Free concerts at LeBreton Flats, July 17 to 20 - Ottawa

[Cosmic ChrisC]

Four free concerts, under the stars

Steven Mazey

The Ottawa Citizen

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Always wanted to try opera or classical music but weren't sure if you wanted to shell out for tickets?

Here's your chance to do some sampling, at a price that's hard to resist: free.

T-shirts and shorts, picnic baskets and lawn chairs are welcome. Stake out your spot, relax, and hear Verdi, Puccini and Brahms under the stars.

It's all part of "Orchestras in the Park," which returns to LeBreton Flats tomorrow for a second year. Presented by the National Capital Commission and the National Arts Centre, the four performances run through Sunday, with a different concert each night.

The opening concert, which will focus on opera, includes two of Canada's most acclaimed stars -- tenor Richard Margison and soprano Measha Brueggergosman. The two singers perform with the world's leading orchestras and opera houses, where customers have to pay big bucks. You don't often get a chance to hear singers of this calibre for free.

If you're still not sure about the classical stuff, you might want to check out Saturday's concert, when singer-songwriter Ian Tyson is the headliner, presented by the NAC to mark Tyson's 75th birthday.

Last year's concert series included two nights of free opera conducted by Canadian Opera Company director Richard Bradshaw, with Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian and baritone Russell Braun.

Even in cool and grey weather, the NCC said the two concerts attracted a combined audience of about 20,000. In his review, Citizen critic Richard Todd said the crowd included "people of all ages and walks of life. There were even a few youngish fellows you might not want to meet in a dark alley -- but they just sat on the grass, rapt like everyone else."

So much for the tired accusation that opera only appeals to the Rockcliffe set.

The NAC is dedicating tomorrow's concert to Bradshaw, who died of a heart attack last August, just several weeks after conducting the Ottawa concerts. His widow, Diana, and son James are expected to attend the performance.

Here's a rundown of the concerts, which all start at 7:30 p.m.:

Tomorrow: Opera under the Stars. Guest conductor Alain Trudel, highly regarded director of the soon-to-be defunct CBC Radio Orchestra, will direct the NACO, with Margison, Brueggergosman and the Opera Lyra Ottawa chorus.

In his first Ottawa performances since he brought listeners to their feet at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival in 2006 with his roof-raising rendition of Nessun dorma, Margison will perform arias from Puccini's Tosca, Cilea's L'arlesiana and Massenet's Le Cid.

Brueggergosman, who was last in town for Beethoven's Ninth with the NACO last September, will perform Lia's Aria from Debussy's L'enfant prodigue and Dich, teure Halle from Wagner's Tannhäuser.

She and Margison will join their thrilling voices in duets from Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera and Otello.

The Opera Lyra Chorus will perform pieces from Nabucco and Tannhäuser and the orchestra will perform pieces by Verdi, Berlioz and Wagner.

Friday: Jean-Philippe Tremblay conducts L'Orchestre de la francophonie canadienne. The soloist will be young Quebec soprano Marianne Fiset, who at the 2007 Montreal International Musical Competition made headlines when she won not just the $25,000 first prize but four of the six additional special awards.

During the competition, Montreal Gazette critic Arthur Kaptainis praised Fiset for "a lyrical style and 14-carat sound."

Fiset will perform songs by Richard Strauss, and the orchestra will perform Brahms's Symphony No. 2 and a new piece by Canadian composer Julien Bilodeau.

Saturday: Singer and guitarist Ian Tyson and some of his band members join the NACO for a concert that will include Tyson tunes, including Four Strong Winds, and arrangements of songs by others, including Over the Rainbow.

Sunday: Alain Trudel conducts the NACO in a concert that will include Canadian pianist Jon Kimura Parker and NACO violinist Jessica Linnebach as soloists. In a change from the concert listing in the NAC's summer brochure, Parker will be soloist in Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. Linnebach will be soloist in Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy. The orchestra will also perform Mussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain, Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 1 in G minor and pieces by Bizet and Wagner.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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