When Cowtown Opera, Calgary’s alternative opera company, shut down in 2020, one of the few avenues for professional opera singers and performers to display their craft on stage disappeared.

The challenge for those Calgary professional performers, many of whom are highly credentialed with master’s degrees in opera performance, is that there is simply not enough opportunities to step into a solo role on stage.

Calgary Opera veterans Meaghan Schulz and Melissa Wang Jackson, whom both sing in the Calgary Opera chorus, started the Nightingale Arts Collective as a way to begin to offer more of those stage opportunities in the city.

“We really enjoy singing in the Opera Chorus, of course. But that’s just obviously chorus, that’s not solo work,” said Schulz.

“There was a blank space for singers in Calgary. There was nothing really for us to do on that professional or the semi-professional level. Lots of great community theatre in Calgary… a lot of [perfomrers] are looking for something that’s a little bit more professional work.”

The duo began holding “wine and shine” singing events in 2023, which welcomed singers to perform for each other and to socialize with their peers.

Seeing the opportunity for something more, the Nightingale Arts Collective was formed in October of that year to provide more performance opportunities, including the collective’s first concert format production of The Bridges of Madison County.

First a bestselling book by Robert James Waller, Bridges was turned into a critically acclaimed movie in 1995, followed by an award-winning Broadway production in 2013.

“I’ve been wanting to sing the part of Francesca for a long time, and I just thought we thought, well, let’s just do it. Instead of waiting for waiting around for somebody else to do it,” said Schulz.

The production debuts at cSpace Marda Loop on April 12 and 13, with tickets available through Brown Paper Tickets at m.bpt.me/event/6243302.

“There’s only 118 seats per show. We’ve performed in there before with Cowntown Opera, and it’s a really nice space to perform in. The staff is amazing to the audience… and it’s nice because you can see everybody. There’s really not a bad seat in the house,” said Schulz.

Tony award-winning musical performance a first for Calgary

The story of Bridges follows Italian war bride Francesca Johnson, who feels unfulfilled in her marriage to the loyal but stoic Bud Johnson.

A chance encounter with National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid, photographing the bridges of Madison County, turns into a whirlwind four-day affair that ends with both longing for what could have been, despite never reuniting.

The Broadway musical of Bridges was first staged in 2013 and garnered Jason Robert Brown two Tony awards for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations in 2014.

“It’s one of those shows that musicians and singers know about because the music is so beautiful and so wonderful to sing. There are many songs in it which have been taken out and done just as a showpiece song, or as an audition song,” said Wang Jackson

“The music is just so beautiful. It’s so beautiful. It lends itself this whole show to be sung in concert because the songs stand on their own.”

The decision to hold a concert version of the play, rather than a full-on theatrical musical show, was a testament to the strength of that music standing on its own through storytelling.

It was also a way to make the production more affordable to stage, and for audience members to attend.

“Most people know the story of The Bridges of Madison County, it doesn’t need a lot of staging. Ever since we started advertising this show… people in the theatre community, in the musical theatre community, that classical music community, everybody is super positive about,” said Wang Jackson.

Local talent, internationally recognized

Mezzo-soprano Schulz will be stepping into the role of Francesca, alongside tenor Stuart Howe, who trained at the New England Conservatory of Music and has performed internationally in Rossini and Donizetti operas.

Bridges will be his first return to Alberta to perform with Schulz, who both met at MacEwan University.

Musical director John Goulart will be performing on both guitar and mandolin and will be also arranging the music for the concert.

For audience members who might not be as familiar with the storyline of Bridges, Dr. Colin Martin, President of the Alberta Writers Guild, will be serving as a narrator between songs to help guide them through the story.

“The songs are so well written. This is true musical theater, the songs actually will tell the story. The songs actually will tell the story,” said Wang Jackson.

“So even when we’ve taken out some of the dialogue, or most of the dialogue, I feel that just hearing this musical in concert you will still feel the full effect of the story, and the character development, and the character relationships, and just the arc of the entire story that The Bridges of Madison County is telling.”

Schulz said that she hopes that audiences will get to experience some of that emotional journey that the characters go through and leave the theatre with a sense of the depth of the work.

“Really, that’s what theater is about, right? It’s supposed to make you feel things.”

Labour of love

Schulz said that both she and Wang Jackson have been taken aback by just how positive the reaction of the musical community has been to the show.

“It’s just astonishing. People have reached out and asked—I know a woman who has a PhD in vocal pedagogy, she reached out to us and asked to sing in the ensemble,” she said.

Wang Jackson said that she’s had people that she hasn’t worked with in decades reach out after hearing about the production, to ask more about the collective.

“I’ve had people texting me that I haven’t worked with in a long time—years, 20 years—who have said, ‘tell me about Nightingale, it sounds like something that I want to volunteer for, or I want to be a part of,'” she said.

Future plans for the collective include artist-choice cabarets, collaborative shows with other artist groups including dancers and actors, and possibly, in the future, fully-staged musicals.