Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter
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Opera memories linger long after the final note
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One of my earliest childhood memories involves opera.
I am probably two or three years old, and I’m lying on the floor of our living room, sucking my thumb and listening to Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers duet (Au fond du temple saint), sung by tenor Jussi Björling and baritone Robert Merrill.
My parents had the 45 of this recording and in my memory, it’s propped up on the floor so I can stare at the cover, a picture of statues in a temple washed in a deep green, as if it were underwater. I can still feel the scratchy texture of the beige carpet under my cheek and the vibrations of the music coming out of the speakers.
I had no idea what these two men were singing about (turns out it’s basically “Bros before hos, but make it achingly beautiful”), only that it made me feel as if my chest were too small to contain my heart.
Lest you think I was some extraordinarily cultured child, I will sheepishly admit that my parents also owned the Luciano Pavarotti album Bravo Pavarotti, a collection of the Italian tenor’s “greatest American triumphs”; the lack of vocative comma in the album title meant that until I was at least 10, I thought the man on the cover’s first name was Bravo. (If I was going to listen to a burly bearded singer at that age, it was more likely to be Bram Morrison of Sharon, Lois and Bram – and honestly, is Bravo any odder a name than Bram?)
Another early opera memory is that my Grade 1 teacher, Mr. Ritchie, in what must have been a fit of wild (and, as it turned out, unwarranted) optimism, took an entire class of squirrelly seven-year-olds to see Manitoba Opera’s production of Madama Butterfly. I recall being more entranced by the glorious chandeliers and red carpets of the Centennial Concert Hall than by Puccini’s arias.
Luckily, I’ll have the chance to revisit the production with a slightly longer attention span when Manitoba Opera presents the 1904 classic as part of its 2026-27 season, along with a bold reimagining of Treemonisha by Scott Joplin.
Though it was written just six years after Madama Butterfly, this opera by the King of Ragtime was never performed in full during his lifetime. It wasn’t until the score was rediscovered in the 1970s that the work got its due; Joplin was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for it in 1976.
This new production features a libretto by playwrights Leah-Simone Bowen and Cheryl L. Davis, and updated orchestration (Joplin’s was lost) by composer Jessie Montgomery and arranger Jannina Norpothand; it refocuses the narrative on the character of Treemonisha, who will be portrayed by Canadian soprano Neema Bickersteth.
The Pearl Fishers was first performed in 1863, Treemonisha in 1975; it hasn’t had a chance to reach the status of a classic. But thanks to companies like Manitoba Opera (and departing artistic director Larry Desrochers) who are willing to branch out from known quantities and familiar titles, some other little girl’s first opera experience might be something a little bit different, if no less moving.
Note: it would seem actor Timothée Chalamet’s reports of opera’s death were greatly exaggerated; MO’s upcoming production of The Marriage of Figaro has almost sold out all three of its dates (April 18, 22 and 24 at the concert hall). Limited tickets are available at mbopera.ca.
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Jill Wilson
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