Tapestry Opera is a Canadian opera company located in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. According to its website, it is "the only Canadian company solely dedicated to the creation and performance of original Canadian opera". To date, the company has produced 18 full-length world premieres and 160 world premieres of opera shorts. It has been nominated for 61

Dora Mavor Moore Award The Dora Mavor Moore Award (also known as the Dora Award) is an award presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts which honours theatre, dance and opera productions in Toronto. Named after Dora Mavor Moore, who helped estab ...

s and won 20. It is Canada's largest producer of contemporary opera. The opera was founded in 1979 by Wayne Strongman, who was the company's Artistic Director until 2013, when he resigned after a period of internal strife. He was replaced by Michael Hidetoshi Mori, who is its current Artistic and General Director. In 2009, Strongman was appointed to the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

for his contribution to Canadian culture.

History

Tapestry Opera began as a

Madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number o ...

ensemble called The Tapestry Singers. In 1986 it was renamed Tapestry Music Theatre to reflect changes in the company's direction. In 1999, the company was re-branded as Tapestry New Opera Works to reflect its dedication to the creation of contemporary opera, and now operates as Tapestry Opera. Tapestry has been an influence on the development of opera, on an international level. Rather than bringing in musicians and performers as needed and producing operas as one-off productions, Strongman developed a continuous method whereby new artists and musicians are nurtured and introduced to opera while new operas were in the process of being produced. In 2010, for Toronto's

Luminato Luminato Festival, Toronto's International Festival of Arts and Ideas, is an annual celebration of the arts in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, launched in 2007. In its first decade, Luminato presented over 3,000 performances featuring 11,000 artists fr ...

Festival, Tapestry Opera collaborated with the Gryphon Trio and the

Elmer Iseler Singers The Elmer Iseler Singers is a professional chamber choir based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The twenty-voice choir, conducted by Artistic Director ''Lydia Adams'', founded by Dr. Elmer Iseler in 1979, is one of Canada’s leading choral ensemb ...

to record the album ''Dark Star Requiem'', an

Oratorio An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is mus ...

on the history of

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

. The album was not released until 2016. At the Juno Awards of 2017, the album was nominated as Classical Album of the Year – Vocal or Choral Performance. Its composer, Andrew Staniland, received a nomination for Classical Composition of the Year. Since 2001, the company has been operating in Toronto's history Distillery District. In December 2021, the company was notified by the building's owner that it had to vacate its space by August 2022.

References

External links

* {{authority control Canadian opera companies Theatres in Toronto Musical groups established in 1979