Tapestry Opera 23/24 Season Revealed

Tapestry Opera celebrates General and Artistic Director
Michael Hidetoshi Mori's 10th year of innovative leadership, helping build the organization into a prolific and influential champion of Canadian artists and works.

In the last ten years, the last seven of which were under shared leadership with Executive Director Jaime Martino, Tapestry has premiered 26 productions, including 22 world premieres introducing significant works such as R.U.R. a Torrent of Light, The Overcoat, Oksana G., Shanawdithit, Of the Sea, Gould's Wall, and Rocking Horse Winner to the Canadian public while building a growing audience base and garnering major local and international awards and acclaim.

Tapestry is a leader in the performing arts sector through two new national initiatives, Women in Musical Leadership and the Canadian Opera Resource, using collaboration and innovation to drive positive change. Tapestry Opera has launched a 3 million dollar campaign, in partnership with Nightwood Theatre, to build a new multi-venue arts facility focused on affordable usage for independent artists and companies.      

 

Award-Winning Production: Rocking Horse Winner

A Tapestry Opera production in association with Crow's Theatre

Composed by Gareth Williams | Libretto by Anna Chatterton | Directed by Michael Hidetoshi Mori | Music Direction by Kamna Gupta

Guloien Theatre at Crow's Theatre | November 1 - 12, 2023

Tapestry Opera presents the critically acclaimed production of the 2016 world-premiere Rocking Horse Winner, which won five Dora Mavor Moore Awards, including Outstanding Production and Outstanding Direction. Rocking Horse Winner is a modern adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's masterful short story. This powerful one-act opera combines magical realism and musical minimalism to offer an intimate, psychological look at love, luck, greed, and obsession.

Rocking Horse Winner Trailer  

Concert: Songbook XIII featuring Naomi Woo & Keith Klassen

The Redwood Theatre | Thursday, March 28, 2024

Canadian conductor, pianist and Women in Musical Leadership Fellow Naomi Woo joins Tapestry favourite tenor Keith Klassen to headline an all-Canadian program featuring some of Canada's most exciting up-and-coming singers and pianists. Songbook XII showcases a vibrant selection of funny, provocative, and heart-warming music that runs the gamut of Canadian opera and music theatre.

 

Concert: Le Kitchen Party: An Acadian celebration of food and music

Featuring Juliane Gallant (host)

Venue to be announced | Tuesday, May 21, 2024

Associate Artistic Director Juliane Gallant brings the warm, infectious music of Acadian traditions to Toronto. Juliane will share a mix of traditional and contemporary compositions with special guest performers. Everyone is encouraged to join in the singing and dancing! 

Juliane Gallant is the Resident Conductor of the Calgary Phil. She has appeared as a guest conductor with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, Kingston Symphony Orchestra, and Symphony New Brunswick. She has led opera productions for Highlands Opera Studio, Gothic Opera, Hampstead Garden Opera, King's Head Theatre, Opera on Location, St. Paul's Opera, and Opera Up Close. In 2021, Juliane made her Royal Opera House debut in Mami Wata, and in 2022 conducted a performance of Tapestry's R.U.R. A Torrent of Light (Nicole Lizée and Nicolas Billon). Juliane is in her third and final year of the Women in Musical Leadership program.

 

Concert: IRON CHEF d'orchestre

Featuring Jennifer Tung (host and pianist)

Venue to be announced | Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Associate Artistic Director Jennifer Tung hosts this delicious concert inspired by her 15 years of working with Tapestry and her love of culinary creations and creative intensives. Jennifer will be joined by special guest creators and performers who will make this a memorable food and new creation-themed evening. The audience will be invited to engage in the creation process, so roll up your sleeves, Chef! 

Jennifer Tung leads a uniquely versatile career as a conductor, music director, collaborative pianist, and soprano. She is Artistic Director of Toronto City Opera, Assistant Conductor of the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, and serves on the faculty at Toronto's prestigious Glenn Gould School of Music. Jennifer recently conducted the world premieres of Gould's Wall (Brian Current and Liza Balkan), Of the Sea (Ian Cusson and Kanika Ambrose), and Showroom (Rodney Sharman and Atom Egoyan). Jennifer is in her third and final year of the Women in Musical Leadership program.

 

Tapestry's Artistic and General Director Michael Mori, "As we reflect on 26 productions in the last 10 years, including many incredible artists and works and audiences who have experienced opera for the first time, it is thrilling to open the next chapter by launching a new facility dedicated to fostering new works and artists, not only for Tapestry Opera and our partner Nightwood Theatre but also for the Toronto independent arts community, who are desperate for space to make art. 

The 2016 production of Rocking Horse Winner marked a dramatic turning point for Tapestry, garnering awards, critical acclaim, new audiences and, as a result, paving the way for the most prolific period in the organization's 43-year history. It was a dark horse, a show no one expected to hit as hard as it did, but the passion and artistry of the artists involved led to its surprising success. For my tenth anniversary of artistic direction, it is consequential to share and celebrate this beautiful and tragic work as we look ahead to the next exciting chapter."

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