The COC pushes the boundaries of opera when it stages The Queen In Me, a co-production with Amplified Opera, Nightwood Theatre, and Theatre Gargantua. In a one-person show created and performed by queer, trans non-binary interdisciplinary artist Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野 (they/them), the production explores the many ways that race, gender, and sexuality are represented, and often policed, in the opera industry.

The Queen In Me is framed through the lens of The Magic Flute’s iconic Queen of the Night, and features dramatic arias from this and many other beloved operas, including Puccini’s La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, and Manon Lescaut; Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor; Verdi’s Macbeth and Rigoletto; R. Strauss’ Salome; and Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Kasahara is accompanied by musicians of the COC Orchestra, and directed by Canadian directors Andrea Donaldson and Aria Umezawa.