Whenever a production of Handel's Messiah is mounted in Prince George, a local version of a global phenomenon takes place.
"The reason we have so many great choirs in Canada, and the reason many of the world's great choirs came into existence in the first place, was because of someone's production of Messiah," said Kevin Zakresky, artistic director and conductor for the Prince George Symphony Orchestra (PGSO).
He is also the director of Orpheum Voices Adult Choir in Vancouver, case in point. "When West Coast Symphony decided to do Messiah, they just did a general callout for singers to form the chorus. When it was all over, all these amazing singers were in the room looking around at each other asking what they could do next, so they formed Orpheum Voices. That's the way it goes all over the world. The Messiah is the event that brings all these other groups to life. It is in the DNA of the world's music industry. It's sort of like what The Nutcracker is to ballet - it's the standard."
In Prince George, the PGSO does the music and the Prince George Cantata Singers is partner choir, under the direction of Damian Dorschner. "Damian is eight feet tall, and five of that is personality," said Zakresky. "Damian has done wonders for that choir. Every time I work with them, they are five times better than the last time. There is some chemistry going on there with them. They have a quality and a professionalism that is quite exciting."
The four soloists who do the major individual vocal parts are brought in especially for this production, one of whom, alto Melanie Nicol, is based in Prince George. Zakresky found the others through other audition channels. Tenor Andrew Robb performed previously with the PGSO and "he was such a fan favourite we just had to bring him back," Zakresky said. "He has such a great personal story. He isn't a professional tenor, he has another career, he went to UBC on a golf scholarship but he became the king of the music department, he doesn't even have an agent, but he has this lovely tenor sound."
Bass singer Alan Macdonald is another product of UBC's opera program. Among other productions, he is a veteran of Vancouver Opera's production of Aida, a production of The Secret Garden at the Banff Centre For The Arts, he played Figaro in Vancouver Opera's school production of The Barber of Barkerville and most recently was a member of the world premiere cast of Stickboy, the original opera written by poet Shane Koyczan and composer Neil Weisensel. (The conductor of this global first was former PGSO artistic director Leslie Dala and the director was Prince George's Nick Harrison.)
Soprano Bahareh Poureslami, meanwhile, was another product of UBC and recently worked with Leslie Dala in a production of Carmen in which she portrayed Micala. Knowing that the PGSO had a conductor with a keen interest in opera, she sought out Zakresky for a general interest meeting not knowing he intended to mount Messiah, but her voice was so compelling, said the conductor, that she won the part within the first few notes.
For three of the four, it is the first time doing a full-scale staging of Messiah, which Zakresky also finds motivating.
"You can't help but revolutionize something when it's your first time," he said.
The Messiah revolution happens at Vanier Hall tonight at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.
