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...
After the tragic death of her first child, a baby daughter, Isabelle has run away to another town in Spain to escape the grief, leaving her husband Hector with a double loss. They are a working-class couple. The scene opens with Isabelle expecting a client in a seedy bordello. Hector has found her. He entreats...
Ours tracks the social, political, and emotional aftermath of the battle of Beaumont Hamel through the story of Thomas Nangle, who was chaplain to the Newfoundland Regiment.
Following the war, Nangle was named to the Imperial War Graves Commission where he led efforts to properly bury the remains of the lost Regiment across Europe. He establi...
Avertissement de contenu: violence coloniale, colonialisme, mort, maladie
1828, baie Notre Dame, sur la côte nord-est de Terre-Neuve. William Cormack, explorateur et anthropologue, a récemment créé le Beothuk Institute : un organisme destiné à prévenir l'extinction des premiers habitants de l'île. Après avoir appris qu'un Béothuk...
Anna and Michael are successful young filmmakers from Alberta, married in life and in art. Their latest project is a movie about Martin Frobisher, Elizabethan pirate and explorer who made three perilous journeys to the Arctic in the 1570s. History says that Frobisher failed in his attempt to find the fabled Northwest Passage, a quick route thro...
Composé de 18 scènes, l'opéra retrace 16 années de la vie de Louis Riel, instituteur manitobain et héros métis, de la Rébellion de la rivière Rouge (1869-1870) à la Rébellion du Nord-Ouest (1884-1885), en passant par son procès et sa pendaison à Regina en 1885. Il met également en scène les intrigues politiques à Ottawa qui ont suivi les actions de Riel, ainsi que plusieurs autres événements….
The opera is a poetic love story following resistance against a fictional state that oppresses lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. It centres on the rebellious Solana and her beloved Lilah, who is now a wife and mother; together, they fight for a new future, even as their secret romance is threatened by Lilah’s unpredictable h...
Content warning: child neglect, death, migration, strong language, trauma, war
When her mother dies, an adult Sophia confronts half-forgotten traumas from her childhood growing up under the shadow of war. A young Sophia and her sister Emma attempted to escape their grim circumstances – the adult world of violence, death and displacement – thr...
Janna and her grandpa are in Toronto’s distillery district. Before she has to leave, Janna asks him to tell the story of how he and Grandma met. Both were fighting a fire, and met as part of the bucket brigade. Janna proudly reminds him he saved everyone that night, but this isn’t true. Grandpa confesses that a wo...
Agnieska et Sumana partagent une soirée ensemble après s'être rencontrées dans un bar. La nuit, aussi intime soit-elle, a des significations très différentes pour chaque femme. Tandis que Sumana déborde de l'excitation d'une première chance amoureuse, Agnieska est hantée par les souvenirs de son passé amoureux.
The next morning, Agnieska wakes early and admires her new lover Sumana as sh...
I Have No Stories to Tell You mines the aftereffects of war through the story of a soldier’s return home from an extended assignment on the battlefield. Written as a companion piece to Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, the opera explores war as a catalyst for changed identity through th...
Content warning: ableism, institutionalization, medical abuse, mental illness, sanism, sexual violence
10 Days in a Madhouse is a psychological opera that plays with notions of madness, inspired by the life of Nellie Bly, a trailblazing reporter who in 1887 faked madness in order to be admitted to Blackwell’s Asylum for the Insane and report ...
An adaptation of Atom Egoyan’s 2008 film of the same name, Adoration follows Simon, an orphaned high school student. As part of a dramatic writing exercise, Simon’s teacher encourages him to appropriate details from a historical terrorist attack as an imaginary event perpetrated by his parents. When his stor...
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...
A young mother with her infant daughter is threatened by an armed military officer escorting prisoners. She wants to wait for her husband, but the officer tells her he is probably already dead. The woman sings a lament to her baby, then pleads with the officer to take her baby and raise her as his own.
La scène est divisée en deux parties : une dispute tendue entre une mère et son enfant et un aria tendre pour la mère alors qu'elle révèle enfin à son fils une réalité douloureuse quant à l'absence prolongée de son père.
Based on "The Handless Maiden," a mythic story found in cultures around the world, and a continuation of the events in Me and You (Madonna of the Wilderness).
After seven years of wandering, the girl (now known as Madonna) has regained her hands through loving self-sacrifice. She’s returned to the cabin of her childhood, where her journey beg...
La nuit, sur un quai au bord d'un lac. Des bougies ont été soigneusement disposées sur le côté du quai pour éclairer un chemin. Adèle se tient au bout d'un quai, tenant une urne qui contient les cendres de son mari. Elle enlève le couvercle de l'urne et se met à répandre les cendres sur l'eau.
Avertissement de contenu : descriptions d'esclavage, de violence, de violence sexuelle, de mort
A father will do anything to save his daughter. Of the Sea follows the story of Maduka, his daughter Binyelum, and fellow Africans thrown overboard during the Middle Passage who now populate mythical underwater kingdoms that span the ocean floor. Amidst the waves, ...
La société technologique fictive RUR, fondée par le couple Helena et Dom, domine le marché des logiciels d'IA et alimente les androïdes désormais omniprésents au service de leurs propriétaires humains.
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...
Content warning: contains depictions of gun violence, mentions of homophobia, transphobia, self-harm, attempted suicide, memory loss, illness, death, and violence
Julie d'Aubigny (1673-1707), more often known by her stage name "Mademoiselle Maupin," was a queer and gender non-conforming opera singer. She was a mezzo-soprano, and sang some of ...
Dragon’s Tale is the story of a young Chinese-Canadian woman (Xiao Lian) and her ailing father, both living in Toronto. Xiao Lian wakes up in the ancient past and witnesses the last days of one of China’s greatest poets, Qu Yuan. In doing so, she begins to understand her father and herself as she returns to a c...
Avertissement de contenu : erreur de genre, mentions d'agression sexuelle et de violence implicite
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...
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 ...
Avertissement de contenu : mort, infanticide, meurtre
A rumble of hooves. A family is fleeing, but the baby is slowing them down. The mother is forced to choose between her husband and her child. She chooses the husband and tries to get the baby to sleep before letting it go over a waterfall. At the last minute, the baby awakes, and the mother’s grief ...
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...
Inspired by interviews with Houston–based NASA astronauts, scientists, and engineers, O Columbia traces a history of dreamers and explorers–from Sir Walter Raleigh journeying to the New World, to a Houston teenager experiencing communion, and later, heartbreak, with a Columbia space shuttle astronaut, to f...
Avertissement de contenu : maladie, décès, VIH/SIDA
Dark Star Requiem is a poetic chronicle of the 25 years (as of 2010) of HIV-AIDS, reflecting the many faces of the disease and those affected by the pandemic.
Based on the 1970s television movie and novelization by Gail Rock, The House Without a Christmas Tree follows the story of 10-year-old Addie, whose one wish for Christmas is for her father to finally allow a Christmas tree in their family home.
In December of 1946, Addie is thrilled to win the class Christmas tree in a contest, but is disappo...
Un père surprend son fils au lit avec sa petite amie, Eva. Un combat à trois éclate, le fils professant son amour pour Eva et vice versa, tandis que le père prévient qu'ils vont bientôt se trahir l'un l'autre. Ils quittent, et le père regrette sa perte.
Avertissement : ce contenu contient des scènes de maltraitance, de mort, d’incendie et de violence.
Fanny et Alexandre est un grand opéra en deux actes, adapté du film d'Ingmar Bergman par Mikael Karlsson et Royce Vavrek, avec le soutien de la succession Bergman et la consultation artistique de Cinematograph AB (Ingmar Bergman Jr. et Claes du Rietz).
Avertissement de contenu : maladie, mort, colonisation
Facing South is inspired by the life story of American Arctic explorer, Rear Admiral Robert Edwin Peary, and his contested discovery of the North Pole in 1909. The opera takes place in the inner landscape of Peary’s mind during the last hours of his life in February 1920, as he lies dying of pernic...
At her wedding reception, the beautiful but depressed Justine spots a red star in the sky. It is the planet Melancholia, which is on a collision course with Earth. The bridegroom Michael tries to calm her down with his love, her mother Gaby poisons her with her darkness, and her sister C...
Get Stuffed is a comic opera about serious decisions, featuring vocalizing vegetables and a big helping of other opinionated edible characters, all competing to influence one child's daily diet. Written for 5 singing actors and 2 musicians, this opera is intended for family audiences and touring to schools with a focus on encouraging youth to ma...
Proving Up, based on a story by Karen Russell, is an opera about the American Dream, told through the story of Nebrasken homesteaders in the 1870s. A family dreams of "proving up" and obtaining the deed to the land they've settled. They obsessively list the requirements of the Homestead Act: five years of harvest, a sod house dwelling, and perha...
Beatrice Chancy est un drame historique inspiré de l'histoire vraie de la famille Cenci à Rome, vers 1600. L'histoire se déroule dans une plantation de Nouvelle-Écosse, aux derniers jours de l'esclavage, vers 1800, et met en scène l'héroïne, Béatrice, fille métisse de...
Avertissement de contenu : racisme, colonialisme, violence, mort
En Chine dans les années 1880, Lai Gwan, une jeune femme appauvrie, est à l'aube d'un énorme changement. Sa mère mourante la presse de respecter et d'honorer la mémoire de son père, Manli, dont la disparition au Nouveau Monde les hante tous les deux.
Armed with the hope that she will find her father aliv...
Content warning: death, injury, paralysis, sexual violence, suicide attempt, violence
Based on the film by Lars von Trier, Breaking the Waves tells the story of Bess McNeill, a religious young woman with a deep love for her husband Jan, a handsome oil rig worker in 1970's Scotland. When Jan becomes paralyzed in an off-shore accident, Bess’s m...
Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) was an explorer, nomad, journalist, novelist, passionate romantic, Sufi, and one of the most unique and unusual women of her era. At age twenty, after the death of her mother, brother and father, she left her life in Switzerland for a nomadic ...
The Sword in the Schoolyard blends the contemporary schoolyard of a young student with his imaginings of King Arthur’s medieval England. His despair at the deployment of his beloved sister to a foreign war, forces him to wrestle with the meaning of leadership, violence, duty, loyalty and equality through the legend of the mythic king.
Punk and operatic virtuosity collide in Tapestry’s third installment of the Tapestry Explorations (TAP:EX) series. Metallurgy is a collaboration between Jonah Falco and Mike Haliechuk of F*cked Up, the Polaris Prize-winning punk provocateurs, and two of Canada’s most masterful and versatile opera singers, mezzo-soprano Krisztina Szabó and tenor ...
Content warning: abduction, sexual assault, violence
Europa was a Phoenician princess who was seduced and borne off to Crete by Zeus. There she bore him three sons, who became the founding fathers of Europe. It's telling that European civilization, which has been a mixed blessing for the rest of the world, was founded upon what could be seen ...
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 ...
Avertissement de contenu : captivité, traite des personnes, travail du sexe, violence sexuelle, violence, mort
The Enslavement and Liberation of Oksana G. is a fictional dramatic opera built on extensive factual research. Set in Ukraine in 1997, it is the story of Oksana, a young woman lured into the world of sex trafficking by a Russian recruiter, Konstantin, who ...
Tout espoir est perdu lorsque les villageois reviennent et récupèrent les biens de Qu Yuan. Ils emmènent les rouleaux contenant sa célèbre poésie au temple taoïste, où ils seront conservés pour toujours. Xiao Lian revient au présent au chevet de son père mourant. Grâce à ses encouragements et à son amour, elle reconnaît enfin la valeur d'honorer le passé.
Xiao Lian effectue la cérémonie Qingming pour honorer l'esprit de son père et de sa mère décédés. L'amour et la camaraderie se combinent dans le déroulement d'une course de bateaux-dragons. Xiao Lian rejoint ses amis et se dirige vers son avenir.
Un jardinier, perdu dans la nature, se retrouve dans la cabane de Madonna. Elle le reconnaît comme l'homme de ses rêves et jure de le guérir de son chagrin.
Years later, Qu Yuan has earned the honour and respect of the people in a little fishing village on the river Miluo. Xiao Lian and a local villager strike up a conversation with Qu Yuan, and it is soon revealed that The Kingdom of Chu has been destroyed by its enemies. After learning this news, Qu Yuan’s heart breaks, and he drowns himself in th...
Les esprits combinés de Qu Yuan et de Père reviennent et demandent au public de les libérer de leur servitude. Cette liberté accordée, ils montent triomphalement au ciel.
Janna et son grand-père vivent dans le quartier des distilleries de Toronto. Avant de partir, Janna lui demande de raconter comment lui et grand-mère se sont rencontrés.
Ma Zegner, after doing all that’s required of her as stipulated by the Homestead Act, confronts the deaths of her children and rails against fate.
Purchase score here.
Asa et Sofiya vérifient les cartes. Pavlo arrive avec la nouvelle qu'un prêtre a appelé d'Italie pour dire qu'Oksana est en vie, mais qu'il n'y a aucun signe de Natalyia.
Alors que Lai Gwan sanctifie les os, elle convoque les morts et les libère. Les morts la bénissent et lui donnent la possibilité de vivre le reste de sa vie en paix.
Lai Gwan réconforte Nichol, qui est blessé. Ils s'avouent leur amour et s'embrassent. Nichol chante une chanson d'amour à Lai Gwan, l'esprit d'Ama la visite pour l'avertir des dangers qui existent à aimer un homme blanc. Le son des pioches signale le sauvetage de Lai Gwan. Une personne meurt, une autre vit.
Alors que Manli et Lai Gwan se disputent sur leur situation, Lai Gwan raconte la mort d'Ama, qui écrase Manli. Il décide de poser lui-même la prochaine charge explosive. Nichol et Lai Gwan reconnaissent leur amour et suivent Manli dans le tunnel.
En criant, Oksana se réveille d'un cauchemar ; Le père Alexander vient la voir et elle admet qu'elle a peut-être laissé Natalyia se noyer pour se sauver. Le Père conseille le pardon envers elle-même et envers les autres, mais Oksana n'est pas convaincue que cela soit possible.
Un père surprend son fils au lit avec sa petite amie, Eva. Un combat à trois éclate, le fils professant son amour pour Eva et vice versa, tandis que le père prévient qu'ils vont bientôt se trahir l'un l'autre. Ils quittent, et le père regrette sa perte.
Une confrontation nocturne entre une mère et son fils. Le fils l'accuse d'avoir eu une liaison avec son oncle et d'avoir tué son père. Il a trouvé un médecin à Chinatown qui pourra prouver que son père a été empoisonné. La mère prétend qu'elle l'a fait pour mettre fin à sa douleur.
Agnieska et Sumana partagent une soirée intime après s'être rencontrées dans un bar. Les souvenirs d'anciens amants poussent presque Agnieska à abandonner ce nouvel amour, mais Sumana la convainc de garder espoir.
Xiao Lian’s father bitterly reveals that he will die soon. Xiao Lian’s mother appears in spirit form and asks her to forgive her father. She speaks of their happiness together as a family in earlier times. As a child, Xiao Lian had a close connection with the Dragon Boat Festival, known as Duanwu and its hero, the ancient poet Qu Yuan. Her Fathe...
A young Chinese/Canadian woman (Xiao Lian) faces a difficult choice: Honour her family’s traditional past or embrace a more modern future. Her father dwells on the memory of his deceased wife and honours her by performing the Qingming funeral tradition. Meanwhile, Xiao Lian’s two friends want her to get out and be more social. Her father objects...
Pegasus raconte un rêve dans lequel leur mère Medusa leur demande de retrouver sa tête coupée. Ils réfléchissent aux circonstances déchirantes de leur naissance et à leur relation avec leur frère Chrysaor et leur père Poseidon.
Medusa chante d'outre-tombe, tendant la main à ses enfants et à ses deux sœurs. Elle raconte l'histoire de son viol par le dieu Poseidon et de son meurtre par le héros Perseus.
Se réveillant tôt, Agnieska admire son nouvel amant Sumana pendant qu'elle dort. Lorsque Sumana se réveille, le couple partage une conversation intime et finit par éclater de rire.
Qu Yuan erre dans le désert du sud. Au cours de son voyage, il compose une complainte sur lui-même et sur sa position perdue au tribunal. Dans le présent, le père de Xiao Lian sent que sa fin est proche. Rassemblant ses forces, il se joint à l'esprit de Qu Yuan pour raconter le dernier chapitre.
Her health fading, Shanawdithit wonders if she’ll be welcomed into the spirit world after so much time with the colonists. Cormack tells her he must leave, and Shanawdithit gives him a sketch of his house to carry with him. He leaves the room to pack. Shanawdithit hears the spirits of her people calling her name. It is time. One spirit in partic...
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 collapse...
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 ensure ...
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 aunt...
Sofiya et Yuri consultent Asa alors qu'Oksana n'est pas arrivée comme promis dans sa lettre. Ils sont interrompus par Pavlo qui leur apprend que le prêtre italien est au téléphone et veut parler aux parents d'Oksana.