The game is up! The time for shadows, pseudonyms, and clandestine initials is past.
Now, with the scoop of the century in my hands, I cast off the mask. It is I, Nellie Bly, reporter, adventurer, and seeker of the unvarnished truth! I have doffed my disguise to bring you the full account of the scandals and sensations that lie ahead in Tapestry Opera’s thrilling season.
My final and most harrowing assignment leads us to the very depths of the asylum, but the path there is paved with other strange and wondrous discoveries.
A Modern Madness
LOL: Laughing Out Lonely January 16 – 17, 2026 | Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre
Before we enter the brick-and-mortar asylum, I have uncovered a portrait of a different kind of isolation. The faceless existence of life within the “World Wide Web.” The first international production presented by Tapestry Opera.
Opening this January, LOL: Laughing Out Lonely is a thrilling new solo opera by the award-winning Danish team Matilde Böcher and Asger Kudahl. It gives voice to the darkest corners of this digital abyss, where marginalized souls form absurd, insular communities.
Acclaimed countertenor Morten Grove Frandsen delivers a tour-de-force performance, inhabiting these varied outsiders in a “furiously beautiful” experience. It is a thought-provoking reflection on our age, staged as a theatrical echo chamber where you, the audience, are part of the setting.
The Ritual of Loss
Ana Sokolović’s Love Songs March 26 – 29, 2026 | Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre
Come March, the investigation turns from the digital void to the human heart. I present to you a haunting, genre-defying journey through one woman’s desperate ritual to defy loss.
In Love Songs, the brilliant composer Ana Sokolović and director Michael Hidetoshi Mori invite us to witness a heartbroken woman (the captivating soprano Xin Wang) embarking on a journey through the love stories of others.
Imagine, Dear Reader: a performance sung in five languages, with declarations of adoration in over 100 tongues! It is part opera, part dance, and all heart—a visceral exploration of memory and healing that blurs the line between performance art and ritual.
THE FLAGSHIP PERFORMANCE: The Asylum Breached
10 Days in a Madhouse June 16 – 21, 2026 | Bluma Appel Theatre
And now, the story I was born to tell. In a Canadian Premiere co-presented with the Luminato Festival and the Canadian Opera Company, our season culminates with my own harrowing tale: 10 Days in a Madhouse.
American composer Rene Orth and the acclaimed Canadian scribe Hannah Moscovitch have crafted a bold contemporary opera that lays bare the violence of indifference and the corrosion of reality itself.
The Key Players in this Drama:
- The Reporter: Mireille Asselin (Our Song d’Hiver) embodies Nellie (c’est moi!). Deemed “a treasure” by the Toronto Star, she brings power to the role as she navigates the institution’s treacherous halls.
- The Confidante: American mezzo-soprano Taylor-Alexis DuPont lends her “rich and spirited voice” (Washington Post) to Lizzie, my friend on the inside.
- The Antagonist: Returning from the underground, baritone Jorell Williams (Of the Sea) uses his “stunning vocals” (Seattle Times) to portray the malevolent Dr. Josiah Blackwell.
- The Enforcer: Canadian/American soprano Lauren Pearl (Gould’s Wall) chills the blood, physically embodying the institution’s sadism as the Nurse/Matron.
Do not delay, for the doors to the Bluma Appel Theatre are heavy and slam shut quickly.
No longer hiding in the shadows, I remain, Yours in the pursuit of truth,
Nellie Bly