.jpg)
One of the most foundational programs at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is opera, which has been around for the vast majority of the centre’s nine-decade history. Now, that legacy continues with new productions that seek to innovate, explore and imagine a distinctly Canadian iteration of the genre.
The latest opera program at the Banff Centre is called Interplay, a cross-pollination between opera and chamber music that aims to tell stories on a smaller scale with just as much impact as its mainstage counterparts.
For Joel Ivany, the centre’s Director of Opera for the past twelve years, one of the things that separates Banff operatic experiences from typical ones is willingness to abandon the mainstage altogether. “We’ve also done opera at the Cave and Basin, which is the first national historic site in Canada,” he elaborates, noting that performances have also taken place on nearby Lake Minnewanka and at Banff’s Legion Hall as well. “It’s so hard not to be inspired by the trees and the surroundings that Banff has.”
Ivany, who is also the artistic director of Edmonton Opera, highlights how the Banff Centre has played an integral role in the training of several generations of Canadian opera talent. “People used to come for months to hang out in the woods and work on their craft,” he says. “If you look across all the Canadian companies, everyone has a connection to the Banff Centre at some point.”
As much as the centre connects to the country’s grand opera presenters, Ivany maintains the connection to “indie opera” that has been the hallmark of his tenure. “To me, it’s just as equal as the large,” Ivany explains. “We can really hone in and give the audience a different experience.”
Audiences will certainly be in for a different experience this year at Interplay, which culminates in an operatic rendering of Margaret Atwood’s classic work The Handmaid’s Tale. Originally shared in 1998 by the Danish composer Poul Ruders, the Banff Centre version will be pared down significantly by American composer Dan Schlosberg while not losing any of the story’s harrowing nature.
"It takes this sadly very contemporary story and is kind of chilling in how it could feel like we are living in the prologue, so to speak, of what that could be,” says Ivany. “We hope that we will learn and go different ways, but I don’t know. History can repeat itself.”
The Handmaid’s Tale will be presented at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity on July 26. More information can be found at the Banff Centre’s website.