COR
Operas
A 12 minute long opera, it is set during the 1996 Olympics and Paralympics held in Atlanta. A Paralympic athlete with a disability, and a person of color made homeless by the construction of Olympic sites, meet by chance in Piedmont Park in front of a strange statue. “Before the Last Meter” explores and humanizes the themes of ambition, home, ...
Composer: Saman Shahi
Librettist: Isabella Dawis
Content warning: death, incarceration, interrogation, suicide, torture
A translator at a secret prison for suspected terrorists witnesses extreme torture and death of detainees. She leaks the information to news broadcasters, but the government covers it up as a hoax. Her supervisor begs her to say nothing more about the things she has seen -...
A translator at a secret prison for suspected terrorists witnesses extreme torture and death of detainees. She leaks the information to news broadcasters, but the government covers it up as a hoax. Her supervisor begs her to say nothing more about the things she has seen -...
Composer: David Ogborn
Librettist: Leanna Brodie
Nominated for a 2009 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Musical/Opera, this 40-minute tragi-comedy about creative integrity, autonomy, and the right fit is an allegorical tale that dismantles the ironies of capitalism; a parody of cross-border relations; a romance.
Due to the all-powerful Ford selecting the American Phillips screw for...
Due to the all-powerful Ford selecting the American Phillips screw for...
Composer: Abigail Richardson
Librettist: Alexis Diamond
Content warning: illness, death, colonialism
Facing South is inspired by the life story of American Arctic explorer, Rear Admiral Robert Edwin Peary, and his contested discovery of the North Pole in 1909. The opera takes place in the inner landscape of Peary’s mind during the last hours of his life in February 1920, as he lies dying of pernic...
Facing South is inspired by the life story of American Arctic explorer, Rear Admiral Robert Edwin Peary, and his contested discovery of the North Pole in 1909. The opera takes place in the inner landscape of Peary’s mind during the last hours of his life in February 1920, as he lies dying of pernic...
Composer: Linda Catlin Smith
Librettist: Don Hannah
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Excerpts
Amalia critiques the two screwdrivers and chooses the Robertson.
2003: After leaking torture photos to the internet, American army translator Alessandra Jenson refuses to be hushed up, and live streams her suicide in protest.
Colonel Crane, Alessandra's supervisor, tersely tells her to lose what her perceives as her naive sense of morality: "We are just here to win."
Traumatized by her experiences, Alessandra reflects on her work as a translator in an American military prison.
Phillips realizes he will not get rich in his deal with Ford, but Ford will.
Amalia critiques the two screwdrivers and chooses the Robertson.
Ford and Phillips celebrate while Robertson is chagrined and depressed by his failure to get the contract. Amalia finally finds the screwdriver aisle in the store.
In the afterlife, Henry Ford invites Robertson to present his screwdriver. Ford is rapturously impressed, and offers Roberston a deal - but with the catch that Ford would then own the rights to his invention (as Ford puts it, he demands "complete submission"). Phillips reveals himself and makes a sales pitch. Ford is less attracted, but offer...
Robertson in his shop, Amalia (present day) in her bathroom with her antique vanity, Phillips in his workshop, also injured by a screw driver slip.
In the afterlife, Henry Ford invites Robertson to present his screwdriver.
Phillips sings the praises of his new screwdriver.
Robertson in his shop, Amalia (present day) in her bathroom with her antique vanity, Phillips in his workshop, also injured by a screw driver slip.
Robertson demonstrates the new “automatic spiral ratchet spring-loaded screw driver,” affectionately called the “Yankee.” The demonstration is cut short when the driver slips off the single slot screw, injuring Robertson’s hand.
Josephine wonders what discovery is worth.
Henson helps Minik reach the land of the dead; Peary and Josephine argue about Peary's Inuit children.
The explorers make a plan to bring the Inuit to America to make money.
Josephine asks for Henson's help, despite Peary's past bad treatment of him.
An ill and delirious Peary reminisces about his polar days; his wife remembers their early love.
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