COR
Operas
Pirate Song tells the true story of two 18th-century female pirates, Mary Read of England and Ann Bonny of Ireland. To go to sea, they disguised themselves as men, and mixed business with pleasure by becoming lovers in 1720 while aboard a pirate ship captained by Calico Jack Rackham. When attacked by the British crown later that year in Jamaica,...
Composer: James Rolfe
Librettist: Anna Chatterton
Content warning: captivity, memory loss
Laura has been forcibly confined in a basement for years until she frees herself. She approaches a stranger on the street, wondering if the stranger remembers her, and discovers that she barely remembers herself.
Laura has been forcibly confined in a basement for years until she frees herself. She approaches a stranger on the street, wondering if the stranger remembers her, and discovers that she barely remembers herself.
Composer: Ivan Barbotin
Librettist: Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
An Iranian man sits in a hotel room in Canada, writing his morning prayers.
Composer: Afarin Mansouri
Librettist: Jessica Murphy Moo
Elvet is struck with grief over the death of his newborn child, not yet named.
Composer: August Murphy-King
Librettist: Kanika Ambrose
The story of two clans of little violinists, one that plays only in pizzicato and the other one only with the bow. They each claim to make the most beautiful music, so they argue and try separately to summon the Goddess of Music. She appears only when they play together, and reconciles the two clans, explaining that there is no such thing as the...
Composer: Diana Cotoman
Librettist: Diana Cotoman
Love Songs is an intimate story about love in five “thematic” movements: pure love, tender love, children’s love, mature love and love for a person who has been lost. The lyrics are sung in five languages: English, French, Serbian, Irish and Latin. There are interludes between the movements in which the phrase “I Love You” is delivered in 100 di...
Composer: Ana Sokolović
Boots invites you into a boudoir full of guilty pleasures. The performer presents a cast of more than thirty pairs of boots, procured over the last decade from secondhand stores, online auctions and retail outlets. She adds to her obsessive collection weekly. When will it stop?
Lyrics are taken from Emily Dickinson and Gertrude Stein, with ad...
Lyrics are taken from Emily Dickinson and Gertrude Stein, with ad...
Composer: Juliet Palmer
A young refugee panhandling on the street shares her true frustrations with and feelings towards the people who walk by, and occasionally give her small change or an online donation.
Composer: Prokhor Protasoff
Librettist: Sarah Henstra
COR
Excerpts
Agnieska questions why all of her previous relationships have failed.
Amalia critiques the two screwdrivers and chooses the Robertson.
Wandering in a big box store, Amalia dreams of what can be accomplished with hardware.
Amalia critiques the two screwdrivers and chooses the Robertson.
In the afterlife, Henry Ford invites Robertson to present his screwdriver.
Amalia dreams of what can be accomplished with hardware.
Phillips sings the praises of his new screwdriver.
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.
Laurel stabs the Stranger, killing him. As his body slides to the ground to rest at her feet, she begins to feel a new sense of freedom, not realising that it is at the cost of her conscience and her humanity. The aria should be performed with an improvisational blues quality over the regular pulse of the accompaniment, to convey both this sense...
Robertson, still sad, hopes his screwdriver will still be of use to others.
A young woman, Laurel, runs through a dark forest, filled with anxiety and haunted by disturbing memories.
Judith sings angrily at her brother when he expresses his desire to leave their childhood home after their father has died.
Daniel sings of his fear at the prospect of going down into the cellar of his childhood home, after his father has died.
A short scene, sampling the wedding scene where Elaine screams for Ben.
A celebration of iconic Hitchcock film moments, sampling from The Birds.
Using quintessential recordings of Maria Callas arias, an aspiring soprano engages with the full and intense presence of her idol. What begins as suffocation and frustration ends as confidence as the soprano gains a deeper understanding of her idol: she’s human. They both are.
A celebration of iconic Hitchcock film moments, sampling from The Man Who Knew Too Much, Psycho, and The Birds.
A deconstruction of moments in The Sound of Music.
Hope grows up quickly, climbing out of her crib as a woman of twenty-one. She sings to herself, wanting to leave the house.
Waking early, Agnieska admires her new lover Sumana as she is sleeping.
Shanawdithit reprimands Cormack for his saviour complex.
La Maupin introduces herself to the audience, sharing some of the gossip that has been spread about her.
The Goddess of Music reconciles the tribe of the arco violin players with the tribe of pizzicato players, inviting them to make music together.
Louise is ready. She chooses a climb, exploring and unleashing her own full voice as she travels upward.
The Mother appears at the window. She shares memories, loving praise and admonishments. The development of her child's talent and success has been her life's focus.
Qu Yuan wanders into the southern wilderness. As he travels, he composes a lament for himself and his lost position in court. In the present, Xiao Lian’s Father senses his end is near. Summoning up his strength, he joins with the spirit of Qu Yuan to tell the final chapter.
Pegasus recounts a dream in which their mother Medusa asks them to find her severed head. They reflect on the harrowing circumstances of their birth and their relationship with their brother Chrysaor and father Poseidon.
Medusa sings from beyond the grave, reaching out to her children and her two sisters. She tells the story of her rape by the god Poseidon and murder by the hero Perseus.
The performer echoes lines poetry from the Prologue, reflecting on the meaning of Maupin's story.
Maupin remembers her romance with the Countess de Florensac.
Maupin challenges a rude nobleman to a duel.
Maupin takes to the stage of the Paris Opéra.
Allegra has lost her engagement ring.
The performer sings a poem by Aphra Behn (1640-1689) about an androgynous queer lover.
Charlie performs the first number of his act: Mother Mary in the nativity scene, with the worries of a new mother carrying the son of god.
Charlie sings gently to his child, the Messiah, who he has been chosen to bear.
The Virgin Mary explains to Charlie why he has been chosen to carry the child of God.
Drag performer Charlie sings a number in the persona of the Virgin Mary.
Queen Liz imagines what it would be like to be free.
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.
The Shaman explains the end of the couple's tale.
The Shaman introduces the audience to his newest clients, a Man and Woman hoping to have a child.
An undersea monster sings to the scientists observing her.
In a dream state, M'dea recalls all she has done to survive.
Paris professes his love to Helen.
"A perfect score is all that counts." Lisa fixates on the consequences of her test and predicts that Annie and Caroline will banish her from "the circle of three" because of her imperfect score. She blames Mr. Herwin.
Simone describes her postpartum depression and wonders how it is that she cannot love her own child.
Lai Gwan compares her love for Nichol with the pull of the cool mountain water.
Lai Gwan compares her love for Nichol with the pull of the cool mountain water.
Lai Gwan compares her love for Nichol with the pull of the cool mountain water.
Lai Gwan compares her love for Nichol with the pull of the cool mountain water.
Filled with regret over his life, Manli sings of an abandoned love.
A figure skater reflects on her experience in competition and decides to switch to a new career path.
A figure skating coach reminisces about her own time in the competition spotlight.
Just before the wedding, Jason discovers Dahlia and the President murdered.
Zach longs for a lunch of junk food!
Lucifer rebuilds the cage, then tries to convince the audience to join him in self-exile.
Josephine wonders what discovery is worth.
Minik remembers Greenland.
Elvet is struck with grief over the death of his newborn child, not yet named.
A spoken monologue about the arrival of HIV to North America and Gaetan Dugas, the presumed patient-0.
Recounts the presumed origin of the HIV virus, initially as SIV non-human primates in Central Africa.
A setting of twelve statements of the words “Kyrie Eleison” (“Lord Have Mercy Upon Us”), a standard orthodox ritual practice.
An electroacoustic setting of an old Sufi song composed by Muhammad ‘Uthman (Egypt 1855-1900). The texts are considerably older; they were written by Sana’ il-Mulk (Egypt 1155-1211). The text is a poetic adoration of clouds: “O clouds adorn the crowns of the hills with garlands/And make the bending stream a bracelet for them/O sky, in you and i...
A box office worker longs to be on the opera stage.
A lament over the disbanding of brotherhood. Freddy wonders what will become of his friendship with Jeremiah.
Sophie, the manifestation of Ray's soul sings an extended aria explaining how she has been locked away from Ray since he was a child.
Henri wonders how, after all this time, it is possible that Lily doesn't reciprocate her feelings of love.
Cormack presents his findings about Shanawdithit to the members of the Beothuk institute.
Shanawdithit, dying, speaks to her ancestors. She is ready to leave this world.
Sydney on her first day at the zoo. Frightened and alone, she thinks of her homeland.
Ava bemoans Paul's lack of understanding, and her need for luxury.
A man recounts his prior murders.
A bar manager recounts the night she heard Frederick Chopin play piano, and the effect it had on her relationship with the bar’s resident piano player.
An old drunk recounts his failed marriage.
Having escaped forced confinment in a basement, a girl approaches a stranger. She asks if the stranger knows her, as she tries to remember her past.
A woman makes an appeal that the metal of her bell shouldn't be used for a war machine.
In a letter, Jaan asks if Noor still loves her.
Excited by the possibility of a night with a new lover, Sumana anxiously expresses her anticipation.
Sophie, the manifestation of Ray's soul sings an extended aria explaining how she has been locked away from Ray since he was a child.
Ray frantically tries to calm himself by reciting scientific jargon, while a being claiming to be his own child self tries to open the door.
Ray sings of the ambivalence his parents felt towards him as a child.
As Sophie runs a bath in the distance, Ray reflects on how uncomfortable bathing makes him feel.
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.
Ray, a jaded neurosurgeon, muses on the loss of his childhood wonder and innocence.
Julia remembers the love she felt for her son Paul when he was a baby.
Jackie realizes that her sherpa has died.
A man tries to write a letter home, but he cannot find the right words. He burns each rejected attempt.
Duet between the woman and a violin, symbolizing her daughter.
English 
French