Book Your Tickets Today!

The Tapestry Songbook will  showcase bravura arias from the extensive library of Tapestry produced operas, performed by artists from the Tapestry New Work Studio Company and participants from Tapestry’s New Opera 101 Master Class/Workshop.

Tickets $25
Call (416) 537-6066 x 243
Ernest Balmer Studio – Distillery District

Performances By

Xin Wang, soprano
Scott Belluz, countertenor

We are pleased to welcome the following artists to the New Opera 101 Master Class and to open the floor for them to perform during the Tapestry Songbook concert on January 28th.

Julia Barber, mezzo
Vania Chan, soprano
Marta Herman, mezzo
Kristin Hoff, mezzo
Eliza Johnson, soprano
Jeremy Ludwig, baritone
Julie Ludwig, soprano
Maghan McPhee, soprano
Courtney V. Murias, mezzo
Joshua Wales, tenor
Jialiang Zhu, pianist

Don’t miss out!  Book your tickets today by calling us at (416) 537-6066 x 243

Order your Studio Pass today: call (416) 537-6066 x 222

Pub Operas canadian premiere will feature a presentation of new opera vignettes based on real-life stories in Glasgow’s historic Sloans Pub, produced in July for the 2011 Merchant City Festival. The Tapestry Songbook concert will showcase bravura arias from the extensive library of Tapestry produced operas, performed by artists from the Tapestry New Work Studio Company and participants from Tapestry’s New Opera 101 Master Class/Workshop. This season will also give you behind-the-scenes access to six new works in development at the New Opera Showcase and finally, after a thrilling workshop presentation of the first Act of Oksana G. last winter, is the next stage of this electrifying new opera by the Governor General’s Award winning playwright, Colleen Murphy and SOCAN award-winning composer, Aaron Gervais.

Energetic youth participated through the The Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club of Regent Park; it is difficult to inspire youth ranging in age from 5-9 to do anything, let alone write, stage, and sing in an opera.   However, through positive motivation, colorful costumes, and a little bit of patience, Color World premiered to great success!  Telling the adventure of the Rainbow family as they set off to Mars to rescue the President of Purple Planet from the evil Spider Monkey and his sidekick Neat Freak, Color World presented the issues of sharing, inner beauty, and the importance of keeping the environment clean.

At the same time, Tapestry ran the INside Opera program at St. Andrew’s United Church with youth from St. James Town’s City Hope Summer Camp.  A slightly older group ranging in age from 6-14 allowed for a more critical discussion on the people, places, and things found in their communities.  Special guest, and Tapestry’s Emeritus Director Martin Hunter, a longtime resident of Toronto, gave us insights about what life was like growing up in the area when communities such as St. James Town had yet to be built.

With this foundation, the youth unleashed their brilliant and wacky ideas, learning how to tell their story through music and song while working towards their final performance.  Performed in front of excited supporters, Escape from Wonderland told the story of a group of campers trapped in a secret prison at Wonderland.  A whirlwind of secret identities, talking pets, and uplifting power ballads, led to the importance of working as a group, no matter what species you are, and the importance of each generation in a community.

As we move forward with the 2011/12 season, we look forward to continuing our partnership with the Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club of Regent Park, St. James Town’s City Hope Summer Camp, and St. Andrew’s United Church.  We also congratulate all of this year’s INside Opera participants!

Glenn James creates music with youth from the INside Opera Regent Park program

My name is Dylan Hayden, and I’m the Outreach and Communications Intern for Tapestry New Opera. I hope you’ll find my posts useful in learning interesting facts and stories about our productions and programs, keeping up to date with performances and events, and exchanging opinions with your fellow opera-lovers.

A few words about me: I was born in Ajax, Ontario, and grew up in and around that area until settling in Kingston to pursue a degree in music at Queen’s University.

As a “tenor in training”, it is my hope to share pictures, interviews and facts that I gather during my summer at Tapestry to enrich your experience with Tapestry New Opera

At Tapestry we have a lot of events and programs coming up in the next few months including the INside opera program at Regent Park and St. Jamestown.  Our annual Liblab begins in August when we pair four composers with four librettists to create five minute scenes, followed by Opera Briefs in September where members of our Studio Company present a selection of these scenes to the public.  It is my hope to share pictures, interviews and facts that I gather during my summer at Tapestry to enrich your experience with Tapestry New Opera.

I invite you to bookmark this page and follow our adventure into the 2011/2012 season.

Regent Park INside Opera Program – July 11 – July 22

At Tapestry, we are fortunate to have professional musicians, composers, writers, designers, and directors with experience in teaching young people as a resource for our educational programmes.  Our INside opera program brings together poet Alicia Payne, composer Glenn James, Outreach & Education Director Amber Ebert, and myself with two groups of youth ages 5-11 as we guide them in the process of creating a 5-15 minute opera.  We are currently working with two programmes, one with longtime partner City Hope for Children in St. Jamestown, and a new partnership with the Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club in Regent Park.

Yesterday was the second day of INside opera for the kids, and my first onsite.  As our attendance was slightly smaller than we anticipated, we decided to open the program to some of the older youth at the camp.  Our morning began at the camp-wide assembly where I was quickly placed in the middle of a large circle of children and asked to talk about opera and sing for them.  I knew that pitching opera to kids was not going to be easy, so I asked them if they liked Beyonce.   After more than half the room shouted “yes!” I told them that one of her first movies was a hip hop version of one of my favorite operas, Bizet’s Carmen.  All of a sudden, I had their attention and we talked about how I was very new to contemporary opera and how I wanted them to join me as we discovered the creation process of THEIR opera.

Having 15 young children in a small room with 7 councilors and the 4 of us from Tapestry can seem daunting, but I was happy and excited when 5 or 6 older campers decided to join us!  We began the day with a few warm ups, learning everyone’s  names and being silly as we all created our own alien noises, which I found fitting as most of these children were about to enter the alien world of opera for the first time.  After our warm-ups, we continued to discuss the different likes and changes they would like to see in their communities as well as characters, settings, and conflicts they would like in their story.  It really hits you hard when one child raises their hand and says that they would like no racism in their neighborhood, and if the setting of our opera was in a colorless world?

Looking back on yesterday, there were some memorable and funny moments, such as how every kid ignored the piano until Glenn sat near it and then they all needed to be close enough to touch it, or when one of them said that playing the piano was easy, and Glenn gave him a note to repeat while he played a melody and the camper responded with “my fingers are tired!”  Creating tableaux were also a lot of fun and got the kids moving on their feet.  At first I wasn’t sure if we would have to dictate the scenes to them, but it was a nice surprise when they all took interest and quickly started creating their own stories to tell.

Personally, I enjoyed sitting with the campers, trying to engage them when they didn’t want to participate and learn about why they like music.  I feel blessed to have a career where I am able to do what I love every day and I hope to encourage these young kids to find their passion and develop it into a skill they can use in the future.

We ended our day by singing a song, written by past INside Opera campers, about the different character types found in a story and narrowed down our characters and settings for our own opera.  When we return to camp tomorrow, we look to finalize our story and begin composing some music!

New Opera 101 is intended not only as a tool for the growth of artists but as a way for Tapestry to discover emerging talent.

Visit the New Opera 101 page for more information and to download the application form.

Photo by Meghan Hall

Mezzo Soprano Kimberly Barber talks about the creation process. Visit our multimedia pages to view artist interviews.

Pre-show Sept. 23 & 24
6:45pm in the Ernest Balmer Studio. Performance at 8pm.
Featuring: Chris Foley, Maja Ardal, Norbert Palej & Charles Hayter
Free with performance ticket!
Click here for more info.

Sept. 23, 24, 25 at 8pm
Ernest Balmer Studio
$25 / $20 416.537.6066 or online

Join us in the studio for an evening of brand new mini opera scenes with our 10th instalment of OPERA BRIEFS. Featuring the work of librettists Maja Ardal, David Brock, Michael Pollard and Charles Hayter, and composers Iman Habibi, Anna Höstman, Norbert Palej and Gareth Williams, Opera Briefs is directed by Sue Miner with music direction from repetiteurs James Bourne and Christopher Foley and performed by Kimberly Barber, Carla Huhtanen and Keith Klassen and Peter McGillivray. (Pictured in a photo by Brian Mosoff).

Our annual season opener, Opera Briefs is one of Tapestry’s most popular programmes exposing the brand new work coming out of the Composer-Librettist Laboratory (LibLab) – ‘boot camp’ for new opera – with content and style running the gamut of possibilities. A great night out for an opera lover or an opera virgin, Opera Briefs regularly sells out so please book in advance.

Tickets

Single Tickets
$25 regular / $20 students & arts workers*
Studio Passes (Attend Opera Briefs and 4 more season events for 20 to 50% less than single ticket prices).
$99 regular / $49 students & arts workers*
416.537.6066 / Online

*must be able to present valid ID.

The Ernest Balmer Studio is located in the Distillery Historic District
55 Mill St. Bldg. 58. Studio 315. Toronto ON

In the video below, Wayne Strongman has a few words to say about the LibLab and Opera Briefs, including “Drop your pants and sing!” Visit our multimedia page to see more videos from Tapestry.