We’re wrapping an exciting and informative community engagement series around our March production of Nixon in China.

For several years Vancouver Opera has worked to demonstrate the relevance of opera to the lives of 21st century British Columbians; our Nixon project is no exception; in fact–it represents the pinnacle of community engagement for VO to-date.

I invite you to engage your mind and your imagination. Explore music, history, politics, dance and visual art in preparation for the Canadian premiere–and a new VO production–of John Adams’s imaginative and important opera.

I tip my hat to our various partners in this community engagement series and thank them for their enthusiastic involvement.

Here’s a list, as of November 4, of events, with more to come in the weeks ahead.

November 20, 2009 - January 10, 2010
Richmond Art Gallery
WANDA KOOP - "FACE TO FACE"

A solo exhibition of portraits and figures, based on Koop’s first trip to China in 1986, including large-scale paintings of Chinese opera characters. This exhibition precedes and complements Koop's major exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in 2011.

November 21, 7:30pm – Special musical event produced with Vancouver Opera featuring singers Hiather Darnell-Kadonaga, Brian Lee, Szu-Wen Wang and pianist Kinza Tyrrell and including a performance of a Nixon in China excerpt. Admission by donation. Visit Richmond Art Gallery for details.



February 24, 2010
8:00 pm
Vancouver Playhouse
TURNING POINT ENSEMBLE - JOHN ADAMS'S "SON OF CHAMBER SYMPHONY"

The Canadian premiere of John Adams's newly completed chamber piece ("riveting and full of surprises" said the Los Angeles Times), plus Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony Op. 9 and the world premiere of a new chamber concerto by John Oliver. Co-presented with the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad. Visit Turning Point Ensemble for more information.




March 2, 2010
7-9 pm
Vancouver Academy of Music
1270 Chestnut Street
OPERA SPEAKS - "INSIDE THE MUSIC OF JOHN ADAMS"

An exploration of the music and career of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Adams. Presenters include writer and educator Thomas May, editor of The John Adams Reader, and Leslie Dala, VO's Associate Conductor and Chorus Director. Admission is free.


March 9, 2010
7-9 pm
Alice MacKay Room, Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch
OPERA SPEAKS @ VPL - "CHINESE VANCOUVER THEN AND NOW"

An eminent panel moderated by Dr. Jan Walls and including architect and urban designer Bing Wing Thom and UBC history professor Dr. Henry Yu explores the history of the Chinese in Vancouver, with emphasis on the Chinese communities' emergence and development since 1972, the year of Nixon's momentous trip to China. Discover how our city has been shaped and transformed by Chinese culture over the past 38 years. Admission is free.

Presented in partnership with the Vancouver Public Library. Opera Speaks @ VPL is sponsored by Omni BC Diversity Television.



Week of March 15, 2010
Dates, times and venues to be confirmed
AN EVENING WITH MARGARET MacMILLAN
A LITERARY TEA WITH MARGARET MacMILLAN

Presented in partnership with Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival

Acclaimed Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan talks about her most recent book "The Uses and Abuses of History" and her earlier chronicle "Nixon in China: The Week that Changed the World".

We will have additional seminars and panels concerning the triangulation of foreign policy, Canada, China and the US, and more on Canada’s leading role in ushering China onto the world stage in 1970. These events will be held in conjunction with partners including UBC and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. We will also welcome US Ambassador John Negroponte to the opening weekend of Nixon in China.

More details about these events in a later blog.

~ James W. Wright, General Director