Rebecca Hass, Pacific Opera Victoria’s Director of Community Engagement
YOUR ARTS & CULTURE
CO|OPERA|TIVE ENTERTAINMENT
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PHOTO BY DEVON MACKENZIE
night at the Opera is an almost magical event that many people adore, but it’s also something that has the potential to be a bit intimidating to a virgin opera-goer. In order to combat that notion, Pacific Opera Victoria (POV) recently rolled out a new program that is working to engage community members on a deeper level. The public engagement program, aptly dubbed Co|OPERA|tive, was launched when they produced Missing in late 2017 – a chamber opera by Métis playwright Marie Clements and Juno-winning composer Brian Current. Missing voiced (in both English and Gitxsan) the story of Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women. “With that topic particularly, we knew we wanted to offer more to the audience, and it catapulted POV to find someone to do that,” explained Rebecca Hass, POV’s Director of Community Engagement. Hass explained that POV worked with Ron Rice, Executive Director of the Victoria Native Friendship Centre, to create community engagement programming and a template for future programming surrounding topics touched on in the Arts.
explore art in the context of the world in which we live,” Hass said, adding that goal is to build bridges between community partners while also making opera feel more accessible to the public. “I think it’s interesting to see POV as something other than entertainment, and to be able to beMACKENZIE seen as a convener of community is something really DEVON special,” she added. This fall, POV worked with the Victoria Inter-Cultural Association who helped as a community partner providing related programming to the opera Fidelio – the story of a political prisoner.
“These types of events are particularly engaging because they take a piece of art – an opera – from hundreds of years years ago, and allow people to see it reflected in their own community,”
“We were able to produce a three-person panel where we looked through the operatic lens of Fidelio at the current state of affairs for political prisoners and their chance for freedom,” Hass explained, adding that the panel even touched on the process of sponsoring a refugee family. “These types of events are particularly engaging because they take a piece of art – an opera – from hundreds of years ago, and allow people to see it reflected in their own community,” said Hass. “It’s very powerful.”
“Missing really was the launch pad for it all,” said Hass.
For those interested in learning more, new Co|OPERA|tive events have already been planned for 2019, many of them hosted in POV’s Baumann Centre (925 Balmoral Road).
Co|OPERA|tive builds on the work POV has been doing outside of the stage, Hass explained. But since its inception, POV has become known in the opera world for providing leading-edge civic engagement. Co|OPERA|tive invites the community, youth, and artists to think, enjoy, experience, and learn through a series of performances, discussions, films, and workshops.
On Jan. 17 2019 at 7 p.m., through the operatic lens of La Traviata, Co|OPERA|tive will explore the role of the prostitute in traditional opera and literature and the current state of sex work, trafficking and human rights. Moderator Steve Wadhams will be joined by three panellists from the University of Victoria: Dr. Erin Kelly, Dr. Annalee Lepp and Dr. Alison Chapman.
“Every opera that POV stages offers an artistic lens through which to
For the more hands-on enthusiast, a workshop called Make a Scene will take place on Jan. 19 at 3 p.m. with instructor Jessica Hickman who
24 YOUR HOLIDAY 2018
