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COR
COR
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  • About COR
    • About COR
    • How To Use COR
    • FAQ – For Users
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    Canadian Opera Resource
    Canadian Opera Resource
    COR
    Operas
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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?
    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
    Medusa’s Children
    Content warning: misgendering, mentions of sexual assault, and implied violence

    Chrysaor and Pegasus, children of the gorgon Medusa, have been living with their aunts Euryale and Stheno. They receive a message from their dead mother telling the story of her assault and murder by their father Poseidon. Rejecting his mother’s family, Chrysaor g...
    Composer: Colin McMahon
    Librettist: Charlie Petch

    Medusa’s Children
    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
    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
    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
    COR
    Excerpts
    La Maupin – VI. The Last Love

    Maupin remembers her romance with the Countess de Florensac.

    She Sees Her Lover – “So many ways” (aria)

    Agnieska questions why all of her previous relationships have failed.

    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.

    Pegasus’s Aria

    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.

    The Perfect Match – Interior

    Two sock puppets wake up alone and lonely.

    Medusa’s Aria

    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 Perfect Match – Exterior

    Tam and Pal spot each other- the only single socks in the park- speak, and fall in love.

    La Maupin – VII. Epilogue

    The performer echoes lines poetry from the Prologue, reflecting on the meaning of Maupin's story.

    La Maupin – IV. The Artist

    Maupin takes to the stage of the Paris Opéra.

    What is She? – What is She?

    An intersex 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.

    La Maupin – V. The Duel

    Maupin challenges a rude nobleman to a duel.

    La Maupin – I. Prologue

    The performer sings a poem by Aphra Behn (1640-1689) about an androgynous queer lover.

    La Maupin – II. Introduction

    La Maupin introduces herself to the audience, sharing some of the gossip that has been spread about her.

    La Maupin – III. The First Affair

    Maupin tells the story of a scandalous love affair from her youth, culminating in a daring escape from a convent.

    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.

    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.

    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.

    Elsewhereless – Scene 2: “It needs rugs”

    Some years prior, Eugene and Antoine enter the residence, Malcolm, their new houseboy (who does not speak much English) helps them unpack. Antoine and Eugene ask Malcolm if he is married, and he replies that he wants Eugene to be his girlfriend. Malcolm asks Eugene to teach him words.

    Elsewhereless – Scene 4: “You must knock”

    Malcolm tells Eugene and Antoine that he wants to go to university and asks for a letter of recommendation. Antoine tells him that he should stay in the house with the people who love him.

    Elsewhereless – Scene 6: “You’re a good dancer” (duet)

    Malcolm and Eugene are dancing, but we quickly learn that they are practicing English. Malcolm asks if Antoine has written the letter of recommendation yet. Eugene tells him he is not ready yet. Malcolm grows frustrated.

    She Sees Her Lover – Scene 2

    Waking early, Agnieska admires her new lover Sumana as she is sleeping. When Sumana wakes, the couple share an intimate conversation and eventually descend into fits of laughter.

    Elsewhereless – Scene 8: “This country is at the threshold of great change”

    Malcolm works on his university application; Eugene is sick. Antoine arrives telling them he has been promoted to ambassador, but that they will remain in the country they are currently stationed in.

    Elsewhereless – Scene 10: “What about these things”

    Eugene is dying. He has left some of his and Antoine's things for Malcolm, but Malcolm is growing angrier at Antoine who still will not write him a letter of recommendation.

    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.

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Act 1, Scene 4: “Stay, Still, Forever”

    A cleric prepares for confessional. Someone enters the booth. The cleric realizes it’s a man with whom he shared a mutual attraction. The man has recently finished gay conversion therapy and wishes to resume some kind of a relationship.

    Hook Up – Section 2, Scene 3: “Girl’s Night” (duet)

    Cindy tells Mindy about her empowering sexual explorations of late, and questions if Mindy is really ok with spending her life with just one person.

    She Sees Her Lover – “Oh, it’s beautiful” (aria)

    Excited by the possibility of a night with a new lover, Sumana anxiously expresses her anticipation.

    She Sees Her Lover – “Cinnamon Limbs” (aria)

    Waking early, Agnieska admires her new lover Sumana as she is sleeping.

    She Sees Her Lover – Scene 1 (duet)

    Agnieska and Sumana share an intimate night together after meeting in a bar. Memories of past lovers almost make Agnieska give up on this new love, but Sumana convinces her to hold on to hope.

    COR

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