Things To Do: 7 can't-miss Vancouver arts events this week, June 22 to 28

by The Georgia Straight Staff on June 22nd, 2016 at 1:30 PM

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Editor’s choice

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

’Tis the season for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and you can do no better than to see it in its operatic form. Benjamin Britten’s creation is often lauded as the most successful adaptation of Shakespeare’s work into an opera, and if you’ve never seen it, its inventive music casts a definite spell. In this UBC Opera production, Nancy Hermiston directs the school’s vigorously trained opera ensemble amid a woodland set, with members of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra lending their considerable chops to the atmospheric harmonies, under the baton of Leslie Dala. We just have one word: magical.

UBC Opera presents Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at UBC’s Old Auditorium from Thursday to Sunday (June 23 to 26).

Mark Takeshi McGregor artwork

Guest pick

Spatial Poetics XV

Heather McDermid is marketing and communications manager for Vancouver New Music, whose 43rd season launches October 13 with Mechanical Music. She’s also a cofounder of the Creaking Planks. Here’s her pick for this week: “This is a week I wish I could be in lots of places at once, there is so much happening. A highlight for me is Spatial Poetics XV, presented by the Powell Street Festival Society. This year’s performances take inspiration from Japanese ghost stories, like ‘Mujina, the Faceless Ghost’. Bringing together voice, taiko drumming, and live illustration, plus butoh dance and viola, it promises to be a fun and imaginative evening!”.

Spatial Poetics XV happens Saturday (June 25) at SFU Woodward’s in the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts.