Vancouver Opera to Close Season with CARMEN: UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Vancouver Opera closes their 2020-2021 digital season with the premiere of Carmen: Up Close And Personal on Saturday, May 1 at 7:30 p.m. This film adaptation of Bizet's original masterpiece provides an intimate and unique view into Carmen's world.

Inspired by French arthouse film, stage director Brenna Corner plays with the conflicting ideas of fate and choice. Carmen: Up Close and Personal is an alluring and stripped-down cinematic adaptation, focused on the four principal characters, with a few twists and turns along the way.

"This season has given us incredible opportunities to think outside the box," says Tom Wright, Vancouver Opera General Director. "Carmen: Up Close and Personal brings together members of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra with our incredibly talented young artists. I'm thrilled to see how this adaptation will resonate with opera aficionados as they get to see Carmen as they've seen her before, while also appealing to mass audiences with on the most recognizable names in opera."

Brenna Corner returns to Vancouver Opera after touring her innovative, directorial style to opera houses across Canada, the United States and Europe. In 2015, Brenna Corner was a member of the Yulanda M. Faris Young Artists Program. Since that time, she has gone on to critical acclaim directing for Seattle Opera, San Diego Opera, The Atlanta Opera, Opera on the Avalon, and Calgary Opera. She last directed L'elisir d'amore and Hansel & Gretel for Vancouver Opera.

"Carmen: Up Close and Personal is the essential story of Carmen focused on the power of fate and choice," says director Brenna Corner. "In this imagining, Carmen's future is laid out before her through a tarot card reading, giving Carmen the ultimate power to either accept fate or make her own choices. I have always been intrigued by arthouse film and this seemed the perfect pairing for Bizet's masterpiece."

Carmen: Up Close and Personal stars members of the Yulanda M. Faris Young Artists Program. Amanda Weatherall performs in the title role Carmen. Joining her are Ian Cleary as Don José, Jonelle Sills as Micaëla and Luka Kawabata is Escamillo.

Leslie Dala will conduct 17 members of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra on the stage of The Orpheum. Carmen: Up Close and Personal creative team members are projection designer Chengyan Boon, costume designer Alaia Hamer, lighting designer Gerald King, head coach Kinza Tyrrell, répétiteur Amy Seulky Lee and assistant director Dana Fradkin. Crew members include stage manager Theresa Tsang, assistant stage manager Marijka Asbeek Brusse and COVID Safety Officer Leah Giselle Field.

For more information about the 2020-2021 Digital Season and to subscribe, please visit digital.vancouveropera.ca.

Vancouver Opera has the continuing support of The Canada Council for the Arts, Government of Canada, the BC Arts Council and BC Provincial Government, the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Civic Theatres. Digital Season Sponsor is Mission Hill Family Estate and the Digital Season Production Patrons are Martha Lou Henley, C.M., Alan and Gwendoline Pyatt Foundation, and Yoshiko Karasawa.

Vancouver Opera acknowledges that we work and perform on the unceded and traditional territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. All performances and casting are subject to change.

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