Ooh la la Opera! - Susan Blyth-Schofield as Tosca gets her revenge on Scarpia played by Alexander Savtchenko

Ooh la la Opera!

I'm Susan Blyth-Schofield and I want to tell you a little bit about a new little opera company in town. Ooh la la Opera came into being over coffee one morning at my house in March 2006. George Valettas' and my path had crossed a few times, but we had not performed together until a few weeks before in concert for the Glebe Montessori School's charity, Free The Children. I had wanted to put together a little company for a long time, and had been a founding member Ottawa's Opera Breva during the 1990's. Unbeknownst to me George had similar aspirations. What began as a chance comment turned into a number of more serious discussions and the outcome was Ooh La La Opera.

We wanted the company to fill a niche in the National Capital Region's musical scene - that of small scale semi-professional operatic productions. For the most part, we plan for our shows to be Opera in Concert with a Twist - the twist being that they will be semi-staged. Our mandate is to showcase area talent and bring opera into the community using untraditional venues. I am very proud to say that our first show, Passionately Yours, Puccini, sold out last fall at the NAC's 4th Stage and was brought back by popular demand in March 2007, again to a full house.

Not content to sit back and enjoy our success, we are already at work on our next project. It seemed only fitting that it be in conjunction with the Glebe Montessori School, since it was their concert that got us together in the first place. This May 4th we will be presenting Hansel and Gretel at Glebe-St. James United Church in a charity concert for Free The Children. The score has been cut to about an hour and aimed at children. In a twist on the original, it will be narrated by Jacob Grimm, a.k.a. George Valettas, and sung in English by Shawne Elizabeth (Gretel), Jillian Yemen (Hansel) and me (The Witch). The production is aimed at children but, like good cartoon, some for the humour is for the adults.

In addition to performances, we have an educational programme called "Let's Build an Opera". We have presented it a number of times are planning more workshops in the fall. Its a hands on learning experience for grade school students and it includes a bit of music history - nothing too serious or frightening, just the fun bits - some singing basics, an introduction to stage craft and a look into the backstage world of opera and its production values. The aim of these workshops is to make opera less formidable and more accessible to children - to give them an understanding of what it is like from the inside.

But, the workshops will not take up all our time - we have booked dates at the NAC's 4th Stage in late October and early March 2008. The details of the shows are not yet finalized, but once again we will be doing Opera in Concert with a Twist. It is unusual today to have opera in an intimate space, but I think that the cabaret setting is part of the appeal. You can sit with your glass of wine and enjoy an evening of live entertainment!

So look us up - www.oohlalaopera.ca - and we'll see you at the opera.