Burnaby Lyric Opera celebrates Mozart’s enduring vocal repertoire in season finale, June 22

Soprano Tamar Simon, baritone Geoffrey Schellenberg, and pianist Richard Epp perform an afternoon of arias, duets, and operatic drama

Burnaby Lyric Opera’s *The Marriage of Figaro*.

Burnaby Lyric Opera presents The Magic of Mozart at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts on June 22 at 3 pm

JUST THREE MONTHS after staging The Marriage of Figaro, Burnaby Lyric Opera is returning to Mozart to close its 2024–25 season. Capping off the company’s Opera for a Sunday Afternoon series, The Magic of Mozart will bring together soprano Tamar Simon, baritone Geoffrey Schellenberg, and pianist Richard Epp for a program of opera excerpts and art songs by the prolific Austrian composer.

For any seasoned opera singer, Mozart is a familiar and cherished companion. Simon, an alumna of the Internationale Sommerakademie Mozarteum in Salzburg, has previously performed the roles of Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro and the impassioned Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. Her Burnaby Lyric Opera credits also include Rosina in The Barber of Seville and Adina in a concert version of The Elixir of Love.

Schellenberg, who portrayed Count Almaviva in Figaro alongside Simon, has taken on the title role in Don Giovanni and the lovable “bird man” Papageno in The Magic Flute. Lauded by Opera Canada for his impressive vocal colour, Schellenberg has appeared as a soloist with ensembles across Canada, including the Vancouver Bach Choir and the Prince George Symphony Orchestra in B.C.

At the piano will be Burnaby Lyric Opera music director Epp, who has conducted UBC’s Opera Workshop and several of Mozart’s operatic works, including The Pretend Garden-Girl and The Magic Flute. Distilling orchestral textures into expressive piano lines, Epp will accompany Simon and Schellenberg at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts on June 22 for an afternoon of love, laughter, and cunning characters—hallmarks of Mozart’s most enduring vocal repertoire.

Featured

Helen Wu

Helen (Yichun) Wu is a classical musician and music critic with an interest in the performing arts at large. Before moving to Canada to pursue a Master of Journalism at UBC, she received her degrees in piano for solo and chamber music, and comparative literature in the United States.

Articles

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra announces first European tour in April

Stops include a three-night residency at Austria’s Salzburg Easter Festival, as well as Croatia, Slovenia, Liechtenstein, and Germany

Rising German piano star Julius Asal makes his Canadian debut with the Vancouver Recital Society, February 8

Among the 28-year-old’s recent achievements is winning the Terence Judd-Hallé Award for young pianists on the cusp of international fame

Cosí fan tutte gets a vintage-Canadian refresh under director Robert Herriot at Vancouver Opera

The Winnipeg artist brings experience as a tenor to a Mozart opera reimagined in a 1930s Rockies resort, complete with Mounties and log drivers

Shadbolt Centre hosts Burnaby Lyric Opera’s The Barber of Seville this February

Romance, deception, and mistaken identities abound in Gioachino Rossini’s beloved comic masterpiece

Theatre review: You’re Just a Place That I Know is a moving musical reflection on family and memory

Based on Adrian Glynn McMorran’s album of the same name, the show at the Arts Club’s BMO Theatre Centre is more than just a concert

Cellist Henry Shapard plays Prokofiev with the VSO at Beethoven’s Eroica, February 20 to 22

Han-Na Chang conducts Beethoven’s revolutionary Third Symphony

Corey Payette spotlights songs from his acclaimed musicals at Closest Thing to Home, January 28

The renowned theatre artist and composer offers a stirring collection of tunes from acclaimed shows such as Children of God and Starwalker

Ghanaian music scholar Kofi Gbolonyo leads upbeat Celebrate Africa! event at BlueShore at CapU, January 30

Long-time UBC and CapU faculty member puts on a show featuring dozens of local musicians, plus vocalists Dawn Pemberton and Khari McClelland

Collaboration opens new sonic horizons for jazz guitarist Jocelyn Gould

The Winnipeg-based artist looks forward to onstage exchanges with diverse musical peers on International Guitar Night

You're the Top! brings the songs of Cole Porter to the Anvil Theatre, February 14

Event hosted by Michael van den Bos features Hollywood film projections and live music by the Laura Crema Sextet

Vancouver New Music hosts Artifacts I: Zero Input Enclosure Movement, February 14

Sonic architecture of Winnipeg’s AO Roberts explores the interplay of performance, installation, and layered auditory experiences

Folk-rooted string quartet the Fretless finds a voice in singer-songwriter Madeleine Roger

Collaborating with vocalists taught the acclaimed, formerly all-instrumental group new ways of listening and working

UBC Opera performs Leonard Bernstein’s satirical operetta Candide, February 5 to 8

Rarely presented in Vancouver, the production blends musical theatre and opera with a philosophically rooted storyline

Ariel Barnes brings nomadic spirit and intense curiosity to classic and contemporary cello works

The adventurous artist sees his upcoming program with Vetta Chamber Music as a way of expressing music’s power to console and cheer, even in dark times

Ralph Moore Quartet headlines sixth edition of Jazz at the Bolt, February 13 to 15

Hosted by the Cellar Music Group at the Shadbolt Centre, festival opens with a special concert by the Vancouver Jazz Orchestra with Champian Fulton and Klas Lindquist

Vancouver Chamber Choir concludes 46th annual Conductors' Symposium with Neighbo(u)rs, February 13

Five emerging conductors lead a program of pieces by both Canadian and American composers, from Amy Beach to Stuart Beatch

You’re Just a Place That I Know retraces a refugee story through song, at the BMO Theatre Centre from January 21 to February 1

Adrian Glynn McMorran’s moving theatre-concert pays tribute to his Ukraine-born grandparents, complete with a choir and traditional instruments

Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 shows to startle and spellbind at PuSh International Performing Arts Festival

Productions that “push” forms include dance works that play with props and stereotypes, as well as ethereal odes to nature and the northern lights

Violinist Gil Shaham joins the VSO for Brahms & Tchaikovsky 5, February 13 and 14

Musician rises to the challenge of Brahms’s sole Violin Concerto on program that also features guest conductor Han-Na Chang

Vancouver Chamber Choir performs Timothy Takach’s nature-rooted multimedia piece We Are Phoenix, January 24

Under the inspiring title I Fall, I Rise, the concert also features the Focus post-secondary choir and winners of the Young Composers’ Competition

Fierce fiddling to contra dance, as Festival du Bois unveils program for March 6 to 8

Aleksi Campagne, Bagatelle, Nicolas Pellerin et les Grands Hurleurs, and the Jocelyn Pettit Band are among offerings at celebration of Maillardville’s francophone roots