It means a great deal to all of us at Opera Atelier to know that our productions enhance the lives of our audience members. It is particularly gratifying when our art form acts as a catalyst for artists of other disciplines. Toronto poet Mark Kikot sent us the sonnet below, which he wrote in response to his attending a staging rehearsal of Resurrection.

Although I would not describe myself as a card-carrying Christian, I was raised with Christian sympathies which I have used to help convey and coalesce the spiritual ethos in Handel's opera.  Mark Kikot

On Handel's Resurrection Called to Life

How many times must Christ revisit us
Before the door that’s shut is opened wide
To love we’ve buried in the flesh? And thus,
Our fear of death, that’s been displaced, denied,
We close in darkness, doubt, and soullessness,
With talk of self-fulfillment, or contempt
For anything that shames our faithlessness
In thinking that from Him we are exempt.
Still others loathe the holy dream of love
With hatred greater than their fear of death,
Which turns the angel and the mourning dove
To flames, as blackest rage consumes each breath.
While through Christ’s blood all weeping mercies flow,
Love fills the breast where pure white lilies grow.

Mark Kikot
April 3, 2023

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