For three nights at The Whyte Museum in the Canadian Rockies, a double bill of one-act chamber operas played to sold out audiences. The new works by local composers Sebastian Hutchings (The Agony of Mrs. Stone) and Lorena Orozco (The Waiting Room), were brought to life by a small ensemble of singers and a chamber orchestra conducted by Maestro Michael Massey.

“The Waiting Room is set in a palliative care ward and explores the interactions of eight
characters—six patients, a nurse and a doctor—living under the shadow of terminal disease.
But it is not a story of illness, it is a tale of human weakness, joy and passion told through
sympathetic and sometimes hilarious characters. Each of the characters has their own sorrows to
bear. Yet things are not as simple as they seem, and when a cure is miraculously found, the
patients show surprising aspects of themselves as they are suddenly confronted by the continuity
of life, rather than the inevitability of death. For both the characters and the audience alike, the
opera probes: if life is a waiting room, what are we waiting for?

A fusion of opera and music theatre, The Waiting Room utilizes popular idioms such as jazz,
habaneras and tangos, as well as classical forms, such as Bach-like fugues and chorales, to outline
the engaging tale.” — Lorena Orozco

The Waiting Room
by Lorena Orozco
libretto by Emilio Carballido
with singers Nan Hughes, Dylan Bandy, Ryan Harper,
Roy del Valle, Chris McCrae, Karen Minish, and Susan Lexa.

More photos available on flickr.