Opera Labs: Opera for the 21st Century

Opera Labs draws on Calgary Opera's long history in the field of new opera development. Its purpose: to provide a fertile and supportive environment for creative experimentation and to nurture innovative and collaborative opera projects at various stages of their development, from concept to curtain.

Opera Labs was borne out of a desire to find adaptive, scalable and sustainable processes to engage artists interested in the creation of new works that will go on to add new stories from diverse voices and perspectives to the international opera canon.

PROJECTS

Although we couldn't invite the public to witness the incredible work that was happening behind our closed doors, we wanted to take this opportunity to pull back the curtain on the fascinating process of creating new opera.

So we enlisted the help of Pluto Pictures to create four short films that capture the trials, tribulations and triumphs of creating new works of opera in the midst of a global pandemic.

NAMWAYUT

• First Lab: FEB 2021
• Second Lab: APR 2022

Namwayut is a word in Kwak'wala, the language of the Kwakwaka'wakw peoples from northern Vancouver Island, smaller surrounding islands and adjacent mainland BC in Canada, meaning "we are all one".

The piece grew out of Canadian opera singer and dramaturg Marion Newman's artistic impulse to conceptualize and create an opera under Indigenous leadership in an entirely new way. 

This project was a collaboration of singers, composers, a librettist and musicians, that allowed each artist's voice to be heard and held with respect, equal weight and a sense of community. Working in this new way, they planted the seeds of an operatic work based on elements from the oral history of First Nations storytelling that celebrates the resilience of Indigenous peoples and their enduring connection to the land.

NAMWAYUT ARTISTS

• Marion Newman, dramaturg
• Parmela Attariwala, conductor
• Ian Cusson, co-composer
• Yvette Nolan, librettist
• Melody Courage, soprano
• Michelle Lafferty, mezzo-soprano
• Asitha Tennekoon, tenor
• Evan Mounce, répétiteur
• Shelby-Jai Flick, stage manager
• Marc Lavalée, audio-visual technician

ARRIVING AT THE FIRE

• FEB 8-28, 2021

Arriving at the Fire is a compositional experiment pairing the inspiration of Canadian composer Kelly-Marie Murphy and librettist Paula Wing.

Murphy is a well-established voice in the orchestra, choral and chamber music world. Wing is a playwright fixture of the Canadian theatre scene. Together, they are tackling the operatic format to find out for themselves if their gifts translate into compelling operatic storytelling.

With the working title of Arriving at the Fire, this is an excerpt developed for consideration of a full-length opera based on the story of a charismatic new-age spiritual guru who leads his disciples down a dangerous path.

ARRIVING AT THE FIRE ARTISTS

• Kelly-Marie Murphy, composer
• Paula Wing, librettist
• Jean-Claude Picard, conductor
• Elizabeth Stepkowski Tarhan, stage director
• Mark Morash, associate conductor
• Neil Craighead, John Curtis Roy
• Lillian Brooks, Suzanne
• Kallie Clayton, Kinley
• Jeremy Dubé, Miguel
• Jeffrey Strand, Garrett
• Alanna Fraize, chorus
• Eden Tremayne, chorus
• Scott Rumble, chorus
• Dominic Veilleux, chorus
• Mel Kirby, répétiteur
• Jack Olszewski, répétiteur
• Shelby-Jai Flick, stage manager
• Marc Lavalée, technical assistant
• James Bundy, audio engineering

VASTATION

• JAN 11-30, 2021

Vastation is a reconsideration of a previously composed opera. Samy Moussa's Vastation premiered in 2014 at Munich Biennial - a festival of contemporary opera and music theatre. Moussa, still in his 20s when he wrote the piece, was not entirely satisfied with this first venture into composing opera. Having established his reputation internationally in the intervening years as well as growing as a composer, this workshop was a chance to reassess the composition with consideration to revision for future productions. Vastation is an examination of power - democratic, military and personal - and the forces that seek to corrupt them.

VASTATION ARTISTS

• Samy Moussa, composer
• Johannes Debus, conductor
• Aria Umezawa, stage director
• Mark Morash, associate conductor
• Lynne McMurty, Anna
• Eden Tremayne, Lola
• Scott Rumble, Campaign Manager
• Jeremy Dubé, Dimitri
• Dominic Veilleux, Harry and Colonel
• Kallie Clayton, chorus
• Lillian Brooks, chorus
• Alanna Fraize, chorus
• Jeffrey Strand, chorus
• Jack Olszewski, pianist
• Mel Kirby, music preparation
• Shelby-Jai Flick, stage manager
• Marc Lavalée, technical assistant

THE CIPHER CLERK

• APR 5-18, 2021

The Cipher Clerk is the third complete opera commissioned by Calgary Opera from composer John Estacio. This commission follows on the Calgary Opera world premieres of Estacio's operas Filumena and Frobisher. It is the opera's second collaboration with librettist Clem Martini and a continuation of a long-established relationship with director and dramaturg Glynis Leyshon. This workshop was the third and final workshop of The Cipher Clerk and the first workshop that included the music of the final act.

The Cipher Clerk is the true story of events that took place in Ottawa at the end of World War II. Just as the war was ending, Igor Gouzenko, a clerk at the Soviet Embassy responsible for decoding secret missives from Moscow, happens to decode a letter that indicates his imminent fall from grace in the eyes of the Soviet Government. Gouzenko decides to save himself and his family by alerting the Canadian, American, and British governments that Russia has been spying on the countries covertly, effectively initiating the Cold War.

THE CIPHER CLERK ARTISTS

• John Estacio, composer
• Clem Martini, librettist
• Mark Morash, conductor
• Glynis Leyshon, stage director
• Tyler Fitzgerald, Edward Stettinius and chorus
• Dominic Veilleux, Georgi Zarubin and chorus
• Jeffrey Strand, Norman Robertson and chorus
• Jeremy Dubé, Igor Gouzenko and chorus
• Scott Rumble, Colonel Motinov, RCMP Officer, Driver, Roger Hollis and chorus
• Eden Tremayne, Svetlana Gouzenko, Carol Wiggins and chorus
• Lillian Brooks, Francis Elliot and chorus
• Alanna Fraize, Ottawa Citizen reporter and chorus
• Mel Kirby, répétiteur
• Shelby-Jai Flick, stage manager
• Cody Stadel, technical director
• Sam Hindle, Zoom presentation facilitator
• Lyall Jovie, technical support
• Marc Lavalée, video technician
• James Bundy, audio engineer