Cast Corner - Robin Eder-Warren (Soprano)

For our 4th edition of this season's Cast Corner we are pleased to introduce Soprano, Robin Eder-Warren. Quite possibly our youngest cast member to date, we've had the pleasure of watching Robin develop over the years and were pleased to be able to offer her the role of Ida for this production of Die Fledermaus.

Similar to Soprano, Stephanie Domingues (Adele), Robin began her training at a very young age and her motives for getting started can only be described as "adorable"!

Q: How did you get started with opera? 

A: I fell onto the operatic stage almost by accident, it seems. I started taking voice lessons at age 10 to follow a boy I had a crush on from school into a musical theatre summer camp, and when it was over, made the fateful decision to keep up the lessons. I never stopped. Four years later, it felt like I looked around and discovered that I had begun singing in operas. I never looked back!

Q: What excites you most about this show? 

A: I finally get to spend time with some of my favourite music! My whole family is Austrian; these are tunes I’ve been humming and dancing to in one form or another since I was very small. There’s something like coming home to music like this, for me.

Q: What is the most bizarre thing you've done or seen on stage? 

A: I had to do trapeze work onstage once in the Bahamas after having had only one crash-course in the apparatus. Good thing I was only about nine or ten, and the audience expected my failure to be adorable and applauded loudly anyway.

While our show won't have any trapeze work in this production, we may try to convince our nimble and ambitious little Ida, who is now a Certified Yoga Instructor and has started her own opera company (Opera Mariposa), to see if she can incorporate downward facing dog into her performance!

Don't forget... tickets are limited and ON SALE NOW on our website where you can also read more about Robin!

IN BRIEF: Vancouver Concert Opera Society presents Strauss’ Die Fledermaus at Pyatt Hall in Vancouver (834 Seymour St.) on Jan 4 & 5, 2013 at 7:00pm and at First United Church in White Rock (15385 Semiahmoo Ave) on Jan 6 @ 7:00pm. “Concert Opera” sung in German with English dialogue. Tickets starting at $24 can be purchased online at vancoco.ca. CASH ONLY at the door.

Cast Corner - Mark Pepe (Tenor)

Our third installment of Cast Corner features, Tenor Mark Pepe. While Mark bears no direct relationship to the famous French Skunk "Pepé Le Pew", his self-proclaimed mastery of Italian cuisine and "delicious" Bolognese Sauce reminded us of this legendary cartoon character!

Joking aside, Mark will be joining the cast of Die Fledermaus this January as Dr. Blind (The Lawyer). Apparently drawn to "sleazy roles", this should be as fun for Mark as it will be for us to see him bring Dr. Blind to life!

Here's a few little fun Q & A's from Mark...

Q. Is there any 'dream role" you'd like to play?

A. Fellow singers always look at me funny when I say this, but Don Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro. He’s such a sleazebag, and his music is fun to sing. But I do hope one day I can get to a level to sing Cavaradossi in Tosca or Otello.

Q. What might you say to someone who has never been to an opera before to get them excited about this particular show?

A. You’ll know the music! Remember when Tom and Jerry fought to conduct it once?

Q. What is your most embarrassing moment on stage?

A. Back in high school, I was Merryman the Butler in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest. As the curtain rose to begin the second act, I was on stage alone pruning a bush. I bent over, with my back facing the audience, and split my pants. It was a long…slow…rip. I then slowly turned and began to prune the bush from the other side.

We're pretty sure you won't see any "pant-splitting" in this show, but you may split a side or two! Mark will be appearing in all 3 of our performances this coming January, so no matter which date you choose, you'll be privy to his antics and beautiful tenor!

Don't forget tickets are limited and ON SALE NOW on our website where you can also read more about Mark!

IN BRIEF: Vancouver Concert Opera Society presents Strauss’ Die Fledermaus at Pyatt Hall in Vancouver (834 Seymour St.) on Jan 4 & 5, 2013 at 7:00pm and at First United Church in White Rock (15385 Semiahmoo Ave) on Jan 6 @ 7:00pm. “Concert Opera” sung in German with English dialogue. Tickets starting at $24 can be purchased online at vancoco.ca. CASH ONLY at the door.

Cast Corner - Aaron Durand

Baritone, Aaron Durand will be joining the Cast of Rigoletto as Marullo! We are excited to have him with us for this production and had a good chuckle at some of his responses to our "Cast Corner" segment. We hope you enjoy them too!

Q.  How did you get started with opera?
A. When I moved to Victoria for college, I wound up in Pacific Opera Victoria's production of Eugene Onegin.I'd participated in lots of musical theatre productions in my home town, but this was completely different.The thrill of putting together such beautiful music, the gripping story, and lavish scenery was like nothing I'd ever experienced. The bug bit, and I've been enthralled ever since.

Q. Have you ever sung Rigoletto before?  If so, where/when?
A. Actually,  Pacific Opera Victoria presented Rigoletto a few months after Onegin, and I had the privilege of performing in the chorus once more. Lucky me!

Q. What is the most exciting thing about Rigoletto for you?
A. By far it's the way Verdi grips onto the real dramatic situation in each scene. This deceptively beautiful music weaves the subtext effortlessly. Verdi was driven by the tinta that music could lend to a dramatic moment, giving it layers and layers of meaning and colour, and there's not a single second where that isn't the case. So awesome!

Q. What might you say to someone who has never been to an opera before to get them excited about this particular show?
A. We're given a bleak, dark look at a man whose every endeavor ends in ruin. His wife is dead, his peers hate him, his boss permits him to exist because it's amusing. He is filled with hurt and paranoia. All that is left for this man is a daughter and her innocence. But how long can that last? or... [he says jokingly...] Rig is an HBO series set to music. Do you like HBO series? I thought you did.

Q. When you are not immersed in opera,  what is your favorite past time?
A. Can brunch be a past time? [We think so!]

Q. Everybody has a guilty pleasure when it comes to music, what yours?  (I listen to the beat 94.5 Top Ten pop music exclusively when in the car, my fav is to cluck along (like a chicken) with overplayed top 10 songs.
A. Not gonna lie, the fresh, delicious rap stylings of Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) are pretty much the best thing ever!

Q. Anything else you can think of that is relevent, or a question that you would to answer that we didn't ask
A. Hmm. How about a favorite quote?

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell." 

- CS Lewis

And we'd like to shout out a hearty congratulations to Aaron who will be singing the role of Schaunard (La Boheme) in Vancouver Opera's 2012/13 Season!!! Bravo Aaron!

Don't forget to pick up your tickets for Rigoletto! They're going fast! February 15 and 17 in Vancouver and February 18 in White Rock (South Surrey)!

Oh, and if you'd like to read more about Aaron, visit our artist page for his full bio!