KHAOS: Nelson’s Home-Grown Opera a First in North America

By Bill Metcalfe, Nelson Daily

“To my knowledge Nelson is the only community of this size to attempt commissioning an opera anywhere in North America,” says Marty Horswill. “How many towns of ten thousand people even have an opera company?” 

Premiere performance March 8

Horswill is the Production Coordinator for KHAOS, an original opera commissioned by Nelson’s Amy Ferguson Institute that has been several years in the making. Tickets are on sale now for the premiere performance by the Nelson Community Opera at the Capitol Theatre on March 8.

Classic Greek myth re-worked

Composer Don Macdonald and writer/librettist Nicola Harwood, both of Nelson, have re-imagined the myth of Persephone and Demeter in a modern world faced with global warming. KHAOS will feature Allison Girvan as Persephone, Audrey Bissett as Demeter, Roger Ley as Hades, and Kevin Armstong as Cerberus, along with other soloists, a 20-voice chorus and a 16-piece orchestra.  The cast also includes dancer Hiromoto Ida, recently proclaimed Nelson’s Cultural Ambassador for 2012 by Nelson City Council.

A critical mass of artists

How can this small town support such an ambitious undertaking? “Nelson has been a haven for artists for decades,” says Horswill. “We now have the critical mass to be able to mount an opera-- singers, instrumentalists, dancers, all the theatre people that go with it. They were here. So we are doing it. 

“The other reality is that everybody is so entranced with the notion that we are doing an opera in a town this size, that all the artists are basically willing to donate their time and talents. If we had to pay for it, the Nelson market would never sustain this.”

The money is local too

The talent is not the only thing about this opera that’s home-grown. Production costs, including the cost of the commission, have come to a total budget of around $150,000. About a quarter of that will be covered by ticket sales in Nelson and other Kootenay communities. The rest has been raised almost entirely from local private sources. 

In addition to the March 8 premiere, there will be further performances at the Capitol Theatre on March 9 and 10.