Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts
44th Dora Mavor Moore Awards

Pomegranate, Canadian Opera Company and Vancouver Opera, received 2 nods including Outstanding Performance by an Individual to Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野 and Outstanding New Musical/New Opera to Kye Marshall (Composer) and Amanda Hale (Librettist).

Reviews

  • "An ambitious work … that underlines themes of identity, acceptance and the role of community … ending on a powerful, hopeful note."

    The Globe and Mail

  • “Rosemary Thomson … led 23 or so members of the COC Orchestra with authority and panache. Pomegranate … has the raw materials of a success.”

    Ludwig Van Toronto

  • "The energy, the passion, the love and the pain generate an emotional force field of vivid dimensions, palpable, intense. A brave undertaking."

    Ian Ritchie, Opera Going Toronto

  • "Seeing our Toronto queer history brought to life with such wit and passion and utterly gorgeous, aching music -- Pomegranate was an unforgettable night for me, full of tears and laughter and shivers of recognition."

    John Greyson

  • “The world needs a lesbian opera.  Now it’s got one and it’s one well worth seeing.”

    Opera Ramblings

  • "Kye Marshall is an extraordinary composer... she gives me such hope for now and the future.”

    Jean Stilwell, Classical FM 96.3

  • "In brilliant music... the page sets us up for the emotional moment just like the genius of Mozart. Well you get that from Kye Marshall's writing."

    Jean Stilwell, Classical FM 96.3

  • "Lush, sensuous and lyrical; snappy, sinewy and gritty... Marshall’s music completely enthrals with its frequent, emotionally-charged changes of tune."

    Ian Ritchie, Opera Going Toronto

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Pomegranate

On a fateful school trip to the ruins of Pompeii, the fantasies of smitten teenagers Suzie and Cass are ignited. They are transported from 1977 to 79 AD, where they discover romantic freedom in the looming shadow of Mount Vesuvius – but not for long. The timeline shifts to 1981 and the Fly by Night, a Toronto lesbian bar, in the aftermath of the infamous Bathhouse Raids. As the couple struggles to repair their love in the face of homophobia and a family ultimatum, the tragedy unfolds, revealing a transcendent love.

Recent Productions

July 2017

Workshop

Tapestry Opera

June 2019

Self-Produced Production

Buddies in Bad Times Theatre

June 2023

Canadian Opera Company

Canadian Opera Company Theatre

TBA

Vancouver Opera

TBA