It’s not often that you’ll find a nun up to no good in a gay bar in downtown Winnipeg, but for Manitoba UNDERGROUND Opera, there’s a first time for everything. The company’s latest production is Count Ory, an English adaptation of Gioachino Rossini’s Le comte Ory from 1828.
The production’s music director, Shannon Hiebert, notes that this production has been a company dream for many years since it was first broadcast by New York’s Metropolitan Opera. “The stumbling block is always finding a tenor who can sing the role of the Count Ory,” Hiebert says, noting the vocal demands of the role. “The work-around that [the company] came up with was to take that turn role and turn it into a mezzo-soprano role.”
The mezzo-soprano in question is Keely McPeek, who enjoys the challenge of performing roles written for other voice parts. “Singing tenor parts is something that I like to do in musical theatre,” she explains, “so it was interesting to do it in opera where everything is usually so by the book, and you’re supposed to do exactly what’s written and there’s specific conventions that you’re supposed to do.”
As the Count Ory, McPeek also has to tap into Rossini’s unique brand of comedy as she disguises herself first as a hermit to comfort the inconsolable young ladies of the village (whose husbands had been sent off to war by the count himself), and, when that plot fails, as a nun. She explains that with the English adaptation, the 19th century farce gets balanced out by a more contemporary sense of humour.
“The comedy is stupid, which is a compliment now,” McPeek laughs. “It’s not high comedy. You don’t have to be smart to get the comedy. It’s been really fun to just be silly.”
Hiebert adds that the venue itself adds to the comedy with its set up, which sees audiences seated in the round around the performers. “We’re allowed to get very, very close to the audience,” she says, “Characters are right in the audience, right beside the table, talking to them, involving in them moment.”
McPeek observes that this kind of production with all its comedic involvement is the perfect introduction point for those who may not have seen opera before. “UNDERGROUND gets a lot of first-time opera viewers,” she observes, “so I hope that especially those people can come to this opera and realize that opera doesn’t need to be this big, deep, serious, thing. It can be fun and silly and easy to follow, and you can just come and have fun for an hour.”
Manitoba UNDERGROUND Opera’s Count Ory opens on August 20 at 7:30 p.m. at Club 200. Additional shows take place on August 22 at 7:30 p.m. and August 23 at 3 p.m., with two complimentary glasses of wine. The finale takes place on August 24 at 3 p.m. with a complimentary mocktail included. More information and tickets can be found at the company’s website.