Nelson Community Opera announced Tuesday that the eagerly awaited ticket sales for its upcoming world premiere performance of the Amy Ferguson Institute’s commissioned opera, KHAOS, are now on sale at the Capitol Theatre box office.
“Opera fans and music lovers around the region have been asking us for months now when these tickets would go on sale,” said Marty Horswill, production coordinator for KHAOS. “So we are pleased to be able to announce that they are now on sale at the theatre box office, by phone at 250-352-6363 or online at capitoltheatre.bc.ca.
“People would be well advised to reserve their tickets early as all indications are that demand will be very high, especially for opening night that will have a lot fewer tickets than usual,” Horswill added.
“Because mounting a world premiere is such a momentous occasion, not just for our opera company but for all of Nelson, we have invited local, provincial and national dignitaries, major KHAOS donors and contributors, well known musicians, opera directors and media representatives from across Canada to be our guests for the opening night performance and gala reception,” AFI president, Ron Little, explained. “We’ve had to reserve about half the space in the theatre for our honoured guests and consequently we can only be certain that there will be around 225 tickets available for sale for the opening night performance.”
Horswill explained that to do justice to the importance of this production they are pulling out all the stops for the world premeire and have determined that they should spare no cost to maximize the production values and the theatrical and musical impact of the performances.
“To be able to afford everything we need to make this happen we have had to raise our ticket prices for this one unique production,” said Horswill.
Because tickets for the Thursday opening night performance are both scarce and in high demand, they will be the most expensive at $50 for each seat. Tickets for the Friday and Saturday evening performances will be $40 for adults and $30 for seniors and students. To keep KHAOS affordable for people on fixed incomes, we have also held ticket prices for the Saturday afternoon matinee performance at our previous price of $25 for adults and $15 for seniors and students.
Full-cast staging rehearsals of KHAOS began last Saturday. There will be a cast of 42 singers and instrumentalists and one solo dancer on stage for these performances as well as a behind-the-scenes crew of another 15 or 20 designers, directors and technicians.
“The commitment of each and every one of us is to do our utmost to ensure that every ticket holder leaves the theatre convinced that the performance of KHAOS they have watched was worth every penny they paid and more,” Horswill added. “Truly, no-one (opera lover or not) will want to miss the once-in-a-lifetime birth of the West Kootenays’ very own opera.”
KHAOS, created by local composer, Don Macdonald and local playwright, Nicola Harwood, is a re-imagining of the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone set in the contemporary world of climate change and looming global disaster. The opera asks the question “What if a civilization’s greed and need for “progress” prevented Persephone from returning to Earth to console her grieving mother? Would Demeter’s grief and rage end life on earth as we know it?