Opera in the Park returns to Deer Lake with Verdi, Mozart, and Puccini, July 13

Music director Jacques Lacombe leads the Vancouver Opera Orchestra in an evening of Italian arias and duets

By Helen "Yichun" Wu

Opera in the Park brings arias and duets to Deer Lake Park.

City of Burnaby presents Opera in the Park in Deer Lake Park, Burnaby on July 13 at 7:30 PM

SITTING ON THE LAWN, surrounded by trees, your favourite snacks in hand from nearby food trucks—get ready to settle into your most comfortable position and enjoy a relaxing evening of arias and duets.

This July, Opera in the Park returns to Burnaby’s Deer Lake Park, offering a sneak peek of Vancouver Opera’s upcoming season.

Now in its fourth edition, the free event will feature selections from Verdi, Mozart, and Puccini—composers whose full-length masterpieces will be staged by Vancouver Opera under the baton of Jacques Lacombe in the months ahead.

Previously music director of orchestras and opera houses across Europe and North America, Lacombe brings broad experience in symphonic, operatic, choral, and dance repertoire. Yet the maestro, now concluding his second season with Vancouver Opera, finds the greatest beauty in the human voice.

At the open-air park concert, he will lead the Vancouver Opera Orchestra through highlights from Rigoletto, Così fan tutte, and La Bohème on the warm summer evening.

Aching music from Verdi’s tragic Rigoletto, a tale of jealousy and betrayal centered on a hunchbacked jester, will be heard alongside songs from Mozart’s sparkling comedy Così fan tutte, an opera buffa that follows two sisters and their lovers through a playful story of disguise and fidelity. Puccini’s beloved La Bohème, set in 19th-century Paris, introduces a seamstress and her bohemian artist friends navigating love and loss.

This is opera without having to dress up: the colourful chairs and blankets you bring will add their own charm to the timeless music. On the evening of July 13, this casual, family-friendly event invites all to gather and celebrate the power of opera under the open sky. 

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