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  • Home
  • About COR
    • About COR
    • How To Use COR
    • FAQ – For Users
  • Operas
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  • Submit Your Work
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Canadian Opera Resource
Canadian Opera Resource
COR
Operas
Naomi’s Road
Naomi’s Road, which details a young Japanese-Canadian girl’s experiences as her family is interned during World War II, is a coming-of-age story that celebrates the power of hope, cultural understanding and compassion. This compelling and emotional story is taken from one of our country’s most painful and complex social periods, a time that for ...

Sophia’s Forest
Content warning: child neglect, death, migration, strong language, trauma, war

When Sophia’s mother dies, Sophia confronts half-forgotten traumas from her childhood. Sophia and her sister Emma grew up in a war torn country. The two young girls cope with and escape their grim circumstances – the adult world of war, death and displacement – thr...
Composer: Lembit Beecher
Librettist: Hannah Moscovitch

Sophia’s Forest
Noor Over Afghan
Noor Over Afghan is set in Afghanistan, and tells the story of two young Afghani sisters, Noor and Jaan. But Jaan is dying, and begs Noor to take her place in the marriage and have her child. By the time the groom finds out, Jaan will have died. They swap places, Noor disguised by the veil.
Composer: Christiaan Venter
Librettist: Anusree Roy

Noor Over Afghan
Noor Over Afghan
Love Songs
Love Songs is an intimate story about love in five “thematic” movements: pure love, tender love, children’s love, mature love and love for a person who has been lost. The lyrics are sung in five languages: English, French, Serbian, Irish and Latin. There are interludes between the movements in which the phrase “I Love You” is delivered in 100 di...
Composer: Ana Sokolović

Love Songs
Molly’s Veil
Content warning: illness, death

Charlotte works to prepare a Thanksgiving meal while her sister Margaret, who is ill, rests. When Margaret drops some china, the sisters are forced to confront the fact that Margaret's illness is likely terminal, and they will soon be separated. They sing a heartfelt duet, vowing to say hello to a new closeness...
Composer: Jana Skarecky
Librettist: Sharon Bajer

Molly’s Veil
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
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
Snow Globe
A sister and brother go through the belongings of their recently departed mother and find an old snow globe from their youth. They both really want to keep it. A bitter fight ensues and the sister inadvertently blurts out a very painful secret.
Composer: Ian Cusson
Librettist: Colleen Murphy

Snow Globe
The Cellar Door
Content warning: child sexual abuse, incest, death, murder

Judith and Daniel, long estranged siblings, are brought together by the passing of their father. Time has passed, but it seems like Judith hasn't changed at all. Daniel kills his sister when she wants to resume their childhood sexual relationship.
Composer: Melissa Hui
Librettist: Jovanni Sy

The Cellar Door
The Cellar Door
Jacqueline
Content warning: terminal illness

This is not a biographical opera, it is an exploration of an emotional journey. At age 5, Jacqueline has instant chemistry and sparks fly when she meets her cello. Their relationship grows stronger and closer, and Jacqueline matures into a charismatic and likeable teen, powerful on major stages. Soon she is a...
Composer: Luna Pearl Woolf
Librettist: Royce Vavrek

Jacqueline
Two Sisters
Content warning: death, murder, drowning

Two sisters are outside by the river talking. One sister describes the boy she hopes to be with, and the other sister admits that she is pregnant with his baby. Jealousy is a deadly emotion.
Composer: Benton Roark
Librettist: Lila Palmer

Two Sisters
Two Sisters
COR
Excerpts
The Cellar Door – “Down there I won’t go” (aria)

Daniel sings of his fear at the prospect of going down into the cellar of his childhood home, after his father has died.

Snow Globe – Snow Globe

A sister and brother go through the belongings of their recently departed mother and find an old snow globe from their youth. They both really want to keep it. A bitter fight ensues and the sister inadvertently blurts out a very painful secret.

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.

Two Sisters – Two Sisters

Two sisters are outside by the river talking. One sister describes the boy she hopes to be with, and the other sister admits that she is pregnant with his baby. Jealousy is a deadly emotion.

The Cellar Door – The Cellar Door

Back in his childhood home after the death of this father, Daniel kills his sister when she wants to resume their childhood sexual relationship.

The Cellar Door – “That’s all you have to say?” (aria)

Judith sings angrily at her brother when he expresses his desire to leave their childhood home after their father has died.

Noor Over Afghan – Scene 8

Receiving Jaan's letter, Noor forgives her sister. Noor and Rafique decide they will try to remain friends.

Noor Over Afghan – Scene 7: Desert (aria)

In a letter, Jaan asks if Noor still loves her.

Noor Over Afghan – Scene 5

Jaan remains alive. The tribal women suggest she should write to Noor to know what has happen and ease her mind.

Noor Over Afghan – Scene 4: The Wedding Night

Noor tells the lie Jaan asked of her to Rafique. Rafique sends her away and tries to figure out what he should do.

Noor Over Afghan – Scene 3

Jaan meets group of tribal women in the desert who convince her to stay with them while she dies. Noor takes Jaan's place in the circle.

Noor Over Afghan – Scene 2

The wedding ceremony. Noor hesitates, then marries Rafique.

Noor Over Afghan – Scene 1

Jaan, who is dying, asks her sister Noor to secretely take her place on her wedding day. Noor reluctantly agrees.

Jacqueline – “Intense Perfumes” – voice and cello

Jacqueline remembers playing in the fields with her sister in her childhood, and the fragrance of wildflowers.

Jacqueline – “Run” – voice and cello

Delirious, Jackie envisions running to the ocean again through the fields, this time with her sister, Hilary. She asks that Hilary not tell Daniel about the disease.

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