Courtenay Stevens, right, as Circus Owner, Midori Marsh as Sydney, in Sanctuary Song.Dahlia Katz/Supplied
Title: Sanctuary Song
Written by: Abigail Richardson-Schulte and Marjorie Chan
Performed by: Midori Marsh, Alvin Crawford, Courtenay Stevens, Elvina Raharja
Director: Michael Hidetoshi Mori
Company: Tapestry Opera
Venue: Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre
City: Toronto
Year: Until May 25, 2025
In Toronto, Tapestry Opera and Nightwood Theatre have finally opened their new performance spaces at 877 Yonge Street, located in the basement of an affordable housing complex.
The building’s faded facade doesn’t give away much. But inside, the new performance spaces are clean, sturdy and impressive. They boast surprisingly good acoustics for opera, and they block out the hustle and bustle of busy Yonge Street.
Tapestry has launched their stake in the new space with Sanctuary Song, a touching new opera by Abigail Richardson-Schulte and Marjorie Chan that explores the life and perils of Sydney, an Indonesian elephant (Midori Marsh), on her journey from the jungle to her final resting place. On the eve of being released into a protected habitat, Sydney recalls the figures and faces of her youth – her best friend Penny, another elephant (Elvina Raharja). Her keeper, James (Alvin Crawford). Her unforgiving owner (Courtenay Stevens).
The history of the circus carries more than a few stains – abusive freak shows, mistreated animals, insufficient wages – and there are plenty of plays, films and TV shows that mine the midway for drama. Why not an opera?
At the top of the opera, Stevens, dressed as a magician, comes onstage to perform sleight-of-hand tricks, in a lengthy sequence that underplays the horrors that follow.Dahlia Katz/Supplied
Tapestry bills Sanctuary Song as “an opera for all ages,” and at just an hour long, I’d partially agree: It’s a relatively accessible story of love, optimism and grief, complete with surtitles for Chan’s lyrics (which are mostly in English). It would be a great “first opera” for an adult audience member new to the form.
But theatre for young audiences, or TYA, it is not.
What’s thrilling about Sanctuary Song is its willingness to engage with the seedy underbelly of the circus industry, some of which is quite scary – the more disturbing scenes from The Lion King and Bambi come to mind as a point of reference.
At the top of the opera, Stevens, dressed as a magician, comes onstage to perform sleight-of-hand tricks, in a lengthy sequence that underplays the horrors that follow. For nearly 10 minutes the emcee plays games with the audience, the chained world of captivity and solitude Sydney will soon be forced to inhabit just moments later.
Soon enough, the elephantine particulars of life on the road zoom into disturbing focus: A fire destroys a cargo ship, charring Sydney’s lungs in the process. Whips crackle through the air, the pain immediate and sharp. A child falls in love with Sydney’s beguiling features and circus tricks, then disappears forever, leaving the animal alone.
Sydney’s life improves – she forms a lifelong bond with James, who teaches her the meaning of true companionship. She makes contact with an unlikely ghost from her past. She devours a tasty watermelon.
But Richardson-Schulte and Chan’s opera is dark; honest; complicated. Richardson-Schulte’s score, lush and kinetic, doesn’t condescend to its audience with simple melodies or hummable themes. It’s a rich new opera, sonically in the vein of composer Benjamin Britten, that may go over the heads of littler ears, or worse, scare them off – I was surprised by the scratch of Sanctuary Song‘s heavier moments, and while the show is not without levity, I’d argue the genre scale tips toward tragedy.
That aside, the performances in Sanctuary Song are excellent, particularly soprano Marsh as Sydney. Marsh brings an elfin whimsy to the role, and sings Sydney’s sorrows with gorgeous vibrato and spin. Crawford, too, is wonderful as James, gentle and jovial as he builds trust with the creature in his care.
Michael Hidetoshi Mori’s production is somewhat visually inconsistent – while Jung-Hye Kim’s costumes subtly conjure elephant trunks and ears, her set chops up the theatre into segments that prove cumbersome while Stevens interacts with the audience. Paper shadow puppets add a playful flair to the production, but aren’t always lit well under Bonnie Beecher’s design – a few performers also found themselves singing in the dark, out of their prescribed spotlights, during the media preview night.
The performances in Sanctuary Song are excellent, particularly soprano Marsh as Sydney.Dahlia Katz/Supplied
Visuals notwithstanding, Sanctuary Song sounds terrific. Gregory Oh’s tiny orchestra might have benefitted from the addition of a flute or a clarinet, but it’s astounding, the complete, velvety sound violinist Aysel Taghi-Zada, pianist Talisa Blackman and percussionists Ryan Scott and Hoi Tong Keung are able to achieve.
All in, I’m pleased to see performance companies like Tapestry have the space to experiment – both artistically and logistically – with the opening of the Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre. In both Richardson-Schulte and Chan’s opera and the building at 877 Yonge Street, a few details remain to be smoothed out. But there’s something gorgeous about launching the new space with a poetic lamentation on the divergent meanings of home, friendship and perseverance. A sanctuary song, indeed.
