Torture – COR

COR

Operas

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

COR

Excerpts

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.