Garden of Vanished Pleasures at Berkeley Street Theatre

Soundstreams will cap its 2024/25 season with the live world premiere of original Canadian opera Garden of Vanished Pleasures.

The digital version of the opera in 2021 was a critical hit, and a finalist for Opera America’s 2022 Award for Excellence in Digital Opera. 

The illustrious live cast includes opera world stars: sopranos Mireille Asselin and Danika Lorèn, mezzo-soprano Andrea Ludwig, and countertenor Daniel Cabena. The instrumental ensemble features Hyejin Kwon (music director & piano), Amahl Arulanandam (cello), and Brenna Hardy-Kavanagh (viola).

Garden of Vanished Pleasures is consummate opera, an emotional journey inspired by the life and work of English filmmaker and queer rights activist Derek Jarman, making its world premiere in the theatre. Conceived and devised by U.K. / Canadian director Tim Albery, Garden of Vanished Pleasures blends the works of two brilliant composers: Cecilia Livingston and Donna McKevitt. Livingston writes deeply felt songs of love and loss, and they chime perfectly with McKevitt’s heart-aching songs that use texts drawn from Jarman’s own journals. The texts cover a wide range of expressions, from longing and loss to anger over society’s inequities — universal themes which continue to resonate for our time.