (top left & right)
photo credit: opera philadelphia (bottom left)
photo credit: santa fe opera (bottom right)

the lillian alling set will have its world premiere this october, followed by VO's co-commission with santa fe opera, la clemenza di tito in bebruary 2010. in the very near future, we will unveil and wow audiences with our co-comission of the tea set with opera philadelphia.

of course, we enjoy spreading the love around, so all of vancouver opera's sets are available for rent. pictures and logistics of each our rentals will be posted this week on the VO blog.

for more information on renting, please contact:

tom wright, director of artistic production 604-682-2871 ext. 4841 or email tomwright@vancouveropera.ca

terry harper, director of production 604-682-2871 ext. 4822 or email tharper@vancouveropera.ca

the room is spinning

i stayed up last night to watch the space channel air "the making of inception", which i'm sure will be included in the dvd release later this year. but it was great to see it now. cuz i'm all about the instant gratification.

one of my favourite scene is the zero gravity scene with joseph gordon levitt. sidebar: no matter how old he gets and the mature roles he tackles onscreen, i've always had a hard time looking at him beyond the kid from third rock from the sun. but in this movie, the little scene stealer won me over.

the hotel fight scene had joseph gordon levitt both floating gracefully as well as being bounced and battered against the walls. the trick to this scene was filming in a cage that rolled like a barrel.

here's the shortened version of the 15 minutes featurette i watched last night. (the youtube video pulled out all the cast interviews, director insights and production details. gotta wait for that dvd!) fast forward to 4:49 for the filming of the hotel hallway.



course, this special effect is not new. it had been used in the exercise scene in stanley kubrick's 2001: a space odyssey.



but take it back further, like 50+ years, and it was dancer extraordinaire fred astaire who first boggled movie-goers with this effect in the classic royal wedding.



fred astaire was an utter original and an innovator. him and gene kelley. both dancers are mesmerizing to watch. even til this day, if i had to choose, i can't decide who was the finer dancer. i feel like re-watching some technicolour musicals now. but i digress.

music videos employed this technique too. here's the frenetic fatboy slim's slash dot dash.



now if i had to pick between team moby or team fatboy slim, fatboy all the way. i never got the appeal of moby. except for his extreme ways song in the bourne identity, i don't like any of his other schtuff. and hello! fatboy slim got christopher walken to dance in his weapon of choice video.

a couple of other cage filmed sets with mounted camera include sugar ray's fly and lionel richie's dancing on the ceiling. but you will find neither vanilla nor cheese embedded on this blog post.

alright, perhaps i shouldn't bash lionel richie too hard as this music was a part of my formative years in the 80s. and he was a member of the commodores.

opera pic-nic'ing

last week, the office closed up shop in the afternoon and we all headed out to locarno beach for a staff picnic. ah, the joys of summertime!

food stations were set up, drinks were chilling in coolers and BBQs were fired up at our reserved picnic site. staff, board, and artists mingled and ate up a storm. games were played, bubbles were blown, faces were painted and watermelons were smashed 'suikawari' style (a japanese beach tradition). mobody parties like opera people party!

what was an added bonus was that the celebration of light fireworks were also taking place that very evening and we had already carved out our places.


photo contributors: me, moh faris & nagisa inoue

i even won myself a prize at the picnic.



a compact sized cannister of tea from the urban tea merchant (or as they market it, "four minutes of love") and a jonathan darlington/andy miles jazz cd with the duisburg philharmonic. this will be a first. i've never heard our maestro conduct jazz before!

now all i need are scones, strawberry jam, clotted cream and a newspaper. yum.

stamped on

after family dinner the other night, i was sitting on the couch with my niece when she came up with one of her zingers.

CC: why do you have a stamp on your leg? (referring to my tattoo)

me: that's not a stamp, peanut. that's a tattoo. your daddy has one too.

CC: (points to her forearm) i had a stamp. but it washed off. (sad face)

me: yeah, this one is on forever and ever.

CC: (cheekily) that's cuz you must have paid for it.

she's a lil' smart aleck, that one.

surf's up

the drums making their second appearance on my blog in so many months. although let's go surfing preceded forever and ever, i think this song is very apropos for this summer heat.

i listen to this song and it makes me want to go surfing. mission accomplished, guys.

don't go chasing waterfalls

set design by sue lepage; projections by tim matheson

please stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to...

earworm! ok, time to stop humming TLC in my head and focus on what's at hand.

taken by our projectionist tim matheson, this model is your first peep at what one of our lillian alling scenes will look like. keep in mind, it's a work in progress, but there's no doubt our world premiere will induce all sorts of "wow!"

doesn't this make you want to head to a lake right now?

dressing lillian alling: the sketches

you got your first look a couple of weeks ago and we know you've been chomping at the bit...

here's the complete costume sketches for the world premiere of lillian alling by award-winning set & costume designer sue lepage.


images by sue lepage, all rights reserved

stay tuned! we'll be posting pictures of the costumes from the wardrobe department soon!

dream a little dream

holy cow. absolutely blown away by inception. this movie is mind-bendingly incredible. how is christopher nolan ever going to top this one?



a fantastic cast with a couple of stand-out performances. joseph gordon-levitt in his zero-gravity matrix-inspired level 2 dream scenes. tom hardy, the charasmatic dream morpher, kicking some serious ass in the high-octane level 3 dream scenes.

and cillian murphy. i don't know what it is about this actor but i love watching him in movies.

the less you know going into the movie, the better.



seriously, how could this trailer or any of the other inception trailers not do it for you?



hell, i wanna watch it again.

you spin me round

feeling alittle acoustic this morning...

going out for brunch.

jonesy's big day out

we recently bought a leash so that we could take jonesy out for walks. jonesy is strictly an indoor cat and has never ventured outside before, so this was going to be something new for everyone.

the walk to the park was scrapped because it was post-dinner time and all the dogs and their humans were out for their evening jaunts. so we decided to try her out on the grassy sidewalk outside of sean's block. when we set her down, she practically swan-dived into the bushes, she was so bewildered. after some coaxing, we sat down and held her for a bit as she took in the world at large.



not quite the adventurer, she stayed close to us, either climbing into my lap or keeping a paw on sean's leg for comfort.



after a bit, we untangled ourselves from her grip to see how she'd be without us. if she was out of contact range, jonesy stayed very still on the grass, making herself into a teeny tiny ball. what a little monkey.



she was pretty good with people walking on the other side of the street (with their dogs) or the occasional car that would drive by, but i'm sure she may have been a bit sketchy as it was a lot to take in. way different than watching the world through a window!



when it was time to go, sean scooped up jonesy and threw her over his shoulder, hugging her close.



she purred on the walk home as well as dug her claws into sean's jacket just to make sure we weren't going anywhere.

what a little huggo-bear.

tiny bubbles

when i told my niece that i had a prezzie for her from my bellingham trip, the first thing she said was "again?!?!" (i had just given her a big miffy plush toy when i came back from europe the week before.) not quite the reaction i was expecting.

sidebar: if someone was to give me prezzies 2 weeks in a row, you would NEVER catch me exclaiming "again?!?!"





i think it's safe to say she liked the bubble blowing wands.

what a little peanut.

shop til we drop

yes, it was time for another girls US shopping trip this past weekend. the last time peggy and i went across the border was during the olympics. the stores in bellingham were beckoning to us once again.

the funny thing is that we don't hit places like nordstroms, macy's or the premium outlets. we get excited heading to places like target, trader joe's, fred meyers and the community food co-op. we feel like "see lais" but without all the disposable income, high end shopping and mah jong sessions.

here's some pictures of our day in "cosmopolitan" bellingham:


wow. the health product aisles at fred meyer's was like a ghost town. luckily, that suited us just fine.


why don't we have trader joe's in canada? i loaded up on veggie chips, panna cotta, pico de gallo salsa, spicy guacamole, garlic fries, lobster ravioli, veggie birds nest, grated parmesan & romano cheese, balsamic vinegar and 4 tins of blueberry blast candies.


i was SO tempted to get these. they would've looked great on my desk at work.

we were so consumed with stocking up on health foods/products, groceries and bargain shopping that by the time we looked up, it was almost 9pm closing time. we hadn't even had dinner yet! who does that? uh, we do.

yeah, we're hardcore.

mad world

what if everyone was changing?....

what if the world went crazy?.....

insanity is infectious.



there must be something really sadistic in me if THIS was the first movie i wanted to see when i returned from my trip. holy moly was this movie ever scary. i lost count of how many times i yelped, shrieked or watched between my fingers at sean's.

a virus causing everyone to go batsh*t crazy. military containment protocol going horribly awry. anarchy reigns while you're trying to survive not getting dead on both fronts.

it could happen.

*shudder to think*

i'll always have pictures

can't believe it's been a week since i came back from my trip. time flies when you're battling jetlag and going back to work.

i've plowed through 750 pictures and videos and finally decided which ones to post to flickr and which ones to post on my blog. (all blog entries have now been updated with pictures. woot!)

and as i've gone through my images, i'm reminded of a really wonderful trip. it is my hope that it won't be another 15 or so years til i go back to amsterdam. and that i must go back to explore more of belgium. so much to see, so little time.

press play on the amsterdam slideshow or click here to go to flickr.



press play for the belgium slideshow or click here to go to flickr.



my dear europe...until we meet again.

the little differences

i had to giggle, sigh or shake my head at some of the things i saw on my trip. it's the little things that makes us oh so different than our european counterparts. here are some things you may not find in your tourist guide:


for lovely boobies, try this lovely jubblies cream from lush. i wonder if we have this particular product in canada?


no surprise i found these items in the red light district. left: the piggy salt and pepper shakers are sure to stir up conversation at the breakfast table. right: oh bunny, what have they done to you? also available as a brown teddy bear.


cannabis lollipops and mushroom tea sold at the waterlooplein flea market. a little pick me up.


oh. yes. they. did. of all the names for all cafes, in all of the world.


i hadn't seen cherry coke in forever! canada stopped selling it years ago so this sent waves of nostalgia over me. not that i was a big cherry coke drinker. but still.


you can find lots of automats in amsterdam with food for € 1.


the king of all lowriders. i can't imagine someone riding this on the streets of amsterdam. it was selling for like, a ka-jillion euros at the quicksilver store in the kalvertoren mall on kalverstraat.


brilliant. if ever you get homesick while in amsterdam and get that craving for US/UK items such as tang, chips ahoy cookies or walkers chips, the eichholtz deli certainly provides.


service with a smile in zaans schans. the staff looked quite serious about it too.


marketing win! those belgians got me. you should always be able to see the fruit in the bottle of yoghurt. stir and enjoy.


chocolate needn't be boring. these were sold in a bruges chocolate shop, alongside chocolate duckies for kids


everyone's seen condom machines in washrooms. yawn. but have you seen condom machines in the middle of a busy street? good for those spontaneous sexy times. i also spied outdoor tampon machines in brussels too.


at first glance i thought this was an ATM inside of a brussels mcdonalds (like they have in NYC) but nope, it's touch-screen ordering where you select your meal, pay by debit/cc and walk over to the counter to collect your food. who knew mcdonalds was so tech-savvy? how long before this shows up over here?

some people might look at europeans as same, but different. some may even call culture shock and not be able to speak the same language. but i like to think of europeans like quirky family members who make me laugh. or roll my eyes. we need more quirky on this side of the pond.

the look of a mad woman

do you love mad men and early 60s fashion? i do.

thanks to rival schools for the heads-up, now you can make your own mad men avatar at madmenyourself.com

it's like playing with paper dolls all over again.

the mad men site lets you choose your gender, body, face, hair, clothing, jewellery and extras as well as background. it's hella fun. oh, the combinations!





et voila, my mad men avatar!







clink clink.

day for lovers

i admit it. proudly and unabashedly. i heart kylie minogue. from her first girl next door single locomotion to her incarnation as a disco dolly, i've been a huge fan.

and now another fab song which is currently on heavy rotation on mtv europe. (yes, europe's mtv channel actually plays music videos)

happy sunday.

canada day flail

and how did i spend canada day?

waking up at 6am to make my 930 flight. sitting on a plane for 9 hours 55 minutes. and now battling jetlag.

i was so afraid that i would miss my flight but i made it. i got to schipol airport almost 2.5 hours before the flight and even then i found out that all the window seats were gone. there was no online check in for this flight so it was first come, first served at the airport. i did get an aisle seat. upon boarding the plane, i asked the flight attendant if there were any window seats, if i could get one once we are at cruising altitude. with 80 empty seats on the flight, she said she'd find me one.

unfortch, it was like musical chairs after we reached 38,000 ft. people were grabbing better seats and claiming rows. without consulting the flight attendants on their changes. utter chaos.

since the flight attendant had promised me a window seat only to find an old man pretending he was deaf and not willing to give up his new find, i settled for a whole middle row all to myself. not too shabby. the tv monitor was just 2 rows in front of me. i could stretch out and curl up in my comfort kit blanket.



being able to lie down made a world of difference! although i slept in spurts, at least i got a wee bit of sleep. i think that helped immensely when i landed in vancouver. i was not as loopy when sean came to pick me up at the airport.


air transat rocks. they feed us twice. first pasta lunch with rice salad, a dinner roll and two-bite brownies. hours later, i got a slice of pizza. yup, a carbophobe's worst nightmare.

by the time i got home, the jetlag "spins" started to set in. i felt myself flailing so i confined myself to the bed watching dvds. so tired that i couldn't fall asleep as it was so light out. i conked out somewhere around 7pm and woke up after midnight, hungry and a bit out of sorts. so exhausted that the canada day fireworks didn't even wake me up. i slept through it all the noise-making.

yeehaw.