Shakespeare\u2019s magic is returning to Victoria once again (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nBut his story doesn\u2019t end there. In 1999, he was hired by the University of Toronto to do the play, but it too didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat summer I had been in New York and directed a show, which ended up going to Broadway. Obviously I had to take this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and had to cancel my performance in Toronto to make my debut on Broadway. So I lost my second opportunity to do A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Diamond finally got a shot at directing the classic two years ago in St. John\u2019s, Newfoundland. Word reached across the country, and, thanks to Diamond\u2019s previous connections directing with POV, he was invited to direct the Shakespearean classic in Victoria.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost like I was making up for lost time, from all of the plays I had missed out on,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
With a larger budget than the east-coast performance, the Victoria production is expected to be much more spectacular, he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be quite a magical evening in the theatre,\u201d says Diamond.<\/p>\n
The story is set deep in a woodland forest inhabited by fairies and royalty\u2014of both the human and mythical realms. The tale of bizarre love spells and folklore spills into the theatre with a captivating backdrop to draw the audience nearer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe set is all white, using projected media to create an ever-changing cinematic experience for the audience,\u201d says Diamond. \u201cThe paths to the forest are actually the aisles of the theatre, to really bring the audience into the performance, with the singers coming right into the crowd. There\u2019s nothing like live performance. It\u2019s up to the audience to give themselves over to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diamond brings a lifetime of experience to the stage, from a childhood of acting in Winnipeg to a growing resume as performer and director.<\/p>\n
It was his classical music education that spawned his entry into the opera world.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found opera a little dull and was told that\u2019s why I should do it\u2014to make it less dull. It was one of the smartest things I have ever done,\u201d he says. \u201cI love my work so much and am so grateful every day. People pay me money to listen to the greatest music in the history of humankind, and I get to associate with those works on a daily basis. It\u2019s so fulfilling and rich to do these works. It\u2019s just such a gift job.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream
\n<\/i>April 14, 16, 22, and 24
\n$25 and up, Royal Theatre
\nrmts.bc.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pacific Opera Victoria (POV) are translating Shakespeare once again, this time with an operatic interpretation of A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream. The well-known comedic tale of crossed lovers invites an entry-level audience to the opera, says director Tom Diamond. \u201cIt\u2019s the kind of opera you can bring your kids to,\u201d says Diamond. \u201cWe may be able […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,163],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-humour","category-march-30-2016"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11928"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11948,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11928\/revisions\/11948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Shakespeare\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/MSND.jpg\")
<\/a>