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A one-woman opera exploring the life and work of Canadian artist Emily Carr takes to the stage on Sunday in Kleinburg.
Emily The Way You Are was penned by Mississauga's Jana Skarecky. It premieres at the McMichael Gallery and features performances by mezzo-soprano Ramona Carmelly as well as The Talisker Players, under the direction of conductor Gary Kulesha.
Organizers believed the gallery would be an appropriate place to stage the opera because it hosts some of Carr's work. The show is billed as a way to highlight the connection between Carr's achievements as a visual artist, her writings and the inner drama of her life.
Carr, who died in 1945, was a prolific artist and writer who was heavily influenced by nature as well as the First Nations cultures of British Columbia and Alaska. She wrote several books, including The Book of Small, The House of All Sorts, Growing Pains, Pause and The Heart of a Peacock, among others.
Skarecky was born in the Czech Republic and moved to Canada with her family when she was a young girl. She studied at Wilfrid Laurier University prior to earning her master's degree at the University of Sydney, in Australia.
Skarecky is also a visual artist and has her latest exhibition, Mountain, Forest, and Sky, hanging in the Emily Carr Gallery at Visual Arts Mississauga.
Sunday's opera is being presented as part of the New Music in New Places program. It also includes other music by Skarecky as well as poetry and prose by Di Brandt and Carr.
Show time is 1:30 p.m. Admission is free.
For more information, visit www.mcmichael.com or www.janaskarecky.com.
cclay@mississauga.net