COR
Operas
Content warning: gun violence, strong language, terminal illness, attempted assisted suicide
A father and son argue in a dark alley. The father, sick with a tumour "the size of a fig" in his brain, begs his son to end his life. When the gun they're using fails and the son panics, the father offers comfort and encouragement in the form of a ...
A father and son argue in a dark alley. The father, sick with a tumour "the size of a fig" in his brain, begs his son to end his life. When the gun they're using fails and the son panics, the father offers comfort and encouragement in the form of a ...
Composer: Cecilia Livingston
Librettist: David Yee
Content warning: child neglect, death, migration, strong language, trauma, war
When Sophia’s mother dies, Sophia confronts half-forgotten traumas from her childhood. Sophia and her sister Emma grew up in a war torn country. The two young girls cope with and escape their grim circumstances – the adult world of war, death and displacement – thr...
When Sophia’s mother dies, Sophia confronts half-forgotten traumas from her childhood. Sophia and her sister Emma grew up in a war torn country. The two young girls cope with and escape their grim circumstances – the adult world of war, death and displacement – thr...
Composer: Lembit Beecher
Librettist: Hannah Moscovitch
A multicultural retelling of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.
"The jealous king Leontes’ wife, Hermione, is accused of committing adultery with his best friend, Polixenes, and Hermione is jailed. Soon after, Leontes and Hermione’s young son dies before she gives birth to a daughter Perdita who is smuggled out of the country after Hermione’s s...
"The jealous king Leontes’ wife, Hermione, is accused of committing adultery with his best friend, Polixenes, and Hermione is jailed. Soon after, Leontes and Hermione’s young son dies before she gives birth to a daughter Perdita who is smuggled out of the country after Hermione’s s...
Composer: Juliet Palmer
The opera is a poetic love story following resistance against a fictional state that oppresses lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. It centres on the rebellious Solana and her beloved Lilah, who is now a wife and mother; together, they fight for a new future, even as their secret romance is threatened by Lilah’s unpredictable h...
Composer: Leslie Uyeda
Librettist: Rachel Rose
Act One, Scene One
Autumn, 1915
In the park of a small town in the Crowsnest Pass, family and friends celebrate the wedding of Filumena Costanzo to Charlie Lassandro. As festivities proceed, Filumena seems withdrawn, stunned by her new husband’s brusqueness. Charlie has given her a new “Canadian” name, Florence, which she clearly rejects. ...
Autumn, 1915
In the park of a small town in the Crowsnest Pass, family and friends celebrate the wedding of Filumena Costanzo to Charlie Lassandro. As festivities proceed, Filumena seems withdrawn, stunned by her new husband’s brusqueness. Charlie has given her a new “Canadian” name, Florence, which she clearly rejects. ...
Composer: John Estacio
Librettist: John Murrell
Anna and Michael are successful young filmmakers from Alberta, married in life and in art. Their latest project is a movie about Martin Frobisher, Elizabethan pirate and explorer who made three perilous journeys to the Arctic in the 1570s. History says that Frobisher failed in his attempt to find the fabled Northwest Passage, a quick route thro...
Composer: John Estacio
Librettist: John Murrell
Act One
In the mountains of British Columbia in 1980, Irene and her son Jimmy pack up Irene’s beloved cabin, in preparation for moving her to the city for better care. Jimmy discovers an old-fashioned spinning top. Irene reveals it once belonged to Lillian Alling, a mysterious woman who disappeared into the wilderness more than fifty years ago....
In the mountains of British Columbia in 1980, Irene and her son Jimmy pack up Irene’s beloved cabin, in preparation for moving her to the city for better care. Jimmy discovers an old-fashioned spinning top. Irene reveals it once belonged to Lillian Alling, a mysterious woman who disappeared into the wilderness more than fifty years ago....
Composer: John Estacio
Librettist: John Murrell
Content warning: execution, incest, murder, sexual assault, slavery, torture, violence
Beatrice Chancy is a historical drama based upon the true story of the Cenci family of Rome, circa 1600. The story is set on a plantation in Nova Scotia during the last days of slavery, circa 1800, with the heroine Beatrice as the half-caste daughter of her...
Beatrice Chancy is a historical drama based upon the true story of the Cenci family of Rome, circa 1600. The story is set on a plantation in Nova Scotia during the last days of slavery, circa 1800, with the heroine Beatrice as the half-caste daughter of her...
Composer: James Rolfe
Librettist: George Elliott Clarke
Content warning: blood, gun violence, murder
Pedro Carmona, a young surgeon and son of a prominent Portuguese general, has escaped military service in Angola in 1968 by fleeing to Toronto with his upper-class wife Constanza. In order to survive, he has taken two jobs while he retrains to qualify as a doctor. The opera begins as Constanza—sick...
Pedro Carmona, a young surgeon and son of a prominent Portuguese general, has escaped military service in Angola in 1968 by fleeing to Toronto with his upper-class wife Constanza. In order to survive, he has taken two jobs while he retrains to qualify as a doctor. The opera begins as Constanza—sick...
Composer: James Rolfe
Librettist: Paul Bentley
COR
Excerpts
A father comforts his son as he encourages him to end his life, rather than waiting for him to die of a terminal illness.
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