Skip to content

canadian opera

Llandovery Castle WLU

Opera Laurier

All our hard work researching, creating and workshopping our opera ‘Llandovery Castle’ in 2018 will come to fruition in the first staged performance this weekend. Opera Laurier, which produces highly polished student performances at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, will perform the opera three times – Friday Feb 28 and Sat Feb 29 at 7:30pm, and Sunday March 1st at 3pm, 2020. If you recall, this is the opera that tells the story of 14 Canadian nurses who lost their lives when their WW1 hospital ship was torpedoed in the Celtic Sea in June 1918. The opera had its fledgling… Read More »Opera Laurier

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