Burnaby Lyric Opera has cancelled a planned live production in February and March.
The opera company had planned to bring a live, full-length production to the stage at Shadbolt Centre for the Arts from Feb. 26 to March 5, but the current B.C. pandemic situation has put paid to those plans.
The opera company announced on Jan. 21 that it has decided not to proceed with the live shows at this time "due to current circumstances."
"We will not be mounting the two operas but will be planning for future concerts and operas when the time shows that it is safer to do so," an email from the company said.
The performance would have been a double bill featuring Gianni Schicchi and Pagliacci. Gianni Schicchi, a comic one-act opera by Giacomo Puccini, was set to feature baritone Jason Cook as Schicchi, soprano Sodam Lee as Lauretta, and tenor Sergio Augusto as Rinuccio. Pagliacci, a two-act opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo, would have starred Scott Rumble as Canio, soprano Chloe Hurst as Nedda. and baritone Scott Brooks as Tonio.
The performances were intended to continue company's tradition of producing one fully staged, costumed opera each year.
Burnaby Lyric Opera began in the early 1980s and, by 1997, had evolved into a professional intermediate company with a permanent home at Shadbolt Centre for the Arts. The company is a non-profit society with a vision to give emerging professional and semi-professional opera singers in B.C. the chance to sing leading roles in fully staged operas.
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