On Friday, October 2, opera singer Robert Pomakov, left, joins conductor Jonathan Darlington and world-famous, theatre visionary Robert Lepage on stage at the Four Seasons Centre for Opera 101, a free, sneak peak at what Pomakov describes as a “revolutionary” production of Stravinsky’s The Nightingale and Other Short Fables (doors at 7 pm).
The performance turns standard opera on its head by putting the orchestra on stage and the singers in the pit which will be filled with water. The performers slosh around giving voice to their characters while also animating puppets inspired by the Vietnamese tradition. Other larger shadow puppets interact with the characters and help drive the narrative forward.
“The puppets are basic in terms of how they operate,” says Pomakov, above in the centre of the boat (Photos by Michael Cooper). “There’s only a few basic things we have to do with them but when you layer that on top of singing difficult Stravinsky music and walking around in water, all these aspects make it an interesting challenge.”
Although he’s just 28-years old, Pomakov is already an opera veteran heading into his 11th season with the Canadian Opera Company. He trained at the St. Michael’s Choir School here in Toronto and auditioned for the late Richard Bradshaw while still in high school. The legendary Bradshaw took the young bass singer under his wing and mentored his development until the impresario’s death earlier this year.
Technically, Pomakov lives in Toronto but he’s on the road about nine months each year, lending his booming low register to opera companies around the globe. Last Thursday evening, following a dress rehearsal of Madama Butterfly (Sept. 26 – Nov. 3), I caught up with Pomakov at Opera Bob’s Public House (1112 Dundas St. W.), the namesake bar he co-owns with a couple of pals.
It was karaoke night and there were lots of Torontonians living with culture, including the adorable couple, above, who were belting out “I’m the One That You Want” from Grease.
Pomakov took his own turn in the spotlight, giving voice to the Bill Withers’ classic “Lean On Me”. Opera Bob says he usually sings CCR, Neil Young, or maybe Elvis. The audience hooted and hollered as his rich voice boomed through the small club, not quite opera but not R&B either.
“One thing I’m trying to do with this bar,” says Pomakov “is to break the stereotype of opera and opera singers, to dispel the notion that that it’s an elitist artform for the upper echelons and that opera singers are divas, all that stuff. I’m trying to show that what we do is very mainstream, that we’re mainstream.
“This show, The Nightingale and Other Short Fables (Oct. 17 – Nov. 5), is mainstream theatre, in a certain sense it’s a puppet show set to opera, a show that uses many forms of art and media to get its point across. To me opera is the greatest art form because it combines all the other arts into one. It’s the hardest to achieve but when it’s done well it’s an amazing thing – music, libretto, acting, visual, all that stuff. I think there was such stigma against it for years and perhaps rightly so. But opera has changed enormously in the last 10 years and it’s continuing to evolve. A company like this would never have put on a show like this five or 10 years ago, it’s really revolutionary in a certain sense.”
Photos by Christopher Jones; opera pics by Michael Cooper courtesy of COC.
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