Vancouver Opera's Lillian Alling A Conspicuous Success

Photo credit: Tim Matheson

Composer Estacio has crafted a solid, sturdy score of unusual tightness: there isn’t a false step in nearly three hours of music. In the first act, the “road opera” conceit tracing Lillian’s cross-continent trek gives a rich complement of charming segments such as a New York street scene (complete with references to '20s pop idioms), a lovely aria for tenor Colin Ainsworth (a male equivalent of Carlisle Floyd’s “Ain’t it A Pretty Night” perhaps?), and a nice “meet cute” for Lillian and her would-be suitor, Scotty MacDonald, sung with easy assurance by baritone Aaron St. Clair Nicholson.

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