The 29th season of UBC Opera is bringing three varied operas to the stage that highlight and challenge the talents of the UBC Opera Ensemble. Audiences are invited to experience a 2024-25 season that offers the full spectrum of opera with the jubilant humour in H.M.S. Pinafore, the realist tragedy of Street Scene, and the opulence and passion of Manon.
“The UBC Opera season offers our students and audiences a wide variety of repertoire spanning from the beloved Gilbert and Sullivan favourite, H.M.S. Pinafore to Kurt Weill’s American Broadway opera, Street Scene,” says Nancy Hermiston, UBC Opera Ensemble Director. “Together with the Opera West Society, we present a classic of the French repertoire, Massenet’s Manon, which will feature international guest artists Emily Pogorelc and Frédéric Antoun in the leading roles, as well as our UBC Opera Ensemble. Massenet’s soaring vocal lines and lush orchestral music will bring us to a celebratory end of a season filled with inspiration, learning and entertainment for all.”
October 4-6, 2024 at the UBC Old Auditorium: H.M.S. Pinafore; Composed by Arthur Sullivan, Libretto by W. S. Gilbert
The season opens with Gilbert and Sullivan’s 1878 sharp satire is a comic operetta that explores themes of love, honour, and decency, all while skewering the British class system. The story follows the lowly sailor Ralph Rackstraw and the Captain’s daughter Josephine, who has been promised to the pompous Sir Joseph Porter by her father. With plenty of shenanigans, absurd characters and witty dialogue, H.M.S. Pinafore sends up the notions of social hierarchy and class with a smile and a laugh.
January 30-February 2, 2025 at The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts: Street Scene; Composed by Kurt Wiell with Libretto by Langston Hughes, based on the 1930 play by Elmer Rice
The mid-season show Street Scene opened on Broadway in 1947 earning it the very first Tony Award for Best Original Score. In this adaptation, the music masterfully merges the traditions of opera with musical theatre, featuring arias, show tunes, blues, jazz and spoken dialogue. The story is set over the course of two swelteringly hot days in a working-class immigrant community in a New York City tenement block featuring over 30 characters. The centred on the Maurrant family; Frank, the father, is a violent alcoholic who suspects his wife Anna is having an affair, while, Rose, their daughter longs for a better life. All of this comes to a boiling point in this tragic opera.
March 28 & 30, 2025 at the UBC Old Auditorium: Manon; by Jules Massenet
Closing the season in collaboration with Opera West Society, Manon finds acclaimed American soprano Emily Pogorelc in the title role, while equally noted Quebec-born tenor Frédéric Antoun takes co-lead as Chevalier des Grieux. Set in 1721 during the reign of French King Louis XV, Manon is a beautiful young girl destined for a convent because of her love for material wealth, but instead instantly falls in love with the Chevalier des Grieux. They intend to elope but their happiness is threatened by des Grieux’s father and the wealthy nobleman de Bretigny who conspire to separate them. Their tragic love story is fueled by passion, betrayal, and dramatic twists, all set to Massenet’s lush and effervescent score.
The season’s trio of mainstage productions are complimented by intimate Opera Teas;
September 22, 2024 at UBC Botanical Gardens: Welcome and Welcome Back
October 27, 2025 at the Old Auditorium: A Sneak Peak at Street Scene
March 2, 2025 at the Old Auditorium: Get to Know Manon
April 6, 2025 at the UBC Botanical Gardens: A Celebration of Spring
October 3rd at 6pm at UBC Old Auditorium; Singer Behind the Song, in collaboration with Opera West Society
Lead off the season with a must-see performance and interview featuring one of the world’s greatest tenors, Javier Camarena. The Mexican tenor is known as the “King of the High Cs” and in 2021, was awarded ‘Male Singer of the Year’ by the International Opera Awards. He is the only singer in the history of the Metropolitan Opera to have sung encores in three different productions, and has repeated this feat in Madrid, Barcelona and London.
November 23, 2024 at 7:30pm at UBC Old Auditorium; UBC Opera Holiday Concert
Join the UBC Opera Ensemble in celebrating the end of first term with featuring your favourite opera, operetta and musical theatre songs, to welcome the Holidays and 2025!
Find more information about the season’s performances and tickets online ubcoperatickets.com Subscription renewals are now on sale with new subscription bundles on sale August 7th, single tickets available from September 3rd.