OPERA NIGHT
Canoe
by Unsettled Scores:
Spy Dénommé-Welch & Catherine Magowan
Canoe is a tale of transformations that revolves around the lives of eccentric sisters, Constance and Gladys, and the flood that consumes their world. Blending Indigenous oral tradition with neo-baroque and jazz/blues motifs, Canoe is a unique operatic performance.
Creators/Composers: Spy Dénommé-Welch & Catherine Magowan
Dramaturg: Moynan King
Pianist: Cecilia Lee
Vocalists: Nicole Joy-Fraser and Conlin Delbaere-Sawchuk
Unsettled Scores (formerly An Indie[n] Rights Reserve) was co-founded in 2006 by Spy Dénommé-Welch and Catherine Magowan, and together they have created solo, chamber, orchestral and opera compositions, as well as theatrical and multimedia works.
Spy Dénommé-Welch is a Dora-nominated composer and writer, the co-creator of the opera Giiwedin who is currently completing his second opera. Spy is an Associate Composer with the Canadian Music Centre, a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, and a faculty member at Brock University.
Bassoonist and composer Catherine Magowan has been principal bassoonist with the Sudbury Symphony Orchestra since 2002, and regularly freelances throughout Ontario. She was Dora-nominated for opera Giiwedin. Their chamber piece Bike Rage took first prize by audience vote in Baroque Idol (Aradia Ensemble).
Shanawdithit
Libretto by Yvette Nolan
Music by Dean Burry
in Partnership with Tapestry Opera & Opera on the Avalon
A new opera based on the story of Shanawdithit (1801-1829), the last recorded surviving member of the Beothuk Nation in Newfoundland, and the extinction and erasure of her people. In the last months of her life, she created a series of coded drawings that speaks of the loneliness of survival and lost history.
A workshop excerpt will be presented at Weesageechak 31. The full production will premiere on May 2019.
Co-Director & Librettist: Yvette Nolan
Composer: Dean Burry
Co-Director & General Director: Michael Hidetoshi Mori
Performers: Rebecca Cuddy (Spirit Chorus/Kwe), Aria Evans (Dancer), Clarence Frazer*(Cormack), Keith Klassen* (Peyton), Evan Korbut (Spirit Chorus), and Marion Newman (Shanawdithit)
Other Artistic Collaborators: Jordan Bennett, Lori Blondeau, Jerry Evans, Michelle Olson, Meagan Musseau
*Workshop Production Only
PANEL DISCUSSION
Beyond Butterfly: Abandoning the exotic for the representative opera of today
Featuring Spy Dénommé-Welch, Michael Mori, Marion Newman and Yvette Nolan.
