CHORAL MUSIC
What: Haydn's The Seasons with the Victoria Philharmonic Choir
When: 2:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 1
Where: Farquhar Auditorium, UVic
Tickets: $25/20; For more information, visit: vpchoir.squarespace.com or call: 250-721-8480
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After four musical seasons, Simon Capet will end his tenure as director of the Victoria Philharmonic Choir with this weekend's performance of Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Seasons.
The move marks a need for renewal for Capet, who wants to pursue his orchestral and operatic conducting skills, and for the choir.
"They'll have to re-invent themselves as separate from me, which I think could be a good thing," Capet, 38, said over americanos in a downtown coffee house.
Capet has drawn applause and controversy as a young risk-taker in Victoria's classical music scene since forming the choir almost four years ago.
In 2006, he brought renowned British composer Karl Jenkins to town for a performance of his Requiem. In 2007, the choir's staging of George Frideric Handel's Samson, with the hero as a suicide bomber in 1940s Israel, got international attention. Later that year, Capet set Antonin Dvorak's Spectre's Bride against a spectacular shadow-puppet show and invited local folkies Outlaw Social to be the opening act.
This summer, Capet's ambitious Euphonia Festival -- featuring several famous soloists -- was cancelled mid-run due to low ticket sales. The Thursday night concert of The Seasons met the same fate. The Saturday afternoon concert will go ahead.
"It's very difficult when you don't have a subscription base or the big grants to rely on," said Capet, who cites the setbacks as part of his reason for leaving. "Frankly, I do need to make a living."
Who better to send Capet off with advice on balancing an international career with a family life in Victoria than singing power couple Benjamin Butterfield and Anne Grimm.
The pair are two of the soloists featured in The Seasons. They moved to Victoria mid-career two years ago when Butterfield was offered a voice-teaching position at the University of Victoria. Like Capet, they have two small children and were drawn to raise a family here -- Butterfield's hometown.
"You have to get out there for yourself no matter where you are," said Butterfield, 43. The tenor once flew to a New York agent's office on a day's notice when the company changed hands so as not to be forgotten in the shuffle. "Do what you do well in the place you do it, then do what you do well in the next place."
Grimm, 40, just back from a European tour with Marc Destrube (another Victorian) and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, said the balancing act is not simple.
"It is a lot of work travelling and performing and taking care of small children," she said.
"Compared to these two I have it easy. My body is not my instrument," Capet said about the two singers, who perform as soloists around the world.
This weekend's concert is a rare and welcomed opportunity for the couple to perform together at home, with baritone Bruce Kelly.
"It's very nice for us and this is such a beautiful piece," Grimm said.
Capet said staging The Seasons, performed less often than the composer's famous oratorio The Creation, is fitting at this time in society.
"There is so much about ecology ... and some entertaining ironic bits like a fugue about the great wonders of industry," Capet said. "It was composed at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, so it's interesting to look at it now."
