COR
Operas
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 ...
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
Seeking his wife Eurydice in the underworld, Orpheus implores Hades to let him bring her back to life. Hades gives in reluctantly, on condition that Orpheus not look back at Eurydice while she is being led back to earth. The reunited couple begin their journey back. Hades praises the peacefulness of the underworld over the turbulence of life on ...
Composer: James Rolfe
Librettist: André Alexis
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
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
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
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
Consisting of 18 scenes, the opera covers 16 years in the life of Manitoba school teacher and Métis hero Louis Riel, from the Red River Rebellion (1869–70) to the North-West Rebellion (1884–85), and his trial and hanging in Regina in 1885. It also dramatizes the political scheming in Ottawa that resulted from Riel’s actions, as well as several ...
Composer: Harry Somers
Librettists: Mavor Moore, Jacques Languirand
"Bentley’s libretto is based on Frank O’Connor’s translation of the celebrated 1780 Gaelic poem by Brian Merriman (1749-1805), a work surprisingly contemporary in its frank discussion of women’s sexual needs and how men fail to meet them. In Bentley’s adaptation Merriman himself becomes the opera’s central figure who falls asleep on a midsummer...
Composer: Ana Sokolović
Librettist: Paul Bentley
"Drawn from an Irish saga of the Red Branch Knights of Ulster in the druidic era, the story tells of the doom of the ruthless Conochar, King of Ullah (Ulster), and the tragic death of Naisi and his brothers, the Princes of Ullah, as a result of the rivalry between Conochar and Naisi for the love of the foundling Deirdre."
- Carl Morey, The Ca...
- Carl Morey, The Ca...
Composer: Healey Willan
Librettist: John Coulter
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
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...
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
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 -...
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
Barcelona, 1900. Against the backdrop of Gaudi’s surrealist Parc Guell, Raoul, a humble postman, falls for the beautiful Allegra, whose father is a wealthy aristocrat on his mail route. To impress Allegra, Raoul disguises himself as Hernando, a “wealthy suitor,” and borrows money from the local mafia to impress the girl. Raoul goes deeply into d...
Composer: Omar Daniel
Librettist: Alex Poch-Goldin
Two miners are making their way into the heart of the mountain. There, they discover another world.
Composer: Norbert Palej
Librettist: Bobby Theodore
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.
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
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
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 ...
“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
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...
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
COR
Excerpts
Akakiy gets caught in rush hour and arrives late to find the head the department telling a sad story about encountering a homeless vagrant. Annoyed at being interrupted, the head of the department grills Akakiy on his little notebook of numbers. Akakiy explains he was using it to find ways to save money, which gives the head an idea. He’ll cut c...
Petrovich declares Akakiy’s coat is completely unfixable, but also that this is the chance for Akakiy to choose something new. Of course, he’ll have to pay.
Measuring Akakiy becomes a ballet of awkwardness. Petrovich and his wife muse on what really makes a man: how he appears.
The name day party. Everyone is dressed to the nines, but Akakiy adds up to at least an eleven. They fawn over his coat, going so far as to toast to it. Akakiy forgets to count his drinks, and ends up completely drunk. He gets lost on the way home, winding up in the rough part of town. Akakiy asks two men for directions, but instead, they knock ...
After days of near catatonia in his cold apartment, the landlady asks Petrovich to repair Akakiy’s old coat, to no avail. Even his coworkers arrive to check in, but by then, Akakiy is unreachable. Akakiy is committed to a mental hospital. Once he arrives, the other residents encourage him to look at things a little differently. It turns out he h...
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.
Spring has sprung in Barcelona.
Raoul the mailman is in love with Allegra. He arrives at her house and they flirt, but are interrupted by Allegra's father. Raoul vows that he will win over Allegra by disgusing himself as a wealthy merchant named Hernando.
Disguised as Hernando, Raoul asks out Allegra.
Raoul goes to see Don Paulo for a loan. Before he approves, Don Paulo warns Raoul about a shadow that haunts people who have not paid their debts.
The political situation is worsening, and Andrew and Beth decide to invite Antoine, the ambassador, over for drinks. Violence errupts in the streets as Malcolm has gone out to the garden. He returns holding the body of a child.
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."
2003: After leaking torture photos to the internet, American army translator Alessandra Jenson refuses to be hushed up, and live streams her suicide in protest.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Beth and Andrew are moving into the residence. They begin a conversation with Malcolm similar to that of Eugene and Antoine in scene 2. Malcolm explains that he once had scholarships to university because of a good recommendation letter.
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.
Beth reads Andrew a memo from a political figure denying the murder of innocent people and claiming that suspensions of civil liberties are essential. Beth and Andrew go downstairs for dinner, where Malcolm has prepared them a live monkey.
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.
Beth and Andrew are getting ready for bed. Malcolm enters suddenly, claiming that someone will be there soon and leaves as suddenly as he arrived.
Malcolm describes his sense of suspension in time and space as we hear gunshots outside.
Zach's hunger-hallucination, Part 5: Food fight! The healthy and unhealthy foods fight over Zach. In the melee, Apple is struck by an airborne French fry.
Josephine asks for Henson's help, despite Peary's past bad treatment of him.
The explorers make a plan to bring the Inuit to America to make money.
Peary and Henson once again try to confirm they are at the North pole.
Henson helps Minik reach the land of the dead; Peary and Josephine argue about Peary's Inuit children.
Peary and Henson believe they have reached the North pole.
Two explorers close to the north pole - the explorer Peary becomes confused.
Zach's class studies the Canada Food Guide, making Zach's tummy grumble.
Zach and the Cafeteria Worker are perplexed by the Chefs' new healthy homemade menu. They promise Zach that eating this way will be delicious and good for him, too! Zach passes out from hunger and empty calories. He is so hungry!
Zach's hunger-hallucination, Part 2: The Garden Trio (Apple, Carrot and Broccoli) treat Zach to a savoury song about vitamins.
Zach's hunger-hallucination, Part 3: Sultry French Fries interrupts the Trio to tempt Zach, but is pulled up short by Big Cheese. There's a new Sheriff in town.
Zach's hunger-hallucination, Part 4: Big Cheese tries to convince Zach to eat healthy by crooning a song oozing with cheesy puns.
Peary is unsure if they have reached the North pole.
Zach's hunger-hallucination, Part 6: Apple expires in true operatic fashion in Zach's arms. Zach grieves.
Zach wakes from his hallucination a changed boy. Now open to trying new options, he samples the new menu. Zach's tummy rumbles in appreciation!
A brief anthem to healthy eating.
Though others are at first suspicious, Russian Konstantin convinces Ukranian teenagers Nataliya and Oksana to come work for him at a hotel in Romania for the summer.
Dima has found Oksana at the refuge, and shows Konstantin a photograph of her as proof.
Refugees are trying on clothes, when Dima and Konstantin enter looking for Oksana. Konstantin offers Father Alexander money for Oksana and Clara calls the police; Konstantin and Dima leave before the police arrive.
Father Alexander discovers the distress call was a set by Konstantin, but Dima decides he can't beat up a priest and lets Father Alexander go back to Brindisi where Konstantin is.
Upstairs, Malcolm reads another memo from Antoine. Beth rushes in to tell him that it's time to leave. Andrew and Beth leave the house, but Malcolm remains in the house, still surrounded by violence.
Miners crack open a mountain and two green children emerge. They sing, then the minors pray to them as they fall asleep.
After rushing to work, Akakiy is bullied by his coworkers. He’s too good at his job, and it’s making the rest of them look bad.
English 
French