Opera group hits pub to stage shows for sophisticated palates

Opera’s famous drinking songs — La Traviata’s Brindisi, Don Giovanni’s Fin ch’han dal vino, Carmen’s Votre Toast — tend to flow with references to women and wine, not beer.

But that hasn’t stopped Winnipeggers from sipping 1919s or Generics at local bar and brewery Little Brown Jug over the past few years to the strains of Verdi, Puccini and Mozart.

Currently in its eighth season, Opera by the Pint has its next LBJ event Wednesday at 7 p.m. (The artists also perform at the Public Brewhouse and Gallery in Steinbach at 7 p.m. on Friday.)

This week’s program focuses on musical hits, while also featuring traditional Filipino ballads and Mexican art songs.

“It started out where we just did it for free. People would sing for free, and maybe like 30 to 50 people would come out. And now, it’s really expanded,” says Lisa Rumpel, co-artistic director of Flipside Opera & Art Song Collective, which organizes the recurring event.

“It’s made its own community of people who have started to know each other from being at Opera by the Pint over and over.”

Opera by the Pint is still free, but now draws sizable crowds who flock to see and hear top Manitoba opera singers — along with students and amateurs — fill the brewery with arias, art songs and Broadway tunes.

It turns out the brewery’s stainless steel tanks and concrete floors make for a lively acoustic space, though performances also occur outdoors on the patio under the setting summer sun.

“One time, Christina Thanisch-Smith was singing and (a party bike) showed up and she just started singing to them. She brought them into the performance. She rolled with it,” says Rumpel.

Opera by the Pint is MCed by Judith Oatway, Flipside Opera & Art Song Collective’s co-artistic director.

“You don’t have to know Italian or opera because she’ll relate it to everyday life or she’ll just kind of poke fun at the opera of it all,” says Rumpel.

There’s ample material for humour in a genre whose famous plot twists include underwear curing hypochondria (Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges), a nose that goes missing (Shostakovich’s The Nose) and countless examples of bonkers identity swaps.

Rumpel says the event’s casual environment is also a draw, but observes that some who come knowing nothing about the artform end up becoming opera buffs.

“(One person) called it a gateway event because he had never heard opera ever and he’s such a proselytizer now for us,” says Rumpel.

“It’s an overwhelming amount of sound that a single human being can make without amplification. Opera by the Pint gives us the opportunity to interact with people. There’s no stage. There’s no separation.”

conrad.sweatman@winnipegfreepress.com