Features
Emily, the Way You Are
Canadian art icon Emily Carr gets the one-woman show treatment
BY David Balzer April 16, 2008 17:04
Composer and painter Jana Skarecky and poet Di Brandt met at a conference several years ago, when Brandt commissioned Skarecky to write musical accompaniment to the works of P.K. Page. They formed a fast friendship, and discussed collaborating with each other, eventually settling on a project involving Canadian art icon Emily Carr. That project, Emily, the Way You Are — a one-woman opera that premieres at the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg this Sunday afternoon (April 20) as part of the Canadian Music Centre’s “New Music in New Places” program — is in many senses a portrait not only of Carr, but also of the women paying her tribute.
“Di is full of life and very down-to-earth and expresses feelings deeply,” says Skarecky. “Her [libretto] reflects that kind of character, which Emily had. Also like Emily, Di, who comes from the Manitoba Mennonite community, has had difficulty in her career with her own background, in terms of expressing what she needs to express and still being accepted by the people [who raised her].”
Skarecky talks admiringly of Carr as an artist “committed to her art and to expressing what’s important.” Hundreds and Thousands: The Journals of Emily Carr is one of Skarecky’s favourite books, and Carr has been an ongoing influence on her painting, which she often does in tandem with her musical composition.
“As I was working on this project I took some trips out west and spent some time sketching in [Vancouver’s] Stanley Park, drawing trees,” she says. “Then I did some paintings of forests as well. I have to be careful not to copy Carr; I’m trying to explore my own relationship to the forest and sky and mountains.
“I think [Carr and I] very much experience the world in a similar way. It seems to me that what you get through the physical senses isn’t the whole story — and the things that move people most are the things that are intangible, not what is visible or audible. Somehow, with what one sees or experiences in nature, or relationships, or whatever, it’s this invisible thing that’s so important. What I try to do in my music or painting is to let that shine through.”
Emily, the Way You Are is, accordingly, not a lavish production; there are no sets or costumes. Mezzo-soprano Ramona Carmelly sings along with pianist Joseph Ferretti and the Talisker Players under conductor Gary Kulesha, giving voice to Carr as well as to those in her life — her sisters, a spurned suitor, art critics and the Group of Seven’s Lawren Harris. Another important feature of this particular performance is, of course, the McMichael, the G7 Mecca where some of Carr’s works hang.
“When you write the notes on paper, they’re not the music, but merely an aid for the music to happen,” says Skarecky. “It’s an art that occurs in time, which you only experience while it’s occurring — whereas with a painting, you hang it on a wall and look at it whenever you want. Having [Emily] at the McMichael unites these different experiences; I’m just so happy that this is going to happen in a place that’s so well-suited to what it is.” DAVID BALZER
625 Church St, 6th Floor, Toronto M4Y 2G1
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