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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
    Lullaby at the Shore
    Content warning: xenophobia, migration

    A young child wakes up alone on the beach. They call for their mother. The sound of the waves muffles the voices of people who worry about newcomers and the effect that they will have on their society. Other voices take over - other children declaring that the child belongs with them now.

    Inspired by ...
    Composer: Afarin Mansouri
    Librettist: Marcia Johnson

    Lullaby at the Shore
    Lullaby at the Shore
    The Overcoat: A Musical Tailoring
    Content warning: mental illness, alcohol use, incarceration due to mental illness

    Is it the clothes that make a man, or is it something other than?

    Based on the satirical Nikolai Gogol story of the same name, The Overcoat centres on Akakiy Akakiyevich, a diligent man no one likes, who works the numbers best he can. But he can barely pay th...
    Composer: James Rolfe
    Librettist: Morris Panych

    The Overcoat: A Musical Tailoring
    M’dea Undone
    Content warning: death, murder, suicide, xenophobia

    Jason, an army captain and now war-hero, is returning home after years of war and an uncertain future. His interpreter and lover M’dea and their son Chase accompany him to a new life in the West. Jason begins a political career, working alongside the President and Dahlia, the President’s bea...
    Composer: John Harris
    Librettist: Marjorie Chan

    M’dea Undone
    Shelter
    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...
    Composer: Juliet Palmer
    Librettist: Julie Salverson

    Shelter
    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 Two Graces
    The night before her birthday, an aging Queen Elizabeth I catches an intruder in her boudoir. It turns out to be none other than her arch-nemesis Grace O’Malley, Irish pirate and chieftain, come to reclaim her seized ship and her trampled rights. A comedic opera about power and politics, destiny and desire, and how hard it is to be a woman at th...
    Composer: Sean Ferguson
    Librettist: Alexis Diamond

    The Two Graces
    The Two Graces
    TAP:EX Augmented Opera
    This fifth installment of the Tapestry Explorations (TAP:EX) series offers a take on a Silicon Valley product launch, where audiences are the first to learn about Elysium, a new cloud-based technology that reimagines the afterlife as a perfect curation of our best memories. This fictional product draws attention to the modern world developing ne...
    Composer: Benton Roark
    Librettists: Debi Wong, Benton Roark

    TAP:EX Augmented Opera
    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?
    Shanawdithit
    Content warning: colonial violence, colonialsm, death, illness

    1828, Notre Dame Bay, on the northeast shore of Newfoundland. William Cormack, an explorer and anthropologist, has recently created the Beothuk Institute: an organization designed to prevent the extinction of the original inhabitants of the island. After learning that a Beothuk wo...
    Composer: Dean Burry
    Librettist: Yvette Nolan

    Shanawdithit
    Shanawdithit
    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
    Where You Live
    A businessman is waiting for a streetcar, with his back to an unhoused woman. The two silently judge each other. The man is annoyed at seeing someone who wants something for nothing, and the woman is feeling judged for a situation she has no control over. The two finally acknowledge each other, and we discover their shared experience.
    Composer: Iman Habibi
    Librettist: Michael Pollard

    Where You Live
    Where You Live
    R.U.R. A Torrent of Light
    The fictional tech company R.U.R., founded by couple Helena and Dom, dominates the A.I. software market and powers the now-ubiquitous androids that serve their human owners.

    As Dom becomes more focused on growing R.U.R’s profits, Helena’s creative research leads to an unexpected technological breakthrough that pits the couples’ visions square...
    Composer: Nicole Lizée
    Librettist: Nicolas Billon

    R.U.R. A Torrent of Light
    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
    COR
    Excerpts
    Shanawdithit – Scene 2

    Cormack’s study in St. John’s, now Shanawdithit’s room. “Nancy April” reveals she can speak English quite well, and tells Cormack her real name: Shanawdithit. Cormack asks her where the rest of her people are, where her home is. Shanawdithit says simply: they are no more. Shanawdithit reflects on the loss of her people and the taking of her a...

    Shanawdithit – Scene 4

    The taking of Demasduit weighs heavy on Shanawdithit’s heart. Cormack, unsure of what to do, tries to comfort her, saying Demasduit was treated well. Shawnadithit asks if white people actually care about her people, her story, because Cormack’s words are betrayed by the actions of his fellows, and indeed, his own. Cormack insists he will ensu...

    Shanawdithit – Scene 5: Salmon, Seal, Caribou

    Shanawdithit describes the last days of her family as they were pushed from their land and then hunted. She asks Cormack not to speak of their death, but of their life. Cormack is ecstatic and gets lost in the memories Shanawdithit paints. She breaks his reverie with the cold fact that the life she speaks of will never happen again. She colla...

    Shanawdithit – Scene 6

    Cormack tries to raise funds for Shanawdithit’s care without success. James Simms offers to care for her while Cormack is away.

    M’dea Undone – Act 2, Scene 9

    The citizens gossip about the murder.

    Shelter – Scene 1: Love & Science (duet)

    Thomas and Claire meet at a party and fall in love.

    Shelter – Scene 5: The Pilot (duet)

    The pilot watches Hope from afar. They meet and become lovers.

    Shelter – Scene 4: Hope Grows Up, “Waiting” (duet)

    Thomas has brought Lise to become Hope's tutor, but Hope has grown up and wants to leave the house. Lise warns her not to give her love away to just anyone.

    Shelter – Scene 4: Hope Grows Up, “This is Our House” (aria)

    Hope grows up quickly, climbing out of her crib as a woman of twenty-one. She sings to herself, wanting to leave the house.

    Shanawdithit – “What? A man?” (aria)

    Shanawdithit reprimands Cormack for his saviour complex.

    Shelter – Scene 6: Trinity (aria)

    Hope introduces the pilot to her family. He leaves, and Hope argues with her parents about going with him.

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

    Akakiy reveals his fascination with numbers, and the chorus announces they’ll help keep track of things. His landlady enters to bring him some cabbage soup- and something more, which he refuses.

    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 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...

    The Translator – “America died in that cell” (aria)

    Traumatized by her experiences, Alessandra reflects on her work as a translator in an American military prison.

    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.

    The Two Graces – “Oh, to belong to the sea” (aria)

    Queen Liz imagines what it would be like to be free.

    The Two Graces – The Two Graces

    Irish pirate Chieftain Grace O'Malley sneaks into the bedroom of Queen Elizabeth I of England, and convinces the Queen to give her back her ship and free her lover. In return Grace will attend the Queen's birthday celebration and cause a sensation - which delights Liz.

    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.

    Where You Live – Where You Live

    A businessman is waiting for a streetcar, with his back to an unhoused woman. The two silently judge each other. The man is annoyed at seeing someone who wants something for nothing, and the woman is feeling judged for a situation she has no control over. The two finally acknowledge each other, and we discover their shared experience.

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Act 2, Scene 3: “In the Maze of Prison”

    The Child questions Lucifer’s role as tempter, while he tempts with growing intensity. He chastises the Child for bowing to authority. She erupts in anger, pushing the books aside and leaving the cage.

    TAP:EX Augmented Opera – Section 1: ” Product Launch”

    Eurydice volunteers to test new A.I. technology that promises to capture your most vivid memories and curate your perfect virtual afterlife. Lab techs hand out eye masks to the audience.

    TAP:EX Augmented Opera – Sections 2 and 3: “Descent Into Memory – Garden of the Subconscious”

    Calliope and the Muses lead Eurydice C into her subconscious, to the memory of her first love.

    TAP:EX Augmented Opera – Section 4: “Inner Sanctum”

    In memory, Eurydice C's painter lover pushes her to allow him to paint her and make love to her, even though she is reluctant.

    TAP:EX Augmented Opera – Section 5: “Fragments”

    Eurydice C remembers different versions of her lover in an Arioso, Bourrée, and Passacaglia. She questions what might have been, before Calliope calls her back to the present.

    TAP:EX Augmented Opera – Section 6: “Elysium”

    Eurydice C is shown her Elysium with Orpheus in the garden - she is not sure she wants him there, but it fades before she can decide. The CEO brings her back to reality and closes the presentation.

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Act 1, Scene 1: “Understanding”

    The Child is taught a lesson. She attempted to speak her truth, but was met with discipline.

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Act 1, Scene 2: “With His Eyes (Male Gaze)”

    An interrogator turns his lurid eyes on an imprisoned female activist. Purposefully misunderstanding her movements as seduction, he convinces himself of something horrid.

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Act 1, Scene 3: “Come In”

    Lucifer taunts the Child in a cell. She doesn't understand what she's done wrong.

    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.

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Act 1, Scene 5: “Go On, Get Out”

    The Child is bored. She reads several books in an effort to learn all the things she shouldn’t do, say, feel, or see. Lucifer simply asks her why, attempting to get her attention on him instead of books. She finds a name, Iblis, and taunts him.

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Act 1, Scene 6: “Book’s Lament”

    A book pleads with the audience to be read. A rhythmic chorus rises. A tribute to the banned, the burned, and the hidden.

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Act 1, Scene 7: “In the Book”

    As Lucifer tries again to get the Child to go with him, the Child finds out who Lucifer is in one of the books of the cell.

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Act 1, Scene 8: “Eat Anything”

    The Child is allowed out of her cage, with a warning she can have anyting she wants except for one thing. She asks what it might be, and in a Kafka-esque reply they say, “you know.”

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Act 2, Scene 1: “After Intermission”

    The Child is led back to the book cage, and performers take their places.

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Act 2, Scene 2: “White Key”

    Lucifer jangles an entrancing key in front of the Child and a young boy. This key promises to open the gates of heaven, but the boy has his own doubts about that. Nevertheless, he zips up his vest...

    Shanawdithit – “These last few months” (aria)

    Cormack presents his findings about Shanawdithit to the members of the Beothuk institute.

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Act 2, Scene 4: “Dubai know how to Party”

    A distraught woman is trying to report her sexual assault to a policeman. She admits she’s had some alcohol. Instead of pursuing justice, the policeman arrests her for illegal possession of alcohol. The Child witnesses all of it.

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Act 2, Scene 5: “Power Shift”

    Lucifer is enraged at the unfairness put upon him. The Child sees, and has an idea. Perhaps the system should be broken. When Lucifer realizes the Child has seen his truth, he tries to hide his emotions.

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Act 2, Scene 6: “With His Serenity (Falun Dufa)”

    A watcher looks over a group of faithful. His irritation turns to hatred as he accuses them of subversion. He claims to have proof hidden in some papers, but the Child has destroyed them. The Child proclaims “I know what to do,” and the tension between authority and people escalates. The Child begins taking pages and notes from all the surrou...

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Act 2, Scene 7: “Enlightenment”

    The Child creates her own book from pages of other books. She hands out her new rules to the audience.

    TAP:EX Forbidden – Epilogue

    Lucifer rebuilds the cage, then tries to convince the audience to join him in self-exile.

    Jacqueline – “Dizzy” – voice and cello

    In her prime, Jackie admits she finds the pace of touring life dizzying. The sycophants at parties are starting to get to her.

    Lullaby at the Shore – Lullaby at the Shore

    A child walks on a beach, in search of their parents.

    M’dea Undone – Act 1, Scene 1

    Jason, M'dea, and the soldiers return from war to a celebratory crowd. Some do not trust the new foreigner, M'dea.

    M’dea Undone – Act 1, Scene 2

    At a party, the Corporal mocks Jason for needing M'dea to help him win and for bringing her home.

    M’dea Undone – Act 1, Scene 4

    Jason and M'dea are expecting a baby. Citizens gossip about the couple.

    M’dea Undone – Act 1, Scene 5: President Calling

    At the President's office, Jason and the President discuss family, how to be a good father, and a possible future for Jason in politics.

    M’dea Undone – Act 1, Scene 8 – A Dinner Party

    The President invites Jason to be his running mate, and begins to remake him. This process sidelines M'dea and Chase. Dahlia and Jason are attracted to one other.

    M’dea Undone – Act 1, Scene 11: The Ballroom

    The party is about to announce Jason's candidacy. Jason and Dahlia dance together, oblivious to all the others. Enraged, M'dea smashes a glass wall, showering fragments over the party guests.

    M’dea Undone – Act 2, Scene 1

    Jason and Dahlia are getting married. The citizens gossip.

    M’dea Undone – Act 2, Scene 7

    The President gives an election victory speech.

    COR

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