Okotoks opera experience gets real

The Calgary Concert Opera Company returns to Okotoks this weekend with a chorus, symphony and flamenco dancers.

Okotokians have twice had the opportunity to see the opera company’s performances, but have never seen a concert of this caliber, says Barbara King.

King and her husband Chris Gieck own the Calgary Concert Opera and are extremely excited about their upcoming show, Autumn Operanox, which will be performed in the Okotoks United Church Sept. 24. Sixty-two singers, musicians and dancers are involved in the production, which she says is their biggest to date. The Foothills Philharmonic Opera Chorus will be singing with the opera performers. The Okotoks choral group has performed before in opera performances in Okotoks and Calgary, but this time will be singing to music played by the Rocky Mountain Symphony Orchestra

“It’s a really good collaboration,” King said. “Using an orchestra gives it that much more intensity. It’s also capturing every little piece of what was written. It brings it all together. I can’t wait.”

In the past the opera company has used piano accompaniment. This is the first time they will be backed by a symphony orchestra.

“Its very, very exciting,” said Tim Korthuis, musical director of Foothills Philharmonic Chorus. “The players are top-notch. It will be a very full sound.”

The audience will have a more authentic experience, King added, because the music written for opera is for a symphony orchestra.

“My husband and I are so excited,” King said. “This is going to be the biggest concert we have ever done.”

King said the United Church is a great venue for audiences to really hear the music and singing.

“It’s a smaller venue,” she said. “It is very intimate. When the music is big and loud you are going to feel it.”

Rocky Mountain Symphony Orchestra director and conductor, Carlos Foggin, said the first rehearsal went well.

“These guys are professionals,” he said, of the 30 musicians who have signed on for the opera concert.

When the music of 30 instruments joins the voices from the chorus, it is going to be amazing, he said.

“It is the final touch that brings it all together,” Foggin said. “You are going to be getting what the composer wrote.”

The singers performing in Operanox are impressive.

“To get 20 professional singers with a symphony orchestra is a big opportunity,” he said.

Autumn Operanox is a showcase of a variety of opera classics like Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavelier and Carmen.

It was the song Carmen, set in Spain, that inspired another collaboration, said King. The pair came up with the idea of having Flamenco dancers on stage during the songs from Carmen. An internet search put her in touch with Calgary flamenco group 12 Musas Flamenco, who agreed to send three dancers for the performance.

The dancers will set the mood for the opera, who’s main character is a fiery gypsy. Tickets for Autumn Operanox cost $25 and children 12-and-under are free and can be purchased at www.eventbrite.ca or at the door with cash only.

King said past events at the United Church have sold out and she recommends buying tickets in advance.