Tapestry Opera are currently presenting a production of Sanctuary Song (music by Abigail Richardson-Schulte, words by Marjorie Chan).  It’s a piece that premiered in 2008 and this revival, directed by Michae Mori, represents Tapestry’s first major production in the new Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre.

It’s a story about an elephant; Sydney (played by Midori Marsh), who is captured in the wild when young along with her friend Penny.  They are split up and Sydney is sold to a circus, then injured and sold to a crappy zoo in Louisiana and finally transferred, decades later, to a sanctuary in Tennessee where she is reunited with Penny.  I think we are supposed to be surprised that they recognise each other but there’s loads of evidence to support the idea that animals hold memories of “loved” ones for long periods.  And elephants notoriously have good memories.

The opera tells this pretty straight though it does have a prologue in which the circus owner interacts with the theatre audience (Courtenay Stevens) in rather predictable ways.  Sydney forms a relationship with her zoo keeper (Alvin Crawford).  There’s a scene where Sydney nearly burns to death when the boat she’s on catches fire and she’s only rescued due to the intervention of a little girl (Elvina Raharja, who also plays Penny).  In short no trope is left unturned.

The main story is nicely presented.  The music; scored for piano, violin and percussion and conducted by Gregory Oh, is colourful, atmospheric and apt.  The libretto (prologue aside) is pretty tight.  There are quite cute elephant costumes.  The singing from Midori and Alvin is excellent.  There’s decent choreography by Aria Evans (Penny is basically a danced part and Elvina dances it rather well).  The elephants behave in quite a touching way.  There’s creative use of projections.

So what’s not to like?  It’s just too cute and sentimental for my taste and the circus elements are just irritating.  It might make an OK Disney movie (they did it actually but with tiger cubs).  One to take the kids to?  Maybe but there weren’t any that i could see in the audience on Saturday night and, if that’s the intention, I wouldn’t use an 8pm start time; even for a one hour show.  Of course YMMV and if the basic idea appeals go for it because, to reiterate, it’s very well done.  Just not my bag.

Sanctuary Song continues at the Jackman Performance Centre until May 25th.

Photo credits: Dahlia Katz