2023-10-18

Maritime Concert Opera celebrates 20th year with special concert

LUNENBURG - The Maritime Concert Opera (MCO) is celebrating 20 years of existence with a special concert Oct. 22.

The event will take place at St. John's Parish Hall in Lunenburg beginning at 2:30 p.m.

Nina Scott-Stoddart, founder and artistic director of the charitable organization, said that she is proud of the fact that they have been around for so long.

"I don't think I could have imagined that this would last this long. That it would survive funding problems and COVID-19 and it's just hard being a small arts organization," she said. "You never have enough money, but there's always been amazing people who have helped us keep it going."

Scott-Stoddart gave credit to all the volunteers, the board, and the singers for all their hard work in making the organization such a success.

She began MCO in Lunenburg back in 2003, after moving from Toronto, where she performed and produced operas.

"When I got here, there wasn't a whole lot of opera happening in Nova Scotia and I thought, well, let's do something that has a bit lower impact to it," she said.

"Opera, as a full art form, is theatre plus music and that can get very complicated. But oftentimes, there are just people with music stands performing full operas. That reduces the staging, sets and costumes and it just comes down to the music and acting ability of the people with the music stands, so that's how we started it and that's where we are today."

The group has performed about 40 full-length operas (about two a year). At the beginning, she said, they brought many singers from away, but soon they started to work with more singers from the Maritimes (including local choristers) and they've given a lot of young Nova Scotians and New Brunswick singers their first professional opera credit as well.

"A lot of singers are from Nova Scotia, then went out into the rest of Canada to make their careers. Then we hire them to come back," she said. "One thing I noticed from living in Lunenburg is that these singers spring from their communities; from the music festivals, local music teachers and from singing in church choirs. That's how young opera singers are nurtured and then they go off."

Scott-Stoddart then added that there is something about be able to come back to your home province to sing for their teachers and those who have helped form and then support them. "I think that's really important."

The concert will feature excerpts from many past productions, performed by sopranos Maureen Batt and Beth Hagerman; tenors Patrick Simms and Andrew Pelrine, countertenor Andrew Pickett, baritone Rob O'Quinn and bass-baritone Jon Paul Décosse.

Scott-Stoddart, a mezzo-soprano, will also be on the roster.

"They have all sung with us in the past...When I called them up and told them I was doing this, and who else was singing, it just started to get that real party feeling," she said.

"I think it's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be very relaxed. I know opera often has this snooty reputation, which I understand, but when you do opera on the South Shore of Nova Scotia with Nova Scotian singers, even though it's a foreign language, we want to keep it feeling like an opera kitchen party. We will perform some really good music in a relaxed way that connects with our audience. We won't be dressed up. It's a Sunday afternoon in the parish hall where this all got started. Come and hear us sing."

Tickets are $25 per person and can be purchased at Kinley's Drugs in Lunenburg or through Eventbrite.

MCO is supported financially through grants from the various levels of government and through private donations.