THE BOOK OF MY SHAMES
Where: Baumann Centre, 925 Balmoral Rd.
When: Friday, May 12 through Sunday, May 14
Tickets: $40 ($15 for youth) from the Royal McPherson box office (250-386-6121) or
Operatic tenor Isaiah Bell moved from Fort St. John to Victoria in 2003, eventually receiving his degree in music from the University of Victoria in 2008. His singing career has taken him to stages worldwide for extended periods, but finally — after the better part of 20 years — Bell considers himself a permanent resident.
And he’s committed to making the most of that opportunity.
“My dream is to be able to build something [creative] here,” Bell 37, told the Times Colonist. “There’s always this thing where you have to go away before people start taking you seriously. That’s very annoying.”
Bell is hoping that materializes in a creative spark, one that draws on local resources and participants to make city-specific art. “I really want to build something that comes out of Victoria, rather than something that is created in Victoria and can go anywhere.”
The Book of My Shames is the first step towards that journey.
The hybrid opera/cabaret/theatre performance — which has been dubbed “part confessional comedy, part opera séance, part love letter to lost innocence” — features original music and words from Bell, who co-created The Book of My Shames with director Sean Guist, artistic director of Intrepid Theatre.
It is based on a journal Bell wrote when he was a teenager, and is told from a first-person perspective. Parts of it are emotionally raw. His fundamentalist upbringing in Fort St. John is discussed, and the details of his youth are arresting, to say the least.
“We call it a cult, [but] there’s some disagreement about that,” Bell said. “No one killed anyone, but a fundamentalist, reclusive community in Northern sa国际传媒, I certainly consider that to be a cult.”
Because he is gay and was raised in a toxic environment, Bell said most people assume The Book of My Shames is about, well, shame. That is not the case.
“People always assume that it’s about that. The show isn’t specifically about coming out, or really even about sexuality at all. It’s not a coming-out story, it’s not a coming-of-age story, and it’s not a walk down memory lane. The reason I’m going back to these stories is not because I need to go back and rehash all of this stuff. The relationship that you have with that person, that part of yourself, that’s what this show is about.”
The roots of the project date back to 2019. Bell came to national attention in 2018, when he was cast in Hadrian, an opera from composer Rufus Wainwright and librettist Daniel MacIvor that had its world première in Toronto. It was the first production in the Canadian Opera Company’s 68-year history to feature a central gay theme. Soon after Hadrian wrapped, Bell workshopped an in-progress version of The Book of My Shames back home in Victoria.
That same year he took the project to Tapestry Opera in Toronto, where it premièred to raves from critics. The piece, originally written for piano and voice, has continued to morph over time. “It has been about six times we have taken it to different places,” Bell said. “And each time, we’ve reshaped it and regrown it a little bit.”
Now arranged with a chamber quartet for accompaniment, Bell said it no longer resembles the solo showcase it was at the beginning. “It feels like this is the definitive version,” he said.
The Book of My Shames is closing the Incoming Festival with three performances at the Baumann Centre this weekend, the first-ever co-production between Pacific Opera Victoria and Victoria’s Intrepid Theatre. City Opera Vancouver is presenting three performances of it next week.
Bell taught at UVic during the pandemic, and worked with Victoria Baroque on several projects while the world struggled to recover from COVID-19. These are steps on the path forward, according to Bell.
“I’m really starting to convert from dreams into reality these ideas I’ve always had about building something that will draw people here.”
