About Tapestry

Tapestry New Opera is an international home for creators, developers and performers of new opera:  all collaborators in telling stories that surprise, thrill and move audiences. The Tapestry process begins at the annual Composer-Librettist Laboratory where writers and composers are introduced to collaborative creation. Successful partnerships move on to create short operas, ranging in length from 15 – 45 minutes, before full length works are accepted into the Creative Development Programme and on to full production. The INside Opera Education Programme gives students the opportunity to discover their own stories and engage in the creation of new opera.  Our children’s operas, Elijah’s Kite by Camyar Chai & James Rolfe and Get Stuffed by Alexis Diamond & Richard Payne have toured to over 30,000 students across Ontario and have been produced by other companies in Canada and abroad. Tapestry productions which have premiered to critical and popular acclaim include Dark Star Requiem by Jill Battson & Andrew Staniland (with the Gryphon Trio and Elmer Iseler Singers) and the Dora-Award winning Sanctuary Song by Abigail Richardson & Marjorie Chan (with Theatre Direct), both for Luminato, The Shadow by Alex Poch-Goldin & Omar Daniel, Nigredo Hotel by Ann-Marie MacDonald & Nic Gotham, Elsewhereless by Atom Egoyan & Rodney Sharman, Still the Night by Theresa Tova, Facing South by Don Hannah & Linda C. Smith and the Dora Award-winning Iron Road by Chan Ka Nin & Mark Brownell.

Now entering our 32nd season, recent milestones include:

  • Our first International Composer-Librettist Laboratory marking a growing partnership with the Scottish Opera.
  • A gala 30th Anniversary event hosted by Tapestry’s acclaimed 3 Divas: Patricia O’Callaghan, Jean Stilwell and Theresa Tova
  • Applauding Wayne Strongman, our distinguished Managing Artistic Director, as Her Excellency, The Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, appointed him a Member of the Order of Canada!
  • A sold-out run of Opera to Go in the Fermenting Cellar, Distillery Historic District, with our favourite short operas from the past 8 seasons.
  • Helping students make healthier food choices, with a 4-week Northern Ontario tour of our children’s opera Get Stuffed (by Alexis Diamond & Richard Payne) and three free family day performances in the Distillery Historic District.

The acclaimed world premiere of Dark Star Requiem, written by Jill Battson and composed by Andrew Staniland, for the opening weekend of the 2010 Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity.

Creative Development at Tapestry

Tapestry is a process-driven company, and the 2011-2012 season beginning in September marks the beginning of a high intensity development year in our Distillery District home, the Ernest Balmer Studio. Tapestry is the home to new opera in Canada: we are creators, developers and performers, all collaborators in telling the stories that need to be told in the highly emotional form of opera. 2011-2012 will see us premiering brand new opera scenes from new established writers and composers, new to the art form, for our much-loved annual season opener Opera Briefs. We will also present workshop performances of several works in development in advance of their upcoming world premieres. Inviting audiences to be part of the workshop development process (and give their feedback) is invaluable to building a committed audience for costly world premiere productions. In January 2011 marks a launch concert for The Tapestry Songbook – an anthology of the most memorable arias from 30 years of Tapestry productions. All of the season events are borne out of Tapestry’s ongoing unique Creative Development Programme which guides artists through the unknown waters of new opera creation. Key components include:

The annual Composer-Librettist Laboratory which brings writers and composers together to learn about collaborative creation with a team of singing actors, pianists and dramaturges;

The resident New Work Studio Company which acts as a resource for writer-composer teams to access high calibre performers and interpreters, the current ‘experts’ in this demanding art form;

Workshops for libretto (text), music (score), and production elements; and,

New Opera 101, a new programme which facilitates the mentorship of emerging singers by established opera artists in new work.

 

Top photo: World premiere of Dark Star Requiem from left to right: Peter McGillivray, Neema Bickersteth, Marcus Nance, Krisztina Szabo.  Photo by Tapestry.

Bottom photo: workshop performance of Dark Star Requiem in the Ernest Balmer Studio.  Photo by Brian Mosoff