{"id":46501,"date":"2017-07-28T17:02:12","date_gmt":"2017-07-28T21:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=46501"},"modified":"2017-07-28T17:02:12","modified_gmt":"2017-07-28T21:02:12","slug":"scrutiny-whose-opera-is-it-anyway-tickles-the-funny-bone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/07\/28\/scrutiny-whose-opera-is-it-anyway-tickles-the-funny-bone\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY |\u00a0Whose Opera Is It Anyway Tickles The Funny Bone"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Whose
Whose Opera Is It Anyway by Loose Tea Music Theatre (Photo: Sara Schabas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Loose Tea Music Theatre. Comedy Bar. July 27.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret to fans of comedy that some of Hollywood\u2019s funniest stars are native to Canada. The unassuming Great White North boasts comedians like Seth Rogen, Catherine O\u2019Hara, Mike Myers and Jim Carrey, not to mention the improv stars of <\/span>Whose Line Is It Anyway <\/span><\/i>and Toronto\u2019s <\/span>Second City<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alaina Viau, founder of Indie Opera T.O.\u2019s Loose Tea Music Theatre, has spent the last few months bringing this talent for comedy into the opera world with her popular show, <\/span>Whose Opera Is It Anyway<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

A new, monthly show at Toronto\u2019s Comedy Bar, <\/span>Whose Opera Is It Anyway <\/span><\/i>features local opera singers, accompanied by pianist and Indie Opera T.O. fixture Natasha Fransblow, as they improvise through song and speech to hilarious results. <\/span><\/p>\n

Viau, a former opera singer whose company has created poignant, 21st-century adaptations of opera classics, came upon the idea when working with Second City\u2019s Carly Heffernan on <\/span>Second City\u2019s Guide to the Symphony<\/span><\/i> with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Heffernan and Viau then collaborated to create a workshop to train opera singers in the art of improvisation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI essentially opened the workshop up to any singer,\u201d imparts Viau over the phone. \u201cYou could just show up.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while many opera stereotypes naturally lend themselves to comedy (think: Bugs Bunny meets Wagner or Simpsons spoofs like <\/span>The Homer of Seville<\/span><\/i>), the personalities and protocol behind the scenes in opera are just as funny as what audiences see on stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe identified things that we felt we could make fun of,\u201d Viau tells Musical Toronto. \u201cEspecially contemporary opera or [tropes like Henry Purcell\u2019s] <\/span>Dido\u2019s Lament<\/span><\/i>\u2026 It\u2019s just taking these themes and developing them into an improv sketch, which, as it turns out, is hilarious.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Whose
Whose Opera Is It Anyway by Loose Tea Music Theatre (Photo: Sara Schabas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Indeed, Thursday night\u2019s performance drew\u00a0huge laughs from both opera fans, performers and non-opera lovers alike. Performers had audiences reeling in ridiculous spoofs of vocal masterclasses, improvisations of a contemporary opera complete with extended techniques one could easily find in a 21st-century performance, and ambiguously European opera impresarios introducing obtuse art song recordings with desperate pleas to the Canada Council pitched in between improvised songs.<\/span><\/p>\n

And these performances aren\u2019t just enjoyable for audiences, but also help the participants to grow artistically. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s actually quite liberating for the singers to create,\u201d Viau describes, \u201cinstead of being locked into an aria or opera or character. The singers totally make their own.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Alaina Viau has always been interested in how to bring opera into our current world. Her modern-day adaptations of <\/span>Carmen<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Faust<\/span><\/i> feature hashtags like #yesallwomen and plausible psychological diagnoses of problematic characters like Faust and Don Jose.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI love opera,\u201d she tells, \u201cbut I also can get bored with it. I\u2019m always looking at how can we integrate opera into regular life. Not making it something it\u2019s not, but saying that actually it is part of regular life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI love it when the opera people think [<\/span>Whose Opera Is It Anyway<\/span><\/i>] is funny,\u201d she continues, \u201cbut I really love it when the people who have never seen an opera think it\u2019s hilarious. It means it\u2019s universal. Sometimes we get stuck in our opera corner and forget that it actually is an art form for everybody. You need to put it into context so people can enjoy it. <\/span>Whose Opera Is It Anyway<\/span><\/i> shows that opera is a viable art form that people can enjoy.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

This is a hot ticket you don\u2019t want to miss. Visit <\/span>looseteamusictheatre.com<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0or stay tuned to\u00a0their Facebook page<\/a><\/span> for information about Loose Tea\u2019s next comedy show.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For more REVIEWS, click\u00a0HERE<\/u><\/a><\/span>.<\/h3>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Loose Tea Music Theatre plays it by ear in this improvised comic opera, where audience approval is measured in laughs. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":46503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,13,19,38,43,52,63],"tags":[5528,9707],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/07\/Whose-Opera.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-c61","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46501"}],"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\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46501"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46506,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46501\/revisions\/46506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46501"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=46501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}