{"id":119804,"date":"2025-11-27T15:51:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T20:51:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=119804"},"modified":"2025-11-28T07:00:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T12:00:03","slug":"scoop-tapestry-opera-luminato-festival-canadian-opera-company-team-live-present-10-days-madhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/11\/27\/scoop-tapestry-opera-luminato-festival-canadian-opera-company-team-live-present-10-days-madhouse\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SCOOP | Tapestry Opera, Luminato Festival & The Canadian Opera Company Team Up With TO Live To Present 10 Days In A Madhouse"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Graphic for the Tapestry Opera, Luminato Festival & The Canadian Opera Company, in association with TO Live production of 10 Days In A Madhouse (Photo courtesy of Tapestry Opera)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nellie Bly was a pioneer of investigative journalists everywhere. Her inside story on the horrific conditions at the Women\u2019s Lunatic Asylum in 1887 brought her international fame.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also the subject of an opera by American composer Rene Orth<\/strong> and Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch<\/strong> that will see its Canadian premiere over four performances on June 16, 18, 20, and 21, 2026 as part of Luminato\u2019s 20th anniversary festival. The bold contemporary opera will be produced by Tapestry Opera and co-presented by Luminato Festival, and the Canadian Opera Company, in association with TO Live.<\/p>\n

\u201c10 Days is a thrilling contemporary opera, and a powerful story about the trailblazing investigative journalist, Nellie Bly, brought to life by the uniquely talented duo of Hannah Moscovitch and Rene Orth,\u201d says Tapestry Opera\u2019s Artistic Director, Michael Mori<\/strong>. \u201cWe are proud to have commissioned this work and even prouder to collaborate with the Canadian Opera Company and Luminato Festival together for its Canadian premiere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nellie Bly and the Asylum Expos\u00e9<\/h3>\n

Although she\u2019d already written hard hitting stories about female factory workers, and the plight of women under restrictive divorce laws, in 1887, Nellie Bly, aka Elizabeth Jane Cochran, found herself unemployed and near penniless. So, at just 23 years old, she talked herself into an undercover assignment reporting on women in what were then called madhouses for Joseph Pulitzer’s the New York World.<\/p>\n

After establishing herself as someone with mental health issues by staying up all night, refusing to sleep, and making wild claims about the other residents of a boarding house where she was staying, she was taken by police and stood before a judge. According to the findings of a police officer, judge, and one doctor, she was deemed insane, and sent to first to Bellevue Hospital, then Blackwell\u2019s Island.<\/p>\n

After ten days, New York World stepped in to secure her release, and her resulting piece on the reprehensible conditions and treatment of the women in the institution made history.<\/p>\n