“Welcome to the opera! Circus!”
It’s not every day I’m welcomed into the opera by someone on stilts, and I hope this won’t be the last time. Enticing us into the extraordinary, the Dora-award winning Sanctuary Song returned to the Toronto stage on Friday night. A delightful new production from Tapestry Opera, directed by Michael Hidetoshi Mori, I can only urge you to take an hour of your time this spring to give yourself to the delightful and tender true story of Sumatran elephant Shirley, cleverly brought to life at Tapestry Opera.
Opera is certainly drawn to larger-than-life characters, and what could fit the bill more than an eight-foot matriarch who at the time of her death in 2021, aged 72, was one of the oldest elephants in captivity and whose journey across the world took her from Asia to Nova Scotia to Louisiana, even crossing paths with Fidel Castro in the late 1950s. Librettist Marjorie Chan and composer Abigail Richardson-Schulte transformed this remarkable life story into a heartfelt, compact chamber opera that traces significant chapters in the life of elephant “Sydney,” reminiscing alongside zoo-keeper James.
The zoo-keeper character is based on the real-life Solomon James, who cared for Shirley for 22 years at the Louisiana Purchase Zoo before she entered an Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee in 1999. The relationship between the two figures is central to the unfolding series of memories. So too is the touching friendship between Sydney and fellow elephant “Penny,” with whom she reunites years later. Scenes slide fluidly between past and present with skillful storytelling that weaves a loose narrative around the experience of trauma and how it shapes questions of what constitutes home, freedom or sanctuary. Importantly, the opera is never heavy-handed – it is a real breath of fresh air to experience a contemporary piece that is emotionally poignant but not weighed down by the intensity of traumatic narratives, and to really laugh at the opera alongside an equally delighted audience.
Responsible for much of this is the shape-shifting Courtenay Stevens, who holds the show together from the start as alternately emcee, circus owner, hunter, and zoo worker. Whether striding and bantering among entering spectators or cavorting across the stage, he delivers 1940s-esque comic routines that just nicely tread the line of slapstick. Opera audiences could stand to embrace a little more crowd work in their lives, and after a few minutes you start to forget you’re at the opera at all, immersed in the improv-circus-illusion-comedy playing out in Stevens’ hands (and spectacular moustache). By the time Gregory Oh lifts his baton, you find out that we’ve been surreptitiously led into Sanctuary Song’s captivating world, such that when the lights dim fully, we slip with serene ease into the drama proper.
Photo Credit: Dahlia Katz
Courtenay Stevens as the Circus Master with Midori Marsh
The piece is emphatically short and accessible – running just 45 minutes – but the label “all-ages” should not be off-putting by any means. Younger audiences might delight in the evocative projections, array of sound effects and boisterous circus activity as well as evocative live shadow puppetry, cleverly designed by Jung-Hye Kim with lighting by Bonnie Beecher, inspired by traditional Indonesian shadow puppet theatre; adults will appreciate all that alongside the chance to reflect on themes of memory, friendship, freedom and home. Richardson-Schulte’s score succeeds in its textural variety, bringing out a far richer array of sounds than you might expect from the small ensemble of percussion, violin, and piano. A fluidity of musical line throughout matches well with Aria Evans’ sensitive and not overly fussy choreography.
Elvina Raharja sings charmingly as Penny, and as always, I’ll give a lot to have the chance to listen to Midori Marsh, a star on the rise with one of those rare voices that combines crystalline precision with profound warmth. Immensely flexible in range and tone, she negotiated quick affective shifts with ease and delivered Sydney’s elephantine pathos, pride and playfulness in equal measure. Alvin Crawford provided an exceptional counterpart as the warm-hearted keeper James, balancing out Marsh with a rich, broad bass, their voices almost diametrically opposed in a way that deeply complements rather than clashes.
Friday night was not just any opening night: Sanctuary Song also marks the first Tapestry Opera production in their new home. The space is well-equipped for chamber pieces, technologically innovative (and eco-friendly), and at least for this performance, drapes are utilized cleverly to conjure more texture in the compact, classic black-box space. It’s a funny thing to descend into a basement theatre nestled next to Canadian Tire and enter a world that feels familiar for chamber opera, but also like a vintage cabaret or a (rather niche!) speakeasy.
This production heralds a new chapter in the long-standing partnership between Tapestry and Nightwood Theatre and an important step in collaborations in the city across arts and community spaces. Malleable and innovative, it’s clear that the space has a lot of potential to fulfil its mission as a community-focused cultural centre – Torontonians can expect a fruitful future of collaborations.
Photo Credit: Dahlia Katz
Sanctuary Song’s “other couple,” Alvin Crawford as James the Zoo-Keeper and Midori Marsh as Sydney
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Jane Forner is a musicologist whose research focuses on contemporary opera in Europe and North America at the intersection of politics, race, and gender.
