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    Canadian Opera Resource
    Canadian Opera Resource
    COR
    Operas
    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
    Deirdre
    "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...
    Composer: Healey Willan
    Librettist: John Coulter

    Deirdre
    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 lo...

    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)
    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 Shadow
    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

    The Shadow
    The Shadow
    Otherworld
    Two miners are making their way into the heart of the mountain. There, they discover another world.
    Composer: Norbert Palej
    Librettist: Bobby Theodore

    Otherworld
    Otherworld
    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.
    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
    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
    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
    COR
    Excerpts
    The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. – Act 2, Scene 4

    Dima has found Oksana at the refuge, and shows Konstantin a photograph of her as proof.

    The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. – Act 1, Scene 1

    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.

    The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. – Act 2, Scene 6

    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.

    The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. – Act 3, Scene 3

    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.

    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.

    Otherworld – Otherworld

    Miners crack open a mountain and two green children emerge. They sing, then the minors pray to them as they fall asleep.

    The Overcoat: A Musical Tailoring – Act 1, scene 2

    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.

    The Overcoat: A Musical Tailoring – Act 1, scene 4

    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.

    The Overcoat: A Musical Tailoring – Act 1, scene 6

    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 cu...

    The Overcoat: A Musical Tailoring – Act 1, scene 8

    Measuring Akakiy becomes a ballet of awkwardness. Petrovich and his wife muse on what really makes a man: how he appears.

    The Overcoat: A Musical Tailoring – Act 2, scene 3 and 4

    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 kno...

    The Overcoat: A Musical Tailoring – Act 2, scene 6 and 7 (Finale)

    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 h...

    Elsewhereless – Scene 3: “All reports that innocent people”

    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.

    The Shadow – Prologue

    Spring has sprung in Barcelona.

    The Shadow – Scene 1

    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.

    The Shadow – Scene 2

    Disguised as Hernando, Raoul asks out Allegra.

    The Shadow – Scene 4

    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.

    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.

    The Translator – “You can understand all you want” (aria)

    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."

    The Translator – The Translator

    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.

    Elsewhereless – Scene 1: “You’re all nerves”

    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.

    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.

    Elsewhereless – Prologue: “What I feel” (aria)

    Malcolm describes his sense of suspension in time and space as we hear gunshots outside.

    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.

    Elsewhereless – Scene 9: “May I ask a question”

    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.

    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 12: “This country is at the threshold of great change”

    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.

    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.

    Facing South – Scene 1: “Pure Light (1909)”

    Two explorers close to the north pole - the explorer Peary becomes confused.

    Facing South – Scene 3: “Ice (1909)”

    Peary is unsure if they have reached the North pole.

    Facing South – Scene 4: “Flame (1919)”

    Josephine asks for Henson's help, despite Peary's past bad treatment of him.

    Facing South – Scene 6: “Meteorites (1897)”

    The explorers make a plan to bring the Inuit to America to make money.

    Facing South – Scene 7: “Wild Horse (1909)”

    Peary and Henson once again try to confirm they are at the North pole.

    Facing South – Scene 8: “Constellations”

    Henson helps Minik reach the land of the dead; Peary and Josephine argue about Peary's Inuit children.

    Facing South – Scene 9: “Ice”

    Peary and Henson believe they have reached the North pole.

    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.

    Get Stuffed – Scene 1

    Zach's class studies the Canada Food Guide, making Zach's tummy grumble.

    Get Stuffed – Scene 4

    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!

    Get Stuffed – Scene 6

    Zach's hunger-hallucination, Part 2: The Garden Trio (Apple, Carrot and Broccoli) treat Zach to a savoury song about vitamins.

    Get Stuffed – Scene 7

    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.

    Get Stuffed – Scene 8

    Zach's hunger-hallucination, Part 4: Big Cheese tries to convince Zach to eat healthy by crooning a song oozing with cheesy puns.

    Get Stuffed – Scene 9

    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.

    Get Stuffed – Scene 10

    Zach's hunger-hallucination, Part 6: Apple expires in true operatic fashion in Zach's arms. Zach grieves.

    Get Stuffed – Scene 11

    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!

    Get Stuffed – Finale (with Audience)

    A brief anthem to healthy eating.

    Elsewhereless – Scene 5: “It needs rugs, we didn’t get a chance to introduce ourselves”

    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.

    COR

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