Sunrise bulletin for the week of October 2, 2013
In preparation for our club's 2014 project to benefit a school for refugee students in Colombia, we started this week's Rotary meeting with the 4-Way Test in Spanish. Today was Cleo Perez 's turn and no one knows who President Ann-Shirley Goodell will choose to do this in coming weeks. Apparently, "no habla espanol" isn't going to work.
We were 13 members this morning plus soon-to-be-new-member Tina Parbhakar and guest Steve McGrandle. Lots of grumbling about the dark, cold, rainy weather which was made all the worse by the message received from Sheila Anderson that it's in the 30s C in southern Europe where she is. Watch out, Sheila, you may have company.
Club news
Gary Chomyn reported that the Hoop-a-Thon committee has already started planning for the next Strathcona event which will be Saturday, June 7. The 2013 version raised over $60,000 of which $15,000 came from our club. Once again, 100 percent participation by members will be the plan for 2014.
Cleo revealed that the gala dinner for the Colombian school project will be Saturday, March 15. It's not too early now to start gathering items for the silent auction and making a list of the 125 people we want to invite. Ann-Shirley tells us that we will have 4 representatives from the Bucaramanga school here for the dinner. Who else do we know who has a connection with South America and would love to be part of this event?
Abigail Turner and Ann-Shirley are organizing our Guess Who's Coming for Dinner on October 19. This is always a great evening, so RSVP today to asgoodell@shaw.ca. We are short of hosts and hope you'll volunteer to do this if you can.
Cleo attended the Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) session last weekend and said it was excellent. One of the presenters was Marni Fraser, former member and past President of our club. Marni sends greetings to her friends at Vancouver Sunrise.
New member
Tina Parbhakar was welcomed as a new member of the club. As a former Rotarian, she knows the drill. President Ann-Shirley presented her Rotary pin and reminded us of the high standards expected of all Rotarians. Welcome, Tina.
Today's program
Our speaker this morning was Richard Williams, a choral musician and voice teacher, who spoke about Opera Pro Cantanti, a repertory opera company in Vancouver.
"Opera is dead!" proclaimed Richard, or at least it should be, after some 300 years. But yet it continues to hold audiences spellbound. Why? Richard believes that opera is an art which, unlike entertainment (Broadway shows, for example), is an acquired taste that gets better the more one studies it and becomes increasingly familiar with it. Richard says it's the sound of the singing that makes us believe the story and enjoy an opera. This is explained more fully in a book called "A Song of Love and Death" by Peter Conrad.
As an example, Richard summarized the very complex storyline for the opera Rigoletto, which is about a nobleman who conspires to seduce an innocent young girl. The plot involves a deformed hunchback father, a murderer for hire who adheres to the honour of his trade, and a host of conspirators who promote all the wrong things. As a play, this story hasn't been performed in a very long time, as audiences found it unconvincing. But, as an opera, it is hugely popular and is performed regularly to enthusiastic audiences all over the world. It's all in the way the singers use their voices as instruments, says the voice teacher.
To promote opera to new audiences at very affordable prices, Opera Pro Cantanti performs live opera most Sunday evenings at Cambrian Hall near Main and East 17th Avenue. Tickets are $18 ($12 for seniors and children) and Richard distributed some free tickets for those who were at the meeting. Milie Taing will see if we can find a date that a number of club members might attend together this fall.
Hunchbacks, murderers, lecherous noblemen -- sound like a Rotary club?
Rob