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...

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...

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 ...

The contemporary youth opera Pandora’s Locker is inspired by the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box, in which a young woman’s curiosity leads to the unleashing of all the world’s evils. It is a simple, archetypal myth, which reflects our own hunt for knowledge and the potential for disaster upon its discovery. This search for information - keys to the ...

This opera for children combines three fairy tales collected by the Grimm brothers: Rapunzel, Little Red Cap, and Rumpelstiltskin, all woven together with some of the brothers' real-life history.

Il Giudizio di Pigmalione (The Judgment of Pygmalion) was inspired by the myth of the sculpture Pygmalion as told in Ovid’s Metamorphosis:

“He made, with marvellous art, an ivory statue, As white as snow, and gave it greater beauty Than any girl could have, and fell in love with his own workmanship.”

This setting of the myth (the libretto ...

Inertia is a story about elderly isolation and perceptions of death and a meditation on stagnation, dying, love, and friendship. It tells the story of two elderly neighbours, Evelyn and Addison, who live next door to each other for decades but have little interaction with each other or anyone. When Death comes to collect the two, he instead deci...

Three young archaeologists lost in the Egyptian desert unravel the ancient myth of Isis in an effort to save their dying professor. Immersed in the epic struggle of a distant past, they discover the healing power of ancient wisdom.

Based on the German fairy tale, The Bremen Town Musicians follows the adventures of four elderly animals who escape their neglectful owners and set out on their own.

Content warning: infant death, suicidal thoughts

In the summer of 2007, CBC investigators Mary Wiens and John Nicol brought an enthralled listening audience the tale of a mummified baby found in the floorboards of an East Toronto home.  Further investigation to uncover the origins of the child, now known as “Baby Kintyre” revealed a cast of c...

The Mummer’s Masque is a contemporary interpretation of various mummering traditions incorporating dance, music, drama, stage combat and puppetry.  With a new libretto fashioned from various historic sources, the music is a blend of contemporary opera and traditional folk styles.  It is also the only known example of a classical solo for the New...

The Secret World of Og is an operatic adaptation of the well-known children’s book by Canadian icon Pierre Berton.  The classic story of a group of siblings who venture into the dark subterranean world of the Ogs to rescue their baby brother and their cat has been a favourite with Canadian children since the 60's and features Berton’s own childr...

Le nez de la sorcière tells the story of a scorned sorceress and lovers cursed to remain apart.  The opera is inspired by inspired by a Newfoundland fable originating from the Port-au-Port Peninsula.

Inspired by the Italian fairy tale Giricoccola by Italo Calvino, Angela and Her Sisters tells the story of a sweet girl who is wickedly teased by her stepsisters.  She eventually is recused by the Moon, but finds her new home no better than the first.  Finally her search leads her to a lonely princess who becomes a true friend.

Content warning: abuse, death, incarceration, sex trafficking, sex work

Angel's Bone follows the plight of two angels whose nostalgia for earthly delights has, mysteriously, brought them back to our world. Battered and bruised from their long journey, they are found by a husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs. X. E.

Facing a financial crisis, the c...

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...

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...

As a teenager in the 1920s, my grandmother Gladys played piano for silent films in the remote New Zealand town of Takaka. She still recalls a film which was shot nearby at Pohara beach. Although Glad has never seen the film, I found out later that it was the underwater spectacular Venus of the South Seas, starring Australian diver Annette Keller...

Slip is a site-specific performance for a swimming pool or bath house fusing sound, movement and light. Each production of Slip is unique, but builds on previous performances. Cultures with distinct architectures and social rituals of bathing are juxtaposed to increase awareness of our own histories. As humans we are bound together by the intima...

From the abuse of the sweatshop to the fantasy of costume and the empowerment of sewing-it-yourself, the sewing machine has been a force for liberation and exploitation since its invention in the 19th century. Hemmed in by the language of sewing and the inexorable rhythm of the machine, three women fight to find space for imagination and individ...

A multicultural retelling of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.

"The jealous king Leontes’ wife, Hermione, is accused of committing adultery with his best friend, Polixenes, and Hermione is jailed. Soon after, Leontes and Hermione’s young son dies before she gives birth to a daughter Perdita who is smuggled out of the country after Hermione’s s...

Boots invites you into a boudoir full of guilty pleasures. The performer presents a cast of more than thirty pairs of boots, procured over the last decade from secondhand stores, online auctions and retail outlets. She adds to her obsessive collection weekly. When will it stop?

Lyrics are taken from Emily Dickinson and Gertrude Stein, with ad...

Unwilling to marry a woman, a man fashions a lover from his own left side. He’s enraptured by her perfect beauty – a mirror of his own – until he discovers that this new woman longs for freedom and wildly desires another.

“Made in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Italy, China, India…the U.S.A.”  Who sews our clothes, who makes our shoes? Where do they live? How much are they paid? What would you dream of, sewing sleeves all day? Is life better in the village you left behind? Sweat is a kaleidoscope of characters and stories collected from factories around the world. Plunging...