Sunday, October 17, 2010

Vancouver Opera's Lillian Alling Takes The Art Form To Rugged New Realms


Photo credit: Tim Matheson

With a voice as rich and warm as the smell of freshly cut cedar, soprano soprano Frédérique Véniza successfully makes the journey from wide-eyed new immigrant to strong woman on a mission. She really hits her stride in Act 2, with some deeply shaded, anguished solos.

Forst is also a fiery standout as Irene, the old woman who recounts Alling’s story as her son Jimmy (Roger Honeywell) drives her from her beloved cabin in the Interior into Vancouver to a rest home—“a cage in the city”, as she laments. Elsewhere, tenor Colin Ainsworth has a charming solo as a farm boy longing to leave his small town; Aaron St. Clair Nicholson is a charismatic Scotty, the telegraph man who falls for Lillian later in the opera; and tenor Honeywell brings humour and warmth to Jimmy.


For more from the Georgia Straight, click here.

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