Emerging small opera companies seem to be a booming business in Winnipeg’s music world. Maybe you’ve heard of Little Opera Company and Manitoba Opera. Or Flipside Opera?

On Saturday evening I had the opportunity to see some fantastic Canadian and Manitoban operatic works featured in Flipside Opera’s latest production Bathtubs, Bus Stops and Bridge. 


Director Jacqueline Loewen, along with Co-Directors Dawn Bruch, Judith Oatway and Lisa Rumpel have made it their project to bring the big ideas of opera to the small stage, while also featuring local artistic and technical talent, including Manitoban composer Neil Weisensel, Canadian conductor Michelle Mourre, and Winnipeg soprano Lara Ciekiewicz.

Featuring three separate ensemble pieces, the program explored the conventional operatic themes of love, betrayal and fantasy, but using more accessible modes of storytelling,


In the first piece, A Hand of Bridge by Samuel Barber, a pair of couples “hang out” playing a game of bridge. Although the characters are sitting at the same table, playing the same game of Bridge, they’re all engaged in the world of their own thoughts. We meet Bill (Aaron Hutton) who’s having an affair, Sally (Dawn Bruch) the vapid housewife, David (Samuel Plett) the wannabe hedonist, and Geraldine (Judith Oatway) the lovelorn wallower. They all sing together, but obliviously, about entirely different things. Barber colours the tone of each character using different motifs, which flit back and forth to keep up with the fast-paced libretto. The piece was impressive and hilarious, setting a comedic tone for the rest of the program, but also an underlying profound one, touching on themes of perpetual desire and human insecurity.


What makes the contemporary opera experience especially appealing is its opportunity to be both honest and relevant, dealing with the profound themes of the Big Ol’ Opera but within the ridiculous and mundane world of the everyday.
By far the funniest and best performed piece of the night was Gisela in her Bathtub. Involving a warm bath and a Harlequin novel, Gisela in her Bathtub was the product of one too many gin and tonics, to quote native-Winnipeg librettist Michael Cavanagh (obviously the reason why the piece is so good). In 1991 Cavanagh teamed up with emerging Manitoban composer Neil Weisensel, and they co-created the miniature 20-minute opera, full of all kinds of epic details, including swordplay, a fair and reasonably exposed maiden (fantastically performed by soprano Lara Ciekiewicz) and her lover ‘Herringhead’ (Aaron Hutton), and a glockenspiel iPhone ringtone (compliments of Cam Denby).


Sandwiched in the middle of the program was an excerpt from the collection of 99 different interpretations of the same story, Exercices de Style, written by Raymond Queneau in 1947. Sung entirely en Francais, Flipside Opera performed the collection of 18 versions composed by Montreal composer, Jose Evangelista. The set of charismatic montages was an engaging exercise in character performance. But I have to be up front here and confess, I hadn’t initially read the write-up in the program, and so I spent most of the performance stupidly wondering what each character could be singing about, and feeling like the whole thing was kind of monotonous. That said, my inability to understand a language other than English had nothing to do with the comedic quality of the performances, which managed to draw out howls (literally) from audience members behind me.


And it’s probably more complimentary than anything if an audience idiot like myself can also still manage to laugh out loud at this fairly niche musical entertainment.

Don’t miss the second performance of Flipside Opera’s Bathtubs, Bus Stops, and Bridge, Sunday (May 01) at 2:00 PM, Eckhardt-Grammatte Hall, University of Winnipeg.

Ticket Prices: At the Door - $30 (Regular) $20 (Student/Senior)