COR
  • Home
  • About COR
    • About COR
    • How To Use COR
    • FAQ – For Users
  • Operas
  • Creators
  • Submit Your Work
    • How To Submit Works
  • Log In
  • Sign Up
COR
COR
  • Home
  • About COR
    • About COR
    • How To Use COR
    • FAQ – For Users
  • Operas
  • Creators
  • Submit Your Work
    • How To Submit Works
  • Log In
  • Sign Up
    Canadian Opera Resource
    Canadian Opera Resource
    COR
    Operas
    (What Rhymes With) Azimuth
    A summer evening. A writer is experiencing a bit of writer’s block as she is sitting in an outdoor cafe in an historic area of town. She looks around for inspiration and happens to see a man looking at the stars with binoculars. Clouds block his view, and when he looks around he catches her glance and smiles. Is he really there? Or is he just in...
    Composer: Ivan Barbotin
    Librettist: Liza Balkan

    (What Rhymes With) Azimuth
    (What Rhymes With) Azimuth
    Ashlike on the Cradle of the Wind
    Content warning: AIDS, death, illness

    The interior of a thumping, vibrating gay nightclub with obligatory disco ball and coloured strobe lights. A middle-aged gentleman is sitting at the bar, back to the audience, lost in his thoughts and seemingly oblivious to his surroundings. The truth is he isn't used to going to clubs, or hasn't since th...
    Composer: Andrew Staniland
    Librettist: Jill Battson

    Ashlike on the Cradle of the Wind
    TAP:EX Augmented Opera
    This fifth installment of the Tapestry Explorations (TAP:EX) series offers a take on a Silicon Valley product launch, where audiences are the first to learn about Elysium, a new cloud-based technology that reimagines the afterlife as a perfect curation of our best memories. This fictional product draws attention to the modern world developing ne...
    Composer: Benton Roark
    Librettists: Debi Wong, Benton Roark

    TAP:EX Augmented Opera
    Bandits in the Valley
    The Don Valley. 1880, Toronto.

    Join George Taylor and the travelling Gilbert & Sullivan theatrical troupe The Vagabonds in a twenty-fifth anniversary celebration of the birth of his papermill. Unbeknownst to him, Jeremiah - the leader of a local small-potatoes bandit group called The Rift Rafters - just discovered a long-hidden secret abo...
    Composer: Benton Roark
    Librettist: Julie Tepperman

    Bandits in the Valley
    Bring Me the Head of Your President
    Democracy lies dead in a coffin, mourned by two citizens...

    "She lies silently in a coffin of ice, arms bound by a flag, eyes sewn together, mouth wired shut...”

    But slowly Democracy raises her weak head and begs the two citizens to keep her alive by executing a difficult but necessary task.
    Composer: August Murphy-King
    Librettist: Colleen Murphy

    Bring Me the Head of Your President
    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?
    Dance til the sun sets
    An entire relationship in microcosm, from first meeting to last sunset together. This piece uses a couple’s dancing together as a metaphor for their time passing.
    Composer: Gareth Williams
    Librettist: Marjorie Chan

    Dance til the sun sets
    Dance til the sun sets
    Dark Star Requiem
    Content warning: illness, death, HIV/AIDS

    Dark Star Requiem is a poetic chronicle of the 25 years (as of 2010) of HIV-AIDS, reflecting the many faces of the disease and those affected by the pandemic.
    Composer: Andrew Staniland
    Librettist: Jill Battson

    Dark Star Requiem
    Eshna
    Elvet is struck with grief over the death of his newborn child, not yet named.
    Composer: August Murphy-King
    Librettist: Kanika Ambrose

    Eshna
    Eshna
    Eva
    A son gets caught sleeping with his father's girlfriend, Eva. A three-way fight erupts, the son professing his love for Eva and vice versa, while the father warns they’ll betray each other soon enough. They leave, and the father grieves the loss of them both.
    Composer: Stephen Andrew Taylor
    Librettist: Anna Chatterton

    Eva
    Eva
    Facing South
    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...
    Composer: Linda Catlin Smith
    Librettist: Don Hannah

    Facing South
    Farewell Poo
    Charlie and Robert stand over a toilet examining Charlie's poo and reflecting on lost loved ones.
    Composer: Rene Orth
    Librettist: Daniel Solon

    Farewell Poo
    Farewell Poo
    TAP:EX Forbidden
    Content warning: sexual violence, incarceration, religious abuse, homophobia, conversion therapy

    Through several vignettes, Forbidden examines the idea of rules and taboos. Do they protect people, or do they control them? Are they of any value, or do they simply exploit the powerless?

    A young girl, punished with repetition of religious tex...
    Composer: Afarin Mansouri
    Librettist: Donna-Michelle St. Bernard

    TAP:EX Forbidden
    Get Stuffed
    Get Stuffed is a comic opera about serious decisions, featuring vocalizing vegetables and a big helping of other opinionated edible characters, all competing to influence one child's daily diet. Written for 5 singing actors and 2 musicians, this opera is intended for family audiences and touring to schools with a focus on encouraging youth to ma...
    Composer: Richard Payne
    Librettist: Alexis Diamond

    Get Stuffed
    Gotcha!
    It’s “gotcha day” – the term used for the first meeting between birth parents and adopted children – and Adam is about to meet his birth mother, Eileen. The reunion goes awry and they begin to wonder who has got whom.
    Composer: Darren Fung
    Librettist: Betty-Jane Wylie

    Gotcha!
    Gotcha!
    Guitar
    Singer-songwriter Josie works on a song in her shared Portland apartment, a girl-at-the-guitar on the cusp of leaving for New York City and a long-anticipated big break. Though her luggage is packed and she’s almost out the door, her boyfriend interjects with objections—he’ll miss her. Josie’s reassurances, dreams of him visiting her on the East...
    Composer: Elisabeth Mehl Greene
    Librettist: Norman Yeung

    Guitar
    Hook Up
    Content warning: explicit language, sexual violence, sexual content, alcohol, blackout drinking

    Hook Up tells the story of three friends who have made it to university, each with their own unique desires and inner conflicts. Mindy is just excited to keep her high school friend circle together and finally get some privacy with her boyfriend. T...
    Composer: Chris Thornborrow
    Librettist: Julie Tepperman

    Hook Up
    Hotel Lobby
    Two exes, each with their new partner, run into each other in a hotel lobby. Unresolved tension and suppressed emotions resurface in an awkward encounter no one will forget.
    Composer: Gareth Williams
    Librettist: Maja Ardal

    Hotel Lobby
    Hotel Lobby
    Ice Cream
    Content warning: illness, memory loss

    A mother and son have dinner. The mother is suffering from Alzheimer’s, and her son has increasing difficulty coping with that fact.
    Composer: Benton Roark
    Librettist: Liza Balkan

    Ice Cream
    Ice Cream
    In This World, George is Heartbroken
    Content warning: verbal abuse

    George and Martha have three very different versions of a difficult conversation over breakfast. The first two represent what happens in George’s mind when his wife insults him over breakfast. One is violent and reactionary, with George screaming and verbally abusing Martha. The other is more considered, as Georg...
    Composer: Lembit Beecher
    Librettist: Hannah Moscovitch

    In This World, George is Heartbroken
    Insomnia Composition
    At 4 a.m., a composer stands looking out the window, his tools nearby. Across town, a librettist is doing the same. Both are just slightly panicking about their latest work: an opera about a dog named Harley. This work is a meditation on the personal doubt, collegial suspicion, and sudden inspiration that can keep artists awake until the wee hours.
    Composer: Iman Habibi
    Librettist: Maja Ardal

    Insomnia Composition
    Insomnia Composition
    Jacqueline
    Content warning: terminal illness

    This is not a biographical opera, it is an exploration of an emotional journey. At age 5, Jacqueline has instant chemistry and sparks fly when she meets her cello. Their relationship grows stronger and closer, and Jacqueline matures into a charismatic and likeable teen, powerful on major stages. Soon she is a...
    Composer: Luna Pearl Woolf
    Librettist: Royce Vavrek

    Jacqueline
    Leaving
    Content warning: mental illness

    Simone has been battling undiagnosed postpartum depression, and is losing. She decides to leave, packing her bags, and her husband Marc begs her to explain. As their son sleeps in the next room, she leaves, and Marc doesn’t try to stop her.
    Composer: Darren J
    Librettist: Sharon Bajer

    Leaving
    Little Miss All Canadian
    Content warning: murder

    Two women, Eunice Rose and Samantha, sit in the audience during the semifinals of a junior “Miss All-Canadian” Pageant. Eunice’s daughter is on stage doing a dance routine Eunice choreographed herself. She holds a diet coke and eats chocolate while eying her daughter and criticizing her performance. Samantha, meanwhile...
    Composer: Lembit Beecher
    Librettist: Liza Balkan

    Little Miss All Canadian
    Lost and Found
    Lost and Found is a sexy tango encounter between two lost travelers who don’t share a common language, but bond over the serendipitous lexical delight of learning that the word “mango” is gloriously, sensuously, mutually intelligible. Jubilant over their shared discovery, the man asks the woman about returning to his place posthaste. The travele...
    Composer: Elisabeth Mehl Greene
    Librettist: Sharon Bajer

    Love Redux
    A modern retelling of the famous love story of Helen and Paris. In a hotel room, some time into their relationship, Helen and Paris’s ardour seems to be fluctuating.
    Composer: Benjamin Pesetsky
    Librettist: Hannah Moscovitch

    Love Redux
    Love Redux
    Lullaby at the Shore
    Content warning: xenophobia, migration

    A young child wakes up alone on the beach. They call for their mother. The sound of the waves muffles the voices of people who worry about newcomers and the effect that they will have on their society. Other voices take over - other children declaring that the child belongs with them now.

    Inspired by ...
    Composer: Afarin Mansouri
    Librettist: Marcia Johnson

    Lullaby at the Shore
    Lullaby at the Shore
    M’dea Undone
    Content warning: death, murder, suicide, xenophobia

    Jason, an army captain and now war-hero, is returning home after years of war and an uncertain future. His interpreter and lover M’dea and their son Chase accompany him to a new life in the West. Jason begins a political career, working alongside the President and Dahlia, the President’s bea...
    Composer: John Harris
    Librettist: Marjorie Chan

    M’dea Undone
    Merk’s Dream
    Content warning: death, ableism

    Old Merk feels his age. He will die soon. He tries to prepare Pauline, his mentally disabled adult daughter, for the inevitable. What, if anything, will she remember of him? Of the house they share? Of their life together? Will she remember her father’s love? Will she remember the embrace of home? Will she unde...
    Composer: Elisabeth Mehl Greene
    Librettist: Nick Carpenter

    Merk’s Dream
    Morning Prayers
    An Iranian man sits in a hotel room in Canada, writing his morning prayers.
    Composer: Afarin Mansouri
    Librettist: Jessica Murphy Moo

    Morning Prayers
    Morning Prayers
    Mother Everest
    Content warning: death

    Just below the summit of Mount Everest on the south summit ridge, Jackie and her partner Pasang are celebrating that she is the first woman to reach the summit without oxygen. Then something changes. Could it be Mother Everest punishing the climbers?
    Composer: Abigail Richardson
    Librettist: Marjorie Chan

    Mother Everest
    Mother Everest
    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
    My Eyes are Bright and Sparkly
    “Hate your stupid earrings, hate your ugly shoes.” Stephanie is getting ready to go out on a date, but she begins to unravel when she checks herself in the mirror. The voices she hears in her head are variations of her own critical voice. She sees herself the way she imagines her date will see her. Nothing is right – everything is wrong. It is a...
    Composer: Rene Orth
    Librettist: Colleen Murphy

    My Eyes are Bright and Sparkly
    My Mother’s Ring
    Content warning: murder, violence, mental illness

    The story begins with a distressed Paul being interviewed about his missing parents. It switches to two weeks earlier with Harold and Julia in the airport after sending him off. Julia worries that something is wrong with their son. Harold is sure that he'll be back to his old self after the tr...
    Composer: Stephen Andrew Taylor
    Librettist: Marcia Johnson

    My Mother’s Ring
    My Mother’s Ring
    Naila and Lolo
    Partition in 1947 drives Naila’s family to the new country of Pakistan while her best friend Lolo must remain in India. In a child’s-eye view of this world event, the significant concerns for these two nine-year-olds are custody of a tin box with important valuables (“marbles and flowers and keys and rings”), and the care and feeding of a pet ra...
    Composer: Elisabeth Mehl Greene
    Librettist: Anusree Roy

    Naila and Lolo
    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
    Noor Over Afghan
    Noor Over Afghan is set in Afghanistan, and tells the story of two young Afghani sisters, Noor and Jaan. But Jaan is dying, and begs Noor to take her place in the marriage and have her child. By the time the groom finds out, Jaan will have died. They swap places, Noor disguised by the veil.
    Composer: Christiaan Venter
    Librettist: Anusree Roy

    Noor Over Afghan
    Noor Over Afghan
    The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G.
    Content warning: captivity, sex trafficking, sex work, sexual violence, violence, death

    The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. is a fictional dramatic opera built on extensive factual research. Set in Ukraine in 1997, it is the story of Oksana, a young woman lured into the world of sex trafficking by a Russian recruiter, Konstantin, who ...
    Composer: Aaron Gervais
    Librettist: Colleen Murphy

    The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G.
    One Night, One Bell
    In a country torn by war, a woman works as a bell-ringer. There used to be many more in the tower, but one by one the bells were taken: metal for the war-machine. A man climbs the tower after hearing her play the one remaining bell. What seems at first a meeting of two lovers turns dark as the man tries to claim the bell. They need the metal for...
    Composer: Stephen Andrew Taylor
    Librettist: Marjorie Chan

    One Night, One Bell
    One Night, One Bell
    Opposites Attract
    Across eight brief vignettes, couples experience small moments of frustration, miscommunication, and attraction.
    Composer: Iman Habibi
    Librettist: Phoebe Tsang

    Opposites Attract
    Opposites Attract
    Oubliette
    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.
    Composer: Ivan Barbotin
    Librettist: Donna-Michelle St. Bernard

    Oubliette
    Oubliette
    Perfect Night
    A Woman and Man in bed.  Naked.  Or nearly.  The Man reads to the Woman.  Poetry by Irving Layton.  They have the house to themselves.  They are reconnecting, finally, after their youngest kid has headed off to college.  It’s a perfect night.  Until the mosquito shows up.
    Composer: Jana Skarecky
    Librettist: Nick Carpenter

    Perfect Night
    Perfect Night
    Playing Ball
    An estranged father and daughter re-establish their relationship after he has suffered a stroke and can no longer speak. He tries to convey to her that he loves her and is sorry for the harm he caused her. She is still too hurt from their past to see what he is trying to say. Instead, she passes the time by reading a book. He finds another way o...
    Composer: Norbert Palej
    Librettist: Marcia Johnson

    Playing Ball
    Playing Ball
    Pursuit
    Content warning: stalking

    A young barista seems to know a surprising amount about one of the customers at her cafe.
    Composer: Iman Habibi
    Librettist: Jessica Murphy Moo

    Pursuit
    Pursuit
    Rip
    The piece opens in the middle of a reverse custody battle, with each party demanding the other take their son, Simon.  Carla believes her son will grow up dysfunctional without a father, and Peter claims he’ll do nothing but cry for her.  Interspersed with their fighting is the occasional instruction to Simon, indicating he’s in the room, a witn...
    Composer: Gareth Williams
    Librettist: Anna Chatterton

    Rip
    Rip
    Rocking Horse Winner
    Content warning: illness, death

    Rocking Horse Winner primarily explores the relationship between Paul, a young adult, and his emotionally distant mother, Ava.

    Paul is driven to bridge the relationship with his mother, but Ava s...
    Composer: Gareth Williams
    Librettist: Anna Chatterton

    Rocking Horse Winner
    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
    See Saw
    Content warning: suicidal thoughts

    A comedy. Trish laments her breakup with Ralph. She is desolate and considers suicide. Gina scolds Trish for over-dramatization and urges her to move on in her life. She succeeds in getting Trish to agree to go out for a drink at a bar nearby. They are intercepted by Ralph (on his bicycle) carrying a box of ...
    Composer: Andrew Staniland
    Librettist: Anna Chatterton

    See Saw
    See Saw
    Shanawdithit
    Content warning: colonial violence, colonialsm, death, illness

    1828, Notre Dame Bay, on the northeast shore of Newfoundland. William Cormack, an explorer and anthropologist, has recently created the Beothuk Institute: an organization designed to prevent the extinction of the original inhabitants of the island. After learning that a Beothuk wo...
    Composer: Dean Burry
    Librettist: Yvette Nolan

    Shanawdithit
    Shanawdithit
    She is Me
    Content warning: fire, death

    Janna and her grandpa are in Toronto’s distillery district. Before she has to leave, Janna asks him to tell the story of how he and Grandma met. Both were fighting a fire, and met as part of the bucket brigade. Janna proudly reminds him he saved everyone that night, but this isn’t true. Grandpa confesses that a wo...
    Composer: Lembit Beecher
    Librettist: Katherine Koller

    She is Me
    She Sees Her Lover
    Agnieska and Sumana share a night together after meeting in a bar. The night, however intimate, has vastly different meanings to each woman. While Sumana is brimming with the excitement of a first chance at love, Agnieska is haunted by memories of her romantic past.

    The next morning, Agnieska wakes early and admires her new lover Sumana as sh...
    Composer: Craig Galbraith
    Librettist: Leanna Brodie

    She Sees Her Lover
    She Sees Her Lover
    Shelter
    Content warning: birth

    A nuclear family adrift in the atomic age. Since Prometheus stole fire from the gods, we have flirted with the dangerous beauty of science. In this cartoon fable, a father protects his family at any cost.

    Thomas and Claire fall madly in love at a fundraising party. Thomas has decided to “find a wife, get a life,” whi...
    Composer: Juliet Palmer
    Librettist: Julie Salverson

    Shelter
    Sleep, Sleep
    A woman and her grown son are leaving their home. It’s time for bed, but the boy insists they play his favourite game one last time. Begrudgingly, the mother agrees. They make up ways of killing an unnamed woman.

    When the game is over, the boy asks what would happen if they killed the woman “for real,” if it would make his father love them ag...
    Composer: John Harris
    Librettist: Marjorie Chan

    Sleep, Sleep
    Sleep, Sleep
    Snow Globe
    A sister and brother go through the belongings of their recently departed mother and find an old snow globe from their youth. They both really want to keep it. A bitter fight ensues and the sister inadvertently blurts out a very painful secret.
    Composer: Ian Cusson
    Librettist: Colleen Murphy

    Snow Globe
    Still the Night
    Content warning: antisemitism, genocide, Holocaust, infanticide, murder, Nazis, sexual violence, sex work, violence, war

    Still the Night tells the fictional story of two Jewish Polish cousins, both named Bryna, who have escaped fr...
    Composer: John Alcorn
    Librettist: Theresa Tova

    Still the Night
    Tea at Three
    Late at night, Allie receives a visitation from her deceased best friend, Karen.
    Composer: Katya Pine
    Librettist: Sheldon Rosen

    Tea at Three
    Tea at Three
    The Cellar Door
    Content warning: child sexual abuse, incest, death, murder

    Judith and Daniel, long estranged siblings, are brought together by the passing of their father. Time has passed, but it seems like Judith hasn't changed at all. Daniel kills his sister when she wants to resume their childhood sexual relationship.
    Composer: Melissa Hui
    Librettist: Jovanni Sy

    The Cellar Door
    The Cellar Door
    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
    The Golden Boy
    The scene is divided into two sections: a tense argument between mother and child, and a tender aria for the mother as she finally reveals a painful truth to her son about the prolonged absence of his father.
    Composer: Darren J
    Librettist: Anusree Roy

    The Golden Boy
    The Golden Boy
    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 Perfect Match
    Two sock puppets long for something more than their dreary lives. They bump into each other on the street, and it doesn’t take long for them to recognize they’re each other’s perfect match!
    Composer: Anthony Young
    Librettist: Krista Dalby

    The Perfect Match
    The Perfect Screw
    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...
    Composer: Abigail Richardson
    Librettist: Alexis Diamond

    The Perfect Screw
    The Perfect Screw
    The Rape of Artemisia
    Content warning: sexual violence

    Based on the testimony of the 17th-century painter Artemisia Gentileschi on her rapist and instructor Agostino Tassi, we are given a snapshot of violation, confusion, and the oppression of women.
    Composer: Ivan Barbotin
    Librettist: Hannah Moscovitch

    The Rape of Artemisia
    The Rape of Artemisia
    The Theory of Everything
    A man at a restaurant thinks he recognizes a woman seated alone at the next table. Could she be a famous author he just read? As the pieces of this miscalculation come together for the woman, we find that she is surprised to be noticed, and taken aback that she’s assumed to be a string theory expert. The scene flips an expected script of expecta...
    Composer: Elisabeth Mehl Greene
    Librettist: Sheldon Rosen

    The Theory of Everything
    The Translator
    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 -...
    Composer: David Ogborn
    Librettist: Leanna Brodie

    The Translator
    The Translator
    The Two Graces
    The night before her birthday, an aging Queen Elizabeth I catches an intruder in her boudoir. It turns out to be none other than her arch-nemesis Grace O’Malley, Irish pirate and chieftain, come to reclaim her seized ship and her trampled rights. A comedic opera about power and politics, destiny and desire, and how hard it is to be a woman at th...
    Composer: Sean Ferguson
    Librettist: Alexis Diamond

    The Two Graces
    The Two Graces
    The Virgin Charlie
    Charlie is performing in a show, and while backstage receives an unexpected visit from the Virgin Mary. Mary has news for Charlie: he is pregnant with the son of God. The little messiah has come to fulfill a prophecy - will armageddon strike the earth, or will forgiveness once again save it all?
    Composer: William Rowson
    Librettist: Taylor Graham

    The Virgin Charlie
    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
    Two Sisters
    Content warning: death, murder, drowning

    Two sisters are outside by the river talking. One sister describes the boy she hopes to be with, and the other sister admits that she is pregnant with his baby. Jealousy is a deadly emotion.
    Composer: Benton Roark
    Librettist: Lila Palmer

    Two Sisters
    Two Sisters
    The Handless Maiden: Scene 8 (Wash the Loss)
    Based on "The Handless Maiden," a mythic story found in cultures around the world, and a continuation of the events in Me and You (Madonna of the Wilderness).

    After seven years of wandering, the girl (now known as Madonna) has regained her hands through loving self-sacrifice. She’s returned to the cabin of her childhood, where her journey beg...
    Composer: Benton Roark
    Librettist: Katherine Koller

    The Handless Maiden: Scene 8 (Wash the Loss)
    The Handless Maiden: Scene 8 (Wash the Loss)
    What is She?
    Content warning: misgendering, intersex discrimination

    A meditation on the discrimination intersex athletes face from their peers. A woman wins a gold medal, but her struggles to get there mean nothing to the organization and the other athletes. She’s disqualified and shamed.
    Composer: John Harris
    Librettist: Anna Chatterton

    What is She?
    What is She?
    Where is Ava
    Chloe and Eddie are in the throes of love when they’re interrupted by Matt, Chloe’s athlete ex-husband. Matt asks where their daughter Ava is, and criticizes Chloe for abandoning Ava for some man.
    Composer: Ivan Barbotin
    Librettist: Katherine Koller

    Where is Ava
    Where is Ava
    Of the Sea
    Content warning: descriptions of enslavement, violence, sexual violence, death

    A father will do anything to save his daughter. Of the Sea follows the story of Maduka, his daughter Binyelum, and fellow Africans thrown overboard during the Middle Passage who now populate mythical underwater kingdoms that span the ocean floor. Amidst the waves, ...
    Composer: Ian Cusson
    Librettist: Kanika Ambrose

    Of the Sea
    R.U.R. A Torrent of Light
    The fictional tech company R.U.R., founded by couple Helena and Dom, dominates the A.I. software market and powers the now-ubiquitous androids that serve their human owners.

    As Dom becomes more focused on growing R.U.R’s profits, Helena’s creative research leads to an unexpected technological breakthrough that pits the couples’ visions square...
    Composer: Nicole Lizée
    Librettist: Nicolas Billon

    R.U.R. A Torrent of Light
    Gould’s Wall
    A young, extraordinarily talented musician is striving for perfection in her art. Her path to greatness? A magnificent wall.

    Bursting with the compulsion to reach the top, she invokes Canadian icon, classical pianist Glenn Gould to guide her towards dizzying heights – but the path isn’t easy. Each brick represents her art, her rigour, and her...
    Composer: Brian Current
    Librettist: Liza Balkan

    Gould’s Wall
    One Lump or Two?
    Content warning: mention of murder, violence, poison

    Four Victorian women sit down for a most unusual tea time. The women have two things in common: their dislike of the other women and of their husbands. Each woman refuses to drink tea for one reason or another while brainstorming ideas such as poison, prison, bee-stings or drowning. But who...
    Composer: Glenn James
    Librettist: Sandy Pool

    The Waterfall (LIBLAB)
    Content warning: death, infanticide, murder

    A rumble of hooves. A family is fleeing, but the baby is slowing them down. The mother is forced to choose between her husband and her child. She chooses the husband and tries to get the baby to sleep before letting it go over a waterfall. At the last minute, the baby awakes, and the mother’s grief ...
    Composer: Norbert Palej
    Librettist: Maja Ardal

    The Waterfall (LIBLAB)
    The Waterfall (LIBLAB)
    Pomegranate
    On a fateful school trip to the ruins of Pompeii, the fantasies of smitten teenagers Suzie and Cass are ignited. They are transported from 1977 to 79 AD, where they discover romantic freedom in the looming shadow of Mount Vesuvius – but not for long. The timeline shifts to 1981 and the Fly by Night, a Toronto lesbian bar, in the aftermath of the...
    Composer: Kye Marshall
    Librettist: Amanda Hale

    Pomegranate
    La pagaille des violons
    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

    La pagaille des violons
    Before the Last Meter
    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

    Before the Last Meter
    Sooner Than Later
    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 ...
    Composer: Cecilia Livingston
    Librettist: David Yee

    Sooner Than Later
    Sooner Than Later
    The Last Lullaby
    Content warning: war, death, gun violence

    A young mother with her infant daughter is threatened by an armed military officer escorting prisoners. She wants to wait for her husband, but the officer tells her he is probably already dead. The woman sings a lament to her baby, then pleads with the officer to take her baby and raise her as his own.
    Composer: Jana Skarecky
    Librettist: Anusree Roy

    The Last Lullaby
    The Last Lullaby
    The Defining Moment
    Content warning: infidelity

    An ambitious politician gleefully shares with his mistress the news that his party may soon be back in power.  The mistress shares her own news: she is pregnant.
    Composer: Jana Skarecky
    Librettist: Norman Yeung

    The Defining Moment
    The Defining Moment
    Molly’s Veil
    Content warning: illness, death

    Charlotte works to prepare a Thanksgiving meal while her sister Margaret, who is ill, rests. When Margaret drops some china, the sisters are forced to confront the fact that Margaret's illness is likely terminal, and they will soon be separated. They sing a heartfelt duet, vowing to say hello to a new closeness...
    Composer: Jana Skarecky
    Librettist: Sharon Bajer

    Molly’s Veil
    YES
    Mark stands with his friends Maryanne and Bob, ready to play a game of baseball. They see their other friend, Kenny, and Carley, Mark's ex-girlfriend, in the distance. Kenny proposes to Carley, and runs to the group to announce triumphantly "She said yes!" Inspired by Maryanne's encouragement, Mark calls his estranged son, who lives far away wit...
    Composer: Jana Skarecky
    Librettist: Sheldon Rosen

    YES
    YES
    COR
    Excerpts
    (What Rhymes With) Azimuth – (What Rhymes with) Azimuth

    A man and woman meet for the first time on a summer's evening.

    Ashlike on the Cradle of the Wind – Scene 1

    The interior of a thumping, vibrating gay nightclub. A middle-aged gentleman sips his drink and turns to watch the dancers on the dance floor. Under the disco ball a young man, stripped to the waist, is dancing with abandon. The young man approaches and establishes immediate physical contact, which is uncomfortable. The older man needs more p...

    Ashlike on the Cradle of the Wind – Scene 2

    An intimate encounter between two gay men.

    Ashlike on the Cradle of the Wind – Scene 3

    Two male lovers come to terms with the fact that one of them is dying of AIDS.

    Au Café Trudeau – Au Cafe Trudeau

    A francophile from Toronto walks into a café in downtown Montréal. His coffee order and small talk with the barista turns into a political rift that eventually leaves him lost in translation.

    TAP:EX Augmented Opera – Section 1: ” Product Launch”

    Eurydice volunteers to test new A.I. technology that promises to capture your most vivid memories and curate your perfect virtual afterlife. Lab techs hand out eye masks to the audience.

    TAP:EX Augmented Opera – Sections 2 and 3: “Descent Into Memory – Garden of the Subconscious”

    Calliope and the Muses lead Eurydice C into her subconscious, to the memory of her first love.

    TAP:EX Augmented Opera – Section 4: “Inner Sanctum”

    In memory, Eurydice C's painter lover pushes her to allow him to paint her and make love to her, even though she is reluctant.

    TAP:EX Augmented Opera – Section 5: “Fragments”

    Eurydice C remembers different versions of her lover in an Arioso, Bourrée, and Passacaglia. She questions what might have been, before Calliope calls her back to the present.

    TAP:EX Augmented Opera – Section 6: “Elysium”

    Eurydice C is shown her Elysium with Orpheus in the garden - she is not sure she wants him there, but it fades before she can decide. The CEO brings her back to reality and closes the presentation.

    Bandits in the Valley – Opening Scene – voices, percussion, and accordion

    George celebrates the 25th anniversary of his paper mill with an important announcement. Lily is introduced. Freddy gets some bad news.

    Bandits in the Valley – Group 1, Scene 1: The Buttock Birthmark (duet)

    Jeremiah, who is in love with Lily, reveals that he is the illegitimate son of former mill owner, Skinner. He enlists Freddy's help with a scheme.

    Bandits in the Valley – Group 1, Scene 2: The Chase

    Brigitta is in love with Jeremiah. Jeremiah, Freddy, and Brigitta retrieve Jeremiah's birth certificate from the Taylor house where Brigitta found it. Jeremiah gives Freddy a note for Lily - he and Lily are leaving town when Jeremiah gets his fortune.

    Bandits in the Valley – Group 2, Scene 1: Love Me Lily (aria)

    Henri wonders how, after all this time, it is possible that Lily doesn't reciprocate her feelings of love.

    Bandits in the Valley – Group 2, Scene 2: The Dressing Room

    George has a proposal for Lily. Henri has a confession. The Great Recorder Smackdown happens, and Lily is caught in the crossfire. Lily sends them all away without answering.

    • Page 1 of 4
    • Next
    COR

    Powered by: Tapestry Opera | Translations by: proScenium Services Inc. | Site designed by: TK416

    Terms of Service | Privacy Policy

    en_CAEnglish
    fr_CAFrench en_CAEnglish