I Heart Edmonton

The Opera & Ballet By Emil Tiedemann English musician and photographer Vernon West Barford (1876-1963)  moved to Edmonton on January 15, 1900 from the Northwest Territories, where he taught for two years. In 1904, Barford established Edmonton’s first opera, The Chimes of Normandy , for the newly formed Edmonton Amateur Operatic Society.  The Edmonton Opera's production of Puccini's 'Turandot.' That was eventually succeeded by Beatrice Carmichael ’s Edmonton Civic Opera (1935-46), Herbert & Eileen Turner’ s Light Opera of Edmonton (1950-67), and finally the Edmonton Professional Opera Association in 1963, premiering with Giacomo Puccini ’s Madama Butterfly that October, and Jean Letourneay at the helm as artistic director.  By the time the society shortened its name simply to the Edmonton Opera in 1966, our hometown was synonymous with oil, not culture. It was probable that most locals at that time never even knew there was an opera in town, let...

Northern Jubilee Auditorium By Emil Tiedemann On May 4, 1954, Premier Ernest Manning announced that “identical” arts facilities would be built in Edmonton and Calgary as a gift from the provincial government to the people of Alberta as a way to celebrate the province’s 50th anniversary.  The mandate for the Northern & Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditoriums was to provide a place of celebration for community spirit and cultural enrichment. Known simply as “the Jube,” construction on the buildings began in 1955, and opened its doors to the public for the first time on April 28, 1957 (in both cities).  By September of 1963, the Jube was home to the Edmonton Opera , which premiered there with Puccini ’s Madama Butterfly . Three years later, in 1966, the Alberta Ballet also took up residence at the Jube, which was located just off the University of Alberta grounds.  There have been countless stage productions performed at the Jube over the years, as well as ...

Edmonton's Jube sold more tickets last year than any other theatre in the country, eclipsing Calgary and Toronto BY EMIL TIEDEMANN I T seems that every other week Edmontonians have something else to brag about, from recently being named North America's " Most Sociable City " to being frontrunner for the EXPO 2017 bid , and from accommodating the headquarters of Canada's "#1 company to work for" ( PCL ) to the opening of the world-class Art Gallery of Alberta . Hell, even the Oilers have finally started to win some games! And now, the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium has just been bestowed as Canada's busiest theatre, with 146,555 tickets sold in 2009 alone, according to concert industry publication Pollstar . Those numbers place the 2,515-seat venue ahead of Calgary's 2,515-seat Jubilee theatre (138,515 tickets) and even Toronto's 2,752-seat Massey Hall (93,742). But those figures are only based on touring shows (such as musicals and ...