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Tomorrow night, Saturday March 7, five prolific Vancouver area bloggers will be attending Vancouver Opera’s performance of Verdi’s Rigoletto and live blogging (well, before, during intermission, and after at least).

These bloggers are Delicious Juice, Miss604, NetChick, A View From the Isle, and So Misguided.

Stay tuned to Vancouver Opera’s own blog for the play by play. (Yes, Vancouver Opera has their own blog, as well as a twitter account @vancouveropera and a manga version).

And if you don’t know much about opera, you just might be surprised.

From: vancouveropera.ca

As a young, tech geek opera fan, it’s refreshing to see the recent technologically inclined efforts of opera, alongside the Met Opera’s live HD broadcasts around the world (yes you can eat popcorn and watch opera). By this, opera is getting to the masses, to a younger audience, and interacting with new forms of web-enabled social interaction.

Verdi’s Rigoletto is a particularly accessible and beautiful opera, rated as the 9th most performed in North America. It’s melodic, Italian, and quick paced (uh, comparatively to others, see Wagner).

Here is one of my favourite arias by one of the greatest contemporary sopranos. This will make you melt. Who can guess who this performer is! I will continue to post pieces on Tumblr from this opera in the coming days, to give you a glimpse into this great opera.

Performances are March 7, 10, 12, 14, and 17, and tickets are still available.

Update: Day two of sharing great Rigoletto performances, here’s more. It’s “Questa o quella” recorded in Milan in 1902 (yes 1902!) by Enrico Caruso, without a doubt one of the greatest tenors, but possibly more importantly, a true innovator in the musical recording business. Isn’t this appropriate talking about innovation coming from opera, considering what Vancouver Opera and others are doing to promote themselves now? The song is translated as “This woman or that… are just the same to me… If today I love this one… I’ll probably love someone else tomorrow.” And you thought opera wasn’t fun…

Here’s Pavarotti doing his thing:

Update: I was able to attend last night’s March 17 Rigoletto finale. It was excellent, although it seems harder to please an opera audience when stunning Met Opera performances are available live in movie theatres around the world these days. It is breathtaking to witness the Met performers and sets, however it’s still special to see a live opera in an opera hall, and I guess this is how local opera will always be unique.

I found the set, on loan from the Calgary Opera, last night to be lacking. It was cages and chains similar to a UFC ring. Sure it was refreshing to see a different take on Rigoletto, one being more sinister, austere, and existential, than an otherwise warm and ornate Renaissance set. But I find basic sets make it more difficult for an audience to escape into the story.

Eglise Gutierrez is magnificent as Gilda and Caro nome was captivating as only a few sopranos can do. She also handled the acting nicely, being more complex than a locked away naive character might be otherwise.

Moving forward, it will be increasingly difficult for local opera houses to compete with the Met and any other top production that will be beamed across the world. However, with an excellent orchestra, two leads (Gutierrez and Donnie Ray Albert as Rigoletto) who could really connect with the audience, an enthusiastic, full house, and active appreciation of its internet fans, the Vancouver Opera is poised to continue its success.

I look forward to seeing how Vancouver Opera continues to push its tech boundaries, offering new ways to experience and market their shows, as well as appeal to a different, younger audience.