Opera on the Cutting Edge: Thom Sokoloski Strives for the Total Work of Art at Autumn Leaf Performance

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When asked about the state of the arts in anglophone Canada, the founder and artistic director of Autumn Leaf Performance doesn't mince words. People with vision, Thom Sokoloski says, scare Canadians--because vision "doesn't ride tandem with the country's sociopolitical mandate. The U.S. has a vision to become something. It hasn't yet [attained it], so that vision is always there... France is still a republic with a vision. We're still a place to live. Our real desires are to ensure that everybody is happy--at the expense of minorities, at the expense of certain aspects that make up an interesting culture."

The verdict, delivered in ALP's spartan office next to the Poor Alex Theatre in Toronto, is perhaps a bit sweeping, but it has the sting of truth to it. And after perusing Sokoloski's curriculum vitae, you can't help but feel that if the 45-year-old producer, writer and director worked in mainstream theatre, he would likely have received the Order of Canada by now. Moreover, if anyone seems positioned to disprove Sokoloski's verdict on Canadian culture, it's Sokoloski himself.

Along with a handful of like-minded organizations--notably New Music Vancouver, Tapestry Theatre and Queen of Puddings in Toronto, and Montreal's Chants Libres--Autumn Leaf is passionately dedicated to the development of innovative Canadian opera, large and small scale. Sokoloski, who more or less is Autumn Leaf, pursues his dream with monomaniacal commitment; so far, neither the recession nor conservatism (big and small C) has stopped him. Since 1992, Autumn Leaf has developed, presented and/or produced over eight works of contemporary Canadian music theatre and opera: Union Station transformed into an alchemical/mystical theatre at midnight (The Alchemical Theatre of Hermes Trismegistos by R. Murray Schafer, …