14 — Friday, June 12, 1998 — North Shore News = ENTER T0 WIN >» Tickets to see 86ers play El Paso Patriots June 2I: page 32 "> Doubleday summer book pack of four thriller novels: page 15 NORTH SHORE NEWS “The Stones. The Stones. I love the Stones. Watch then: ali the time. Fred, Barney...” — Stones fan Steven Wright Portside hosts birthday bash TWO years ago the boat started rocking. And it hasn*r stopped since. Tre Portside Room in the Seven Seas Restaurant cele brates its two-year anniversary tomorrow night with a perfor- mance by a man who was there, as they say, from the beginning. ~~ North Van’s Jay Knutson will per- form with his new band, the Last Family, at the birth- day bash. The Saturday night gig will feature the launch of Through these Windows, the band’s new CD. The founding member of Spirit of the West, who played the room the first week the Portside opened, is among, a number of Vancouver musi- cians that have come to regard the cosy atmosphere of the Portside Room as a great place to test out new material or to just hang out. Other notable Portside regulars include John Bottomly, Paul Hyde, Bob Kemmis and North Vancouver's own The Creators. Music impresario Derek Nyberg joined forces with the Seven Seas’ Gregory Almas in June of 1996 to bring a decent live venue to the North Shore. In the 24 months since the duo have established a strung following with a blend of open mike nights and high profile acts. Admission is free to tomorrow night's birthday bash, but be advised to come early. There are a limited number of seats (including the coveted couch), and passage is usually booked early. — Andrew McCredie galleries Ferry Building Gallery: Landscapes. The artwork of Bob Araki, Tony Bruno, Barrie Chadwick, Ross Munro and Lynn Onley. To June 14, Off The Wall, Onto ‘The Table. Functional table- ware from ceramic artists Heather Cairns, Cathi jefter- son and Lewis Krzyezkowski. Jay Knutson See more page 30 SIX. DAYS, SEVEN NIGHTS: 16 SENSIBL celeste se wage me Oe OO OO em ee wt ea Re 8 a we ee nt ay BPO, Re a TERE EMILE SSE SOS NO OM Me OWNS eT RT ew ENTERTAINMENT & STYLE GUIDE aan NEWS photo Cincy Goodman THE Modern Baroque Opera Company’s new production of Handel’s Scipione was put together by (left to right) director Kate - Hutchinson, designer Thomas Hassmann and musical directors Simon Capet and Marguerite Witvoet. Modern Baroque Opera Company presents North American premiere of Handel’s Scipione Ben D'Andrea Contributing Writer When the three founding directors of Modern Baroque Opera (MBO) put on their first 18th-cen- tury opera, they had no intention of starting a new company. The three of them became good friends while working as evening ushers in London -— Kate Hutchinson and Simon Capet at the English National Opera, Thomas Hassmann at the Royal Opera — and they all gor each other into performances tor tree. But apart from absorbing untold hours of opera in London's premier opera houses, none of the aficionados had much, if any, experience designing, conducting, or directing opera. It took a little-known opera bv Gluck called Le cinesi, which Hassmana intro- duced to the others, to spark a creative fire. “It was very odd and very silly and we all liked it for our vanous reasons,” says Hutchinson, the MBO's director. What began as a “whim” became a reality: a London theatre agreed to co-pro- duce the opera. “It was just kind of a new experience that we all jumped into.” The experience proved a success, Despite a surplus of new shows opening, every week in London, fa cinest capzured a fot of attention and good reviews including one in Opera mayazine. But they had the future to think about, espe- cially the inevitable struggle of carrving on in London where financial support for new artistic ventures is precarious at best. In addition, London's opera offer- ings are already sufficiently varied. Vancouver, a growing city with an untapped audience for smaller-scale and less familiar opera, became the destination of choice. Capet, the MBO's conductor, says, “Here we're providing a much more valuable service, other than just serving ourselves, as we would be in London,” ‘Two years ago, the Modern Barogue Opera Company produced its first opera in Vancouver, a re-staging of the London production of Le einest. Hatchinson explains that the artistic impetus behind the first production of Le E FOOTWEAR: cinesi was partly a desire to find an alternative to the overworked 19-century opera repertoire presented in big theatres like the English National Opera's Coliseum. The same goal propels the Vancouver company. “When we started the company, the idea was that we were looking for a much more intimate theatrical experi- ence,” Hutchinson says. “All of us were interested in the idea of opera as theatre.” MBO stages its productions at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre (VECC), which seats abour 300 people. But Hutchinson has also directed opera on a much grander scale for the 2,900-seat Queen Elizabeth Theatre. She has acted as assistant director for four Vancouver Opera mainstage productions, most recently The Barber of Seville. “You lose so much of the nuance and the acting when vou put it into a house that seats two or three thousand people,” she says, Attention to detail in every- thing from the acting to the sets and costumes becomes much more important in a small theatre like the Cultch (VECC). “It’s just so much richer being that close to a singer, especially if you’re not somebody who's familiar with opera,” she adds, “If you're only five feet or ten fect away from a singer, it’s much more immediate.” MBO offers audiences yet another unique enticement. Unlike operas of the 19th century, operas of the Baroque period are excluded from the repertoire of the major opera companies, so MBO audiences get to sample operatic rarities. “People scem to feel like they've been given this litte gift when they leave our performances,” Hutchinson says. MBO's emphasis on the theatrical and design elements of its productions also ensures audiences are pleasandy surpeised. “They're getting something that’s a little bit quirky.” Producing baroque opera presents challenges quite different from those posed by familiar 19-century operas by Verdi oc Puccini, As Hutchinson puts it, you can’t walk into a Ward Music shop and buy the scaee to an opera by Gluck See Translation page 15 17, STORYTELLERS: 32. setae aN aa oS ae ortaee ©