Canadian Opera Anthology - Soprano Volume 2

Canadian Opera Anthology – Soprano Volume 2 for voice and piano

This is the first time that this type of collection has been created and published. Canada’s composers have been creating operas since the time of Calixa Lavallée (composer of Canada’s national anthem, O Canada), and continuing into the present. The first aria in volume 2 is from The Widow created in 1881 by Calixa Lavallée. The last aria in volume 2 was composed in 2019, the opera by Chan Ka Nin, Past and Present.  It has yet to receive its premiere, which has been postponed due to COVID-19.

The basis for this collection is from the doctoral thesis of soprano, Dr. Stephanie Nakagawa. Stephanie received the Canadian Music Centre’s Barbara Pentland Award of Excellence for this research and has performed lecture recitals across Canada to promote the works within this anthology. Allen Clark, editor on this project, has much experience in music performance and classical music in general, being a retired professional violist, and former Coordinator of Composer Services at the National Office of the Canadian Music Centre. He is also a retired professional copyist who was awarded second prize in the Paul Revere Award for professional copyists.

Our aim is to get these arias, and the operas from which they come, into the Standard Repertoire.

1. Smiling Hope from The Widow – Doux espoir de La Veuve, 1881, Calixa Lavallée & Frank H. Nelson; French lyrics – Eugène Sauvé 2001

2. Deirdre’s Song from Deirdre, Healey Willan & John Coulter 1946/1965

3. Autumn Song from Grant, Warden of the Plains, Murray Adaskin & Mary Elizabeth Bayer 1967

4. The Seasons of Her Year from Return of the Native, Jean Coulthard & Edna Baxter 1979

5. Daisy’s Aria from The Shivaree, John Beckwith & James Reaney 1982

6. L’oiseau qu’est tout aimable prit sa volée from Évangéline et Gabriel, Marc Gagné 1987-1990

7. Camilla’s Lament from Nosferatu, Randolph Peters & Maer Gronsdal 1993

8. May God Forgive Him from Filumena, John Estacio & John Murrell 2003

9. No, You Don’t Understand from Transit of Venus, Victor Davies & Maureen Hunter 2007

10. This is the Truth from Lillian Alling, John Estacio & John Murrell 2010

11. Cecelia’s Aria from The Inventor, Bramwell Tovey & John Murrell 2011

12. Solana’s Song from When the Sun Comes Out, Leslie Uyeda & Rachel Rose 2014

13. Past and Present from Dragon’s Tale, Chan Ka Nin & Mark Brownell 2019