Coming up later this month is Angel’s Bone; an opera with music by Du Yun and a libretto by the amazing Royce Vavrek.  It’s a chamber opera for amplified voices and small ensemble.  The plot concerns two angels who fall to earth and are ruthlessly exploited by otherwise unremarkable people.  It’s a commentary on human trafficking and the exploitation of youth.  There’s a really good looking cast and it will play at Harbourfront Centre March 22nd to 24th.  It’s already attracted largely positive reviews in New York and Vancouver.  More details including casting and ticketing here.

Further off is Opera 5’s production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw.  I already posted about that here but this is to announce that tickets are now on sale for the run from June 12th to 15th at Theatre Passe Muraille.

\The reason I’m linking these two postings is twofold.  They are the first live post pandemic shows by two companies that were stalwarts of the pre-plague Toronto indie scene; LooseTEA and Opera 5 and that’s good news.  They are also presentations of operas conceived on a chamber scale.  They aren’t cut down versions of operas intended to be produced in some grander form.  I feel strongly that as traditional “grand” opera continues to decline in Canada (and it does) chamber scale works are the way forward.  There are loads of them from every era from wayback to yesterday.  Why not explore this excellent repertoire rather than doing Carmen or La Traviata on the cheap?  So kudos to LooseTEA and Opera 5.