why is lucia mad?

wanna know why lucia is mad? to find out, scan this QR code.

shadow of the ninja

our opera ninja army is growing!

a stealthy welcome to the newest addition to our clan: opera ninja tris hussey. like a ghostly apparition at midnight, one can never sure if they've seen our newest shadow. ninjas are known to possess invisibility and shape-shifting abilities, you know.

it'll be one clan watching two others on thursday, december 2. join opera ninja tris as he reports on all the intrigues between the ashtons and the ravenwoods at the lucia di lammermoor dress rehearsal.

whether employing tactics such as tanuki-gakure (camouflaging oneself up in the trees) or ukigusa-gakure (camouflaging oneself under water with duckweed), opera ninja tris will get you closer to all the action.

follow along thursday night's dress rehearsal at our twitter: @operaninja or along the right side-bar of this blog.

the action begins at 7pm.

sponsored by:

lucia fan night & backstage tour

lucia fan night is tuesday, december 7!

if you're coming to lucia di lammermoor on december 7, come a wee bit earlier and get a backstage tour. the tour will be led by our artistic team who will give you some behind the scenes insights to what you'll be watching on stage.

when: tuesday, december 7, 630pm
where: meet at the far east side of the lobby

please RSVP by december 6 to lchan@vancouveropera.ca for your exclusive look backstage.

twitter/facebook fan night sponsored by the georgia straight:

how wonderful life is

of course you know the elton john version. you may even have loved the ewan mcgregor version from moulin rouge (i did!). but it didn't take long for this new version by ellie goulding to grow on me too. i like this piano + cello cover version. sounds very winter-ish and no surprise that it's vying for the christmas #1 in the uk this year.

lucia di lammermoor: the manga

two feuding families. a love that could never be and an emotionally fragile girl who is forced into a marriage that ends in tragedy.

here's lucia di lammermoor as seen through the eyes of manga artist lily dai and editor roy husada.













to supersize, double click on the images.

it's a mad world

well if THIS isn't a fitting song for lucia di lammermoor! you know the song i mean.



you may have grown up listening to the original tears for fears version. or you may have heard the stripped down cover version by gary jules in the movie, donnie darko, which was also later used in the movie trailer for the crazies.

we're talking mad world to go along with lucia's psyche. speaking about the song's meaning, tears for fears' curt smith is quoted as saying, "it's very much a voyeur's song. it's looking out at a mad world from the eyes of a teenager."

a VO staffer put together this "mad world" video with still photos from opera de montréal's 2009 production of lucia di lammermoor starring eglise gutiérrez.


video by christopher libby

to prep you for next week's opening of lucia di lammermoor, press play and get a sense of lucia's doom and gloom.

a flashmob down under

i'm gonna post another enjoyable flashmob video now that i'm on a flashmob roll. this one because it appeals to the kylie minogue-lovin, disco dolly in me.



i have no idea who these drag queens are but they look like they know how to organize, draw attention and captivate the public while kids are prancing and twirling about to kylie songs. it's like a nightclub in broad daylight.

and maybe because it's sh*t weather in vancouver right now, this sunny and bright video is making me love it that much more.

welcome back, luv

the t-mobile folks have done it again!

they organized another flashmob. this time at terminal 5 of london's heathrow airport. i remember blogging about their first one at liverpool station in january 2009.

since then i've vascillated between love and hate at the latest croppings of "flash mob" videos online. most of them are poorly executed, not to mention boring, repetitive and just screams of marketing ploy. yes, t-mobile is marketing even when they are "flash-mobbing", but there's something sincere and spirited about how they put it together. and t-mobile took it to the next level because this one's done all a-cappella. no musical instruments at all.

anyways, i'm utterly charmed once again by their latest blitz. after a long-ass flight and the general pain of flying and customs these days, it would be pretty hard not to smile or laugh when you're greeted with a welcome back such as this.



this time around, t-mobile also recorded the public's reactions to their sudden flashmob. what a great idea - a sort of companion piece to the video.



and the company has also posted a making of the t-mobile welcome back:



this is how you do it. for more smile-inducing goodness, check out t-mobile's life's for sharing youtube page. once again, london rocks!

social media marketing at the vancouver opera

last week i was interviewed by freelance theatre publicist, rebecca coleman, for her marketing and public relations website. we met at a nearby starbucks and did the afternoon coffee/hot chocolate meet up. and it was quite fun, as she's one of those breezy, easy-going people and we got on pretty well.

Today, I interview Ling Chan, Social Media Manager at The Vancouver Opera. I have long been a fan of the VO’s forward-thinking and cutting-edge social media marketing techniques (which resulted in a Georgia Straight Best of Vancouver pick for Best Arts website), so I was super excited when Ling agreed to sit down for a few minutes with me and talk about their strategies. - Rebecca Coleman

click here for the interview.

thanks rebecca!

ask a conductor day

maestros are fascinating, mysterious and a force to be reckoned with. these master musicians stand above his orchestra and help everyone keep a steady beat. they set the tempo, the mood and are there to cue orchestra sections of when to start playing. to be a maestro, you have to have an amazing ear and incredible artistic expression.

and yet, so little is known about these enigmatic conductors and their world.

well, that curtain is about to be lifted.

join us on december 8 for ask a conductor day on twitter:

on december 8, 2010, conductors around the world will come together to engage fans, first-timers and complete strangers. it is an opportunity for orchestras and conductors to share their love and passion, 140 characters at a time.

the concept is simple: conductors make some time available to answer questions on december 8; twitter followers ask their burning questions, and the conductors answer.

the brilliant project is organized by lacey huszcza, director of operations and promotions at los angeles chamber orchestra and marc van bree, consultant and blogger at dutch perspective. inspired by the ask a curator twitter event, ask a conductor day is the perfect way for audiences to connect with maestros and their orchestras and learn how music truly comes together.


photo credit: christoph müller-girod

VO's music director and maestro jonathan darlington will be available for all your questions december 8 between 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm (pacific standard time).

just tweet him a question at @j_darlington and he'll respond. you can also follow along on twitter with the hashtag #askaconductor.

for a list of other participating conductors, click here.

join VO on december 8 for this fun event! put on some opera or classical music to set the mood and get tweeting!

we were destined

pulp has reformed! one of my favourite britpop bands from the 90s, pulp will be one of the acts headlining the isle of wight festival this summer. it's sure to be fantastic and i wish i could see them play.

oh, how i used to love the pale, tall and lanky rockstars a la bowie's thin white duke. there was suede's brett anderson, jesus and mary chain's william reid, echo and the bunnymen's ian mcculloch, the verve's richard ashcroft, primal scream's bobby gillespie and pulp's jarvis cocker.

although everyone is pretty "rockstar", i always saw jarvis cocker as more whimsical, colourful, eccentric and more geeky than the other singers i also fancied.

i love pulp's something changed because it's simple and romantic, singing about the "what if?" design of how lovers are brought together.

i could have stayed at home and gone to bed
i could have gone to see a film instead
you might have changed your mind and seen your friends
life could have been very different but then
something changed

and i'm a sucker for classical instruments such as violins being used in pop songs. i should TOTALLY make a playlist of songs with orchestra instruments. (like blur's to the end and the universal and the smiths' there is a light that never goes out.)

it's all about me

i claimed mine. have you claimed yours?

about.me is a nifty little splash page that points people to all of my web content.

what a great concept. and simple too. instead of giving people 6 different sites they can find me on, i just have to give out my about me profile.

one-stop shopping w/analytics thrown in.

lovin' it.

lucia gets QR coded

our behind-the-scenes QR codes are back for lucia di lammermoor!

street posters, as well as, bus shelter posters are now up and in your neighbourhoods.

here's where you can find the bus shelter posters:

* king edward avenue and laurel street
* main street and 16th avenue
* broadway and larch street
* cambie street and 61st avenue
* commercial street and adanac street
* east 49th avenue and knight street
* fraser street and east 23rd avenue
* nanaimo street and east hastings street
* SW marine drive and granville street
* west boulevard and 51st street

just look for the QR code on the lower righthand side of the poster. scan the code with your smartphone and get some very interesting facts about the stars of lucia di lammermoor.

all to get you that much more excited come opening night!

lucia di lammermoor: cast interviews

video by bombshelter productions & mike mckinley

the story of lucia is about a young girl who is very romantic and in love with the wrong person, someone who is feuding with her family. through various machinations, she descends into madness and the whole thing ends in a very romantic and tragic way. - amiel gladstone

it's a story that anybody would relate to because everybody remembers probably what it was like to be 16 and in love. - gregory dahl

this piece is unique in that you can't always see the direction that the music's going in. sure, there's choruses, there's cavatinas, there's cabalettas but there's not always an order to the madness, which is different than some of the other operas that donizetti's composed. - michael fabiano

it's one of the beautiful italian operas, so you'll get all the spectacles in terms of the beautiful sets, the lighting and full chorus. also, the cast that's been assembled is just some of the world-class talents so that the singing, matched with donizetti's music, is stunning. - amiel gladstone

don't miss out! get your tickets now!

single tickets starting at $29 (plus handling fee). call our ticketing centre at 604.683.0222 or purchase online here.

BONUS: to get your free lucia di lammermoor poster with your tickets, give our box office PROMO CODE 2956 when you call in or enter PROMO CODE 2956 on the login page on our website.

how are things on the west coast?

INTERPOL!

i am so frickin' excited. interpol is coming to vancouver on january 27. i've been jumping up and down on the inside for the past 10 days, just waiting for the official concert announcement.

tickets go on sale this friday, but i got my pre-sale ticket this morning! whooo-hooo!



okay, i am a lot saddened this is interpol's first world tour without carlos d., but i'm still going because i just flat-out love their music. (although the fourth album has yet to grow on me) and there's still paul banks baritone voice, the brilliant guitar picking of daniel kessler and the cool percussion stylings of sam fogarino.

FTW.

jonesy's very own house

you just never know with cats.

they're so particular and unpredictable. the best you can hope for you is that they like what you buy for them. and in this case, jonesy really took a shine to her new dog house. erm, i mean, cat house. cat house that was inspired by the look of traditional canadian hunting chalets.

i just couldn't resist buying the loyal luxe cabin for jonesy's first birthday. how could i say no to the overload of cuteness on the company website? the cabin is pretty fab. it's one piece of cardboard that folds up to become a whimsical home for cats or small animals.



it comes with cardboard ball ornaments and various over-the-door hangings (in the shape of a fish, bat, moose or placard). the roof is a blank canvas just itching to be customized with markers and pencil crayons. it also comes with a corrugated cardboard carpet for kitty to massage their paws or sharpen their claws.

jonesy was, of course, all sorts of curious as sean and i put the chalet together. i really get a kick out of cats and their affection for cardboard boxes. kidlets are the same way. bring home a huge toy in a box and that toy will get discarded, as the box will suddenly turn into the wardrobe leading to the magical world of narnia. ah, good times.

but i disgress...

once assembled, jonesy sized up her home, rubbing her scent on corners and openings.


jonesy checking out her new digs

i think that she likes that we can't trespass into her private space. (as if she doesn't have the run of the house already). like when sean tried to scold her for some bad behaviour, she turns around and marches into her house, avoiding the situation.

and it's not like she's above sharing. sometimes. we put some of her cat toys in her "batcave" and depending on what mood she's in, she'll either let it be or she'll actually chuck the toy out of her personal space. or she'll grab another toy from across the room and bring it into her house.

as i've said all along, she's not a cat! she must have been a dog in her previous life.


home sweet home

i'm looking forward to seeing how she's going to furnish the inside of her house.

lucia on your wall

artwork by leonard dente

we're offering a little lucia di lammermoor keepsake to go with your night at the opera. the posters, which measure 19" x 28", are the one you'll be seeing around town.

hang it up in your house or at your office, they look great anywhere. the posters also make a great stocking stuffer for the opera-lover in your life. (christmas is ONLY 5 weeks away!)

so how does one get a poster?

option 1.

call the good folks at our ticketing centre and give them PROMO CODE 2956 when you purchase your Lucia tickets.

option 2.

purchase your tickets online and enter PROMO CODE 2956 the promo box can be found under the username and password box on the login page. (click on the image to view)



get your tickets and posters now!

single tickets starting at $29 (plus handling fee). call our ticketing centre at 604.683.0222 or purchase online here.

setting the tragedy

ancient clan hatred.

madness and murder.

devastating consequences.

all set amongst the brooding lowlands of scotland, a country known for its castles, lochs, moors, remote glens and the wild north sea. what a perfect setting for all the deception and tragedy found in lucia di lammermoor.

here's your first look at our lucia di lammermoor set, rented from san francisco opera and designed by gerard howland:













a dark set for lucia's dark side. the lucia set makes my black, black heart very happy.

photo credit: ken friedman

inquiring minds want to know

what do you get when you put tenor michael fabiano, baritone gregory dahl and bass-baritone burak bilgili together in one room?

your opportunity to ask the lucia di lammermoor singers anything you want!

VO is crowd-sourcing for your questions! got a burning question to ask one of the singers? or perhaps a question directed to two of them? or how about a question that the whole group can answer? go ahead and ask!

we'll be recording michael, gregory and burak's answers by video and posting it right here on our blog and our youtube channel.

please submit your questions to lchan@vancouveropera.ca by friday, november 19.

the fellas are looking forward to your questions!

la hepburn

those who know me know that i'm a huge audrey hepburn fan. those who have come to my place, can see the multitude of audrey hepburn books sitting on my bookshelf.

well, there's another coffee table book on la hepburn. this one by photographer bob willoughby who captured audrey hepburn from her meteoric rise as an ingenue to incomparable hollywood icon. what photographer roy schatt accomplished with his iconic pictures of james dean, willoughby did for audrey hepburn.



taschen, the publisher of the book, has put the first 100 pages online as a flip-through preview. what a great idea. and since there's only 1000 copies of this book available, it definitely makes it collector-worthy. so much in fact, that even on ebay, i see copies of the book starting at $850 USD.



unfortunately, a tad out of my price range. guess i'll just enjoy the gorgeous leaf-through.

with bated breath

oh interpol. how you rock my world.

c'mon, c'mon, c'mon.........

not your ordinary haunted house

this is why i always say new york is way cool.

my steampunk halloween costume would've gone great with the steampunk haunted house in nyc's lower east side.



In this truly immersive experience, audience members are thrust into a beautiful and terrifying dreamscape of neo-Victorian elegance and phantasmagoric clockwork horrors. Once inside, audience members are separated, until one by one, they find themselves alone, lost somewhere within the three sprawling floors of Abrons’ majestic century-old playhouse. From there, they must choose where to go, exploring innumerable twisting hallways, looming balconies, and labyrinthine cellars. All the while, a whirlwind of mechanical apparitions, wraithlike sleepwalkers, and gear-powered beasts hurtle through corridors and lurk behind every corner and within every room.

third rail projects, the brilliant minds behind the idea, even have a blog detailing the installation process.

dang. what am i doing next halloween?

thanks to jena and steampunk workshop for the heads up.

saying goodbye to lillian alling

sets have been struck and costumes put away. trucks have been loaded and driven to storage.

as we prep for the upcoming lucia di lammermoor, we're officially saying good-bye to lillian alling.

and although lillian alling has come and gone, we'll always have pictures of all the shiny happy faces to remind us of what a grand experience it all was.







thank you to everyone who came out and made our world premiere such a success! we couldn't have done it without you!

a steampunk halloween

for all my hints and outright clues, not many people were able to guess what my costume was. only one person the entire halloween weekend guessed correctly. he was dressed as a bookworm, although when i guessed the glowworm doll, he accepted that too.

even when i told people i was a steampunk girl, that drew a lot of blank stares. i suppose steampunk is fringe but maybe more so out here in vancouver. i kinda like that.

the pieces of my ensemble were all purchased online separately:


my corset came from hong kong


my bustle skirt from california



my top hat i found in vancouver while my antique brass spyglass and goggles came from new york. i thought these steampunk accessories would be the dead giveaway but surprisingly it wasn't.

my halloween weekend was pretty mellow and just the way i prefer it. sean and i went to see our friend, kristina, play her first ever live gig in north vancouver.

but before that, i just had to check out peggy as one of the pink ladies of grease. only fitting as peggy was going to the grease musical. and even though we weren't going to be spending halloween together like last year, or the year before that, we could not let the evening pass without meeting up. even if it was for only 10 minutes!


the pink lady and the steampunk girl

after the quick meet-up, sean and i headed to the eagles hall to meet up with friends and to watch kristina play a mean bass with her band, the unlevels.


photo credit: ron sombilon

after they finished their set, we shot next door to play a couple of rounds of pool before calling it a night. yes, home by 11pm. on a saturday night halloween. call us old fogies, but halloween was going to be continued the next day.



the thing about trying to get a pumpkin on the actual halloween day is that:

a) you're mostly sh*t out of luck when you go to the market. unless you count the rotted ones. (which do not make for good carving)

b) if you happen to find a "low-budget" market where no one really shops and which is trying to unload all their pumpkins by halloween night, you can score a WICKED deal. instead of pumpkins being charged by the pound, we got 2 sizeable pumpkins for $5. for both.

what's halloween without a little maniacal pumpkin carving? ever since sean introduced me to carving jack-o'-lanterns last year, we're making this our yearly tradition. we both gleefully knifed our pumpkins, scooped guts and carved faces, with an observant jonesy watching over us.



the results? 2 creepy jack-o'-lanterns.


sean's is on the left. the crazy one on the right is mine. i may have overdone it on the teeth

after an afternoon of pumpkin delight, sean and i got dressed up in our halloween finery: me in my steampunk outfit, sean as a zombie doctor. with a newly infected zombie bite on his face.



i gotta admit that i lost my breath when sean got into character and made like he was a zombie. nothing says scary like your boyfriend heading towards you, arms and fingers outstretched, moaning away like a zombie. especially as zombies used to make me wanna poop my pants. hit a little too close to home. next, he'll dress up as a mental hospital worker to rattle me up.

we headed over to dustin & kristina's for a little fireworks display and to watch the series premiere of the walking dead!



we had been waiting for this since end of august. and it did NOT disappoint. i think we just found a show that we may all get together and watch on a weekly basis.

sean was even in the mood for a midnight snack when we got home.


jonesy never saw it coming

i'm so glad to find someone whose favourite holiday is also halloween. until next year, boo!



for more pictures of my halloween weekend, press play on the slideshow or click here.