Penelope: Dreamwalker & Letters from Home – Opera Nova Scotia

Opera Nova Scotia presents two original musical works with themes of women’s strength, motherhood, and life in Nova Scotia, on Saturday, May 25, at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.). at the Sanctuary Arts Centre in Dartmouth. There will be a cash bar. These productions were created and will be performed by soprano Janice Isabel Jackson and mezzo-soprano Paula Rockwell.

The featured presentation, composed in 2015, Letters from Home, is a multi-dimensional performance featuring original music, archival projections, and original script, written, and performed by mezzo-soprano Paula Rockwell. Rockwell utilizes family letters to tell the story of her maternal grandmother’s relocation from England to Nova Scotia. The letter writers – her grandmother and Scottish great-grandmother – never saw each other in person again. The production illuminates a period of settler history in the 19^th & 20^th centuries, focusing on the everyday lives of women, family losses and love of home. The letters are illuminated in video projection, with original song compositions celebrating generations of women.
Paula Rockwell teaches in the Music Department at Acadia University and has appeared or music directed for many productions, including the upcoming Music Man with Stage Prophet Theatre in May. Her debut recording is Fleeting Melodies. She has performed with many symphony orchestras in Canada and the United States and adjudicated locally and nationally.

Penelope: Dreamwalker is a twelve-minute mini opera by new music specialist Janice Jackson, which explores the unexpected pregnancy and resulting suicide of a young women called Penelope who studied at Dalhousie University in the 1920s. Her death in Shirreff Hall led to stories of a ghost haunting the residence. Jackson researched the fate of similar young women in the early to mid-20^th century, when the Catholic Church created laundries for unwed mothers to live and work in; their babies were often adopted without consent. This piece was funded by Arts Nova Scotia, with mentorship by composer James Rolfe. Janice Jackson has sung over 250 world premieres and is the Artistic Director of Vocalypse Productions. She recently performed the role of Mona Parsons in Sandy Moore’s opera, Escape to Freedom, and has been composing for solo voice for the past several years.

Tickets are now available through Eventbrite.ca at $30 regular and $20 for students and the underwaged:  https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/letters-from-home-and-penelope-dreamwalker-tickets-852309740377?aff=oddtdtcreator

Opera Nova Scotia was founded in 2000 and has created lectures, events, programs, and productions promoting the art of opera in Nova Scotia. For more information, please email info@nsopera.ca.