The Canadian Opera Company is producing an opera based on Cherie Dimaline's novel "Empire of Wild", which features a gritty and dramatic storyline with elements of sex, politics, and horror. A $4 million investment is being made to create an Indigenous-led creative team to stage the world premiere in Toronto next spring. The production, led by composer Ian Cusson, aims to challenge traditional opera expectations by featuring modern characters, language, and themes that resonate with contemporary audiences. The opera includes swear words and graphic content, which composer Cusson describes as a "radical offer" that deviates from traditional opera narratives.
Written by the local model on 2026-08-24,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Empire of Wild does things differently
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Empire → do → things
Sex, booze, magic and politics all feature in Canadian Opera Company production
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.
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generations → feature → 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.
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it → name → 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.
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team → invest → Toronto
It's a gamble that could draw in a younger audience and opera neophytes — and challenge purists who prefer the "core" repertoire.
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who → draw → repertoire
Empire of Wild takes place in the Georgian Bay Métis community of Penetanguishene, Ont., where Dimaline grew up.
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Dimaline → take → Penetanguishene
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.
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mother → read → stories
“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.
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cast → read → 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.
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Cusson → make → one
“They don't just have to be stories from 200 years ago or from Europe.…
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They → have → Europe
They can be stories that resonate with people today.”
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that → resonate → people
Modern voices
Cusson said he and Dimaline, who wrote the libretto, wanted to create modern characters modern audiences could see themselves in.
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audiences → say → themselves
"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."
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they → be → scenarios
They also talk the way modern people talk.
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people → talk → ?
That includes swear words and dick jokes.
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That → include → words
“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.
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people → be → arias
He also likened this production to a "film on steroids" and said he loved working with the more macabre, horror-like elements
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he → liken → steroids
“I feel like it really resonates with what especially younger people are hoping for in a night of entertainment,” he said.
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he → feel → entertainment
Innu soprano Elisabeth St-Gelais, 30, plays the protagonist, Joan.
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Gelais → play → protagonist
She has read Empire of Wild twice – and agrees there is a lot in this story young audiences can connect with.
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audiences → read → story
“[Joan] has a couple of … maybe bad habits that she relies on when she's in crisis….
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she → have → crisis
And I mean, everybody has that.
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everybody → mean → that
So I think it's very interesting to show something like that,” she said, referring to her character’s hard-drinking nights as she grapples with the disappearance of her husband.
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she → think → husband
Joan’s husband goes missing one night, after a fight about whether or not to sell her land.
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husband → go → land
When she finds him 11 months later, he’s working as a preacher, seems not to remember her, and is being carefully managed by a man who seems all too concerned with industrial projects in the region.
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who → find → region
There are darker forces at play and only old magic, passed down from generation to generation, can reunite Joan with her love.
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magic → be → love
Both Cusson and St-Gelais said that is a key element of this story: intergenerational support along strong matrilineal lines.
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that → say → lines
The tale was inspired by the Métis story of the Rogarou, but the characters are embodied by a wide range of talents including Kwagiulth and Stó:lō mezzo-soprano Marion Newman and Anishinaabe baritone Evan Korbut.
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characters → inspire → Kwagiulth
“The Indigenous artists that get to bring to life these roles … while they may be different from their own specific lived experiences, they tell a truth that has a commonality and is unique among many Indigenous people,” said Cusson.
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Cusson → get → people
"Survivance," a combination of survival and resistance, is used by Indigenous scholars to describe how Indigenous peoples have not only survived settler colonialism, but also continued their cultural customs — enhancing them and generating new ones along the way.
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peoples → use → way
A different kind of creation story
St-Gelais said it has been a phenomenal experience working on an opera led by Indigenous creators.
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it → say → creators
“Indigenous people are going through a moment, an era of … blooming in every, every side of society, in science and art, in business,” she told CBC.
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she → go → CBC
Cree costume designer Jeff Chief is part of the creative team, as is Algonquin director Yvette Nolan, who Cusson likes to quote when he describes how an Indigenous approach to creating art is different:
“Instead of having this triangular shape, where there's usually a person at the top, how do we bend the triangle and expand its edges to make the circle?”
It’s about an equality of voices, where everyone involved – down to the person who empties garbage cans – is invited into the circle of creation where their contribution is seen as valuable.
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contribution → like → creation
Cusson said he wants to see this method of creation repeated in other operas and other opera companies.
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method → say → operas
“It should be done everywhere.
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It → do → ?
It's the best way to make art.”
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It → make → art
