- La serva padrona, June 28-30, 7: 30 p.m. at Marpole United Church, 1296 W. 67th Ave., Vancouver. Tickets: $20/$18. Call 778-9189498 or email [email protected].
IT may be only the most educated ear that can hear the difference between a baroque bow and a modern bow gliding across the strings of a violin, but for West Vancouver's Ian Dives, success lies in the details.
At just 24 years old, Dives is music director for Opera Mariposa's production of La serva padrona and he is intent on reviving the original sounds of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's short opera, which debuted in 1733 at the tail end of the baroque era.
He will be conducting from the harpsichord, a keyboard instrument widely used in Renaissance and baroque music, and his chamber orchestra includes a viola, a viola da gamba - also characteristic of the style - and two violins for which he has sourced period-appropriate bows.
"It's slightly smaller and the curve in the bow is different so it enables the players to play the music better, specifically baroque style," Dives explains.
He also called on a Canadian expert in early music to coach the orchestra and learned that, while baroque music is typified by ornate detail and harmonic complexity, sometimes "less is more" when it comes to performance.
La serva padrona runs June 28 to 30 at Marpole United Church in Vancouver. Each night, the one-act opera will be preceded by a concert of Handel favourites for an authentic 18th century evening.
Dives made his music direction debut with Opera Mariposa's first fully staged opera, Mozart's The Impresario, and this weekend's production marks the finale to the company's inaugural season.
The Pergolesi work is a fun, but seldom staged opera, Dives says.
"People don't really perform it very often because it's only two singers so it doesn't really have the draw to a lot of opera companies."
La serva padrona (or, The Maid Turned Mistress) began as a comic intermezzo meant to entertain audiences at intermission during a longer opera. It grew so popular that it started to be performed as a standalone piece and typified a new style of Italian comic opera known as opera buffa. The 50-minute performance tells the unlikely love story of bossy maid Serpina (played by soprano Allison Cociani) and her master Uberto (played by baritone Damon Morris). It will be sung in its original Italian with English surtitles so audiences can decipher the humorous libretto.
Dives, a former Collingwood school student, started playing piano and singing in choirs at an early age. He always had an interest in music, he says, but it was watching a production of Turandot in Grade 12 that really ignited his love of opera.
He attended Capilano University and, after two years pursuing a science degree, switched to the subject he really loved.
"Science wasn't working for me but music was and I just graduated this May with my arts degree," Dives says.
During his time at Capilano he also earned a one-year conducting certificate and sang in the bass section of the Capilano University Singers, a gig that took him to France, Spain and Italy. It wasn't long before he connected with the founders of Vancouver-based Opera Mariposa.
Robin Eder-Warren, 21, and her fellow soprano Jacqueline Ko created the company as a platform for up-and-coming artists to gain stage experience. For new music school graduates, it's tough to break into the small Lower Mainland opera scene, Eder-Warren says.
"You can be a phenomenal singer and you might end up spending an entire year performing not at all because there just aren't enough slots or enough roles that suite that voice," she explains.
Opera Mariposa wants to help budding vocalists beat the catch22 of the job search.
"There are so many incredibly talented people in Vancouver looking to emerge into the opera world, which can't really be done in Vancouver without moving to Europe, but you cannot move to Europe without the experience first."
So, when Dives expressed an interest in music direction, the founders of Opera Mariposa were happy to hand him the reins.
"Ian has a unique energy about him that I've never seen in any other conductor. He is so enthusiastic and so committed to creating the best experience possible," Eder-Warren says, adding that his baroque chamber orchestra will produce a "brighter" sound than a normal full orchestra.
"The tradition of having those instruments is really the only way you can perform a true baroque sound," she says of Dives' decision to incorporate a harpsichord and string quartet. "If you used a more traditional orchestra, you'd be using the wrong kind of instruments for that kind of music, because it's written to be played in that way."
Opera Mariposa's fall 2013 production of Don Pasquale will also feature a fresh-faced cast and crew. In addition to awarding sought-after roles to recent graduates, the company also provides an affordable opportunity for young opera fans - and there are plenty of them, Eder-Warren says - to catch a live performance.
"On average our audience is incredibly young, which is a boon and it's a great gift for us."
