If you happen to be visiting Toronto any time between May 27 and June 4, you have a chance to check out newbie Sudburian and accomplished opera singer Peter McGillivray in his latest role.
He's been cast in the world premiere of “Rocking Horse Winner” by Toronto's Tapestry Opera.
McGillivray — who moved to Sudbury last year with wife Jennifer McGillivray, Sudbury Symphony Orchestra's new executive director — performs in about five operas every year, a profession that takes him out of town a lot.
Last year, he teamed up with his wife and SSO to stage a performance of Mozart's “The Magic Flute” here in Sudbury.
“Rocking Horse Winner,” by award-winning librettist Anna Chatterton, is based on D.H. Lawrence's famous short story, first published in 1926.
The opera updates the story so it's set in the modern day, and features an autistic teenage boy who learns the names of all of the winning race horses from spirits that speak to him in his house.
His uncle and his caretaker use this information and place huge bets on the horse races, winning a lot of money. But they push the boy too far, and he ends up dying from exhaustion.
“The connection that makes this story more contemporary, it's just this insatiable need for money,” said McGillivray, who plays the boy's caretaker, a character named Bassett.
Tapestry Opera is known for workshopping and presenting new operas.
“A lot of people have this idea that opera is a dead art form, and we just keep recycling these museum piece works,” said McGillivray.
“It's a living, breathing art form. We need new works desperately to renew the art form to keep it so that there's something to say to the new generation of audiences that are out there.”
Working with a composer on a new opera is great, he said, because usually he's interpreting a work by a long-dead composer.
“You can't have a conversation with Puccini, he's dead,” McGillivray said.
“When you're doing a new work like this, you can talk to the composer, and say this word is really hard to sing in high register, or you've written this really low, and I don't think I'm going to be able to be heard over the string quartet.
“You have a chance to have a little bit of interplay. It's probably the closest I'll get to being a creative artist, as opposed to just an interpretive artist.”
Tickets to the show cost between $25 and $112. Performances take place at the Berkeley Street Theatre in Toronto. Learn more at tapestryopera.com.
