East Village to host annual summer opera festival

Artist rendering of the Opera in the Village festival site (image courtesy: Calgary Opera)

The banks of the Bow River will echo with the sound of Calgary’s newest music festival this August.

Opera in the Village, Canada’s first outdoor summer opera festival, will see opera fans convene to the East Village for the weekend of August 22 – 25, 2013.

“There are successful summer opera festivals around the world, but until now Canada has yet to take the plunge,” says Calgary Opera General Director and CEO Bob McPhee. “We feel that the time is right to introduce Canada’s first outdoor summer opera event and can’t think of a better setting than the RiverWalk in Calgary’s East Village.”

The annual event will kick off its inaugural year with six performances of Gilbert & Sullivan’s ‘The Pirates of Penzance’ over the four days.  Shows will take place inside a 900 seat, 10,000 sq. ft. open air tent.  This will be the Calgary Opera's first performance of The Pirates of Penzance in 19 years.

In addition to the show performances, the festival site will host sword-fighting demonstrations, impromptu opera performances, outdoor movie nights with films shown on the exterior wall of the Simmons Building, and visits from Calgary’s food trucks.

Festival tickets will range in price from $35 - $100 and will be available for sale beginning on April 22, 2013 through the Calgary Opera website or through the festival boxoffice at 403-262-7286.