My Father & Opera
WHEN EAST MET WEST My parents in Singapore in the mid-1950s.
My father bequeathed to me a love of opera. He died 14 years ago today: Oct 7, 1999. I thought I'd share this essay I wrote a few years ago about my father's relationship to opera. It's never been published. I did submit it to Brick magazine and I received one of the most encouraging rejection letters ever. Really. That letter helped me to see myself as a writer (outside of the publications I've edited over the years).
A mix of biography, history and music appreciation, the essay revolves around the only fully staged opera my father and I saw together, a production of Bellini's Norma by the Canadian Opera Company. As the youngest child of a mixed-race couple, Norma's doomed, cross-cultural, love story was a revelation to me. (Coincidentally, last week Toronto's Sondra Radvanovsky opened in the title role with the Met's Norma to rave reviews. I interviewed her prior to her COC debut in 2010. She returns to the COC in Roberto Devereux next spring.) In addition to Bellini, other composers mentioned in the piece include Strauss, Canteloube, Britten and Brahms. At the time of his death, my father's favourite singer was Renée Fleming. My father wasn't big on funerals but if we had one, he requested that we play Fleming's recording of the transformation scene from Daphne by Strauss. My father's funeral was on Thanksgiving weekend. Every time I am moved by opera, every time I get to see a COC production, I am thankful to my father for the gift of music. Story
A mix of biography, history and music appreciation, the essay revolves around the only fully staged opera my father and I saw together, a production of Bellini's Norma by the Canadian Opera Company. As the youngest child of a mixed-race couple, Norma's doomed, cross-cultural, love story was a revelation to me. (Coincidentally, last week Toronto's Sondra Radvanovsky opened in the title role with the Met's Norma to rave reviews. I interviewed her prior to her COC debut in 2010. She returns to the COC in Roberto Devereux next spring.) In addition to Bellini, other composers mentioned in the piece include Strauss, Canteloube, Britten and Brahms. At the time of his death, my father's favourite singer was Renée Fleming. My father wasn't big on funerals but if we had one, he requested that we play Fleming's recording of the transformation scene from Daphne by Strauss. My father's funeral was on Thanksgiving weekend. Every time I am moved by opera, every time I get to see a COC production, I am thankful to my father for the gift of music. Story
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