We’re re-releasing your favourite queer holiday opera, December!
Buy a ticket and watch between December 21-31, 2023.
Tickets here: Ticket Halifax
This is a fundraiser for an upcoming workshop of a new* opera by Fiona Ryan.
*also queer, also seasonal (just not this season)
Your ticket purchase goes toward the creation of In Her Hands, Fiona’s reimagining of Macbeth, a project dear to our hearts that we’ve been working on since 2020.
Thank you for supporting Essential Opera and new, Canadian works and artists!
$35 Household bundle (a bunch of people watching the stream)
$20 General ticket
$15 Discount ticket (for anyone who needs a discount)
PWYC via e-transfer to essentialopera@gmail.com
You can also buy a ticket for either price above (or any amount you choose!) using e-transfer.
Past screenings of December
We’re re-releasing December! And with an added bonus of Aunt Helen, another one-act opera by Monica Pearce!
Tickets and viewing available from Dec 21-31, 2021!
This is a fundraiser for another opera short that we have in the works for 2022! Thank you for your continued support of our work!
***Get tickets starting at $10 here: Side Door***
The Aunt Helen Team
Aunt Helen – Short Opera Film Credits
Music and Libretto: Monica Pearce
Dr. Helen Creighton: Maureen Batt, soprano
Piano: Simon Docking
Director/Director of Photography: Claire Fraser
Editor: Claire Fraser
Art Department/Production Assistant: Anna Shepard
Background Actor: Anna Shepard
Audio Recording: Leaf Music (Producer: Jeremy VanSlyke, Associate Producer: Ben B. Creelman)
Archival Images, courtesy of Dartmouth Heritage Museum:
Family Photograph of Creighton Family c. 1905
Dartmouth Street in aftermath of Halifax Harbour Explosion 1917
Helen Creighton standing with Ben Henneberry and Mr. & Mrs. Faulkner, c. 1940
Helen Creighton standing in front of Ambulance c. 1918
Stock Footage of Car driving through vineyard & Nova Scotia Flag from Adobe Stock
Special thank you to Terry Eyland, Shannon Baxter, and the Dartmouth Heritage Museum. And heartfelt thanks to Mickie Zinck and the Creighton Family.
Thank you to Music Nova Scotia for their investment towards the sound recording and the short film.
The December Team
Cast: Erin Bardua, Maureen Batt, and Danielle Buonaiuto, sopranos
Music Director/Conductor: Tara Scott
String Quartet: Jennifer Jones, violin; Anne Simons, violin; Alexandra Bates, viola; Hilary Brown, cello
Video director: Halley Davies
Video editor: Claire Fraser
Videographer NYC: Elizabeth van Os
Audio engineering NS: Leaf Music; Ben B. Creelman, producer
Audio engineering NYC: Jennifer Nulsen, Swan Studios NYC
Graphic design: Tom Belding
Production assistant: Laura Thornton, Thornton Communications
Lighting assistant: Kwasi Asare
Background extras: Kwasi Asare, Erin Bardua, Halley Davies, Claire Fraser
Video trailers: Anna Shepard
Subscribe to Essential Opera on YouTube HERE
December was written for Essential Opera with support from the SOCAN Foundation commissioning matching program and private donors.
This film production is funded by Arts Nova Scotia and the Canada Council for the Arts.
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Essential Opera presents December, a new opera by Monica Pearce. This world première operatic film makes its streaming debut on YouTube at 8pm Atlantic Time, December 21, 2020.
*** Tickets are available here: Ticket Halifax ***
December is a lighthearted story about travel (remember travel?), family, holiday stress, relationships, and remembering not to wrap your presents before you fly.
The Team
Cast: Erin Bardua, Maureen Batt, and Danielle Buonaiuto, sopranos
Music Director/Conductor: Tara Scott
String Quartet: Jennifer Jones, violin; Anne Simons, violin; Alexandra Bates, viola; Hilary Brown, cello
Video director: Halley Davies
Video editor: Claire Fraser
Videographer NYC: Elizabeth van Os
Audio engineering NS: Leaf Music; Ben B. Creelman, producer
Audio engineering NYC: Jennifer Nulsen, Swan Studios NYC
Graphic design: Tom Belding
Production assistant: Laura Thornton, Thornton Communications
Lighting assistant: Kwasi Asare
Background extras: Kwasi Asare, Erin Bardua, Halley Davies, Claire Fraser
Video trailers: Anna Shepard
Subscribe to Essential Opera on YouTube HERE
December was written for Essential Opera with support from the SOCAN Foundation commissioning matching program and private donors.
This film production is funded by Arts Nova Scotia and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Thank you, CMC Atlantic for this interview about our upcoming show! Read here: CMC Atlantic
Team Bios
Monica Pearce (composer/librettist)
Tara Scott (music director/conductor) is one of Atlantic Canada’s most renowned collaborative pianists. Her love of teaching and performing has led her to pursue staff accompanist positions at Western, Dalhousie, Acadia, and Mount Allison Universities. She has performed extensively with singers, instrumentalists and choirs across Canada.
Tara is the principal Music Director and Pianist for Maritime Concert Opera, based in Lunenburg NS. With MCO, she has performed eighteen full-length operas and has conducted chamber orchestras for two productions. She co-founded, with Nina Scott-Stoddart, Halifax Summer Opera Workshop, an opera training program with fully staged productions, now in its sixteenth season. She has worked as Music Director for Eastern Front Theatre, Acadia’s Singing Theatre and has performed with Opera Nova Scotia, Opera New Brunswick and Halifax Theatre for Young People. In 2019, Tara received a Merritt Award from Theatre Nova Scotia for outstanding music direction of KAMP the musical.
Halley Davies (director) is a freelance filmmaker and I.A.T.S.E. 667 camera assistant. Her love for cinematography and storytelling drew her to NSCAD University where she completed a BFA in Film. Since then she has worked on numerous sets, both as a DP and camera assistant. She enjoys the energy and challenge of being a camera assistant for large productions where she can have hands-on experience with specialized gear and cameras. Her innate creativity brings her back behind the camera where she explores lighting and camerawork to tell a story. Halley is currently based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and has international experience working in the States, Netherlands and Ireland.
Claire Fraser (editor) owner/operator of Claire Fraser – Photography & Videographer, is an enthusiastic artist and entrepreneur. Claire takes pride in expressing her creativity through shooting, editing and directing. She enjoys variety in her work, from documenting events, creating promotional content or shooting or editing creative film projects. Claire Fraser Website
Danielle Buonaiuto (soprano): Danielle Buonaiuto’s performances have been praised for their “terrific clarity and color” (Baltimore Sun), her “entrancing and fluid” singing (DC Metro Theatre Arts), and her “ethereal vocals” that reveal “exquisite vocal technique and luscious colors” (OperaWire). Danielle (she/they) maintains an active freelance schedule, presenting art song, performing chamber music, and appearing as soloist with symphonies and choirs throughout the United States and Canada. Though an accomplished performer of standard repertoire, she primarily focuses on working with contemporary composers, especially in commissioning new pieces and cultivating emerging composers. She has premiered over sixty songs, and has premiered roles in six operas. Danielle is a founding member of ChamberQUEER, a Brooklyn-based chamber music series that highlights the music of LGBTQ+ composers. Canadian-born, she resides in Brooklyn. Daniellebuonaiuto.com
Jennifer Jones (violinist) was born in Ottawa, but has lived most of her life in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Jennifer advanced her studies at Indiana University, under the direction of Josef Gingold, obtaining a Master of Music in Performance and Pedagogy. Following her studies at Indiana, Jennifer travelled to France, where she studied with Sylvie Gazeau of the Paris Conservatoire.
Jennifer has performed as a soloist with Symphony Nova Scotia, NSYO, Dalhousie Chamber Orchestra, Chebucto Orchestra, and Symphony New Brunswick. Over the past three decades, her work as a chamber musician has frequently been recorded by the CBC. She has performed at the Gerhart Chamber Music Festival in Alabama, the Salisbury Summer Institute in England, the Arcadia Music Festival in Maine, the Scotia Festival of Music, the Fredericton Music Festival, and many years at the Indian River Music Festival in Prince Edward Island.
Jennifer has a passion for teaching and teaches privately in Halifax and Wolfville. She is also a faculty member of Acadia University’s Department of Music.
Anne Simons (violinist): Though half of Anne’s roots are in Nova Scotia, she was born and raised in Montreal. Anne started her studies on the violin at the age of ten with Thomas Williams. She graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Music and then received her Master’s of Music from the University of British Columbia under the guidance of Andrew Dawes. Anne has freelanced in and around Montreal, including with l’Orchestre Métropolitain. She has played for the Atlantic String Quartet, the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, and while in Vancouver, various orchestras in and around the area including the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
Since moving to Nova Scotia and joining Symphony Nova Scotia in 1996, Anne, with three colleagues and friends, formed the Blue Engine String Quartet, which has been going strong since 1997. They have been recorded extensively by CBC and have performed with many Atlantic artists both classical and pop.
Alexandra Bates (violist) has been freelancing in Halifax since 2001 and has joined various prestigious musical groups around Halifax including Symphony Nova Scotia, Blue Engine String Quartet and Ensemble Regale. She has enjoyed several chamber music collaborations with Blue Engine and other local musical artists in several of the Halifax area’s concert series’s including The Music Room Chamber Series, Inner Space Concerts, Celtic Colours, and Sea-Esta. Prior to 2001, Alexandra was a member of the Atlantic String Quartet and Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra for a decade in her home province of Newfoundland.
Hilary Brown (cellist) began her cello studies in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Boston University. She also studied as a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. Hilary has toured Japan with the Saint John String Quartet (New Brunswick) and she has also performed in Europe and South America.
Hilary is currently a cellist with Symphony Nova Scotia, a coach for the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra, and a private cello teacher. She has performed as a soloist with Symphony Nova Scotia and is heard frequently as a chamber musician on CBC Radio.
Hilary is a founding member and the cellist of the Blue Engine String Quartet. She is also a member of Trio Nova Scotia and two early music ensembles: Tempest Baroque Ensemble and La Réjouissance. Hilary has performed in many Maritime concert series such as Musique Saint-Bernard, the St. Cecilia Concert Series, the Mahone Bay Concert Series, Musique Royale, and the Indian River Festival on Prince Edward Island.
Read more about co-artistic directors Erin Bardua and Maureen Batt on their websites.