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  • About COR
    • About COR
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    • How To Use COR
    • FAQ – For Users
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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
Frobisher
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

Frobisher
Airline Icarus
A worker ruminates on the terrifying power of flight as he loads bags.   Three passengers board and discover they’re sitting beside each other.  During the pre-departure safety demonstration, a flight attendant longs for an escape from her mundane life and job.  The three passengers think of their own isolation and longing and fear.  The flight ...
Composer: Brian Current
Librettist: Anton Piatigorsky

Airline Icarus
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)
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 from the Nazis and joined the Partisans. Along the way they are hung on crosses, raped, almost shot and forced to tu...
Composer: John Alcorn
Librettist: Theresa Tova

Still the Night
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
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.
COR
Excerpts
The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. – Act 2, Scene 3
Screaming, Oksana awakens from a nightmare; Father Alexander comes to her and she admits she may have let Natalyia drown to save herself. The Father counsels forgiveness of herself and others, but Oksana is not convinced that is possible.
The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. – Act 2, Scene 5
Father Alexander and Oksana realize they share an attraction for each other, but Oksana is determined to go home and tell her parents what has happened. Konstantin phones the refuge to get Oksana back.
The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. – Act 3, Scene 1
Pavlo reads Oksana's letter to her parents telling them she'll be home on November 8, her birthday. They are thrilled, and get carried away planning a party for her.
The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. – Act 3, Scene 2
On the eve of Oksana's departure, Father Alexander has to go to pick up another woman in distress. He leaves his knife with Oksana because she is afraid Konstantin will show up. Lyuba and Oksana say their goodbyes.
The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. – Act 1, Scene 6
On the Albanian coast the women captives wait for the boat to Italy. Oksana is still defiant, trying to figure out an escape for herself and others. The boat and Konstantin arrive, and Oksana fails to convince him to free her and Natalyia.
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.
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 – Scene 6: Arrival
Sydney and James arrive in Tennessee, remembering their 22 years together. They say goodbye.
The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. – Act 1, Scene 4
In Greece at a bar, three women are held captive: Konstantin sends Lyubia with a businessman, Natalyia with the Immigration officer who cuts her, and Oksana is bought by Konstantin at auction. Konstantin then offers to the crowd a gang rape just as the police arrive to raid the bar. Instead, he escapes with Oksana and Natalyia.
The Shaman’s Tale – “Because of the sacrifice”
The Shaman explains the end of the couple's tale.
The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. – Act 1, Scene 2
In a forest in Romania, Oksana discovers she has been tricked and is now in danger. Konstantin and his partners rape Oksana & Natalyia.
The Handless Maiden: Scene 8 (Wash the Loss) – Wash the Loss Away
A Gardener, lost in the wilderness, ends up at Madonna's cabin. She recognizes him as the man in her dreams and vows to heal him of his grief.
Naila and Lolo – Naila and Lolo
The 1947 Partition of India forces two children to say goodbye. One departs for Pakistan, leaving her pet rabbit and childhood treasures with her friend.
COR

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