{"id":12094,"date":"2013-05-03T05:09:21","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T10:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=12094"},"modified":"2013-05-03T05:09:21","modified_gmt":"2013-05-03T10:09:21","slug":"the-canadian-childrens-opera-company-opera-lauras-cow-a-victory-of-youth-and-bovine-wisdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2013\/05\/03\/the-canadian-childrens-opera-company-opera-lauras-cow-a-victory-of-youth-and-bovine-wisdom\/","title":{"rendered":"The Canadian Children’s Opera Company opera Laura’s Cow ‘a victory of youth and bovine wisdom’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The grand finale at last year’s premiere of Laura’s Cow: The Legend of Laura Secord<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is my assessment of last year’s premiere <\/em>Laura’s Cow: The Legend a Laura Secord, by Errol Gay and Michael Patrick Albano. The Canadian Children’s Opera Company is remounting it for five general-public performances on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Harbourfront’s Enwave Theatre.<\/em><\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s Canadian Children\u2019s Opera Company has not pulled a rabbit out of its hat. It\u2019s a cow \u2014 and a charming one at that.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s only full-scale children\u2019s opera company, led by onetime Canadian Opera Company soprano Ann Cooper Gay, has a long history of commissioning new works for the stage. Laura\u2019s Cow: The Legend of Laura Secord<\/em> is one of its most ambitious ever, clocking in at 90 minutes and, at its finale, counting 157 children and teenagers on the stage of Harbourfront\u2019s Enwave Theatre.<\/p>\n

The tight, witty libretto by University of Toronto opera coach and director Michael Patrick Albano ostensibly tells the tale of the young woman who saved British General Isaac Brock from colonial ignominy in Queenston Heights by alerting him to the battle plans of invading Americans during the War of 1812.<\/p>\n

But the real story is about a timid young woman who discovers hidden reserves of resolve and bravery while also realising that, yes, a single person, no matter how seemingly powerless, can help change the course of history.<\/p>\n

Albano\u2019s score gets a rich, equally witty store from Toronto conductor and composer Errol Gay. The tuneful, tonal, nicely layered and textured orchestration is timeless \u2014 rendered even more so by a little treasure chest of quotations from the operatic canon.<\/p>\n

At one point, the children sing a church hymn set to the tune Albano, the composer\u2019s little wink to his librettist.<\/p>\n

The cow in the story is the farm animal Laura Secord uses as a foil to get past American lines. In the opera, the cow is a real cracker who can dance the Charleston (in one of several funny anachronisms) as well as inspire a young woman to do the right thing.<\/p>\n

Cooper Gay conducts a small pit orchestra of 14 professionals, who were excellent during an impressively tight dress rehearsal at Harbourfront\u2019s Enwave Theatre on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of young people to move about the stage, representing the full range of talents and abilities. It could so easily turn into a messy affair, but this production comes from a team that has been doing this well for some time.<\/p>\n

The children, dressed in period costumes, were not only uniformly well prepared, but there are several standout voices in the cast that are a genuine revelation.<\/p>\n

Lending an extra dash of gravitas to the vocal proceedings is baritone John Fanning, who acts as both narrator and a British officer. [Note that the adult role of Lt FitzGibbon is being sung by Andrew Love this year.]<\/p>\n

The sets are minimal, the telling of the story straightforward, the musical style accessibly conventional. But the rich tapestry of talent and inspiration on stage works its magic in no time at all.<\/p>\n

To borrow from Albano\u2019s libretto, Laura\u2019s Cow is, \u201ca victory of youth and bovine wisdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss it.<\/p>\n

+++<\/p>\n

For more details on this 75-minute opera, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

John Terauds<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is my assessment of last year’s premiere Laura’s Cow: The Legend a Laura Secord, by Errol Gay and Michael Patrick Albano. The Canadian Children’s Opera Company is remounting it for five general-public performances on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Harbourfront’s Enwave Theatre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,4,27,36,43,52,56,62,63,1,70],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2013\/03\/tso.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-394","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12094"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12094"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=12094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}