Inside the New Works Studio

From July 21 to August 1st, the children of the City Hope Summer Camp teamed up with composer Glenn James, librettist Dave Deveau and Tapestry to create and perform their very own opera. The children came up with the characters, the story, and the music, and everyone had tons of fun combining these elements in different ways over two weeks. As the end of the second week neared, the brainstorming, exploring, singing and skits had formed an opera titled “The Secret Within.” On the last day of camp the children performed their opera about a prince’s quest to find the wizard that has stolen all the beauty away from the town, aided by the queen and a group of animal sidekicks. The opera was a huge hit, and for those that missed it, there are some pictures below.

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Insidetoronto.com recently interviewed Amber Ebert, Outreach and Education manager at Tapestry and Chiara Lara, leader of the City Hope Summer Camp, for an article on how children in St Jamestown are spending their summer. To read the full article just click on the link below.

Insidetoronto.com interviews INside Opera 

If you didn’t get to see the workshop presentation of Shelter, here’s a chance to learn about how the story of the opera relates to clown. Just click on the link below to read what Charlotte Gowdy, our clown consultant, has to say about opera, clowning, and working on Shelter.

Clown article featuring Charlotte Gowdy

From July 6-11, 12 fabulous students from the Regent Park School of Music wrote and rehearsed their own original opera, titled Underdogs. With the help of Sandy Pool (librettist) and Glenn James (composer) the students developed characters, dialogue, songs, and music, and then performed the whole opera for an audience! Here are pictures of rehearsals and the final show for anyone who missed meeting these rising stars.

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Curious about Opera on the Rocks? Below is a slide show of photos from past Opera on the Rocks performances. All the information about how to see this fabulous performance at Pauper’s Pub is in the post below.

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The Ambient Opera Society, a group of artists who met while working with Tapestry, presents their newest Opera on the Rocks, performing at Pauper’s Pub. There are lots of chances to check it out! All the information is below.

Opera on the Rocks

hot music.

cold beer.

any questions?

www.operaontherocks.ca

Pauper’s Pub, 539 Bloor St. W., 2nd floor, Toronto

Music: David Ogborn

Direction: Liza Balkan

Words: Leanna Brodie, Dave Carley, Lisa Codrington, Krista Dalby

Stage Management: Elaine Lumley

Performance: Neil Aronoff, Neema Bickersteth,

Keith Klassen, Jessica Lloyd

“If you always wanted to go to the opera, but were scared stiff of the august

environments, this hip new opera show is for you.” - CBC Metro Morning

Toronto Fringe Festival

July 2, 3, 4 @ 9pm July 5 @ 4pm

July 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 @ 9pm July 12 @ 4pm July 13 @ 9pm

BAR OPEN 1 HOUR BEFORE THE SHOW

Tickets: $10 Fringe Hotline: 416.966.1062

www.fringetoronto.com

On Friday June 27th Tapestry had a workshop presentation of Get Stuffed. Having worked with Emma Tiblado all week to stage the opera and develop the movement and relationships of the characters, the cast presented this work in progress to a small audience. Below are some pictures of the presentation. Just click on the photograph to advance the slide.

For more information about Get Stuffed click here to visit our Works in Development page.

Librettist- Alexis Diamond
Composer - Richard Payne
Stage Director - Emma Tiblado
Music Director - Wayne Strongman
Repetiteur - James Bourne

Cast
Alex Dobson
Carla Huhtanen
Justin Welsh
Cory Knight
Lauren Phillips

On Saturday June 21st there was a workshop presentation of Shelter, by Julie Salverson and Juliet Palmer. The participants, listed below shared the work they had been doing all week with an audience and engaged in a talkback about the opera afterwards. For this particular presentation of Shelter Tapestry is grateful to the Department of Canadian Heritage who supported the presentation through their “Celebrate Canada Program” on National Aboriginal Day. For those of you who missed the presentation, there is a slideshow of pictures below. Just click on the photograph to advance the slide.

For more information about Shelter you can click here to visit our Works in Development page.

Librettist - Julie Salverson
Composer - Juliet Palmer
Music Director - Wayne Strongman
Stage Director - Keith Turnbull
Repetiteur - Stephanie Chua
Clown Consultant - Charlotte Gowdy

Cast
Alexander Dobson
Christine Duncan
Deborah Overes
Carla Huhtanten
James McLennan

Orchestra
Stephanie Chua (piano)
Ryan Scott (percussion)
Parmella Attariwalla (violin)
Peter Pavlovsky (double bass/electric bass)
Colleen Cook (Clarinet/Bass Clarinet)
Rob MacDonald (Guitar)

Tapestry New Work Studio Company Member has written a great article about the Tapestry workshop process for Take a Friend To Orchestra 2008, an audience-building initiative presented in conjunction with Drew McManus’ Adaptistration.  Check it out.

The Emerging Arts Professional Network is an online community for arts professionals across Canada. The EAP provides online career resources and a community network for arts administrators, managers and artists who are at the start of their careers and looking for opportunities to gain valuable access to online mentors and insight into the possible directions in which to forward their careers.

We look forward to sharing an evening of New Opera with New Arts Professionals.