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llandovery Castle

Llandovery Castle highlights

This June our new opera Llandovery Castle was mounted in a workshop production, commemorating the nurses, doctors, medics, staff and crew of the Canadian hospital ship torpedoed in the Celtic Sea on June 27, 1918. Alisa Siegel created a documentary about this WWI tragedy for Michael Enright’s CBC radio show, The Sunday Edition. Our two workshop performances at Calvin Presbyterian Church in Toronto had full houses. And thanks to that strong audience, generous donors, and a Canada Council grant, we also had financial success. Now we want to share the highlights with you. Thanks to videographer Darren Bryant and Limberlost… Read More »Llandovery Castle highlights

Llandovery Castle promo VIDEO

If you’ve been wondering about this opera we’ve been working on, here is a little video that gives you a glimpse of how our work is going, and what you’re going to hear in June when we perform the piece, 100 years to the day after the Llandovery Castle hospital ship went down in the Celtic Sea. Click here and have a look, and share the video with anyone who might be interested in what we’re doing: Llandovery Castle promo VIDEO You’ll see director Tom Diamond speaking about the relevance of this story today since hospitals and medical staff, desperately… Read More »Llandovery Castle promo VIDEO

llandovery Castle

Llandovery Castle Query # 3. What’s the music like?

How can I describe the music for our new opera? It’s helpful to talk about influences, so I’ll compare my music with styles, genres and composers which will hopefully strike a familiar chord with you. Here’s a scene-by-scene snapshot of what you’ll hear on June 26 and 27, 2018 at Calvin Church in Toronto. Scene One: The chorus sets the scene: a ship, plying the Atlantic, June 1918. Unison violins paint the ebb and flow of the sea. The music is modal: think Celtic sea shanty, like Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.’ The nurses aboard this Canadian… Read More »Llandovery Castle Query # 3. What’s the music like?

Matron M.M. Fraser

Writing Llandovery Castle (the opera) Question #2 – Who were they?

Looking at these faded photographs, I remind myself that there was a real woman and a caring family behind each of these dim portraits. Our opera ‘Landovery Castle’ attempts to bring to life a handful of the extraordinary women who died on the night of June 27, 1918 when their hospital ship was torpedoed crossing the Atlantic. Our three main characters are Pearl, Bird and Kate. Margaret Marjory ‘Pearl’ Fraser was the 33-year-old Matron in charge of the 13 other nursing sisters on the Llandovery Castle hospital ship. She was born in Nova Scotia, moved to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and… Read More »Writing Llandovery Castle (the opera) Question #2 – Who were they?

Nursing Sisters WW1

Writing Llandovery Castle (the opera) Question #1

I’ve had lots of questions about our upcoming opera project ‘Llandovery Castle’ so I’ll use the forum of my blog to attempt some answers. I welcome your feedback and further inquiry! Question #1. Why are there 3 male characters in an opera about 14 women? It’s a great question. I’ll confess I was surprised when Paul Ciufo’s scenes began to emerge. I never really imagined that I would be compelled to write music for the bad guy! But I’ve come to trust my librettist’s dramatic instincts. He understands that opera needs contrast; good theatre requires dramatic ‘chiaroscuro’ and our objective… Read More »Writing Llandovery Castle (the opera) Question #1

Llandovery Castle

The Llandovery Castle

It’s now no secret. I’m writing an opera. The subject is the Canadian hospital ship ‘Llandovery Castle’ and her doomed voyage to Britain in 1918, with 14 Canadian nurses on board. I will tell you more very soon, about how this came about, how I found my librettist Paul Ciufo and collaborating producers of the Bicycle Opera Project, but I just wanted to share this article by Cassandra Szklarski of the National Post because it is so cool and terrifying to have press before we’ve finished writing. Click here to read Cassandra’s excellent write-up. http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/opera-to-focus-on-great-war-nurses-100-years-after-hospital-ship-sinking

Llandovery Castle scene

Opera Youtube premiere April 6th, 2020

What are you doing Monday night? Let me guess. Staying safe and staying home? Perfect. Why don’t you join me in a Youtube premiere video ‘watch party’ ?  People from coast to coast will be watching this premiere streaming of the Llandovery Castle opera simultaneously. The subject of the opera is Canadian nurses in WW1. This resonates with our situation today – so many Canadian nurses are once again doing heroic service to keep us safe.   Earl McCluskie of Chestnut Hall Music captured the dress rehearsal at Wilfrid Laurier University last month with several cameras. WLU has a fabulous… Read More »Opera Youtube premiere April 6th, 2020

Video

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Compositions by Category

OPERA, ORATORIO and LARGER WORKS BABEL: a choral symphony (2016) |  Orchestra, choir, SSATB soloists (45 minutes) Text: Cori Martin, concerning language, the nature of inquiry and creativity. CMC. (click to see video) Every voice: a cantata for inclusive singing (2024) | SATB choir a cappella/piano 4 mvts (15 minutes) in English (in progress) Llandovery Castle (2018) | Opera (1 hr, 20 minutes) for 9 singers and 9 instruments. Text: Paul Ciufo, concerning 14 Canadian nurses killed in WW1.Click for score at CMC   Click to watch video Missa Chicagoensis (2017) | SATB choir a cappella 5 mvts in Latin (20… Read More »Compositions by Category

Finis Coronat Opus

One of those heavy, humid city days last summer, I trudged past a particularly dirty construction site. A man in a florescent vest, bent over his broom, was slowly and methodically sweeping the cement driveway which seemed to fill up with dust as soon as he swept. As the sun beat down on the pavement I thought, what a lousy job to be cleaning up that endless, messy rubble, which will be just as dusty and dirty in half an hour. Then something unexpected happened. Another man in a yellow safety helmet, probably his supervisor, appeared in the doorway and… Read More »Finis Coronat Opus