Overview
Attention, Best in Show fans: Get ready to laugh uproariously at this chamber opera from composer David T. Little and librettist Royce Vavrek, a hilarious sendup of the little-known Belgian sport of professional finch-calling. The birds’ names alone are worth the price of admission to this fun, occasionally poignant work, conducted by Austin Opera’s Sarah & Ernest Butler Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor Timothy Myers and directed by HGO Studio alumnus Ryan McKinny and E. Loren Meeker.
Additionally, as part of the Sarah & Ernest Butler Performance Series and our partnership with Houston Grand Opera, Vinkensport, or the Finch Opera is available for a limited time (until November 22, 2020) on-demand on Houston Grand Opera’s Marquee TV channel! Find out more about how to watch at home here.
Did you know? On Marquee TV, you can choose to watch with subtitles. Once on the video, click on the icon at the bottom right of the play bar to see your options.
Part of the Sarah & Ernest Butler Performance Series at the Blue Starlite Drive-In, Produced by the Houston Grand Opera.
read or download the libretto here
Cast and Creative Team
Conductor
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Timothy Myers
Conductor
Cast
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Nicole Heaston
Sir Elton John's Trainer
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Elena Villalón
Farinelli’s Trainer
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Alicia Gianni
Holy St. Francis’s Trainer
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Kelly Markgraf
Prince Gabriel III of Belgium’s Trainer’s Son
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Ricardo Garcia
Hans Sachs’s Trainer
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Ryan McKinny
Atticus Finch’s Trainer
Creative Team
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E. Loren Meeker
Co-director
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Ryan McKinny
Co-director
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David T. Little
Composer/Producer
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Royce Vavrek
Librettist/Producer
Notes
STORY
Vinkensport, or the Finch Opera, is a comic, one-act opera composed by David T. Little with the libretto by Royce Vavrek. The opera is being reenvisioned specifically for film by Co-directors E. Loren Meeker and Ryan McKinny. Vinkensport takes place in a small town, with six contestants in a finch-sitting competition. They sit in a row, approximately 6 feet apart from each other, with boxes containing their birds in front of them; it is silent save for the finch songs that can be heard, as the contestants solemnly mark down the tallies on wooden sticks. Some competitors are noble, some not. Some play fair, some don’t. But each finds comfort in the companionship of their bird, and joy in the mere potential of community. A work for our time, its spirit-lifting humor delivers us to moments of great empathy, as we – like these characters – long to feel that irreplaceable sense of togetherness.
read or download the libretto here
