After lockdown hit in March, there was a brief period of time where local performers, artists, and audience members found fulfillment in doing online shows. But the excitement over performing online faded quickly, says Pacific Opera Victoria (POV) director of community engagement Rebecca Hass, so POV did what Hass says artists need to do to sustain themselves in this new world: they got creative.
If you’re out for a stroll and someone breaks into operatic song, you may have stumbled across a POV pop-up show. Due to limitations on crowd size, POV only announces pop-up show details on the day of the performance—which is performed fancy-free in, say, a T-shirt and jeans. Hass says that live music is a missing and much-needed element of society. (Although she isn’t performing in the pop-ups, Hass is no stranger to the stage, having performed in shows likeThe Phantom of the Opera.)
“Performing is a conversation. And when you listen it comes back to us, and [with online performances] that doesn’t happen,” says Hass. “For people who have no connection to opera or classical music, they are so delighted to go down to Dallas Road or to the dog park and hear something beautiful.”
Hass explored the WorkSafeBC guidelines and found that having outdoor performances is possible. POV is employing nine local singers to sing two songs of their own choosing at each location (they have music for five to eight songs, in order to provide variety at the events). There will be clearly marked areas to stand to ensure physical distancing and there will be a crowd manager at each performance to make sure everything stays under control.
“People are moved by it,” says Hass. “I got teary at every one of those shows because I realized how long it had been since I had heard live singing. And I missed it. I think in a normal summer, this would have been a nice offering and people would think it was sweet, but it’s impacted people very differently because we feel cut off, and we feel sort of isolated, and we’re missing all these things we used to take for granted.”
These performances are very different for the singers, as they’re usually dressed up and placed under stage lighting, and there’s usually a separation between the artist and the listener.
“It comes with an orchestra pit, often, between you and the public, and it’s an art form where we don’t even tend to look people in the eye,” says Hass.
A sad result of this is that the performer can forget how important connection is in storytelling, says Hass.
“So, for the performer, it’s so vulnerable,” she says of the pop-up shows. “It is a terrifying experience for them.”
The singer is standing wherever the show is that day—in a park, on a street corner—stripped of the glam opera singers are used to, and they’re looking people in the eye as they sing. It’s “taking away all their armour and all their protection,” says Hass, who hopes that when traditional performances can come back, the pop-ups can stay, too.
“What’s been really crippling about this is knowing how many singers have lost their income… That’s been terrifying,” she says. “And I worry for the long-term impact. In the short term, I think it’s important for myself and all of us who work in the arts to really come up with creative ways to employ artists that we could keep going.”
Information on upcoming pop-up shows, as well as well as contact information for post-card shows, where a singer comes and does a show on your front lawn free of charge, can be found at pacificopera.ca.