Soprano Midori Marsh steps into the spirit of an elephant — lyrically and emotionally — as Sydney in Tapestry Opera’s Sanctuary Song.
Like every performer, Marsh has an origin story. To explain hers, she conjures a love of the stage so intense that “I think I would have absolutely charged down any path that got me on stage performing in front of people!” Because of this passion, she embraced every possible opportunity to perform: from church nativity plays to school safety demonstrations and “approximately one million choirs.”
Happily, growing up in “an awesome community that really supported the arts,” she was surrounded by passionate music educators who championed her quest. ”Probably the most influential thing for me was getting to do musical theatre in school,” she recalls. At thirteen years of age, Marsh landed the role of the grandmother in Pippin in a production at her middle school. “I wanted one role and one role only: the grandmother. Because she has the best song, obviously!” Marsh went on to perform this song (“No Time At All”) at a district showcase – and she did so with flair. “I really went for it, full send,” she laughs. “There was a kick line at the end and everything.” Capping years of stage time, that moment sealed her love of performing: “I’ve been hooked ever since.”
Continuing to study and to perform, she graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Toronto, then built a vibrant career as a sought-after soprano with companies across Canada, including the Canadian Opera Company, Calgary Opera, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. This summer, she returns to Wolf Trap Opera in Virginia for a second season as a Filene Artist, appearing in Carmen, Carmina Burana, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. But first, she takes on the role of Sydney.
Sanctuary Song
Sanctuary Song is a Canadian chamber opera for all ages, which was composed by Abigail Richardson-Schulte with a libretto by Marjorie Chan 陳以珏. Inspired by true events, the opera follows the journey of Sumatran elephant Sidney, who was taken from her home in Indonesia as a calf, suffered through years of captivity in a circus and zoo – including a traumatic accident during a circus boat fire in Halifax. The accident ended her circus career, so she came to the Louisiana Zoo. It is at this point that the opera begins. While preparing to lead Sydney onto the railway car, her keeper makes her a promise: “I was not the first to put a chain on you, but I promise, I promise, I will be the last.” Eventually, Sydney is released into a sanctuary in Tennessee.
Through a blend of opera and dance, this unique one-hour work explores themes of memory, friendship, resilience, and the longing for freedom. Directed by Michael Hidetoshi Mori, with choreography by Aria Evans and musical direction by Gregory Oh, the cast features Marsh as Sydney, Alvin Crawford as James, Elvina Raharja as Penny and Girl, and Courtenay Stevens in multiple roles including Hunter, Circus Owner, and Zoo Worker.
Sanctuary Song was originally commissioned by Theatre Direct Canada and Tapestry Opera, and premiered at the Luminato Festival in 2008. It won the 2009 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Production, and its impact continues to resonate with audiences, including those inspired to support the conservation of these highly social and intelligent animals. The current Tapestry Opera production runs until May 25, 2025.
Marsh brings her characteristic fearlessness and energy to the role of Sydney, and stepping into it has been both physically demanding and creatively liberating. “Frankly, I should have been prepared to do more stretching; I’m sore!” she jokes. “I think more and more now, opera singers are expected to be really engaged physically, instead of the classic ‘park and bark’. This has been such a great way for me to explore that new reality.”
Becoming an elephant
Much of that exploration has arisen through the collaborative, organic process that Tapestry Opera is known for. Marsh gives props first to the work’s creators: “The music and text by Abigail Richardson-Schulte and Marjorie Chan do the real heavy lifting of the story. They’ve created something so special. The other performers and I just have to channel the emotions they put on the page.” Then she praises “how Tapestry puts its shows together. It’s so exploratory and organic. It’s the opposite of paint-by-numbers. And I love getting to discover a lot of the piece in the rehearsal room, as opposed to alone in my practice room.” In particular, she singles out “a workshop in late February, where we discovered a lot of the physical language that Elvina and I use as our elephants Penny and Sydney.”
Midori Marsh (Sydney). Photo: Dahlia Katz
That physical language has helped Marsh step into a character that is literally unlike any she has ever played before. “Sydney is so interesting. In a way, she’s so easy to play because she acts exactly how she feels. She can’t hide her emotions. But in another way, that kind of simplicity can sometimes be hard for a human being. We’re complicated!” she reflects. “Our choreographer Aria Evans has been so helpful in finding the physicality of Sydney in her journey from young elephant to all grown up – which informs so much of who Sydney is. It’s freeing to be as truthful as an animal is, but it can feel vulnerable as well.”
The overall experience has “been a fun challenge” – and Marsh sees opera as the “perfect way” to realize the emotional reach of Sydney’s story, “because the music moves beyond text, speech, movement or mannerisms, and becomes representative of the ways all living creatures find to communicate with one another,” she explains. “Whether it’s elephant to elephant, elephant to human, or human to human, in this piece music becomes our universal communicator, facilitating the dance and song that connect all the characters in this piece to each other and to the audience.”
Ultimately, she notes, “opera is so immersive that for 45 minutes, we’ll all be speaking the same language.”
Supertitles and simple pleasures
And Marsh is not just a fan of operatic language as realized in song and movement on the stage. “Ultimately, I also love opera because it’s so normalized to use supertitles”, she explains. “I’m a ‘subtitles on everything’ girl. I love that, and it really makes things more accessible.”
In keeping with this love of simplicity and clarity, Marsh finds inspiration between performances in everyday pleasures: “I love spending time with my friends and the house dog Chester (who has taught me a lot about animal to human communication); seeing concerts, plays and musicals; drawing and painting; going on walks, thrifting, cooking and napping.” And she particularly loves seeing high school and community shows – especially musicals – because they take her right back to her origin story: “It reminds me of what got me so excited about this work in the first place, and I always cry! I wonder which of those kids will be doing what I’m doing in 10 years.”
“Maybe they’ll play Sydney in the next go-round of this show.”
Sanctuary Song runs until May 25, 2025, at the Nancy & Ed Jackman Performance Centre (877 Yonge Street) in Toronto. Tickets are available at tapestryopera.com.
© Arpita Ghosal, Sesaya Arts Magazine 2025
