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  • About COR
    • About COR
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    • How To Use COR
    • FAQ – For Users
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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 ...

Ashes
Content warning: murder

Nighttime on a dock on a lake. Tea lights have been carefully arranged on the side of the dock to illuminate a path. Adele stands at the end of a dock holding an urn that contains her husband’s ashes. She takes the lid off the urn, and begins to sprinkle ashes on the water.

Her son Theo joins her and asks what she’s...
Composer: Iman Habibi
Librettist: Charles Hayter

Ashes
Ashes
Sleep, Sleep
A woman and her grown son are leaving their home. It’s time for bed, but the boy insists they play his favourite game one last time. Begrudgingly, the mother agrees. They make up ways of killing an unnamed woman.

When the game is over, the boy asks what would happen if they killed the woman “for real,” if it would make his father love them ag...
Composer: John Harris
Librettist: Marjorie Chan

Sleep, Sleep
Sleep, Sleep
Rocking Horse Winner
Content warning: illness, death

Rocking Horse Winner primarily explores the relationship between Paul, a young adult, and his emotionally distant mother, Ava.

Paul is driven to bridge the relationship with his mother, but Ava s...
Composer: Gareth Williams
Librettist: Anna Chatterton

Rocking Horse Winner
The Leaving
As the waves crash against the shore, two religious brothers go for a walk. The conversation is dominated by the older brother, and heavy with implication. The younger one announces his wish to leave the order, and is asked if his father’s death has something to do with this decision. The younger brother is furious; he could have spoken to his f...
Composer: Stephen Andrew Taylor
Librettist: Bernard MacLaverty

The Leaving
The Leaving
Nigredo Hotel
A ‘Hitchcock-style thriller’ for baritone and soprano, Nigredo Hotel is “the story of a neurosurgeon, a man of science, who has lost his soul. One night he thinks he has hit a child on the road and hides out in a decrepit, Hitchcockian motel run by a monstrous concierge called Sophie. The terrifying crone — his anima — locks him into his room an...
Composer: Nic Gotham
Librettist: Ann-Marie MacDonald

Nigredo Hotel
My Mother’s Ring
Content warning: murder, violence, mental illness

The story begins with a distressed Paul being interviewed about his missing parents. It switches to two weeks earlier with Harold and Julia in the airport after sending him off. Julia worries that something is wrong with their son. Harold is sure that he'll be back to his old self after the tr...
Composer: Stephen Andrew Taylor
Librettist: Marcia Johnson

My Mother’s Ring
My Mother’s Ring
The Telegram
Content warning: death, war

During a war, two women talk over the phone. They panic as they watch the town elder march down the street, telegram in hand. His message always carries horrible news: the death of someone’s son. Both of the women almost unwillingly hope some other family gets the telegram. Anyone but them.

In truth, the telegra...
Composer: Gareth Williams
Librettist: Bernard MacLaverty

The Telegram
The Telegram
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
Sooner Than Later
Content warning: gun violence, strong language, terminal illness, attempted assisted suicide

A father and son argue in a dark alley.  The father, sick with a tumour "the size of a fig" in his brain, begs his son to end his life.  When the gun they're using fails and the son panics, the father offers comfort and encouragement in the form of a ...
Composer: Cecilia Livingston
Librettist: David Yee

Sooner Than Later
Sooner Than Later
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
YES
Mark stands with his friends Maryanne and Bob, ready to play a game of baseball. They see their other friend, Kenny, and Carley, Mark's ex-girlfriend, in the distance. Kenny proposes to Carley, and runs to the group to announce triumphantly "She said yes!" Inspired by Maryanne's encouragement, Mark calls his estranged son, who lives far away wit...
Composer: Jana Skarecky
Librettist: Sheldon Rosen

YES
YES
Ice Cream
Content warning: illness, memory loss

A mother and son have dinner. The mother is suffering from Alzheimer’s, and her son has increasing difficulty coping with that fact.
Composer: Benton Roark
Librettist: Liza Balkan

Ice Cream
Ice Cream
Sky on Swings


We open on an Alzheimer’s hallucination. Martha, a woman in her seventies, sees a surreal and exaggerated world in which strangers torment her and weather invades her kitchen. Martha remains in the grips of her hallucination until the presence of Martha’s daughter, Winnie, rips her out of it. Suddenly, shockingly, Martha i...
Composer: Lembit Beecher
Librettist: Hannah Moscovitch

Sky on Swings
Black Blood
Content warning: war

In a shack surrounded by barren fields, a dying father and his son drink their last bowl of water. They need oil for the machines that will keep them alive and purify their water. A truck rolls past with a huge barrel of oil in the back. The son flags it down, only to discover the person driving the truck is a monstrous c...
Composer: Christiaan Venter
Librettist: Norman Yeung

Black Blood
Black Blood
COR
Excerpts
My Mother’s Ring – My Mother’s Ring

Paul is being interviewed about his missing parents. Is Paul a suspect? Is the interrogator a police officer or a psychiatrist? Who were the people who were in his parents' house when Paul returned from his trip? All is not as it seems.

Rocking Horse Winner – Scene 8: Ava’s birthday

Ava is disappointed in her birthday celebration, and Paul asks her why she isn't happy.

Rocking Horse Winner – Scene 10: Ava and Paul

Paul begs his rocking horse for more luck for the Derby. Ava decides Paul’s been too agitated lately, and the distance between them grows wider. Ava leaves his room and bemoans Paul’s lack of understanding. She deserves luxury now and then, and Paul robs her of comfort. As if on cue, she hears Paul noisily riding his rocking horse again. Whil...

Sleep, Sleep – Sleep, Sleep

A boy and his mother make up ways of killing an unnamed woman.  When the game is over, the boy asks what would happen if they killed the woman “for real,” if it would make his father love them again.

The Telegram – The Telegram

Two women watch and worry as the church elder walks through town with a telegram carrying news of a soldier son's death.

The Leaving – The Leaving

A young religous brother tells an older brother that he is planning to leave the order. The older brother advises caution and obedience.

Rocking Horse Winner – Scene 2: Ava and Paul talk about luck

Paul is curious about why he and his mother don’t have a car, and Ava explains it’s because they’re poor. Paul again asks why that’s so, and Ava states it’s because his father has no luck. Paul announces that he is lucky.

Rocking Horse Winner – “Now I’m All Nerves” (aria)

Ava bemoans Paul's lack of understanding, and her need for luxury.

Rocking Horse Winner – Scene 11: Paul dies

The last ride has left Paul gravely ill. Oscar and Bassett tell him they bet it all, and they’re set for life. Paul asks his mother if she’ll finally be happy- finally smile. She does, but as they leave his room to celebrate, Paul hears the house whisper. There must be more. Paul is desperate, and crawls to his rocking horse for more luck, mo...

Rocking Horse Winner – Scene 9: The Money Gets Spent

The predictions keep coming true, and the money keeps coming. The money gets spent, and Paul keeps riding. All the while the house is getting filled with finery. But it keeps singing. There must be more, but Paul’s luck falters as his energy wanes.

M’dea Undone – Act 2, Scene 6: The Game (duet)

On the eve of their departure, M'dea and Chase play a gruesome game imagining ways to kill Dahlia the demoness.

Ashes – Ashes

A nighttime confrontation between a mother and son. The son accuses her of having an affair with his uncle, and killing his father. He’s found a doctor in Chinatown who will be able to prove his father was poisoned. The mother claims she did it to end his pain.

Black Blood – Black Blood

A dying father and his son drink their last bowl of water. They need oil for the machines that will keep them alive and purify their water. A truck rolls past with a huge barrel of oil in the back. The son flags it down, only to discover the person driving the truck is a monstrous creature from the nation they’re at war with.

Ice Cream – Ice Cream

A mother and son have dinner. The mother is suffering from Alzheimer’s, and her son has increasing difficulty coping with that fact.

M’dea Undone – Act 2, Scene 6 (duet)

On the eve of their departure, M'dea and Chase play a gruesome game imagining ways to kill Dahlia the demoness.

M’dea Undone – Act 1, Scene 6: The Beach

A family outing to the beach turns into a photo op for the paparazzi.

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 2, Scene 2: The President’s Office

The President threatens M'dea with prison or the loss of her son if she doesn't do as he wants. He warns her not to cause trouble for Jason.

M’dea Undone – Act 2, Scene 3: Fountain

M'dea has a breakdown and brings Chase to the fountain at Jason and Dahlia's, where she sees the ghost of her mother. She is discovered by Jason and Dahlia, and a fight ensues.

Rocking Horse Winner – Scene 7: Ava and Paul at the piano

Paul asks his mother why she always sings sad songs and if she knows anything happier. Ava rebukes him. She expresses profound regret for the stupidity and vanity of her youth. The world only smiles for the young, she says. Paul hopes she’ll smile for her birthday tomorrow, but she does not. At her birthday party, Oscar gives her the winnings...

M’dea Undone – Act 2, Scene 10: Aftermath

After the murders, M'dea almost kills herself but is interrupted by Chase. They escape to the beach.

M’dea Undone – Act 2, Scene 11: The Beach

Pursued by Jason and the guards, M'dea and Chase climb a cliff by the ocean. When they reach the top, they play a version of their make-believe game, and jump off.

My Mother’s Ring – “You are my beautiful boy”

Julia remembers the love she felt for her son Paul when he was a baby.

Nigredo Hotel – “When I was small” (aria)

Ray sings of the ambivalence his parents felt towards him as a child.

Rocking Horse Winner – Scene 1: Ava at the piano (aria)

A waltz is cut short. Ava discloses how far she’s fallen, and how difficult she finds caring for her son.

Rocking Horse Winner – Scene 3: Paul rides his Rocking Horse

Paul creeps upstairs and rides his rocking horse, asking it to take him to where luck is. He rides faster and faster and at the peak, shouts a name: Daffodil.

Rocking Horse Winner – Scene 4: Paul tells Uncle Oscar his Secret

Uncle Oscar enters, having heard the noise, and asks Paul what’s going on. Paul reveals his secret: the rocking horse is lucky, and tells him the names of race horses. Oscar calls in Paul’s caretaker, Bassett, who admits that Paul tells him the names of winning race horses. The three head to the races to prove it.

Rocking Horse Winner – Scene 6: Paul tells Oscar about the House (duet)

Paul tells Oscar he hopes the winnings will stop the house from singing. Paul hears “her” sing of how there’s never enough, how there must be more. He makes Oscar promise not to tell his mother about where the money comes from; it might ruin the luck. Oscar tells him to never stop riding.

COR

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