First Person: Aria Umezawa on Opera Eats

Ready, Set, Taste!
Opera Five Serves Up a Tasty Opera

by Aria Umezawa

Three shows. Three courses. One evening you’ll never forget! 

Introducing Opera Eats, an evening of three one-act operas tantalizingly paired with a mouth-watering three-course meal. Presented by Opera Five, this is the first opera series of its kind to feature a unique Five Sense Experience to indulge your appetite. Opera Five’s sensory experience will thrill and charm you in unexpected and exciting ways. Get ready to taste some of the most beautiful performances you’ve ever seen or heard! 

It’s a magical food-pairing production to please your palate.

Opera Five is bringing the original elegance and extravagance back to the opera of yesteryear, where crowds gathered to share in a great performance and feast. The only difference? We’re serving up our librettos with lip-smackingly good food (think charcuterie and cake) specially paired to complement our modern-day interpretations.  

By mixing taste and sound, Opera Five creates a totally unique and awe-inspiring experience. The audience can relate to our program through a different set of senses. It’s a magical food-pairing production to please your palate.   

Here’s what to expect with Opera Five’s first Opera Eats: For our first course, the curtains will open on Hin und Zurück by Hindemith, where a husband returns home for his wife’s birthday only to discover  she is having an affair. Could there be a happier ending for this pair? This show is a dramatic palindrome — the same forwards and backwards — and to tease your taste buds we’ll feature a charcuterie-inspired skewer from Stasis Local Foods on Roncesvalles. 

For our second course, we’ll travel to eastward to Russia to indulge in the sultry sounds of Rachmaninoff’s Aleko. It’s the tale of a man who has fallen in with a band of gypsies. You’ll enter our hero’s world through a sampling of traditional Russian cuisine, created by a collective of caterers from Toronto’s Russian community. (Their perogies are piping hot and fresh from the oven — a bite of heaven!) 

Making its Canadian premiere for our third and final course, Milton Granger’s Talk Opera will captivate and delight. He playfully places the characters of Verdi’s Rigoletto in a smutty talk show setting called Cookie Time. What better way to enjoy the hysterics of our sweet finale than with light, fluffy cake pops from Starbucks.  

We know theatre and food are all about shared experiences. And we want to share our special performances with you. So get ready to taste, see and hear an evening to remember. 

Opera Five’s Opera Eats performances will take place at Gallery 345 December 4-6 sat 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online at http://operafive.brownpapertickets.com. We hope to see you there!