Welcome!

What’s the recipe for a Blogger Night at the Opera?  A table of laptops, black coffee and a Twitter photo booth at the ready.  Mix in eager blogger participants (myself, Tris Hussey, Gus Fosarolli and Kelsey Dundon) and you get the clicking of keys on laptops before the show and – even more frantically – during the intermission.

Thanks to Ling Chan and John Biehler, my wife Marilyn and I were able to attend this Blogger Night At the Opera, which turned out to be a very enjoyable experience for both of us.  Sitting at the table in the lobby pre-show for the opening night of The Marriage of Figaro at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre felt a little like “bloggers on parade”, but it was very social as well.  Plenty of friendly people dropping by to see what we were up to, with lots of questions about both the blogging world and that thing called the iPad that I happened to be working with (thx for the insight, Tris :p).

Having no opera experience whatsoever, I had no idea what I was in for.  I did the usual Wikipedia lookup beforehand, and at least understood that I was going to see a comedic opera by Mozart.  After we were settled in at the table, Terry Harper (Director of Production) came around and introduced himself before taking us on our backstage tour.  It was a treat to be able to go behind the curtain and see the sets up close.  An amazing amount of detail is visible everywhere, from props to backdrops.  We learned a few interesting bits as well, like the fact that the complete set – costumes and all – was rented from Alberta.  We also learned sticky floors are preferred by the actors, and are achieved with a mop and  mixture of Coca-Cola and water.

Backstage

So for those of you that are opera-unaware like me, there are a few things to know.  First, don’t worry about not knowing the language the opera is performed in.  Thanks to “surtitles“, which are displayed above the stage, an English interpretation lets you follow what’s going on.  Second, while being up close to the performers is a treat, if you sit very close (as we were fortunate enough to do) the surtitles end up being miles above your head.  It’s critical that you get very skilled very quickly at looking up, looking back at the stage, looking up, looking back at the stage.  I’m sure this is secretly done to amuse the performers as they play ‘spot the newbies’ when looking out at us.

While I normally would prefer sitting up close like this during a live concert, I would recommend sitting further back in this case.  I think for those of us that haven’t been to an opera before, or haven’t been much, sitting back far enough to see both the entire stage and the surtitles at once without taking your eyes completely off the performance would be beneficial.  Fight the urge to buy the best, and give the close seats to those that know the language or the opera well and can take it in seamlessly.

I was told The Marriage Of Figaro is a great “first opera” and I for one am glad I was initiated by it.  It was very enjoyable from start to finish. The story was well written and well accompanied, but the best entertainment came from the performers themselves.  All of the players were very skilled vocally, as expected, but they also seemed right at home doing physical comedy.  It was a great combination overall, and the 3+ hour length went by surprisingly quickly.   It was also great to see the Vancouver area so well represented, with many of the cast members hailing from the Lower Mainland (including the Count, Countess and Marcellina).  I also noticed that the packed house was full of all ages – good to see the variety and the interest for opera being so high.

Figaro

The night ended with an after-party behind the stage where we got to mix & mingle with the cast & crew.  It gave us another opportunity to show our appreciation for a great night.  Thanks again to Ling and John for this opportunity, and I’m sure that another opera is in my future.  Madama Butterfly…let’s see… a Japanese tragedy by Puccini, performed in Italian with English surtitles.  Sounds perfect.

PS Apparently all of the images are being displayed at all Blenz locations on the Blenz Media Network. The rotation is as follows:

April 20 – 21: Aaron MacFarlane & Michael Lawrence (Best Series & Best Theme Interpretation)
April 22 – 23: Jason Strelaeff & Philip Wu (Best Creative & Best Aesthetic)
April 24 – 26: Peter Lowery & Peter Andersen (Themes 1 & 2)
April 27 – 28: Elizabeth Peña & Tyler Branston (Themes 3 & 4)
April 29 – 30: Jonathan Evans & Elizabeth Peña (Themes 5 & 6)
May 1 – 3: Bruce Entus & Daniel Jackson (Themes 7 & 8)
May 4 – 5: Lauren Keogh & Michael Lawrence (Themes 9 & 10)
May 6 – 7: Ian Kerr & Phil Wu (Themes 11 & 12)

UPDATE: the showing has been extended to May 14th by request from the Lookout. Great news – not too late to go check it out!

Great to see, especially the Coast Reporter article which appeared on the front page of their Arts & Entertainment section. In fact the full page is the article and photos (less the ads at the bottom). Kudos to Carole Rubin for writing a nice article and requesting my photos for submission!

Also ‘grats out to my brother, Chris Andersen, for writing the article in the Local. Nice job considering you were running on about 2 hours sleep after, oh I don’t know, putting together the entire festival.

I hope to do a lot more of these, of course, including the Pender Harbour Jazz Festival in September. Should be a blast.

I came over on the ferry Friday afternoon, checked in to the Sunshine Coast Resort (very nice place, btw) and then headed to the Backeddy Pub to meet up with Chris and the first act.  Bradley & McGillivray were performing, backed up by Chris and Pat Haavisto as the rythym section and accompanied by special guest Murray Porter.  Chris introduced me to everyone which was great and made me relax a bit.  This was the first night, first session of shooting for me, so I brought two bodies and two lenses to be sure I could be flexible.  The D300 had my spanky new 50mm f/1.8 (the bargain of the century, imho) and the D70 had my trusty 18-200 VR for the wide shots.

Lighting was, well, horrible.  The beginning of the set was partially lit by daylight but of course that meant wacky white balance… then later it was dark outside and almost as dark inside ;).  It was a challenging situation but I managed to get some decent shots by the end of it.  Very thankful now for the D300 and ISO 3200 …

After the first set I headed over the Garden Bay Pub to shoot the other act that evening, Neil Harnett.  He was joined by a “house band” Mark Vance put together that consisted of Peter van Deursen on keyboards, Lisa Simons on bass and Don Powrie on drums.  Right away I knew this was going to be good, both because the band was great and because the lighting was sooo much better:

While I was at the Garden Bay Pub I met Carole Rubin, a local writer and reporter for the Coast Reporter paper.  She was very friendly (all weekend, actually) and gave me a lot of info on the area, the people and the festival.  It was great hanging out with her.  She also liked my photos and asked for whatever I could give her for her article, which I had no problem doing.  During the set break, Neil came to Carole’s table and had a quick interview and then was introduced to me (I mean I had just taken 150 shots of him, least I could do ;)).  We sat down with Carole and had a good conversation – interesting guy.

I stuck around for the last set, taking more pics, and headed back (late) to my room.  Couple hours of going through photos and it’s my usual 3am bedtime.

Saturday was a busy schedule, with 3 events.  The first was a session by Murray Porter at Bud-A-Bing’s Burger Shack (I kid you not).  This was a trailer parked across from the Marketplace IGA in Madeira Park, at the front of a nice park area.  Chris asked that I pick up Murray (and his partner Elaine) from the same hotel I was staying at, so we all headed down about noon.

I had done a bonehead thing the night before in my half-awake state – I had meant to charge the D300 battery but had mistakenly put the D70 battery in the charger (which was still fully charged of course).  So the D300 stayed home and I brought the D70s and 18-200 VR.  Turned out to be better than OK as it was a sunny day (surprisingly) and I got a bunch of decent shots.

After the Burger Shack show I had a short break then headed to the Pender Harbour School of Music for the Workshop.  Murray Porter, Bradley & McGillivray, Chris, Pat Haavisto and Barry O’Hara all joined in, providing great playing as well as good discussion on making music, writing songs, the blues and more.  James Rogers showed up as a surprise a bit later, looking for a place to buy guitar strings but he ended up stepping in for a few songs which was good for the rest of us.  Not a huge turnout but very enjoyable nonetheless.

There was time for a break between the Workshop and that night’s show at the Garden Bay Pub, so I took it.  Murray and Elaine asked for a ride to the Pub so I dropped by their hotel room first and had a glass of wine and relaxed for a bit before heading out.  The act for the night was James Rogers, who had played at the Workshop earlier.

Great show, really entertaining.  The house band from the night before joined him and they were a great backup.  Peter is an amazing keyboard player, and Lisa and Don provide great bass and drums respectively.  For the last set, James invited Murray on stage as well as Ruth & Sheldon (Bradley & McGillivray) to sing a couple of songs. That really got the place going.

Sunday, thankfully, was only one event – at least one I could make.  Back to the Garden Bay Pub for the 3rd time in as many days, for the Jam Session.  Another very entertaining show with quite a few new faces, mostly locals, stepping up to perform.  One woman really rocked the place – Dalannah Gail Bowen:

She’s well known in the community and used to play the Garden Bay Pub a lot 10 years or so ago.  Actually a Jazz singer but you’d never know it from how she belted out a couple of great Blues/R&B tunes.

Headed back a bit early to the ferry, bringing Murray & Elaine (which was fine by me).  Good company and I wanted to get back earlier as Carole wanted images by Sunday night.  I ended up missing the 6:20 but got on to the overload ferry about 30 min. later, thankfully.

All in all an amazing experience.  Lots of great music, great people, great memories.  Can’t wait until next year ;).

All that’s fine, get up in the morning to head back to home and …what the… 400,000 people are between you and home, all waiting for the big fat guy.  OK fine, we’ll stay and watch the way-too-many pipe bands and the army of Rogers people handing out flyers and wait for the crowd to be distracted enough for us to get home:

Actually a good parade, as far as parades go. The iPhone is no road camera, though, but it held its own and tried to get the good angles when it mattered:

Was it worth the 90 minute drive home afterwards? Well, if I complain I won’t get any presents, so I’ll say oh you bet it was.

Try to imagine the head rocking back and forth, yup that’s Colin ;).

Another great show, hope this continues on into Rogers Waters next week!

But hey, by about halfway through the show it didn’t matter. Forget that, two songs into the show and it was worth it. Message In A Bottle to open, closing with Next To You (in the second encore). Here’s what they played:

• Message in a Bottle
• Synchronicity II
• Spirits (In the Material World)
• Voices Inside My Head/When the World is Running Down (Medley)
• Don’t Stand So Close to Me
• Driven to Tears
• Walking on the Moon
• Truth Hits Everybody
• Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
• Wrapped Around Your Finger
• Bed’s Too Big Without You
• Murder By Numbers
• De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
• Invisible Sun
• Walking In Your Footsteps
• Regatta de Blanc/Can’t Stand Losing You (Medley)
• Roxanne

1ST ENCORE

• King of Pain
• So Lonely
• Every Breath You Take

2ND ENCORE

• Next to You

No, guys… Thank You!