CHARLES M. WILSON
KAMOURASKA

Sunday, February 16, 2020— 2:30pm

An english opera

In commemoration of the iconic Canadian composer, Charles Wilson, VOICEBOX presents the classic and tumultuous love triangle played out near a village in Quebec, brought to life by the profound artistry of Anne Hebert… resounding in its musical re-imagining for the lyric stage.

Featuring
Robert Cooper, Conductor and Chorus Director

Matt Chittick as Antoine Tassy
Cairan Ryan as Dr. George Nelson
Jennifer Taverner as Elizabeth D'Aulnieres
Daniela Agostino as Aunt Angelique
Karen Bojti as Aunt Adelaide
Diana Di Mauro as Aurelie Caron
Gregory Finney as Jerome Rolland
Jennifer Routhier as Mme. Rolland
Meghan Symonas Aunt Luce-Gertrude
Charlotte Stewart-Juby as Rose Morin
Anika-France Forget as Mme. Dufour
Joshua Clemenger as Letelier
Kyle Merrithew as Robert
Taylor Gibbs as Blanchet/Medical Student/Ignace
Sean Curran as Michaud
Joseph Wong as Priest/Clerk

SYNOPSIS

Opera in two acts Libretto by the composer, after the novel by Anne Hébert (1970)
Composed 1974-75

The story starts in1856, 18 years after the murder of Antoine Tassy, Squire of Kamouraska. Elizabeth D'Aulnières has now re-married and is known as Madame Rolland. She is not able to forget her past, and in a series of flashbacks, while attending her second husband at his deathbed, she re-lives events that lead to the murder of her first husband.

Her reminiscences, like in real life, are not sequential or logical. The young Elizabeth was in the care of her three aunts in Sorel. Her marriage to Antoine, on her 15th birthday, is one of convenience. A man of poor moral bearing, Antoine turns to be abusive and irrational. After their third child, Elizabeth is sickly and bruised, unable to leave her bed. She is introduced to Dr. George Nelson, a school friend of Antoine's.

Shortly thereafter Elizabeth and George engage in a reckless love affair. Trapped and obsessive, they conspire to murder Antoine, first with the help of Elizabeth's maid Aurélie Caron, and when that fails, then with a direct gun shot by George at a cove outside Kamouraska on an icy wintry day in 1838.

Slowly and painfully, the elder Elizabeth faces her terrifying memories at an English court, the foreign language of Dr. George Nelson. The damning testimony of witnesses and that of her own maid Aurélie reveal the sordid details of the murder and those of Elizabeth's adultery.

Although the people of Kamouraska are provoked to much conjecture, Elizabeth was ultimately acquitted of wrongdoing for lack of evidence while her lover evaded Quebec justice by fleeing to the United States.