Back in 2017 Bicycle Opera Project toured the a cappella opera Sweat by Anna Chatterton and Juliet Palmer.  I caught it in Hamilton and Toronto.  In the intervening years it’s been turned into a film that premiered at the Revue Cinema on Roncesvalles on Saturday night.

I was expecting, I think, something like a video of the stage show along the lines of all those things we watched with mixed feelings during the Great Plague.  I was wrong.  This is an atmospheric, location filmed, movie with terrific direction by Jennifer Nicholls, really impressive cinematography by Ash Tailor Jones and very effective sound design by Geoff Sirett.

The story line is still the same and so, mostly, is the cast.  Three dancers have been added who greatly increase the choreographic capabilities, which are brilliantly exploited by Jenn Nicholls, and it’s filmed in grungy industrial locations in Hamilton and Kingston.

It’s a fine ensemble performance musically; as it was on stage, but I think thee new format allows the principal characters to present with more depth.  This is especially true of Keith Lam’s sleazy factory owner and Stephanie Tritchew’s feisty union organizer.

It’s filmed using top notch modern technology and it came over really well at the Revue, which is a surprisingly good venue for an opera film.  It’s a bit scruffy in an old fashioned movie house way, but it has great video and audio equipment.  The sound, for opera (or I would guess classic films), is way better than Theatre 1 at the Scotiabank where the MetHD broadcasts play.

Full details on the film can be found here.

In exemplary traditional fashion, on Saturday the main feature was preceded by an animated short.  It was The Wild Goose by Wade Hemsworth arranged for tenor and piano by Cecilia Livingston and performed beautifully by Lawrence Wiliford and Steven Philcox.  The animation was by a team from OCAD and was very cute but (picky, picky) what self respecting Canadian woodsman uses a kayak paddle in a canoe?  Bill Mason would be horrified!

So how doers one get to see Sweat?  It’s probably going to be hard to find in cinemas.  Distributors, even film festivals, run a mile at the idea of an “opera film”.  It is being streamed though for the next couple of weeks and can be watched for a modest donation.  Details are here.

Highly trecommended.