Last Saturday, I was offered the opportunity to watch the Cowtown Opera production of Annie Davidson – special thanks to Cowtown Opera for the tickets & encouraging youth to attend!
After moving to Calgary, Annie successfully led the Calgary Women’s Literary Club and mobilized the community and financial support that would build Calgary’s first library. This opera focuses on her, and her struggle to reach her dream of the library.
The opera was performed at Festival Hall, a cozy venue, close to downtown. It was a great place for the opera, and it gave it a really intimate feel, rather than performing somewhere like Jack Singer.
I loved the opera. The singers were amazing, and also all Albertan. There was an excellent live orchestra, composed of a keyboard, flute, violin, viola, double bass, and percussion. The music was very well composed, very fun, and portraying some of the characters that the opera had.
The small venue allowed the performers to walk along the aisles, really creating the atmosphere for the opera, and really making you feel involved. They also had audience participation, such as asking people to sign a petition to build the library, which made the opera alot more engaging. The opera had some modern twists too, such as the mention of Fifty Shades of Grey (don’t worry, that’s the only adult book in the opera), and I’m giving bonus points for mentioning Les Miserables.
All in all, it was a great opera. Kudos to Cowtown Opera for making such an interesting, yet informative opera.
If you want to see this opera, Cowtown Opera is doing several pop up shows in a few libraries. The dates are as follows:
Saturday – October 17 – 11 AM at Shawnessy & 2 PM at Signal Hill
Sunday – October 18 – 12:30 PM at Crowfoot & 3:30 PM at Fish Creek
Saturday – October 24 – 11 AM at Country Hills & 2 PM at Nose Hill
So if you’re interested, or you just want to see the irony of people singing loudly in a library, make sure to check it out?