Cultureland Opera Collective as part of Tapestry Opera Residency: Opera Arias of Identity, War, Exile, Homeland and Diaspora, curated by Dr. Afarin Mansouri. With Thera Barclay, Lyric Coloratura Soprano, Holly Chaplin, Lyric Coloratura Soprano, Keith Klassen, Tenor, Bradley Christensen, Baritone, Sydney Baedke, Lyric Coloratura Soprano, Hannah Crawford, Dramatic Soprano, Alexander Cappellazzo, Tenor, Farshid Tabloie, Bass-Baritone, Lyricist and Arranger, with pianist Asal Irnmehr. June 21, 2026 at the Nancy and Ed Jackman Performance Centre.
Cultureland Opera Collective, the inaugural company in residence at Tapestry Opera, states that its goal is to create bridges between cultures. Steeped in Iranian traditions, the organization has created five original operas since 2020.
The 3rd Space, however, was an event built around a central theme: displacement. It used Western opera to create connections between that notion and human emotions.
Where is homeland?
Where is the body?
The “third space” of the event’s title is that psychological space that so many people carry within themselves. It is a space between their homeland and new home, belonging and displacement. Migration, war, longing, loss, and transformation were the themes examined throughout the works.
As Cultureland Artistic Director Dr. Afarin Mansouri explained, the event drew from operatic works across centuries to explore those themes. For the many Iranian audience members, it may have introduced them to those works. For those of us who grew up in Western traditions and culture, it served as a reminder that those themes have cut across time, and imbued what we may view as simply artistic expression with larger political overtones. Migration and displacement are realities that speak directly to some, while for others, it was an opportunity to learn more about their emotional cost.
It was Mansouri’s goal to create a program that sparked dialogue between cultures, and an emotional connection with the music in an educational as well as an entertaining event.
The Format
Mansouri began the program with a brief performance that was noted in the program as a “vocal introduction”. Her voice was rich in expression, from a whisper to urgent to anguished, as she sang poetic lines that presented the essential themes of the concert.
Migration begins with this very human need
The search for safety and security.
Addressing the audience in Farsi, with English translations projected on the back wall of the stage, she added more comments that put the performances into context. Each offered a look at a specific character whose experience embodied those concepts.
She prefaced each performance by explaining the characters and their situation.
The Performances
The opera excerpts were sung by a roster drawn from Toronto’s talent pool, and each offered a highlight moment that was appreciated by the audience. Projections created a sense of place for each performance. There were many memorable moments.
The performances opened with Mozart and the Classical era and continued through the Romantic era to modern music.
Thera Barclay sang “Quanti mi siete intorno… Padre, germani, addio”, the song of Princess Ilia of Troy in captivity. Barclay has an expressive, clear tone that carried the drama of her dilemma, a conflict between her loyalty to Troy and falling in love with her former enemy, a Greek prince.
Keith Klassen offered a fine dramatic sense that ranged from the swagger of Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni to the vanity of The Duke of Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto. Both characters embodied what happens when power is abused with impunity.
Soprano Sydney Baedke has a great gift for portraying character, even in short works, including both the sorrow of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena (“Al dolce guidami”) and the bewildered betrayal of Susannah, betrayed by her own community, in Carlisle Floyd’s 1955 opera of the same name.
Baritone Bradley Christensen performed an affecting interpretation of Schubert’s Wanderer, with a rich tone and strong dramatic flair.
Wally, the title character in Alfredo Catalani’s La Wally, is a young woman who is forced to leave home when she refuses to marry the man her father chooses. Hannah Crawford’s rendition of “Ebben? Ne andrò lontana” was powerfully emotional.
Holly Chaplin’s Rusalka, the mermaid who has to leave her own world behind to follow her love in Dvořák’s opera of the same name, expressed the dual nature of loss and longing in her performance of “Song to the Moon”. Chaplin has a strong stage presence that connected with the audience.
Alexander Cappellazzo’s soaring tenor shone in both Richard Strauss’s Hollywood Liederbuch (“Und ich werde nicht mehr sehen”), portraying Bertolt Brecht as a character in the work, and as The Seaman in Gavin Bryars Five Songs from Northern Seas, composed in 2009.
Bass-Baritone Farshid Tabloie gave the Iranian members of the audience a direct reference to their own experiences in his portrayal of The Iranian in Remo Giazotto’s “Everlasting Land”, a Persian lyrical adaptation of Adagio in G Minor based on themes attributed to Tomaso Albinoni. It was a notable connection between Persian and Western traditions.
May the day come when no human experiences war.
Special mention has to go to pianist Asal Irnmehr, who handled accompaniment for such a wide variety of works and singers with polish.
Final Thoughts
Thematic programs and using operatic works as talking points aren’t something Toronto audiences experience very often. It was an effective way to connect the stated themes and individual human experiences using gorgeous music and talented vocalists.
Also of note: the event benefitted form in kind sponsorship from AuraVista Moments, an organization committed to creating awareness and action towards peace.
As the program stated, The 3rd Space is the first in an ongoing concert series that will use opera to explore the themes that connect us all — both those of us who’ve left our homes to seek a better life, and those who can only see their predicaments from a distance.
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