blog post New opera KHAOS premieres in Nelson, B.C.

A new Canadian opera is a rarity in any part of the country. A new Canadian opera in a town of 10,000? Unheard of! Until now, that is.

The town of Nelson, in the interior of British Columbia, is known for its natural beauty, restored heritage buildings, micro-brewery, and a healthy supply of organic farms and market gardens. Those qualities have also attracted a high concentration of artists of all kinds. (Or maybe it's the other way around?) In any case, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that Nelson is also home to an ambitious company which is mounting a new, full-length opera.

KHAOS, by composer Don Macdonald and librettist Nicola Harwood, will premiere March 8 in a production by Nelson Community Opera. While the task of assembling the physical and financial resources needed to mount an opera are enormous, finding a creative team in this isolated community came quite naturally, as you can see in this short video, with McDonald and Harwood answering the question, "Why KHAOS in the Kootenays?"

According to the producers, KHAOS is a modern re-telling of the ancient Greek myth of Persephone and Demeter. In the opera, instead of Demeter's destructive grief when her daughter Persephone is taken to the underworld, the threat to human survival comes from environmental degredation and global warming. Librettist Nicola Harwood says, “Our re-telling of the Demeter and Persephone legend asks the question ‘What if civilization’s greed and unrelenting drive for progress prevented Persephone from returning to Earth to console her grieving mother?  Would Demeter’s grief and rage end life on earth as we know it?’”

Don Macdonald says in writing the music for KHAOS he's taken advice from a great composer of the past, and keeps this quote from Igor Stravinsky in his mind as he writes: "My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful the more narrowly I limit my field of action and the more I surround myself with obstacles. Whatever diminishes constraint diminishes strength. The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self of the chains that shackle the spirit."

You can hear how that set of constraints reveals itself in the music, if you listen to soprano Allison Givran sing this aria from late in the opera, as Persephone journeys back to the underworld after seeing Demeter her mother for the last time.

If you live in the interior of British Columbia, you'll have several chances to see KHAOS in its full production, complete with a cast of 7 soloists, a 20-voice chorus, a solo dancer, sets, costumes and lighting. It plays March 8-10 at the Captol Theatre in Nelson, with touring performances set for Cranbrook, Trail, Grand Forks and Creston.

Related Links:

Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, CBC Radio 2
Calgary Opera New Work Development
City Opera Vancouver