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Pacific Opera Victoria's new centre elevated by art

When one imagines heavenly music, frogs probably aren’t the first image that leap to mind. Yet frogs are the central motif in a gigantic artwork created for Pacific Opera Victoria’s new opera centre.

When one imagines heavenly music, frogs probably aren’t the first image that leap to mind. Yet frogs are the central motif in a gigantic artwork created for Pacific Opera Victoria’s new opera centre.

The Baumann Centre for Pacific Opera Victoria, which cost $1 million, is more than just home to a master sculpture. The leased facility — POV’s new headquarters — is an essential step in the 36-year-old opera company’s survival, say its leaders.

First Nations artist Carey Newman donated his labour to create the $250,000 sculpture, Mind, Body and Spirit, bolted to the ceiling of the Baumann Centre’s Wingate Studio. The piece, carved from red cedar, measures nine metres by nine metres, making it the largest work the artist has made so far.

“It was a very pure process of creation,” said Newman, who carved much of it inside the Baumann Centre.

The sculpture is functional as well as beautiful. It serves as an acoustic baffle for the Baumann Centre’s Wingate Studio, designed for both voice and orchestral instruments. Cedar waves, symbolizing water and sound, undulate in four directions, deflecting sound into each corner of the studio.

In the artwork’s centre is a medallion measuring three metres across. It features stylized images of frogs blending into one another; tongues become toes; feet blend into heads. The medallion’s clear coat contains bronze particles that glimmer in the light.

For Newman, a former opera singer, the chirp-croak of the frog represents not only music but magic. And “magic” is how he views the music created by Pacific Opera Victoria.

The artist adds the mysterious morphing of the frogs in Mind, Body and Spirit symbolizes “continual change.” The sentiment is appropriate. The leaders of Pacific Opera Victoria say as creators of a centuries-old art form surviving in a technological age, the company’s capacity for change and evolution is essential.

The Baumann Centre is a key part of that evolution.

The facility is housed in a two-storey building at 925 Balmoral Rd. POV has signed a 10-year lease for the building, owned by the Church of St. John the Divine across the street.

The just-completed project, overseen by architect Franc D’Ambrosio, took six months to build. The top level consists of Wingate Studio and a commercial kitchen. Overlooking the studio is an office for Timothy Vernon, POV’s artistic director. The building’s lower level contains seven more offices, a box office/lobby, a meeting area, a volunteer work area and a smaller kitchen.

For Pacific Opera Victoria, the impact of the Baumann Centre will be “huge,” says Vernon. The building, in its pre-renovation incarnation, was sometimes rented by POV for rehearsals. But unlike now, the company had no monopoly on its use; the hall wasn’t always available. And lacking Newman’s sculpture/acoustic-baffle, the sound was far from perfect.

The Baumann Centre will be Pacific Opera Victoria’s new home, housing its administrative offices and box office. It will offer space for rehearsals, artist training, artistic collaborations and community outreach. And will, says Vernon, allow Pacific Opera Victoria to involve and interact with the city’s citizens as never before.

One educational venture he plans to start is a training program for aspiring opera conductors. It’s a highly specialized thing — he’s not aware of another in Canada.

“For a conductor,” Vernon says, “opera is