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  • Home
  • About COR
    • About COR
    • How To Use COR
    • FAQ – For Users
  • Operas
  • Creators
  • Submit Your Work
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Canadian Opera Resource
Canadian Opera Resource
COR
Operas
Sanctuary Song
An opera for all ages. Sydney, an Asian elephant poached at a young age from the jungles of Indonesia, recalls her remarkable life in captivity, far from home, as her keeper of 22 years leads her on a journey towards sanctuary in the hills of Tennessee. A dynamic weaving of opera and dance unearths friendships lost and found and restores a stole...
Composer: Abigail Richardson
Librettist: Marjorie Chan

Sanctuary Song
Sanctuary Song
dawn always begins in the bones
A collection of dramatic musical settings of poetry by twelve different Canadian writers. The poems range from serious to humorous, and touch on subjects including the beauty of nature, to ecology and urban animals, to language and poetry itself.
Composer: Ana Sokolović

You and Meme
An awkward first date seems destined for failure, until the two bond over a mutual love of memes. The result? A hot, steamy connection over goats.
Composer: Dean Burry
Librettist: Nicolas Billon

You and Meme
You and Meme
The Waterfall
Content warning: sexual harassment, violence, fire

A northern land, the end of winter. A cold, dusky pre-dawn on the edge of a mountain; across the valley roars a mighty waterfall. In this valley there are two farms, one poor - owned by Runa, a single woman - and one rich, owned by Olaf, who wishes Runa for his bride.

Olaf proposes to Runa...
Composer: Norbert Palej
Librettist: Maja Ardal

The Waterfall
The Waterfall
The Last Life
A farmer lovingly takes care of his brown cow, not knowing he and the cow have met before in past lives, once in the 18th century and again in the 20th.
Composer: Katya Pine
Librettist: Sharon Bajer

The Last Life
The Colony
While out on a hunt for a new mate, The Queen of the Amazon Ants and one of her subjects find themselves under attack.

The Queen wears low cut, tight-fitting army fatigues that accentuate her shapely thorax and abdomen, and a pair of black calf-high combat boots. The Queen also has two large antennae growing out of her head because she is an ...
Composer: Kevin Morse
Librettist: Lisa Codrington

The Colony
The Colony
Chicken or Beef?
Each of two brother bulls attempts to convince the other to enter the barn. Neither wants to go, knowing their lives are at stake. The two flatter, dare, and challenge one another, until a race finally settles it: first one to the barn wins. Sort of.
Composer: Justine F. Chen
Librettist: David James Brock

Chicken or Beef?
Chicken or Beef?
Nigredo Hotel
A ‘Hitchcock-style thriller’ for baritone and soprano, Nigredo Hotel is “the story of a neurosurgeon, a man of science, who has lost his soul. One night he thinks he has hit a child on the road and hides out in a decrepit, Hitchcockian motel run by a monstrous concierge called Sophie. The terrifying crone — his anima — locks him into his room an...
Composer: Nic Gotham
Librettist: Ann-Marie MacDonald

Nigredo Hotel
Mousetrap
In a video game, two mice are navigating through a house when suddenly they encounter a giant squirrel.
Composer: Rene Orth
Librettist: Lila Palmer

Mousetrap
Mousetrap
Hydrophis Expedition
"My real voice is my cry: OPEN YOUR EYES."

The Hydrophis is a Deep Sea Submergence Vehicle (DSV) that takes scientists on extreme-depth expeditions to research and explore. During a recent expedition, a rare jellyfish, Stygiomedus Gigantea, has been captured on film. It is rarely seen but thought to be one of the largest invertebrate predator...
Composer: Benton Roark
Librettist: Colleen Murphy

Hydrophis Expedition
Harper’s Floe
A historical reenactment: Prime Minister Stephen Harper sets off to the Arctic to claim dominion over a particular ice floe. Mr. Valernikov, a Russian seal, mistakes Harper for a full-figured female seal and propositions him. After sorting out the misunderstanding, Valernikov claims Harper is in Russian waters. Harper, chagrined, tries to make h...
Composer: Norbert Palej
Librettist: Charles Hayter

Harper’s Floe
Harper’s Floe
Elsewhereless
Content warning: genocide, colonialism, death, gun violence, death of a child, violence against animals

“Nothing is as comforting as captivity.”

Beth, a young diplomat, and her husband Andrew are stationed at a Canadian Embassy in Africa. They are troubled by news of political upheaval, forced migrations and indiscriminate slaughter. They ...
Composer: Rodney Sharman
Librettist: Atom Egoyan

Elsewhereless
COR
Excerpts
Sanctuary Song – Scene 5: First Meeting

Sydney and James meet for the first time. Though both are nervous, they connect with each other.

Chicken or Beef? – Chicken or Beef?

Each of two brother bulls attempts to convince the other to enter the barn. Neither wants to go, knowing their lives are at stake. The two flatter, dare, and challenge one another, until a race finally settles it: first one to the barn wins. Sort of.

You and Meme – You and Meme

An awkward first date seems destined for failure, until the two bond over a mutual love of memes. The result? A hot, steamy connection over goats.

Dark Star Requiem – “Zoonosis” (aria)

Recounts the presumed origin of the HIV virus, initially as SIV non-human primates in Central Africa.

The Waterfall – Part 1

On the first warm spring day in the mountains, Olaf, a rich farmer, proposes to Runa, a poor farmer, only to discover that she is in love with the bandit Davith. Angered by this, Olaf burns down Runa's farm, and Runa escapes up the mountain searching for Davith.

Dark Star Requiem – “Black Lion”

The soloists describe AIDS as a black lion and a pack of hyenas, while the chorus continues listing medications.

The Last Life – The Last Life

Former lovers are reincarnated and reunited, but this time around one is a farmer and one is his cow.

The Colony – “No Ants?!”

The Queen of the Amazon Ants laments the fallen state of her realm to her lone remaining subject.  She decides she must find a mate.

Elsewhereless – Scene 3: “All reports that innocent people”

Beth reads Andrew a memo from a political figure denying the murder of innocent people and claiming that suspensions of civil liberties are essential. Beth and Andrew go downstairs for dinner, where Malcolm has prepared them a live monkey.

Sanctuary Song – Scene 7: Reunion

Sydney exits the train with James at the Sanctuary and sees her old friend Penny. They reunite lovingly. Sydney and James say their final goodbye.

Sanctuary Song – Scene 6: Arrival

Sydney and James arrive in Tennessee, remembering their 22 years together. They say goodbye.

Harper’s Floe – Harper’s Floe

While claiming sovereignty of an ice floe, Harper meets a seal, then drowns as the floe melts.

Sanctuary Song – Scene 4: Alone (aria)

Sydney on her first day at the zoo. Frightened and alone, she thinks of her homeland.

Sanctuary Song – Scene 3: Fire

Sydney is injured in a fire and sold to the zoo.

Sanctuary Song – Scene 2: Capture

James and Sydney start their journey. Sydney remembers being young and playing in the forest with her friend Penny. One day, they are both captured, and the family herd is shot.

Sanctuary Song – Prologue/Scene 1: Goodbye

As he tries to get into the train car, James explains to Sydney the elephant why it is best for her to leave the zoo for a new home.

Elsewhereless – Scene 7: “Good evening Malcolm”

The action continues from scene 3. Beth and Andrew are waiting for their guest, Duncan, but Antoine arrives instead and cuts into the live monkey's skullcap without hesitation. He recounts how he almost wrote Malcolm a letter of recommendation.

Nigredo Hotel – “If it was a man” (aria)

Alone in his hotel room, Ray worries that he hit someone with his car on the road. After fearing it might have been a child, he convinces himself it was only a raccoon.

Elsewhereless – Scene 11: “We’re frightened”

Beth and Andrew demand Antoine that they be allowed to leave. He will keep them there forever because he wants to see them all become heroes and redeem his initial banishment with Eugene. Antoine grabs the dead monkey and begins to dance with it. A bullet explodes through the window, hitting Antoine and he falls to the ground.

Mousetrap – Mousetrap

In a video game, two mice are navigating through a house when suddenly they encounter a giant squirrel.

Hydrophis Expedition – Hydrophis Expedition (Close Your Eyes)

In a deep sea submergence vehicle, a crew voyages in search of a sea creature whose gaze can cause burns to the eyes.

Hydrophis Expedition – Serpent’s Aria

An undersea monster sings to the scientists observing her.

COR

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