Dark Star Requiem | Luminato

A devastating global pandemic. A full-scale dramatic oratorio. In this unusual marriage of content and form, poet Jill Battson and composer Andrew Staniland trace the twenty-five-year history of AIDS from its origins to the present day.

This evocative, poetic concert work interlaces such topics as ecology, myth, politics, and family. While this text includes fragments from the original Latin Mass for the Dead, the overall perspective is humanistic rather than religious. Focusing on the intimate and personal face of AIDS, the piece will resonate with audiences across a wide spectrum of age, class, culture, and experience.

Commissioned by Luminato, co-produced with Tapestry new opera works, and featuring four outstanding soloists together with two of Canada's most lauded ensembles, the Elmer Iseler Singers and the Gryphon Trio, this inspiring fusion of word and music illuminates the darkness of its subject with the redemptive power of hope.

Commissioned by Luminato with support from the Ontario Arts Council.