THURSDAY February 13, 2014 Vol. 29• No. 13 ••• $1.25 inc. G.S.T.
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Two former Comox Valley residents ran a marathon a day last year. page B11
News flash! Winter breaks out in Comox Valley! Photos to follow. page B27
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ON GOLDEN SONG Comox Coun. Hugh MacKinnon is organizing a celebration every day at 5 p.m. at the Town of Comox square on Comox Avenue when a Canadian athlete wins a gold medal at the Olympic Games. He asks people to sing our national anthem and acknowledge gold medal-winning athletes. PHOTO BY BRIAN SHAW
Merville soprano in romantic mood
‘Stage presence, dramatic skills’ part of total package Scott Stanfield Record Staff
A Comox Valley-raised opera singer performs on successive nights on this Valentine’s Day weekend with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Kathleen Brett — a soprano who grew up in Merville and graduated from Vanier Secondary School — is one of two vocal soloists in A Romantic Valentine that includes a host of American Songbook standards such as My Funny Valentine, Send in the Clowns, and selections from West Side Story. Brett loves singing Mozart and Handel, contemporary music and the Great American Songbook, be it Broadway musicals such as South Pacific,
or Cole Porter, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. “Which is what we’ll be focusing on this weekend,” said Brett, a Courtenay resident who formerly lived in Toronto. She is looking forward to reuniting Friday and Saturday with the VSO, with whom she has performed many times. “It’s really lovely to go back.” Brett has portrayed a variety of roles during a lengthy collaboration with the Canadian Opera Company. She has also been a guest artist in numerous American and European opera houses, and enjoyed a stint in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “I’ve been on the road a long time,” Brett said. “When you’re an opera singer, you live everywhere and nowhere.” The VSO website says she
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is cherished by audiences “not only for the beauty of her tone and stylistic instinct but also for her natural stage presence and dramatic skills.”
board” into thoughts about continuing studies in music. Brett attended the University of Winnipeg and transferred to Wilfrid Laurier University to complete a bachelor of music. She went straight into the I’ve been on Young Artists Prothe road a long gram at the Canadian Opera Company in time. When you’re Toronto, then began an opera singer, you singing professionally. live everywhere and “Most of my career nowhere. has been in opera and Kathleen Brett concert, but I do cross over into orchestral.” She says opera is It’s safe to say music is in more accessible than people Brett’s blood. Her father’s generally think. side of the family was musical “As my mentor said, ‘Opera while her mother’s mother was is the greatest collaborative art an opera singer in Antwerp, form,’ “ she said, noting how all Belgium. As fate would have the players — singers, stageit, Brett made her European craft, makeup artists and othdebut at De Vlaamse Opera in ers — come together. Antwerp. This weekend’s shows are at She credits the Vanier music Vancouver’s Orpheum Theatre. program for being a “springreporter@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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Skiing resumes Mark Allan
Record Staff
Mount Washington is reopening for skiing after receiving enough snow, a rarity this winter. “We’re reopening the mountain this Thursday, Feb. 13. Lifts start spinning at 9 a.m.!” the Mount Washington Alpine Resort announced Tuesday on its website (www.mountwashington.ca). “Please give us time to update our snow totals,” the update continued. After opening late a month ago with a mid-mountain snowbase of 110 centimetres, the snowbase had shrunk to 70 cm before this week’s recalculation. “Operations staff are returning to the mountain and we will get you the information and details as soon as we can,” the resort promised. “Regular snow reporting will resume Thursday morning bright and early!” The resort reminds people to respect mountain closures. editor@comoxvalleyrecord.com