Saturday night at the new performance space at 877 Yonge Street saw a concert inaugurating Cultureland’s residency at Tapestry Opera.  The performance consisted mainly of excerpts from Cultureland’s recent and “in progress” operas accompanied on piano by Carolyn Maule and directed by Renée Salewski.

First up were three scenes from The Refugees (music Afarin Mansouri, text Jennifer Wise) performed by Natalya Gennadi, Annie Ramos, Tahirih Vejdani, Catherine Carew, Thea Barclay and Alex Hajek.  The theme of refugees washing up on a beach somewhere in the EU to an ambiguous reception has become almost a Toronto theatre cliché but this was nicely done with natalya in a kind of big sister role and Alex doubling as the father and some sort of local bigwig (complete with red baseball cap.

Next, Thera Barclay performed an aria from Afarin’s children’s opera Little Heart, based on an Iranian children’s book.  Thera managed a suitably girlish tone and dramatic persona.  Nicely done.  Next came two arias from Echoes of Bisotoon; the only piece I had previously seen.  Farhad’s aria was performed suitably heroically by Gabriel Sanchez-Ortega and the love duet with Shirin (Kathryn Rose Johnston) was beautifully sung and rather touching.

A bit of a change of pace with a dance from another Mansouri work; The Endless Sea.  The choreography was interesting and beautifully performed by Viana Vikamis to a recorded soundtrack from Thin Edge Collective, Mansouri and Milad Bagheri.  The last piece saw Thera back for “Look Within”;an aria from Afarin’s upcoming opera Hypatia.  Neo-platonic philosophy isn’t the most obvious subject for an aria but it worked and was beautifully sung.  I really want to see this piece when it’s finished.

Throw in some fine playing from Carolyn; including some pretty involved extended technique, and some improvised percussion from Naghme Farahmand and it made for a satisfying evening.