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My first opera, Hannaraptor, is a one-act for young audiences with a libretto by Val Brandt. Hannaraptor was commissioned by Calgary Opera and performed by members of their Emerging Artist Development Program. It toured Calgary and southern Alberta schools and communities and then have 5 public performances at Vertigo Theatre in Calgary, May 2-4 2008. In all over 8,000 peolple (many children seeing their first opera) saw this first run.
SYNOPSIS
A 12-year-old girl, Hanna, and her father discover a large fossil rock in a coulee that runs through their farm near the Alberta badlands. It appears to be a one-of-a-kind find: the skeleton of a theropod with wings. Soon after, Dad dies in an accident, Hanna’s 18-year-old brother, Jesse, heads off on a round-the-world adventure, her mother takes on two jobs to get by, and Hanna begins secretly chipping and scraping away at the rock.
Five years later, Hanna is nearly finished uncovering her dinosaur skeleton, Jesse returns home with dreams of working the farm, and Mom is falling in love with a man who has an ambitious plan that will alter the land, the coulee and all of their lives forever. |
