Memories, milestones and Mozart Veteran performers celebrate Manitoba Opera’s 50th with notable anniversaries of their own Music Matters
By: Holly Harris Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Thursday, Apr. 20, 2023

Opinion

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This article was published 20/04/2023 (896 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Opera herald the illustrious careers of two of its most glittering stars when it caps its milestone 50th anniversary season with Mozart’s opera buffa, Cosi fan tutte.

The company’s final production, which opens Saturday night at 7:30 p.m., features beloved Manitoba-born and -bred artists who first cut their teeth on its stage decades ago. The three-show run wraps up next Friday, April 28.

World-renowned colouratura soprano Tracy Dahl and celebrated bass-baritone David Watson will be marking their own auspicious anniversaries this weekend. Dahl made her MO debut as Barbarina in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro in April 1982, with Watson appearing as Baron Duphol in Verdi’s La Traviata back in 1979, when MO regularly offered Sunday matinees.

“That first opera was amazing, as it was the first time I had sung onstage with a full orchestra. I also didn’t have any aspirations to be an opera singer back in 1982, or a hot clue that was what I wanted to do, so the experience was life-altering,” the down-to-earth Dahl, a Member of the Order of Canada lauded for her stratospheric, three-octave voice and innate gifts as a “stage animal,” says of her fledgling appearance, which occurred nearly 41 years ago to the day of MO’s latest show.

She notes she also met her husband, now retired teacher and regular MO chorus member Raymond Sokalski, backstage, after he attended one of her early performances with his students.

The musical couple has two grown sons, Jaden and Anton, both of whom live in Victoria, B.C., but who will be cheering their parents on from the audience this weekend.

Originally headed for the bright lights of Broadway, the then-21-year-old singer, who had a flourishing musical theatre career, rejigged her dreams after the late, great Irving Guttman, MO’s inaugural artistic director (1970-1998), realized he had a diamond in the rough.

Further nurtured by the legendary Winnipeg-born, Toronto-based vocal coach Mary Morrison, among others, Dahl has since performed in all the world’s great opera houses, from La Scala to the Metropolitan Opera and beyond, in addition to mentoring the next generation of opera stars as another lifelong passion project.

Now appearing in her 14th MO production, the singer reprises her role as maid Despina, a role she’s sung 10 times, including during the Canadian Opera Company’s February 2019 production of Cosi directed by filmmaker Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter).

“She’s definitely evolved over the years,” Dahl says of her multi-dimensional character. “She’s more knowledgeable and worldly wise, and is kind of the top of the maid chain,” explaining how she keeps the role “new,” percolating like a hot cup of espresso.

“The freshness comes from the new people you work with,” she says. “This cast is full of delightful, young, talented people and you’re constantly playing off their energies and what they bring to the stage.”

Based on a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, Mozart’s comic masterpiece tells the tale of philosopher Don Alfonso, in cahoots with maid Despina, who lays a bet that sisters Dorabella (mezzo-soprano Danielle MacMillan) and Fiordiligi (soprano Jamie Groote) are unable to remain faithful to their respective partners, Ferrando (tenor Jean-Philippe Lazure) and Guglielmo (baritone Johnathon Kirby).

Wryly billed as a “Canuck Cosi,” this quintessentially all-Canadian version is the brainchild of the show’s set designer Sheldon Johnson, transplanting the narrative from 18th-century Naples to the majestic Canadian Rockies in the prewar 1930s. Johnson’s inspiration was a viewing of 1936 film Rose Marie, starring Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald as a couple who fall head over heels in the great Canadian wilderness.

The siblings now become oh-so-chic Italian tourists vacationing at a luxury resort hotel who become enamoured with the two men, morphed into strapping Mounties, who later reappear disguised as plaid-jacketed log jammers to test the women’s resolve through sly seduction.

Winnipeg-born stage director Robert Herriot, who also helmed MO’s haute couture production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola last November, and will be directing this version of Cosi again in Kelowna, B.C., this summer, shares his creative approach.

“This opera is like a snapshot of the process of love, and the pitfalls that come along with that.”–Stage director Robert Herriot

“This opera is like a snapshot of the process of love, and the pitfalls that come along with that,” he says. “You can’t embark on the journey of falling in love without a certain amount of pain and anxiety, hoping that you’re making the right decisions and that your heart is leading you in the right way.”

Even as a “comedy,” the opera has been sharply criticized since its 1790 première for its tone-deaf cynicism about the perceived fickleness and untrustworthiness of women; the Italian title translates simply as a dismissive “women are like that. ”

But Herriot doesn’t miss a beat when asked how he’s navigating those choppy waters, and particularly in today’s 21st-century, #MeToo world of ever-increasing awareness regarding human rights and gender equality.

“It’s horribly, horribly misogynistic,” he admits freely. “However, I’m very keen on telling a story in which the audience can see the reaction of not necessarily the two sisters, but the women in the ensemble, and how they respond to these men and their words.

“I also have a surprise for the ending that speaks to human rights,” he says tantalizingly, unwilling to give anything away.

Watson, renowned for his commanding stage presence, will be reprising the role of Don Alfonso for his third time. The robust baritone is marking an astounding 51st MO production with Cosi — more than one show per every year of the company’s history — with his last local appearance as Elder McLean in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah in November 2019.

“Don Alfonso is a man who’s had plenty of life experiences, and likes to hang out in the hotel’s bar watching people,” Watson says of his interpretation. “He sees these couples fall immediately in love, and decides to teach the boys a lesson.

“However, he thinks it’s not just women who can get caught up in this kind of thing, but both men and women, so the opera is really about the nature of love itself.”

You might expect to see more of Watson onstage in coming years. Recently retired as an avionics technician with the Royal Canadian Air Force, the singer juggled military life with treading the boards as an opera star for nearly two decades, performing 16 shows with MO during his 18 years of service as a reservist with Winnipeg’s 402 Squadron.

As veterans of the stage, Dahl and Watson are in harmony when asked what the now golden opera company — long spearheaded by general director and CEO Larry Desrochers — has meant to them personally, while paying tribute to its earliest trailblazer widely known for his Midas touch.

“Irving Guttman took me under his wing and things blossomed from there,” Watson says. “Thanks to Manitoba Opera, I was able to continue to do what I have always loved doing.”

“So many opportunities came to me from Irving’s career building brain, as he was just a brilliant man who also brought such amazing artists to our city,” Dahl adds.

“Without Manitoba Opera I wouldn’t have a career, I wouldn’t have met my husband, and we wouldn’t have our family. Manitoba Opera is not just an opera company to me, but part of my whole life story.”

holly.harris@shaw.ca