[1] The similarities between the characters but also the plots may be due to the fact, that the plays as well as operas show the morals of French society at the time.
[4] Major European operas were now regularly staged in Canada, and so Canadian composers became motivated to contribute similar works themselves.
Calixa Lavallée – today mostly known for composing the national anthem of Canada – wrote three comedic operas from 1865/66 until 1880.
It deals with the career of the protagonist, Leo, and features caricatures of the Royal Military College of Canada's professors, from which many situations and characters were drawn.
[8] Among the works that parodied other operas was George Broughall's The Tearful and Tragical Tale of the Tricky Troubadour; or The Truant Tracked (1886) that satirically adapted Verdi's Il trovatore.
Arthur Clappé's opera was written for thirteen soloists representing different regions and people of Canada.
[11] Joseph Vézina's operetta La Fétiche from 1912 deals with First Nations subjects like the conflict between the Iroquois and the French settlers in the early eighteenth century.
[12] J. Ulric Voyer's three-act opera L'Intendant Bigot was performed in Montreal and Quebec City in 1929.
The music of the opera is very diverse as it includes aspects of four different centuries: ground bass figures, chorale and motet style, tonal folk song and twelve-tone technique.
[14] John Beckwith's Night Blooming Cereus (1958) is another example of Canadian themes in opera and a "parable of the redemptive powers of love"[15] in a small town in Southern Ontario.
[18] To mark Canada's centennial year in 1967, many new operas concerning Canadian subjects were commissioned and composed.
[20] It is written in English, French, Cree and Latin, to represent the different parties that were involved in the conflict between settlers and Métis.
[21] Other operas that were written for the centennial celebrations include Raymond Pannell's The Luck of Ginger Coffrey, Murray Adaskin's Grant, Warden of the Plains, Kelsey Jones's Sam Slick, Robert Turner's The Brideship, and Douglas Major's The Loyalists.
[11] After the great success of Louis Riel and other centennial operas, works based on Canadian themes continued to grow in popularity among composers.
Operas based on Canadian themes, composed between 1967 and 1978, include István Anhalt's La Tourangelle (1975), Charles Wilson's Kamourska (1975), Derek Healey's Seabird Island (1977) and Samuel Dolin's Drakkar (1972).
Queen of Puddings embraces their economic restrictions using smaller auditoriums to ensure a closer and more intimate connection between performers and audience.
[27] In 1999, Queen of Puddings produced James Rolfe's opera Beatrice Chancy with a libretto by George Elliott Clarke.
An example is Chan Ka Nin's chamber opera Iron Road from 2001, which concerns the exploitation of Chinese workers during the construction of the trans-Canada railroad.
Estacio's Lillian Alling, with libretto by John Murrell 2010), was premiered by Vancouver Opera and told the story of a real-life adventurer who walked across the continent in the 1920s.
Other contemporary Canadian operas include Harry Somers's Mario and the Magician (1992), Bruce Mather's La princesse blanche (1993), Randolph Peters's The Golden Ass (1999), John Beckwith's Taptoo!
(1999), David McIntyre's The Architect (1991), István Anhalt's Traces (1995) and Millennial Mall (2000), Sadie Buck's Bones (2001), Victor Davies's Transit of Venus (2007), Alexina Louie's The Scarlet Princess (2002) and Mulroney (2011), Ramona Luengen's "Naomi's Road (2005), and James Rolfe's Orpheus and Euridice (2003), Rosa (2004), Elijah's Kite (2006), Swan (2006), Aeneas and Dido (2007),Inês (2009), and Airat Ichmouratov's The Man Who Laughs (2023).
One of the most successful Canadian chamber operas is Nigredo Hotel (1992), composed by Nic Gotham to a libretto by Ann-Marie MacDonald.