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Little Women presented by Calgary Opera
Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium
Saturday, January 30 - Saturday, January 30 Wednesday, February 3 - Wednesday, February 3 Friday, February 5 - Friday, February 5

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Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium

A wit once said that only war is more costly than producing an opera. Besides gorgeous costumes and glorious sets, there’s all that preparation. Gordon Gerrard, répétiteur and resident conductor at Calgary Opera, is one of the many talents who toil behind the scenes in local opera, but he’s about to step into the spotlight.

Gerrard is rehearsing for his first mainstage production for a major opera company conducting Mark Adamo’s Little Women. Written in 1998, composer and librettist Adamo’s adaptation of the popular American novel has had over 60 productions across America and one in Australia. It makes its Canadian professional première on January 30 with Calgary Opera.

Gerrard is recipient of the 2009 Enbridge Arts Award for Emerging Artist presented at the Mayor’s Evening for Business and the Arts and was invited to compete in the prestigious 2009 Wigmore Hall International Song Competition in London, England.

In recent years, he has worked as assistant conductor for Opera Lyra Ottawa, répétiteur for Vancouver Opera, associate music director for the Manhattan School of Music Undergraduate Opera Studio, and as a lecturer at Iowa State University.

Brandon-born, thirtysomething Gerrard has made Calgary and Calgary Opera his home for the past couple of years, but what exactly does he do?

“Répétiteur is basically a fancy word for rehearsal pianist. So in the three weeks leading up to every production, we rehearse here [at the Arrata Opera Centre] instead of the Jube (Jubilee Auditorium). We rehearse with the piano instead of the orchestra, so it is my job to play the orchestra part on the piano. And if a singer wants extra help to go through the part outside of rehearsal, I help with that,” says Gerrard.

“My other title is resident conductor, which means that on some productions I am the conductor. Whenever we do a show with the emerging artists, I am the conductor for those and also conductor for some other smaller productions.”

Those smaller productions include Beatrice and Benedict, presented in December, concerts at various venues and workshops for new operas. Calgary Opera currently has two new works in development. At a recent workshop of a new opera by Allan Gilliland and Val Brandt, newly written music was sung by the emerging artists. “We go through it so the librettist and the composer can hear how it really works instead of what it sounds like in their head,” says Gerrard.

Vocal coaching is another aspect to Gerrard’s duties. He works with emerging artists to prepare their repertoire for audition and, importantly, to ensure the singers are correctly pronouncing the language in which they’re performing.

In Little Women, Gerrard admires the fact that Adamo hit the high points of the novel while emphasizing modern and relevant themes. Though it tells the story of four young girls struggling without their father during the Civil War, the heart of the opera is about change and how the characters deal with it. Adamo’s music has been praised for its effective blending of modernism and the accessibility of its lyrics. As music director and conductor, Gerrard is keeping an ear out for all aspects of the music and putting together the orchestra for the final rehearsals and performances.