F-bombs at the Opera? Empire of Wild does things differently

In Cherie Dimaline’s Empire of Wild , three generations of women struggle to free their loved one from the grips of the werewolf-like Rogarou in an effort to bring home a missing husband and protect their land from corporate interests.

The story is so gritty, sexy and dramatic, it was named Indigo’s top book of 2019, beating out big titles like The Testaments by Margaret Atwood and Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

Now, about $4 million is being invested for an Indigenous-led creative team to turn the book into an opera, and stage the world premiere next spring in Toronto.

It's a gamble that could draw in a younger audience and opera neophytes — and challenge purists who prefer the "core" repertoire.

Empire of Wild takes place in the Georgian Bay Métis community of Penetanguishene, Ont., where Dimaline grew up. Composer Ian Cusson is also from there, and when he read the book, he recognized the Rogarou from the stories his mother used to tell.

“Even though it's a work of fiction, I was reading people that I knew and ways of speaking that I'd heard growing up,” he told CBC News earlier this month in Toronto when the cast and orchestra were workshopping the new music.

“The sort of radical offer that we're making is to say [the opera] is a space where stories like this one can exist,” Cusson said.

“They don't just have to be stories from 200 years ago or from Europe.… They can be stories that resonate with people today.”

Cusson said he and Dimaline, who wrote the libretto, wanted to create modern characters modern audiences could see themselves in.

"There's queer characters and ... a family who are roofers and blue collar and they're going about their lives and having to deal with like the most extreme scenarios."

They also talk the way modern people talk. That includes swear words and dick jokes. “Oh there are f-bombs,” said Cusson, acknowledging that's perhaps not what people expect to hear when listening to the huge voices singing arias.

He also likened this production to a "film on steroids" and said he loved working with the more macabre, horror-like elements of the story too.

“I feel like it really resonates with what especially younger people are hoping for in a night of entertainment,” he said.

Innu soprano Elisabeth St-Gelais, 30, plays the protagonist, Joan. She has read Empire of Wild twice – and agrees there is a lot in this story young audiences can connect with.