Out of a dream and into Salmon Arm.
Soprano Eva Tavares recently performed in a Patrick Street Production of Out of a Dream, a revue with songs from all 11 Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals including The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, The King and I, Carousel and more at Vancouver’s Gateway Theatre.
Visiting her parents in the Shuswap, Tavares will perform in concert June 19 at Deo Lutheran Church.
Tavares graduated with her BA in music in May 2014. Since then, she has performed in opera and musical theatre productions in Vancouver and Toronto.
“Before I went to do my degree, I was a dancer as well,” says Tavares, who grew up in the Lower Mainland and took dance lessons from the time she was two-and-a-half until she turned 18. “I started singing at 14 and began competing all over the province, so it made sense for me to go and do my degree in music.”
While studying, Tavares got several contracts with professional companies, including a children’s opera in a touring production with Vancouver Opera.
In fourth year, she performed in Albert Herring and this year, choreographed Die Fladermaus for the opera company.
Tavares has landed a four-month contract with Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre to perform Maria in West Side Story.
“It’s one of those roles that I have to do before I die kind of thing,” she laughs, noting the period between an audition and finding out if it is successful is usually about 10 days. “The hardest part is the waiting. You go out for tons of auditions and go home and think you’ve done a good job, but you know you can’t have them all, so you go home and beat yourself up.”
But getting up on stage singing and dancing and making people feel things is the prize at the end of the road, she says.
Tavares also belongs to Vancouver’s Lady Larks, a 1940s revival group that dresses up in period costumes and performs music made popular by the Andrew Sisters and Vera Lynn, among others.
The group does a lot of private performances through Health Arts, taking their music into retirement and care homes.
“Of all the music I do, people react to it so viscerally it’s incredible,” she says, recalling an elderly gentleman who was unresponsive and unable to move. But when the show was underway, his toe started tapping.
“I get to show people beautiful things and help them feel and remember things,” she says. “Music has memories attached to it and I like to think of performers and musicians as examples of human empathy – acting as a guide to let people feel those things.”
At Friday’s concert, Tavares will perform a compilation of operatic arias, art songs, musical theatre and some of the 1940s material, including White Cliffs of Dover.
The concert takes place at 7:30 p.m. at Deo Lutheran Church, 1801 30th St. NE. Doors open at 7.
Proceeds go to the NDP North Okanagan/Shuswap constituency campaign.