Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and Edmonton Opera take performances outdoors in August

With all respect to Julie Andrews, the city is about to be alive with the sound of music.

Edmonton’s classical musicians are hitting the road at the end of August, fanning out into bedroom communities and performing outdoor concerts. It’s an opportunity for Edmonton’s classical musicians to meet people where they are.

The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra will have a busy August, with three different outdoor concert series planned for the month. The first is ESO Outdoors, a series of small pop-up concerts in communities surrounding Edmonton, which will kick off the month on Aug. 15 in Devon. The group will then head to Devon, Beaumont, Fort Saskatchewan and Castle Downs Park and wrap up Aug. 25 in Stony Plain. Each performance will feature a small ensemble and a few pieces from Bach, Tchaikovsky and Brahms. Each ESO Outdoors performance is free.

The orchestra will then shift to one of their marquee events, Symphony Under the Sky. This is the second year the annual Swan Song to Summer will be held at Snow Valley while their traditional home, Hawrelak Park, is undergoing renovations.

Guest conductor Bob Bernhardt said the new venue for Symphony Under the Sky is smaller and means they have to bring fewer musicians. He called the new venue both “casual and intimate,” a new place to make memories and a unique place to make music, where more of the audience is on blankets and lawn chairs.

There will be two different programs for Symphony Under the Sky, with two performances of each. The Thursday and Saturday are dedicated to pops, featuring music from Pixar, Taylor Swift and Kate Bush. The Wednesday and Friday shows are dedicated to more traditional fare, such as Mozart and Rossini. But that doesn’t mean music that wider audiences won’t recognize.

“For most people my age, the Barber of Saville overture is the Rabbit of Saville. It’s charming, it’s effervescent, it’s a lovely way to start an outdoor concert,” Bernhardt said.

The ESO’s final outdoor performance of the month happens Aug. 30 and 31 as they take on Disney classics, both new and old. It’s a return of the incredibly popular concert that drew an estimated 28,000 people across two nights. They expect to have at minimum 10,000 people again per night at Sir Winston Churchill Square.

“We do excerpts from Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Lion King, Tangled. It’s mostly contemporary Disney, but there’s also usually an ode or throwback to the heyday – we’re doing Cinderella again,” Bernhardt said.

A massive screen will accompany the performance, adding a challenge for the orchestra, which has to sync up with the action on screen. A quartet of singers will accompany the orchestra to help bring the music to life.

“Something I love about outdoor concerts is that they can be spontaneous. You can have the geese fly by or there’s a squirrel on the stage. All of these things can happen,” Bernhardt said.

That unpredictability will also be on the minds of performers as the Edmonton Opera hits the road, heading south to perform at the University of Alberta Botanic Garden for their annual season opener, Opera Al Fresco.

It’s a chance to highlight new talent and see some great singers in the beauty of the botanic garden. For Erin Selin, it’s a final celebration with Edmonton Opera before she heads to Europe to continue her studies. She’s performed for the last two years with the Edmonton Opera Chorus and has performed at previous Opera al Fresco. Selin recently graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance.

For this year’s Opera al Fresco, she’s put together a program of music from Liszt, Puccini and Debussy, all featuring dreams. She’s singing as part of pop-up performances for patrons as they walk between venues.

“I was a choir kid, sang in choirs. Then I had a really big interest in theatre and musical theatre,” Selin said. “I remember sitting and watching videos of people singing opera and performing opera. There was something about it, a rawness to the voice. Felt personally very touched by it. I made it a goal of mine to find that expression in myself, to share that feeling with others.”

Hometown prodigy Connor Hoppenbrouwers and acclaimed opera singer Spencer Britten are two of the singers performing the “greatest hits” of the opera repertoire as part of the main program. Everything from Verdi to Rossini, Bizet and even a little Rodgers and Hammerstein are on the agenda. Performers will shift between the Kurimoto Japanese Garden to the Aga Khan Garden, with 30 minutes at each.

Britten has performed in the opera’s Home for the Holidays and has known Artistic Director Joel Ivany for years, since Britten was in the chorus at Vancouver Opera and Ivany was directing.

And of course, Britten and the rest of the singers at Opera al Fresco will have to contend with the unpredictability of performing outside.

“Adding the outdoor element, you have to be flexible with everything happening. You have to some kind of understanding that there’s some things you can’t control,” Britten said. “I zone in when I’m singing and I’m in the moment. But if a bee flies at me, it’s kind of hard to ignore.”

When: Aug. 16 at 7 p.m.

Where: University of Alberta Botanic Garden, 51227 AB-60, Parkland County

Tickets: $72, $37 for children 12 and under, available at https://www.edmontonopera.com

When: Aug. 21 to 24, 7 p.m.

Where: Snow Valley, 13204 Rainbow Valley Rd NW

Tickets: $42.50, free for youth under 17, available at https://www.winspearcentre.com

When: Aug. 15 to Aug. 27

Where: Devon, Castle Downs Park, Fort Saskatchewan, Beaumont, Stony Plain

Tickets: Free

When: Aug. 30 and 31

Where: Sir Winston Churchill Square

Tickets: Free

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